I currently have an X1C, A1, and A1-mini all plugged into the same circuit at my house. I can see that the H2D consumes somewhere around 1600W of power. How can I determine, preemptively, if the receptacle/circuit will handle the additional power? I should have the H2D here in about a week.
I just purchased a cheap digital clamp meter (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DB23PPHL?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1), I thing this is the tool I need?
i_max = P_max / V
P is the highest power consumption you see — let’s say it’s 1600W
V is your voltage — let’s say it’s 110V
i_max = 1600 / 110 = 14.54 Amps
If you only had the H2D on that circuit, you’d want a breaker that won’t trip at that load. A 20A breaker would be appropriate.
The problem is that your other printers are also on the same circuit:
That’s a total of about 2550W.
2550 / 110 = 23.2 Amps
So your room could draw up to ~24 amps just from printers. That’s more than what a 20A breaker can safely handle.
The safe route would be to run new circuits into the room and balance the printers across them.
Assuming your on 120v
15A circuit max rating: 1800w
15A circuit safe rating (80%): 1440w
20A circuit max rating: 2400w
20A circuit safe rating (80%): 1920w
Neither of which can handle the max load if all your printers at the same time. Thankfully, the heating is only momentary. The H2D at low temp printing will pull around 300w or less and around 800ish for high temp printing. The others are around 100w or less.
You should be able to safely run all of them on a 20A outlet as long as you can ensure the H2D does not heat up at the same time as any other printers. Plan accordingly.
The H2D should not be used on a 15A circuit at all in order to comply with safety, assuming 120v. It can safely be used on a 110v line.
Put them all on their own small UPSs. If the breaker pops, you can go reset it without the printers being interrupted.
Probably cheaper to just pay an electrician to run another circuit to your printer room, though. Assuming you don’t have the skills to do that yourself.
If he’s in the US (his amazon link is USA). Than its most likely 120v and not 110v (Well at least since about the 70’s in the USA). So that would lower it to about 21.25 amps. Depending on when his house was built and/or if it was a custom home or a track home. The circuits for general loads (ie bedrooms etc) may very well be on a 15A circuit breaker.
However. That is at max amperage for all the units. They would all have to startup and be heating at the same time to reach those numbers. My H2D only draws 1600-1650 watts at startup for about 2-3 minutes and drops down significantly. After 2-3 minutes it drops down to 700-800 for a while and then mostly settles down at 200-350 for most of the print just having a very brief blip up to 700-800 for a second or so. I know my A1 mini usually runs in the 90w range while running with the bed heating/maintaining.
Many people in here are running the H2D and other printers on the same circuit breaker and just making sure to stagger the start times. Hopefully you don’t have too many other things in the house on the same circuit. The other factor is that circuit breakers trip off of what is called a time-current curve (trip curve). The higher the amperage the faster it trips. You can run some breakers right at the max amperage for a while before it trips and if its just below it can take considerably longer to trip. Code(and ideal) is to not run any circuit higher than 80% of its rating for continuous use(3hr plus). So startup is the main concern for tripping and being below 80% for the majority of the time for safety. If you have a 15A circuit it would probably be best long term to install a dedicated 20A circuit. And PLEASE do not plug the H2D into a power strip unless it is a high quality power strip (Usually $40-80 with large gauge wire) and made for equipment or appliances.
First thing to check is to see if you are on a 15A or 20A circuit breaker. To use your meter you would have to have the dial on the 200-400A~ range as 20A may max out. Put the clamp around the power wire right as it exits the breaker to see what that circuit is actually drawing. If you want to see the max press the min/max button as soon as you turn the meter on before you start you printers. NOTE: This setting would only show the max reading and not the current amperage draw, it will increase if the max increases only.
You would have to remove the cover of the panel and be comfortable around electrical panels. NOTE: If you have an old panel (Zinsco, Federal Pacific, PushMatic, etc) that is older than about 40 years. I would recommend that you DO NOT remove the cover if you don’t know what you are doing. Some of these panels can arc and shock you when you remove the cover as they can easily short out the main buss bars when you try and remove the cover at an angle due to poor design. DO NOT touch anything metal at all(especially screws on the breakers or where wires attach) in the panel other than the enclosure itself unless you know what you are touching.
If you are not comfortable around electrical you can get a AC line splitter that plugs in between your equipment and the wall or a watt meter. NOTE: The following two methods are not the best as they only show the equipment that is plugged into that one outlet and usually are only rated for 15A (and if rated higher the plug itself is only rated for 15A). These two items would only be for testing and not long term use at higher amperage. With the splitter you can then put your AMP meter around the outside of the splitter with the clamp in the square to measure Amps. You can’t just put your meter around the power cable as it has both the hot and neutral and with an AC circuit the two will cancel each other out. For direct readings you would have the meter in/around the 1X square. The 10X square is to get finer measurements on sub 1-2amp draws.
https://amzn.to/45SoXpw
You can also get a a plug in watt meter that you can plug certain equipment in to see their amperage draw.
I would only recommend checking at the breaker as you have no clue what other outlets, lights, or appliances are on the same circuit unless you installed it your self. This way you know what the full amperage draw of the circuit is. When the meter is in place and turned on you can start up your printers and watch the numbers to see what they do at startup, running, etc.
I personally wouldn’t put them on the same circuit without having an electrician come out.
Excellent advise.
… (Need these extra characters to post)
Lots of excellent info. I should have mentioned, I’m in the US, 120v. So with that info, I now plan on running an extension cord from my H2D to a receptacle on a different circuit as a temporary solution. Next step is to get an electrician to upgrade or add an addition circuit to my work area.
Quickly looking at my panel, mostly 15a breakers except for a few rooms like the laundry room. House was build in the 70’s. I’m pretty sure the circuit my printers are on is a 15a circuit.
Moto… How to you know the printer draws 1600 watts for the first 2 to 3 minutes then drops off? Meaning, how are you measuring that, smart plug? I should keep better track of how much draw my equipment (not just printer stuff) consumes…
I always learn something more about electrical when MotoGP posts 
Dulphy, if you run an extension cord from your H2D I believe you have to make sure it is a heavy duty gauge like the ones used for air conditioners. Definitely don’t run it on a thin extension cord.
I had the printer plugged into a watt meter (I installed a dedicated circuit, so there were no other loads) and watched it the entire time. I personally would not leave it un attended due to the 15A rating on the watt meter. Ive done a couple of prints and verified the reading. I also have installed at my home a energy monitor on my main panel with individual current transducers where i can monitor current usage on certain circuits from my phone. I get similar results from the energy monitor readings. The watt meter is more accurate on small loads verified with my quality fluke multi meter.
FYI. I ran two dedicated 20 amp circuits to my printer / engraver work area. In my office I now have three circuits total. Original circuit in that room is a 15 amp circuit shared with most of the other bedrooms. So I wasn’t comfortable having multiple printers, a CO2 engraver, and a blast oven on that same circuit. Now the 15 amp circuit is only powering my computer and office printer. And the two new dedicated 20 amp circuits are just for printers,engravers and blast oven, Etc. One of the circuits is just powering up the h2d and various AMSs.
Cheap home energy monitor. That is UL certified.
Im jealous. Must be awesome being able to do your own electrical work. Ive never ran my own. Is there alot of sheetrock/paint work afterwards? Or are you able to use the flexible drill bit thing and snake it through?
When we moved into our house a few years back, I strategically chose the room directly above the garage as the office. The garage sub panel is right below the wall where I installed the two outlets. There is a crawl space above half the garage that shares the wall with one side of the office. From the circuit breakers to the outlets its apox 8’ total. So I had zero patchwork. At the complete other end of the house I ran a circuit for the master bathroom. And I was able to run it up the garage through that crawl space into the attic, across the Attic and then down into the bathroom without any patchwork. I was able to drill a hole down into the wall from above. I then dropped a piece of beaded chain down the wall and was able to grab it through the small hole I cut for a remodel box with a magnet.
You definitely have to get used to those somewhat flexible drill bits, because you can easily damage something if you’re not used to using them. I try not to use them whenever I can, and if I am going to use it I shove a camera in the wall first to verify there’s nothing in the way. After I get the tip to grab I then put the camera back up there to make sure it’s where I want it. The other trick to those is to drill a hole in a tennis ball and put it over the shaft of the drill bit. The tennis ball then keeps the drill bit centered in the wall. If you ever hit fire blocking in the wall, it then complicates everything. Insulation also makes some of this a nightmare.
Sounds like another apartment/bedroom style installation.
Something I would never recommend.
A printer like the H2D belongs in a shop/work area that has a reliable power circuit that can safely handle the load with a little ceiling such as a 20amp circuit.
If you don’t have sufficient power in your location than this printer isn’t for you, simple as that.
People trying to run these on things like a UPS are just asking for trouble!
I don’t care what others have to say about chiming in with using a UPS either. It is a dumb idea. If you don’t have sufficient electric power in your location than these printers aren’t for you!
I run two H2Ds, an X1C, Air Conditioner, and my computer, off a 15 amp circuit.
I mean, I don’t start it all at the same time. I stagger things. I’ve never had a circuit pop from it, surprisingly. Pretty sure they’re 15 amp circuits. I live in a rental, and can’t afford to purchase a house, so can’t run new circuits.
You may even be able to run both printers heating at the same time for a short period of time. Modern circuit breakers will allow the current to be exceeded for motor startups and temporary high load scenarios. My understanding is the breaker will trip only for a sustained overcurrent load for x timeframe.
I’ve had my air compressor come on with 2 printers printing on the same 20A circuit without any tripped breakers.
I’m going to call an electrician to see how much for a 20a breaker and run a line to my work area, which is the room next to the laundry room/ electrical room. According to Microsoft’s CoPilot, the cost is approximately $300 for the job in my area.
If I get the H2D before the electrician shows up, I’ll run just the H2D on that circuit. If I want to use the other printers, I can run an extension cord to another circuit.
The room at my house where my printers live,( US 110V), has a shared circuit with 2 other rooms.
I ran a dedicated 20amp line to the that bedroom to power the printers and other quip.
I was surprised to see how wimpy the power cable was that came with the H2D.
I was figuring a larger gauge.
If your current line is powering anything other that your printers, I’d run a new one in.
Got an electrician coming out to the house on Monday for an estimate. I’ll most likely have to upgrade some other things to adhere to current code here in NY, we’ll see what the total bill will be…
Either way, I’ll have the same as you Chuck, 20a line run to one receptacle for printers. I was actually thinking of asking for two, 20a receptacles ran to the same spot, even right next to each other. Shouldn’t be that much more labor I would guess, well see.
My biggest thing was that if I wanted more than one outlet, I would have to cut the drywall all the way along the wall. Didnt want to do that. My room floor is the same level as the basement ceiling where the fusebox is. I just ran a new line from the basement and just into one stud in the room. I was able to use the new outlet opening to grab the new line. I went and got a 12 gauge heavy high strand flexible extension cable, put the 20amp male and female plug on that and just run that over to my machine from the wall outlet along the baseboard and floor. By the looks of the power cord Bambu supplies, this line I put in is a total overkill, but its safer larger gauge than smaller.
Hey folks, my H2D on a 20 amp circuit. Not only is it safer, but your unit will perform better