How much juice does a grinch pull??

[fathead45]

Alright, i have found a issue that im trying to trouble shoot. i have 2 grinchs, with 2 renc's, and a ZC transformer running off a 300 watt PSU converted to a standalone unit. i also have 20 or so SSR's running off the 2 grinchs. well the past few nights i have lost my lights and the PSU is not running like it threw a internal thermal breaker. i shut off the power strip for a bit and all comes back. anyone else have this issue?? am i pulling too many amps thru 1 PSU?

[RavingLunatic]

I would allow about 1A per Grinch will all of the SSRs attached.

Under normal conditions that power supply should be more than enough for two Grinches.

What you might be experiencing is that one or more of your SSRs might be shorting out the 5V at some point which would cause your PS to shutdown. I've done this a few times when accidently hooking up the wrong items to the wrong plugs in my test setup.

[fathead45]

alright, thank you. i didnt think i should be overpowering the PSU already.

[daviddth]

one 250W PC supply here last year ran 2 595's, 2 grinches and associated ren C's, as well as 2 ledtriks panels without a problem. Current draw on the 5V was 5.2A peak with everything on

edit: Put a fuse on the 5V gear - a 2A fast blow for each of the grinches would normally be enough as the PSU should shut down on a short in the 5V (or 12V) line as a safety precaution. The fuse probably wont stop it shutting down, but might help you track down a problem later if its fast enough to blow on a short