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One of the most important and sometimes difficult thing to do as we expand our display is to keep track of our power availability and requirements. In recent years, with the addition of LED lighting, it is becoming a little easier however.
The 2009 display was our largest display in terms of incandescent lighting and could pull 266 amps of power. For that display I installed 13 dedicated 20 amp outlets. These outlets ran the Light-O-Rama controllers that consist of 16 channels divided into two banks of 8 channels each. Each channel can handle 8amps, but each bank can only handle 20 amps max. It actually takes some time to balance the display across the controllers and then balance the controllers across the available outlets. If this is ignored or even rushed it is highly possible I will have blown fuses and tripped breakers all over the display. To this date, I have not once blown a fuse or tripped a single breaker.
To track the power distribution throughout the display and across the various controllers I use an excel spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is similar to others found in the Christmas lighting community, but I have taken it and tweaked it to make it fit my needs and be a little more user friendly with as little manual inputting as is necessary. This spreadsheet allows me to track every bulb and amp before my display is even set up. I also added the ability to track amperage across my outlets automatically as well. My spreadsheet is available to download here or using the link above. It may seem complicated at first, but if you know a little about Excel you should be able to figure it out.
if you would like to use the spreadsheet for your display, feel free, and don't hesitate to email me with any questions.
---Tony
Fantasy Christmas - Copyright 2008-2011 Tony & Christy Hight
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