S&L Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 something occurred to me this afternoon that I haven't given a thought to before. I was out last night doing a bar show with an amp rack containing the following:1. behringer epq2000, for FOH tops - power rating 2.2kW2. ditto for FOH subs3. Pulse 600w amp for monitorsso if I add the possible maximum power loading for these it is would be 5kW. granted the monitor amp is handling mostly vocals and therefore can't reasonably be drawing full current, can it? but even so the tops run at 3/4 load and the subs at full load. all these have been running for a while on a single 13A plugbut if power = v x a then at full load I would be pulling 20A or more. so my questions are:is there anything wrong with the above thoughts?if it's correct do I assume that I am 'getting away' with a 13A supply because the amps don't all work flat out together? I should add that each amp has a limiter and the limiters are always switched on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 I'm always amazed how little power amps actually take - I only really noticed it last year when using a distro with an ammeter and noticed that even when playing very loud, the load seemed much less than I thought. Lots of people discover their umpteen KW systems run quite happily on a 13A outlet - as long as you don't power up by switching the mains on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S&L Posted October 28, 2012 Author Share Posted October 28, 2012 I'm always amazed how little power amps actually take - I only really noticed it last year when using a distro with an ammeter and noticed that even when playing very loud, the load seemed much less than I thought. Lots of people discover their umpteen KW systems run quite happily on a 13A outlet - as long as you don't power up by switching the mains on! thanks for that Paul. reassuring - we always switch amps on one at a time - plug wasn't even warm to touch at the end of the night - I'm assuming, in my tin pot way that because nothing is continuous at full volume and levels of different instruments vary as they leave the desk then the simultaneous demand delivered to the amps is never quite what we think it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 If you think that a 13A fuse will pass something like 50 Amps (!) for 20ms you'll start to see why it's usually not an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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