Game Room Sizes

[Mindl3ss]

My itteh bitteh gameroom kommittee is a wee 10' x 11' spare bedroom. 110 sq. ft. I have 9 games in there, and there's no way to add any without major structural renovation, so that's where I'm at.

I hope to someday completely enclose my back porch (Concrete base and roof overhead, already!) to be my arcade, it would be approximately 700 sq. ft. if I remember right. That is the dream. But lack of funds don't allow it, at the moment.

I have you beat in size, but not how many games are crammed in there. Most I've had was three, and two were cabaret.

Mine is about 9x9 on the inside, with a door that swings inward. I can fit about 4-5 regular sized games on one wall, and the opposite is home to my work bench and the door.

 

[Arcade74]

Hey, Nice gamerooms! I have a Q for you 10+ arcade games. In my garage the trip lever is 15 (Amps?). I have 10 games running, and room for 5 more. At 3 Amps and 10 games thats 30Amps, why havnt it trip? All you guys just plugging it all in without worries??

 

[jawhn]

Hey, Nice gamerooms! I have a Q for you 10+ arcade games. In my garage the trip lever is 15 (Amps?). I have 10 games running, and room for 5 more. At 3 Amps and 10 games thats 30Amps, why havnt it trip? All you guys just plugging it all in without worries??

This question has been asked and answered a bazillion times on here...

Cliff's Notes Quick Answer: Get a Kill-a-Watt device (Usually $20 or less) and check each game for it's real power draw. Then only load a circuit with 2/3 (66%) of its capacity. So don't go over 10A on a 15A circuit, and you're safe.

Use extension cords to put some of your machines on a different outlet, if you're not sure.

 

[Arcade74]

This question has been asked and answered a bazillion times on here...

Cliff's Notes Quick Answer: Get a Kill-a-Watt device (Usually $20 or less) and check each game for it's real power draw. Then only load a circuit with 2/3 (66%) of its capacity. So don't go over 10A on a 15A circuit, and you're safe.

Use extension cords to put some of your machines on a different outlet, if you're not sure.

So youre saying 15 amps is per outlet in the garage? I have 3 outlets in there, and thats what Ive been doing. I was thinking total 15 amps in the garage regardless of how many outlets. Nothing ever happen yet, never tripped, and I leave all the games on for an Arcade look/feel. Im going to add 5 more games now.

 

[jawhn]

So youre saying 15 amps is per outlet in the garage? I have 3 outlets in there, and thats what Ive been doing. I was thinking total 15 amps in the garage regardless of how many outlets. Nothing ever happen yet, never tripped, and I leave all the games on for an Arcade look/feel. Im going to add 5 more games now.

I'm no electrician, by any stretch of imagination... But unless all 3 outlets are on the same circuit (There's gotta be a way to check that, not sure though*.) then those should be 10A~15A each...

* I guess going to your breaker box and throwing a switch off, then seeing what outlets don't work, might give you better info on whether or not they're on the same circuit. From what little I know, each breaker controls a circuit...?

 

[FrizzleFried]

Chances are HIGH that all 3 of your outlets are on the same circuit. The way to test would be to determine your garage circuit and turn off the breaker. If all 3 outlets go dead, you know you're on one circuit.

A 15A circuit should only have a constant draw of 12A (80%)... that said, my electrician friend said that you can run a 15A circuit at close to 15A without issue for a couple hours... that the 80% rule applies to circuits that will be powered up for 3 hours or more...

Most 19" non-vector games run around 1a give or take a few watts.

Most 25" non-vector games run around 1.5a give or take a few watts.

Vector games usually suck up about an additional 1a or so compared to their rastor brothers.

Depending on your games... a single dedicated 15A circuit should be fine for around 8 to 10 games...

EDIT: It also helps to power up your cabs one at a time. The reason being that when a game is powered up, the surge is sometimes 2x or so what the running consumption is. So a 1amp cab CAN pull close to 2amps when powering on.

Also keep in mind that extra crap = more power. Force feedback? More power. 2 monitors? More power. Etc...

Finally... if you have any incandescent lamps running in your cabs... replace them with florescents. My Pac originally had two 25watt incandescents in the marquee... that is an additional .5a (approx) in just the marquee... I replaced those with two 4w CFL's... meaning I just saved 42watts dropping my consumption to about an amp...

 

[Arcade74]

Chances are HIGH that all 3 of your outlets are on the same circuit. The way to test would be to determine your garage circuit and turn off the breaker. If all 3 outlets go dead, you know you're on one circuit.

A 15A circuit should only have a constant draw of 12A (80%)... that said, my electrician friend said that you can run a 15A circuit at close to 15A without issue for a couple hours... that the 80% rule applies to circuits that will be powered up for 3 hours or more...

Most 19" non-vector games run around 1a give or take a few watts.

Most 25" non-vector games run around 1.5a give or take a few watts.

Vector games usually suck up about an additional 1a or so compared to their rastor brothers.

Depending on your games... a single dedicated 15A circuit should be fine for around 8 to 10 games...

EDIT: It also helps to power up your cabs one at a time. The reason being that when a game is powered up, the surge is sometimes 2x or so what the running consumption is. So a 1amp cab CAN pull close to 2amps when powering on.

Also keep in mind that extra crap = more power. Force feedback? More power. 2 monitors? More power. Etc...

Finally... if you have any incandescent lamps running in your cabs... replace them with florescents. My Pac originally had two 25watt incandescents in the marquee... that is an additional .5a (approx) in just the marquee... I replaced those with two 4w CFL's... meaning I just saved 42watts dropping my consumption to about an amp...

Yeah, I read more on it, and yes its total 15amps. So guessing 10 games is OK, and 15 is max. Im at 11 games at the moment, so nothing tripped yet.

 

[FrizzleFried]

Frankly, I wouldn't put any more games than 10 on a 15a circuit... unless, of course, you only run a couple at a time. 10 could be pushing depending on the games you have.

I have 2 dedicated 20a circuits, a dedicated 15a circuit and a shared 15a circuit. I'd like to install another 20a circuit for heating/cooling purposes only.

 

[TOK]

So how big is your game room? I'm looking at a couple places and having a place to put the games is definitely on the radar, unfortunately my pickings around here trying to find a place with a garage (and within my budget) is slim.

One place I'm looking at has a ground-level room that I think would be cool for a game room, but it's not that big. I'm almost wondering if I would even fit what I already have in there. (The tradeoff is that the garage is very nice but I would want to keep that as a garage for now). I think the room is something like 21x13 but it has a small bathroom and an opening to the next room involved.

How big is your game room, and how many games are in it?

Thats nearly the exact size of my room. I'm probably skimpy on games for here at 7... I left room for a couch and dart board out there. Ditching those would probably let me to comfortably double the game count.

Its attached to my garage and I could easily make that a second wing (lol), but I'm really trying to keep that area for truck/motorcycle stuff and emergency junk run-off.


Drop me a PM if you want, you're welcome to stop over and check it out.

 

[orion3311]

Tok, I may have to take you up on that sometime!

I'm going back for another visit tomorrow and try to get a better idea of dimensions. Gonna suck if I can't even fit the junkers I already have in!

PS - On the electrical question, I've had 12 games on one 15a breaker pulling about 13.5 amps but I wasn't thrilled with it, and I can tell you some cords were getting warm. I'd say 10 or less on each 15a breaker, and even then make sure the wiring is up to snuff.

Also you may want to verify you don't have any aluminum wiring when loading up circuits like that....would be bad!