Any of you guys ever wonder if your electrical outlets can withstand your DJ equipment? I have a Crown XLS 202 amplifier and my speakers take in a nominal amount of 90 watts power each, with the max. being 360 watts. Is this too much power for a normal electrical outlet?
Mar-06-2005 05:12
auujay
The Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Cleveland
There is other stuff in your house that uses more, specifically a microwave. A well wired house should handle it fine, but if you have old or cheap wiring that might be an issue.
___________________
"You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are." - Colonel Adolphus Busch
your amp must be equal or more than the total wattage of your speakers
Mar-07-2005 06:05
Cheetah86
Senior tranceaddict
Registered: Jun 2004
Location: NJ / Troy, NY
It's been a while since I studied physics/electricty, but I remember Watts = Volts * Amps. If you live in the US, your wall outlet is 120 volts and your circuit breaker will probably handle 15 or 20 amps per circuit. This means you can have 1800 or 2400 watts respectively before you trip the circuit(I think). If I'm wrong correct me, but this is what I remember. So for 360 watts, you should be fine. Like auujay said, a microwave uses more electricity. I think the one I have at home uses 1300 watts and I've never had any problem with it blowing out the power.
Mar-07-2005 06:47
Nic
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Feb 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
quote:
Originally posted by j@y
your amp must be equal or more than the total wattage of your speakers
its perfectly fine to run speakers off an amp thats rated less than the speakers as long as you dont have the volume up so high that the amp is distorting you wont be getting the full peformance from the speaker though. (a good example is using a car headunit ~17W RMS to power cheap 6x9s rated at ~50W RMS)
so for optimal peformance you amp should be the same rated wattage of the speakers or slightly higher, go too high and you can easily blow a speaker
Mar-07-2005 07:06
auujay
The Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Cleveland
quote:
Originally posted by Cheetah86
Like auujay said, a microwave uses more electricity. I think the one I have at home uses 1300 watts and I've never had any problem with it blowing out the power.
Yup, and actually if it is a microwave rated at 1300 watts that is how much it is using to cook the food, it is actually drawing more than that from the wall (seeing as they are not 100% effecient).
Which reminds me, when you say it is 360 watts do you mean that is the max output? Because the input required for that is always going to be even higher.
But like I said before, their are lots of other things in your house which use more (microwave, fridge, toaster, even a CRT screen uses a fair bit).
___________________
"You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are." - Colonel Adolphus Busch
Originally posted by Nic
its perfectly fine to run speakers off an amp thats rated less than the speakers as long as you dont have the volume up so high that the amp is distorting you wont be getting the full peformance from the speaker though. (a good example is using a car headunit ~17W RMS to power cheap 6x9s rated at ~50W RMS)
so for optimal peformance you amp should be the same rated wattage of the speakers or slightly higher, go too high and you can easily blow a speaker
So true, just as long as the amp has enough to drive the speakers you are fine. I like the fact of having an amp slightly less then the max the speakers can handle because then you know you can't blow them by cranking the amp too high (and it helps to have a good amp that does not distort even at max output).
___________________
"You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are." - Colonel Adolphus Busch
i was also thinking about this once :P i have basically everything run out of one plug i think (thats computer, printer ande verything then djsetup two amps.. hehe i love electricity )
The only thing that can happen is your equipment to turn off if your equipment suck to much watt, the tension might get lower, requiring the amps to increase, which is a bad thing. I mean, the power dissipated by the wires is proportional to the square of it's current. It shouldn't be much of a problem since the distance is small, and still that dissipated heat is not lost at all. But, I'm sure you are more concerned about your equipment : if it starts to turn off, you will know it's too much. And because you are over using the tension, you are more at risk of the low tensions that sometimes happens. And I think the electrical wires can handle more than 5 amps.
Mar-07-2005 15:25
Psionic
Dark & Dirty
Registered: Apr 2003
Location: Boston, MA
quote:
Originally posted by j@y
your amp must be equal or more than the total wattage of your speakers
Mine is. My speakers have a "nominal" wattage of 90 watts each and can go up higher, and my amp at 8 ohms uses 145 watts per channel