Please help: Question about amperage, drivers & light timers/controllers
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:07 pm
Hey everyone, hope everyone's grows are going well! I was hoping someone can help with this question because I'm fairly ignorant when it comes to electronics.
I've had a 240-volt circuit installed so I can use the ELG series drivers at 100% for my quantum boards. In this new space, I will have twenty-four QB132s running with six ELG-240-36A drivers. That is 1440 watts. Each driver is rated at 6.67 amps.
I am having a hell of a time trying to figure out what kind of timer or light controller to use. I'd rather just go with two timers but I'm having trouble finding reliable and decent 240-volt timers that don't have a bunch of bad reviews.
If I use a light controller that's rated at 30 amps, does that mean that I cannot use it for all of these lights because each driver is rated at 6.67 amps? If you multiply that times 6 drivers, that's 40 amps total.
Originally, I was hoping to use three drivers on one timer and the other three drivers on another timer. But, would that mean I would need each timer to be able to handle 20 amps? It's just confusing because that's not a lot of wattage at all. You would think a light timer should be able to handle 720 watts, or a controller should be able to handle a total of 1440 Watts since they are made to handle four 1000 watt HID lights. So, it's the amperage that's confusing to me.
So, I guess my main question is, do you add up the total of amperage between all of the drivers that you are connecting to a particular timer or light controller , and if that amperage is higher than the rated amperage of the timer or light controller, is it not doable? Thanks for looking!
I've had a 240-volt circuit installed so I can use the ELG series drivers at 100% for my quantum boards. In this new space, I will have twenty-four QB132s running with six ELG-240-36A drivers. That is 1440 watts. Each driver is rated at 6.67 amps.
I am having a hell of a time trying to figure out what kind of timer or light controller to use. I'd rather just go with two timers but I'm having trouble finding reliable and decent 240-volt timers that don't have a bunch of bad reviews.
If I use a light controller that's rated at 30 amps, does that mean that I cannot use it for all of these lights because each driver is rated at 6.67 amps? If you multiply that times 6 drivers, that's 40 amps total.
Originally, I was hoping to use three drivers on one timer and the other three drivers on another timer. But, would that mean I would need each timer to be able to handle 20 amps? It's just confusing because that's not a lot of wattage at all. You would think a light timer should be able to handle 720 watts, or a controller should be able to handle a total of 1440 Watts since they are made to handle four 1000 watt HID lights. So, it's the amperage that's confusing to me.
So, I guess my main question is, do you add up the total of amperage between all of the drivers that you are connecting to a particular timer or light controller , and if that amperage is higher than the rated amperage of the timer or light controller, is it not doable? Thanks for looking!