Hello,
In the interest of clarity I am going to answer one question at a time.
1> Power feeds? only one, as main power. it have 5v from the PI then the 110 from the plug in.
Yes that is what I mean. If your 115 volt supply is the only thing on that circuit breaker you will normally have a maximum of 15 Amps (I say normally because most houses do not have a dedicated breaker where only one outlet is on it, much less a 20 Amp circuit.) If you have a dedicated circuit that is 15 Amp, please DO NOT change the breaker for a 20 Amp without confirming that the wire leading to the outlet is big enough. If it is and you change the breaker, change the outlet to a 20 Amp outlet to prevent confusion.
2>Amps, not sure i have to test some lights and do some math
This is important information as it allows you to select the correct size wire for the job.
3>fuse the outlets? you mean from the outlets themselves? isnt that what the Relays do? im not sure how you would fuse those... I mean all christmas lights have fuses inside the plug in for them
Yes, a fuse in between each SSR and the outlet assigned to that SSR. Relays are not fuses. A fuses job is to protect everything else in the circuit before the fuse. In this case the wiring, the SSR, your house, and most importantly your life. Select your fuse size based on the WEAKEST link in your system. (Example; if the wire you select is only rated for 5 Amps but everything else is rated to 15 Amps, then select a 5 Amp fuse. Yes, Christmas lights have a fuse but it only really protects that string. Try to connect to many in a row and it will blow the fuse, but if that fuse has a higher rating than the wire you select for the outlet then you will fry the wire and possibly cause a fire.
4> its 10 amps per relay.. and so there are just 2 sockets on one outlet.. so you don't think you can pull 20 amps through 14 gaudge wire?
NO, 14 gauge wire is only rated at 15 Amps. If you google Ampacity chart one of the first links that comes up is from a company called Cerrowire and is quite handy for just about anything over 14 gauge wire. Please notice that different types of wire have different ratings. Not all 14 gauge wire is created equal. Also when you daisy chain outlets like that if you expect every outlet to be able to carry the same load then the primary feed wire must be rated to carry the total load. The next jumper must be sized to carry the total load minus the first load, and so on until you are down to the last outlet in the string.
(example 4 outlets rated at 15 Amps. The primary lead MUST be rated 60 Amps, the first jumper MUST be rated at 45 Amps, the second jumper at 30 Amps, and the last jumper at 15 Amps. Now that is assuming that ALL outlets are going to carry 15 Amps and you have a 60 Amp service. If your service is rated at 15 Amps, then all wiring can be rated at 15 Amps because the service breaker will not let the current go much over that). There is a fair bit of design that goes into this and it can be overwhelming, but you apparently want to learn and that is a good thing.
I don't get why it would be any driffrent from me plugging in (6) 100 light sets of lights into a 100 foot drop cord that is plugged into a outlet on the side of the house?
Essentially it isn't, but just like your drop cord you have to make sure you don't connect so much stuff that you pop a circuit breaker or cause a fire. That is why for the house we rent I had to make an exterior rated circuit breaker box that I could power from our dryer outlet to power our Christmas decorations.
I know for a fact that Christmas lights really don't pull that many amps.. LED christmas lights even less...
Depends on how many you have. We have somewhere around 20 Amps worth of lights and about another 20 Amps worth of inflatables. Thankfully the power box I built can safely handle 60 Amps at 115 Volts.
I run 2 sets of 100 light Christmas lights, along with a lighted candy cane, a 2 foot Santa Claus figure off of a 200 watt power inventor on my truck every year it runs all of that just fine. I think i was at around 2 amps total. its been a while since i checked it i will be checking them again this year want to add more so might use my 400watt inventor.
That's awesome, but how many Amps are you pulling. This is where it gets confusing. Some electrical items are rated in Watts, others in Amps. Bulbs for example are rated in Watts, as are generators, invertors, and you are charged by the electrical company for how many Watts you use. Fuses are rated in Amps, as are refrigerators, freezers, and a number of other things. So what is the difference at that is hard to explain. However it is much simpler to tell you how to convert from one to the other.
To convert from Watts to Amps is = Watts (your inverter puts out 200) / Volts (your inverter puts out 115) = Amps (Your inverter puts out 1.74)
To convert from Amps to Watts is = Amps (your inverter puts out 1.74) * Volts (your inverter puts out 115) = Watts (your inverter puts out 200)
I hope that this is starting to make sense.
Are you a licensed electrician?
Nope, I spent 8 years in the Navy as an electronics type technician, 5 years post Navy building hydraulic power supplies and the shop defacto electrician, among various other electrical and electronic jobs since. That is how I was able to design and build my power box. I can fix pretty much anything with even half decent documentation, but I also know when to deviate from a design because it is stupid unsafe. I did it a lot a the company where I built hydraulic power supplies because the designers were constantly doing dumb things like putting 115 Volt rated items in a 230 Volt circuit. After a while it became expected that I would just fix it, so they didn't care to do so themselves.
You should check out this guys set up.... it looks.... interesting to say the least
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m83UdW67hVY
Yep, that is an interesting setup and maybe one day I will build something similar. However with that small of wire I would have had every output fused to prevent accidently putting something that draws enough Amps to do damage
Hope this helps explain my concerns and makes your learning curve a little simpler.[/QUOTE]
Regards,
John.
