Power Tips

The first thing you must do when planning your power setup is to map each outlet to the circuit that it is on. To do this, get a friend and something that you can take around with you to see if an outlet has power (ie: power strip with a power light, small lamp, digital clock, etc), and possibly a set of two-way radios. Now, have your friend next to the circuit breaker panel as you go from outlet to outlet. At each outlet, plug in your device and have your friend turn circuits on and off until your device powers off. Mark down which circuit that outlet belongs to.

Once you have a map set up, you need to determine how many systems you can have on one circuit. A good rule of thumb is about 2.5 amps per computer. You should also note that that many circuit breakers will usually trip before their rated amperage. Because of this, you should assume that each circuit will only provide 80% of its rated amperage (ie: A 20 amp circuit may only handle 16 amps). So, the formula for number of computers 'n' on an 'x' amp circuit is ( n = x * .8 * .4 or n ~= x / 3 ). Always round down.

Now that you know how many computer your venue can support, make a map of where all of your seats are going to be and where you will be running your extension cords. Make sure to follow the above rules for your extension cords as well, since each cord can only handle so many amps. You should also provide power strips for your gamers as well, providing one outlet to each gamer. Again, watch your amperage ratings. If you need to put more than one power strip on an extension cord, use the small splitters (without the cord) to do so (or build your own recepical box if needed).

In summary, map out your power, never overload a circuit/cord/strip by putting more than (rated amps)/3 computers on it, and map your layout so that you know what cable lengths you'll need.

PS. Never coil up excess cable. It gets very hot.