Power and home Circuit Load with XL  

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

Great question.  A 1300W space heater needs about 13A so I would put that on a 20a breaker.  My guess is that you would be safe with a 30a breaker for all the items you listed.  

RE:

I was once told 15A, 1800W to be safe. But it requires a good quality powerstrip with no kinks. Over here with 230V and standardized electrical installations you can easily go higher. Worst case the breaker trips.
Edit: Over here=Europe. Elsewhere worst case=Fire.

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

Scary face emojii...

I though that 15 or 20amp in the US was standard? You have to have the right gauge wire to handle it, not just jam a penny in the fuzebox. 😉

I'll have to go down and look at my box.  I could see people in older homes and apartments having issues if they have multiple printers.  When we bought our house the inspector said we have enough service for a strip mall.  The people who built the house had four girls and they must have had issues blowing circuits and running out of hot water at their old house.  I might just have to find another circuit.  I have them in my home office now, and I do sometimes have to time prints for conference calls or meetings.  The XL with longer print times might be better off somewhere else anyways.

Two minis, a MK3s, a filament drier, two laptops with three total extra monitors

Posted by: @cwbullet

Great question.  A 1300W space heater needs about 13A so I would put that on a 20a breaker.  My guess is that you would be safe with a 30a breaker for all the items you listed.  

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

Fast ground fault breakers have been mandatory here for a while. Peace of mind. Crappy powerstrips cannot burn down your house. Spouses cannot be murdered in the tub with hairdryers. Children can survive forks stuck in outlets. Out of curiosity, what is the current standard in the US?

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

It depends on the state, but it often room dependent and not every breaker.  

Posted by: @ntdesign

Fast ground fault breakers have been mandatory here for a while. Peace of mind. Crappy powerstrips cannot burn down your house. Spouses cannot be murdered in the tub with hairdryers. Children can survive forks stuck in outlets. Out of curiosity, what is the current standard in the US?

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

Thanks. Might be good to know next time I borrow someone‘s lab 😉

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

It is state dependent and only covers new builds.  It is the standard to not use a penny unless the user is stupid.  

Posted by: @milehigh3der

Scary face emojii...

I though that 15 or 20amp in the US was standard? You have to have the right gauge wire to handle it, not just jam a penny in the fuzebox. 😉

I'll have to go down and look at my box.  I could see people in older homes and apartments having issues if they have multiple printers.  When we bought our house the inspector said we have enough service for a strip mall.  The people who built the house had four girls and they must have had issues blowing circuits and running out of hot water at their old house.  I might just have to find another circuit.  I have them in my home office now, and I do sometimes have to time prints for conference calls or meetings.  The XL with longer print times might be better off somewhere else anyways.

Two minis, a MK3s, a filament drier, two laptops with three total extra monitors

Posted by: @cwbullet

Great question.  A 1300W space heater needs about 13A so I would put that on a 20a breaker.  My guess is that you would be safe with a 30a breaker for all the items you listed.  

 

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

Power[W]=Voltage[V] x Current[A] -> P/V=A
1000W/240V =4.17A
Usually we use fuse that's rated about 50% higher (to prevent heat & losses in normal operation).. in this case it would be about 6A.

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

240 or 120V?

Posted by: @bogdanh

Power[W]=Voltage[V] x Current[A] -> P/V=A
1000W/240V =4.17A
Usually we use fuse that's rated about 50% higher (to prevent heat & losses in normal operation).. in this case it would be about 6A.

RE:

It's the same equation either way, just plug in your circuit's voltage.
Also, just because a power supply is rated for n-watts output, doesn't mean it's always drawing that or even ever will draw that much. Typically, for a PSU, you oversize spec by at least 20%. Depending on efficiency (really hope Prusa is going for 87%+), will determine how much draw at the outlet there will be.
Similarly, you should only load a circuit to ~80%. So a 120v/15A circuit (most common in US household wiring, with 20A being a runner-up), you ideally want to keep it at or under 12A, for ~1400W draw at the wall.
NEC has a lot of good guidelines in the US, and your state may have stricter implementation of it. However, your dwelling only has to comply with the NEC when it was built, unless you're remodeling or otherwise doing in-place work, which then you'll need to comply with current code. There's still plenty of places out there with knob and tube for their houses, for instance (I was just working on an acquaintance's house that has it, going through and giving them advice on modernizing it all).
Power delivery was a main component of my job for years now, I can talk about this all day if people want haha.

Posted by: @milehigh3der

240 or 120V?

Posted by: @bogdanh

Power[W]=Voltage[V] x Current[A] -> P/V=A
1000W/240V =4.17A
Usually we use fuse that's rated about 50% higher (to prevent heat & losses in normal operation).. in this case it would be about 6A.

 

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

Great info.  My shop is old, and I am changing out some of the breakers and outlets to get them in better compliance.  I forgot about this formula from my physics and engineering classes.   It is very helpful.    

Posted by: @selta

It's the same equation either way, just plug in your circuit's voltage.
Also, just because a power supply is rated for n-watts output, doesn't mean it's always drawing that or even ever will draw that much. Typically, for a PSU, you oversize spec by at least 20%. Depending on efficiency (really hope Prusa is going for 87%+), will determine how much draw at the outlet there will be.
Similarly, you should only load a circuit to ~80%. So a 120v/15A circuit (most common in US household wiring, with 20A being a runner-up), you ideally want to keep it at or under 12A, for ~1400W draw at the wall.
NEC has a lot of good guidelines in the US, and your state may have stricter implementation of it. However, your dwelling only has to comply with the NEC when it was built, unless you're remodeling or otherwise doing in-place work, which then you'll need to comply with current code. There's still plenty of places out there with knob and tube for their houses, for instance (I was just working on an acquaintance's house that has it, going through and giving them advice on modernizing it all).
Power delivery was a main component of my job for years now, I can talk about this all day if people want haha.

Posted by: @milehigh3der

240 or 120V?

Posted by: @bogdanh

Power[W]=Voltage[V] x Current[A] -> P/V=A
1000W/240V =4.17A
Usually we use fuse that's rated about 50% higher (to prevent heat & losses in normal operation).. in this case it would be about 6A.

 

 

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

If you're bumping up circuits from 15A to 20A, make sure it's 12AWG wire as well, otherwise you run the risk of melting/fire.

Posted by: @cwbullet

Great info.  My shop is old, and I am changing out some of the breakers and outlets to get them in better compliance.  I forgot about this formula from my physics and engineering classes.   It is very helpful.    

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

Thanks.  I will measure that, but I think it is already 12 or 10 AWG.  

Posted by: @selta

If you're bumping up circuits from 15A to 20A, make sure it's 12AWG wire as well, otherwise you run the risk of melting/fire.

Posted by: @cwbullet

Great info.  My shop is old, and I am changing out some of the breakers and outlets to get them in better compliance.  I forgot about this formula from my physics and engineering classes.   It is very helpful.    

 

 

 

 

 

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

Current prusa Mk3s uses between 80W and 120W. 

Hard to imagine that the XL will tenfold the consumption. Maybe Prusa wants to source 1000W, to use it at max half capacity under worst circumstances, where all 5 hotends are on. 

RE: Power and home Circuit Load with XL

MK3S printers use a 240W PSU even if, as you say, average consumption is 80-120W. Maybe Prusa calculates an average of 500-600 watt for a XL with several printheads, hence the 1000W PSU. Besides, it seems that the electronics of the XL are way more complex than the Mk3 series so it will require proportionally beefier PSUs, although the segmented bed feature, if used cleverly, may save quite a lot of energy when printing small objects.