For those with more than 10 games, show your power setup!

TheDrewster

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For those with more than 10 games, show your power setup!

So my garage currently runs off of two circuits, one 18-amp breaker that supplies two 120v outlets, and the 220v dryer receptacle. At any given time, I could have an upwards of 15 games (two being pinballs) on three surge protectors on my 18 amp circuit. I have blown this breaker once when I added a fan running to cool the garage off, so I know I am pushing the limits and I really dont trust that the 1960's wiring in my current house wont catch fire someday.

Although I dont want to change the lines in my current house, I will want to build a power station in my future house that I am in the market for. There will be a dedicated room in the house for the entire Drewcade, so I would love to see how you have set yours up.
 
I went with (4) 20 amp circuits for outlets intended for games, (1) 15 amp circuit with outlets in areas that might be useful for plugging in a vacuum cleaner or other non-gaming things but might also use it to run a PC, TV, etc. Lights are on (2) 15 amp separate circuits.

The 20 amp circuits have master switches at the bottom of the stairs. The 15 amp circuit does not have a switch. There are separate switches on the wall to turn on some individual things (e.g. air hockey table, basketball) which is wired into one of the 20 amp circuits.

If anything it was overkill; however, I do not think I will ever wish I had installed more circuits or outlets. Much easier to install during construction than do it later.
 
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I have a 13.5' x 15.5' room with 1 pinball and 11 full size, 2 close to full size (w/19" monitors) and 11 minis.

I feed 9 of them off one 15A circuit (plus 2 sets of dual 40 watt black lights, a neon clock and boom box)
I feed 6 of them off another 15A circuit
I feed 7 of them + pinball off a 20A circuit

I use the multi-switch under-crt monitor switch boxes set on top of each row to conveniently turn and and off each individual game without needing to reach around/pull out/deal with door switches.

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Have another room with 3 cocktails and a mini not currently part of the game room too.
 
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I've got my 40(ish) games split across 120 Amps... with them all running, they pull about 80 Amps. Remember, even though the breakers have a listed rating, you shouldn't be continuously running more than 80% of the maximum load (i.e. 12A on a 15A circuit).

My basement was (mostly) finished before I moved in, and there was already a pretty good division of the outlets across the breakers. I had five 15A breakers running the outlets, and there was another circuit running some lights and an outlet near the furnace, so I brought that out to the game room.

My breaker panel is in the arcade, which is convenient, so I added a 30A breaker with a twist-lock connector right below the panel, which I split to two 15A circuits to power the large games (deluxe games, pins, etc).

To turn the games on and off, I rigged up a touchscreen interface on my jukebox to switch on and off the remote controlled Belkin Conserve (http://www.belkin.com/conserve/switch/) power strips. My "All On" function for powering up the arcade has a couple second delay between switching the banks of games on, to prevent problems from the inrush current pulling excessive power all at once.

DogP
 
For the games, I have 3 20 amp breakers. Plus a 15 for the lights, and the 15A that was already there. Still have to wire 220 for the welder, but my electrician friends have been busy for a while.

Edit: I didn't pay attention to who the OP was. You've already seen it. lol
 
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