whats the most important, the watts or voltage of a device

[ddc0715]

im mapping my tanks hardware and i am wondering what is more important to know.

1. the watts of a device or its voltage,

for example; a wave maker, is simple, it lists XXX watts and XXX volts

BUT

some devices Like kessill lights have an have an input/output voltage and watts listed?

dont want to overload my plug and breaker.

 

[Potatohead]

On a normal circuit in most areas they will be rated for 15 amps and 1500 watts continuous use, 1800 watts short term. That's really quite a bit of power and most tanks won't use half that much unless it's pretty big with powerful lighting. Obviously make sure you don't have a 1200w microwave on the same circuit as the tank.

 

[ddc0715]

i am mapping out, calculating the total loads on each of my surge protectors and i want to know the total draw on my circuit breaker. Ideally, I want my circuit to be operating at 80 percent capacity, which is called the safe load. You can calculate a safe load for a circuit breaker by multiplying its amperage by 0.8. now most equipment does no list amps in the manuals. my tank has its on plug and 20 amp breaker, nothing but tank equipment is on the circuit.

 

[Conor_K]

Watts and volts are tied together. Niether is more important per say, but for what you are looking at you’ll probably want to focus on watts AC.

Watts is just amps times volts. So if you know the watts and voltage you can determine current draw (at max wattage/power) if that is important to you.


What you really probably are after is surge wattage. Sometimes called startup draw or locked rotor draw on a motor or pump. Larger equipment usually has a surge rating of some kind, but I haven’t seen anything on my equipment that lists that and nothing you’d be running besides a decent size AC pump would have a big enough startup draw to worry about.
I bet AC pumps do come with this rating though.

One last note in terms of your powerbar, everything plugged into is is running on 110-120 volts. That’s the voltage the grid provides (on one leg, in the US).

Any DC volts your seeing will be down stream of the devices converter (big black box) and probably has no effect on your power bar calcs.

Cheers,
C

 

[Conor_K]

i am mapping out, calculating the total loads on each of my surge protectors and i want to know the total draw on my circuit breaker. Ideally, I want my circuit to be operating at 80 percent capacity, which is called the safe load. You can calculate a safe load for a circuit breaker by multiplying its amperage by 0.8. now most equipment does no list amps in the manuals. my tank has its on plug and 20 amp breaker, nothing but tank equipment is on the circuit.

So you want to stay at or below 16amps.

16amps x 120volts (high side) = 1920watts

Stay under that an you’re where you want to be.

 

[ddc0715]

based on my owners manuals that i can find. remember i have a 20 amp breaker with only tank equipment on the circuit. am i right( ish) 7 total amps and 835 total watts?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You want to track the watts for usage.
Watts add up to amps
You are charged for amps bybthe electric company.

A device (pumps)will use more amps/ watts as it ages or has to work harder.

 

[Conor_K]

based on my owners manuals that i can find. remember i have a 20 amp breaker with only tank equipment on the circuit. am i right( ish) 7 total amps and 835 total watts?

I can’t see the image, but assuming you added all the watts. Yes.

That’s worst case.
Most homes don’t get 120volts. It’s usually between 108-112. So you’re under 800 in that case.

And all this is assuming you’re running all your equipment on max power.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

im mapping my tanks hardware and i am wondering what is more important to know.

1. the watts of a device or its voltage,

for example; a wave maker, is simple, it lists XXX watts and XXX volts

BUT

some devices Like kessill lights have an have an input/output voltage and watts listed?

dont want to overload my plug and breaker.

I notice that dc devices are lot more efficient, efficiency means less watts so less issuse on outlets.. So dc voltage devices. To me

 

[garbled]

It's way easier to just go off watts if you are looking for a simple calculation. A pump that draws 60 watts draws 60 watts, it doesn't matter if it's 24 volts or 2billion volts. You can then take your 1500w per circuit number and say "ok, I have 900 watts here, so I'm ok".

 

[Potatohead]

based on my owners manuals that i can find. remember i have a 20 amp breaker with only tank equipment on the circuit. am i right( ish) 7 total amps and 835 total watts?

You have plenty of headroom. Absolutely nothing to worry about. The 20A circuit was a good idea for sure but definitely overkill for the current situation.

Pun intended.

 

[Hybrid Ken]

Volts are the "potential" where watts are the "work being performed" is the best analogy I can give. Depending on the country you live will pretty much determine the Volts. Watts are determined by the device. Convert watts to amps and then you can dived the power draw between sources. I have always tried to split my tank so that if I loose one wall outlet the other is still powering half the pumps and power heads, one heater ect.

Read more: Difference Between Volts and Watts | Difference Between | Volts vs Watts http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-volts-and-watts/#ixzz5bVekV9SS

 

[theMeat]

Using ohms law you can calculate watts x volts to figure amps

This calculator makes it even easier
https://www.inchcalculator.com/watts-to-amps-calculator/

 

[rcpalmer1]

If you want to do it the easy way plug them in to one of these.
https://www.amazon.com/KMC-2-pack-O...mart+plugs&dpPl=1&dpID=31+RkrWexDL&ref=plSrch
I have several of these so I can control my tank with Alexa but here is a screen shot of my return pump. The app tells you exactly how much power your are using.. It is a 24dcv 80watt pump. I only run it at 70% so you can see it only pulls 54 watts or 0.4 amp.

 

[Justin Carpenter]

based on my owners manuals that i can find. remember i have a 20 amp breaker with only tank equipment on the circuit. am i right( ish) 7 total amps and 835 total watts?

Yes you are doing the

I can’t see the image, but assuming you added all the watts. Yes.

That’s worst case.
Most homes don’t get 120volts. It’s usually between 108-112. So you’re under 800 in that case.

And all this is assuming you’re running all your equipment on max power.

That's not true at all...... one leg is 120 volts +7 or -10 volts from 120 that's 110 to 127volts if you see any less or more contact your utility.

 

[ReeferMadness0347]

In short watts. Voltage should be the same among all devices that are AC.

For devises like your kessill you want the input voltage. You don’t care what direct current is leaving just what’s going into it.

 

[ReeferMadness0347]

Correction input watts/ amps not voltage since it should be the same

 

[Conor_K]

Yes you are doing the


That's not true at all...... one leg is 120 volts +7 or -10 volts from 120 that's 110 to 127volts if you see any less or more contact your utility.

Not to derail this too far, but having worked on 100’s of homes and having 90% of them have to do just that (contact thier utility to increase voltage as unlike most home electonics, solar systems are picky on voltage)
I’ll stand by my statement.


Of course this could very greatly by territory I suppose.
I didn’t say it was right or couldn’t be corrected, but it is true in the northeast, albeit pretty irrelevant to the original question.

 

[Justin Carpenter]

Correction input watts/ amps not voltage since it should be the same

All I can say is you are doing the right thing calculating the draw on your breaker. My question is, is it a dedicated circuit like above mentioned (no lights or microwave). Just saying . it's a 20 amp breaker isn't what you should go on. What wire size is feeding that receptacle. I'm new to the site I just want to help make sure people know the right facts (no fires). your plug is rated for the draw?(current amps) most receptacles are maybe 15amps how old is your home?

 

[Justin Carpenter]

Not to derail this too far, but having worked on 100’s of homes and having 90% of them have to do just that (contact thier utility to increase voltage as unlike most home electonics, solar systems are picky on voltage)
I’ll stand by my statement.


Of course this could very greatly by territory I suppose.
I didn’t say it was right or couldn’t be corrected, but it is true in the northeast, albeit pretty irrelevant to the original question.

Not to derail this too far, but having worked on 100’s of homes and having 90% of them have to do just that (contact thier utility to increase voltage as unlike most home electonics, solar systems are picky on voltage)
I’ll stand by my statement.


Of course this could very greatly by territory I suppose.
I didn’t say it was right or couldn’t be corrected, but it is true in the northeast, albeit pretty irrelevant to the original question.

I supply power to homes and work on the lines don't lie to people only tell people true facts please. Under 110 and at 108 the lights would flicker in there homes they have a big problem at this point. We want to run fish tanks here not get roung information