getting enough power from a normal house electrical system!

[spiceminer15]

so i have 19 ant s1 running normal 180ghash and one bw... ive got 5 per circuit and two switches and three box fans.

the circuits are all 20amp/2400w

all of the circuits should be running under 2000w, a little buffer before trippage.... my main house plug circuit is 120amps....

i have a 110 electric furnace it is on two 50amp circuits. i use a wood stove for heat, but will use miners for heat this winter...

my question is how to get two heavy gauge wires down to a strip of 110 plugs, im obviously not a electrician... is this what pdus are for?? it there something i can buy at a normal hardware store to step it down into a row of plugs???

i have 5 more s1s i need power for lol...

[spiceminer15]

I thought about it and I think this evening i'm going to buy a small breaker box, some 20amp breakers and some wiring and outlets. and wire it up like another small breaker box, I think this is the correct way to do it.

[dogie]

tldr, get an electrician in to wire up some 240V sockets from the 50A circuits. PDU from those sockets into useful mining outlets.

[spiceminer15]

tldr, get an electrician in to wire up some 240V sockets from the 50A circuits. PDU from those sockets into useful mining outlets.

eh I don't really want to pay anyone lol

[dropt]

eh I don't really want to pay anyone lol

If you screw up and it burns your house down, your insurance company might not cover you.

Have you ever dealt with home wiring before?  It's really not that hard, but there's a very real risk of personal injury or property damage associated.

[dogie]

eh I don't really want to pay anyone lol

If you screw up and it burns your house down, your insurance company might not cover you.

Have you ever dealt with home wiring before?  It's really not that hard, but there's a very real risk of personal injury or property damage associated.

This. Its less about doing it right and more about doing it against code/law/policy which you almost certainly will breaking by doing it yourself. Have a look at your insurance policy.

Will only cost you $200 or so to get it done, but $10,000s to do it wrong.

[spiceminer15]

eh I don't really want to pay anyone lol

If you screw up and it burns your house down, your insurance company might not cover you.

Have you ever dealt with home wiring before?  It's really not that hard, but there's a very real risk of personal injury or property damage associated.

This. Its less about doing it right and more about doing it against code/law/policy which you almost certainly will breaking by doing it yourself. Have a look at your insurance policy.

Will only cost you $200 or so to get it done, but $10,000s to do it wrong.

I have worked with home electrical systems before but i'm not an electrician.

but i'm willing to hear what is wrong with putting another breaker box off that 100amp circuit, with 20amp breakers inside and some wiring to a few plugs

[MrTeal]

eh I don't really want to pay anyone lol

If you screw up and it burns your house down, your insurance company might not cover you.

Have you ever dealt with home wiring before?  It's really not that hard, but there's a very real risk of personal injury or property damage associated.

This. Its less about doing it right and more about doing it against code/law/policy which you almost certainly will breaking by doing it yourself. Have a look at your insurance policy.

Will only cost you $200 or so to get it done, but $10,000s to do it wrong.

I have worked with home electrical systems before but i'm not an electrician.

but i'm willing to hear what is wrong with putting another breaker box off that 100amp circuit, with 20amp breakers inside and some wiring to a few plugs

Do you actually two 50A breakers each with their own run of 6AWG, or do you mean you have a 240V/50A circuit that has a double breaker with a bar through it so they both trip at the same time?

You can't feed a sub panel with two 50A circuits, that would be against code. You wouldn't want 100A (or even 70-80A) of mining gear on a 120A service anyway though, you would have frequent nuisance tripping unless you live like the Amish in all the other aspects of your life.

If I were you I would just pull a permit to install a ~60A (or 50A if you do have a 240V/50A circuit already), and branch that out to a couple L6-30R receptacles. Pick up a couple 240V PDUs (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Avocent-Cyclades-PM10i-Intelligent-PDU-Rack-Mount-PM-10i-30A-/151383789679?pt=US_Power_Distribution_Units&hash=item233f2d506f)  and you're good to go. Not sure about your utility but a permit for that would only cost me $50, and it's well worth it.

[spiceminer15]

Do you actually two 50A breakers each with their own run of 6AWG, or do you mean you have a 240V/50A circuit that has a double breaker with a bar through it so they both trip at the same time?

You can't feed a sub panel with two 50A circuits, that would be against code. You wouldn't want 100A (or even 70-80A) of mining gear on a 120A service anyway though, you would have frequent nuisance tripping unless you live like the Amish in all the other aspects of your life.

If I were you I would just pull a permit to install a ~60A (or 50A if you do have a 240V/50A circuit already), and branch that out to a couple L6-30R receptacles. Pick up a couple 240V PDUs (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Avocent-Cyclades-PM10i-Intelligent-PDU-Rack-Mount-PM-10i-30A-/151383789679?pt=US_Power_Distribution_Units&hash=item233f2d506f)  and you're good to go. Not sure about your utility but a permit for that would only cost me $50, and it's well worth it.

its 110v

when I turned off the circuit for the furnace I had to turn them off one at a time. they didn't seem connected. the furnace also has two breakers inside it. I haven't taken the panel off the furnace to see if there is actually two sets of wires or just one set going to it.

[spiceminer15]

would it help if I took a picture of the panel in my house? i'll take a picture real fast then post it here in a few mins

[dropt]

would it help if I took a picture of the panel in my house? i'll take a picture real fast then post it here in a few mins

Sure.

[dogie]

I find the american rating system very strange, ie 30A is only 24A 24/7. British standards fuses for 30A are usually 36A 24/7.

[spiceminer15]

[MrTeal]

Those two 50A breakers with the black and red wires are two pole 240V breakers. You should be fine to run a 50A 240V branch circuit off of one of them. What gauge is the wire going into it, 8?

That panel is scary as shit though. That 40A breaker looks like it has 12/2 running into it, and it's using the white neutral as one of the hots. If you're ever doing a major reno, you should think about redoing a bunch of your wiring.

[spiceminer15]

Those two 50A breakers with the black and red wires are two pole 240V breakers. You should be fine to run a 50A 240V branch circuit off of one of them. What gauge is the wire going into it, 8?

That panel is scary as shit though. That 40A breaker looks like it has 12/2 running into it, and it's using the white neutral as one of the hots. If you're ever doing a major reno, you should think about redoing a bunch of your wiring.

yea I won't be doing any reno on this house its really old. this is the first house I bought about 6 or 7 years ago when I was 24.

my furnace says 110v right on it. how can it be fed with 240v? I need more info.

[dropt]

yea I won't be doing any reno on this house its really old. this is the first house I bought about 6 or 7 years ago when I was 24.

my furnace says 110v right on it. how can it be fed with 240v? I need more info.

Here's a visual:

[spiceminer15]

what can I do with the wires running into the furnace to be able to plug in some normal 110 plugs into it? is there something I can do myself?

[derel1cte]

Here's what I did with my setup. It's a little different situation because I have a 200A main breaker box with plenty of room.

Here is the new 60A 220V breaker added to my main box with a 6awg 3 conductor wire leading to my sub panel:
https://i.imgur.com/uxO8y4C.jpg?2

Here is my sub panel. I decided to go with 15A 110V breakers with a single breaker per 1000-1300W power supply. I used 14 awg nema13 power cords and cut them off to wire them directly to the breakers, thus saving money on recepticals, outlets, boxes, condutit, etc. I checked with a couple power guys and everything seems to still meet code.

https://i.imgur.com/qflcK84.jpg?2

Here is the box all covered up. The big 'breaker' with the white label is actually a whole home surge protector. I didn't want to waste my money on PDUs or individual surge protectors so this was a good solution for everything on the sub box.

https://i.imgur.com/292lBzj.jpg?1

Here's the whole cabinet. Obviously this is a little easier to do in a cage but could pretty easily be mounted on a wall next to your shelf-type setup.

https://i.imgur.com/9BY0AcL.jpg?2

https://i.imgur.com/szIaOjW.jpg?2

[MrTeal]

what can I do with the wires running into the furnace to be able to plug in some normal 110 plugs into it? is there something I can do myself?

Can you post a picture of the furnace nameplate? If there is 3 conductor cable running to the furnace, it's physically possible that you could be running at 110V. It would be extremely weird though. Often what you will see is that you'll have the element run off 240V at high current, and then lower draw items like the fan motor and the control systems will run off one of the 120V legs.

[spiceminer15]

what can I do with the wires running into the furnace to be able to plug in some normal 110 plugs into it? is there something I can do myself?

Can you post a picture of the furnace nameplate? If there is 3 conductor cable running to the furnace, it's physically possible that you could be running at 110V. It would be extremely weird though. Often what you will see is that you'll have the element run off 240V at high current, and then lower draw items like the fan motor and the control systems will run off one of the 120V legs.

ok just a min