So I loaded 9 games down in the basement this weekend. One of the power strip fuses kept tripping unless I turned off a couple games. The breaker didn't trip. It got me thinking... How many games do you put on a 15 or 20 amp circuit comfortably?
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One should really be looking at the back of the machines and doing some simple math & NOT just plugging in as many as possable with out the breaker triping, this is how you burn down your house!! You do not want more then 80% of your total line limit so that's about 12amp on a 15amp line and 18amp on a 20amp line, I would limit your power strips to 4 games per strip to be on the safe side for those too.
Agreed, but sometimes this info is missing from the game, and sometimes you dont have access to a manual. The main question is whats the average for each game?
I have been running 6 games on a surge protector without issue, but I also try to get the higher end surge protectors that can handle the load.
For once a question I can answer. Never load a circuit breaker over 80% over that it will cause intermittent tripping. Overloading it as long as you have the appropriate size breaker in relation to the wire wont burn a house down. You might have to reset the breaker thats what there for to protect the wiring in case you overload it. The strip will normally have a lower rating thus causing the little reset to pop out sooner than the house circuit breaker. 15amp= 12amp 20amp =16amp
How do you know that your breaker wont fail? Overloading past the 80% and relying on the breaker is not a good idea.
Everyone should go look at their electrical panel and make sure that it does NOT have Federal Pacific labels on it.
If you have Federal Pacific breakers and panel you should NOT even come close to 80% loading. They are well known for burning down houses.
With that being said, when plugging multiple games into a power strip there's a large amount of inrush current when the games are turned on. Don't use the power switch on the strip to turn them all on at once.
RJ
So I loaded 9 games down in the basement this weekend. One of the power strip fuses kept tripping unless I turned off a couple games. The breaker didn't trip. It got me thinking... How many games do you put on a 15 or 20 amp circuit comfortably?
I never heard about any problems with using the switches at the surge strips. I thought most everyone turns their games on this way?