Power provisions for the GF

800W peak for the Glowforge, 600W peak for the filter. So if you have both, you are looking at 1400W. Assuming a 110Vac, you will draw about ~13Amps peak (7.3Amps without the filter). If you are planning on having an AC on the same circuit, a UPS is probably the way to go.

You could always get a longer power cord and connect it to a different circuit. :wink:

https://www.amazon.com/Hosa-PWC-425-Power-Cord-5-15P/dp/B003D8K86C/ref=sr_1_3?s=aht&ie=UTF8&qid=1466779986&sr=1-3&keywords=IEC+power+cord&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_four_browse-bin%3A7800973011

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Or run a new circuit!

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But if you don’t move any of the pieces, can you just re-run it? (Assuming none of the cut pieces are small, where they would get blown around by the air assist)

I think the answer would be similar to the extra scorch area in this post caused by doubled lines

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In general, AC draws a lot, as do space heaters.

You have the time before the Glowforge comes to run a new circuit or switch the 15A for a 20A - though there are considerations and I am not an electrician, even if I did know about your house electric system.

20A, if compatible with your wiring, would not require new holes in the walls or patching or anything and would certainly help your current circuit tripping. Easier than running an additional circuit, be a long way. It might be a better use of the UPS budget to upgrade your house wiring, at least where the Glowforge and computer are.

The solution I used won’t work for everybody; but I have a server and infrastructure man in my house, and he was using a large closet as his office. We decided to move a wall and update wiring. The new office/ Glowforge studio is wired to two 20A circuits. He won’t fill his server rack; but he may run half a dozen machines plus the routers and peripheral electronics, so this made sense for us.

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Will it require Sine-Wave AC input or will it work on the “simulated sine” or even square wave that some UPS’s put out?

@Multimaker
the original build was a qx6700 over clocked to 3.6ghz with triple 8800ultras in sli and a slew of drives all water cooled with a 3x120mm radiator. The system is now a gtx590 and a 2600k slew of spindle and ssd . So the power demands have come down allot I think I peak at about 800w now.

@areader154
Would love to run a new circuit im in a condo with 100amp service and we are not allowed to run new power

@joe
Bunny candy them cords so cant just run them across the floor to diffrent rooms

My blower on my garden is a very high performance it does 800cfm with 120~ watts so 600w for the air filters seems way off base

http://www.fantech.net/prioAir-8-EC_enus-49316.aspx

Yea, bunny’s will eat anything. :rabbit2:

I got the 600W from a post from @dan from awhile back.

It seemed high to me as well for just fans. I have no experience in how much energy it takes to force air through filters, however, particularly what must be fairly fine filters to scrub the glowforge exhaust.

Peak may simply be the max rating of all the components: it’s what I would tell customers no matter what I thought actual draw will be.

Or it could be real, especially if your filter is starting to clog a bit.

I don’t know I have been finding many of the 40w co2 power supply’s are around 3a so that’s 350w for the laser + motors and raspberry and fans so not sure how that turns in 800w and 600w seems pretty obnoxious 120mm dc fans only pull at most a few dozen watts each

Cool yeah the gtx500 series is fairly power hungry, but Nvidia has come a long way since then. I have an x99 i7 5820k with two gtx970’s in sli all overclocked and I don’t think my setup uses more than 600w peak. But it’s been awhile since I checked so I might be misremembering but if anything it’s probably even lower than that…

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One other thing to keep in mind. The GF doesnt have to be hard wired to your computer. Since it is WIFI based, you could put it in a different room and on a dif circuit. Thats what going to be happening in my house keep the wife happy. She likes the GF and not my rig :wink:

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My main computer will be in a completely different room than my Glowforge, too. I will still use it for most designing stuff, but will use my iPad in the same location as the laser to do any last minute things before I hit that “glowrious” button.

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Likewise. Mine will be in the unfinished part of the basement. I might have to unplug the CO monitor (:anguished:) and/or the cat’s Litter Robot (:scream_cat::scream_cat::scream_cat:) while GF is running.

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well the other room is the kitchen with the hydroponics, or the family room with the projector or the bed room. I am very limited in my condo

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That’s going to depend on the magic power supply they were designing but that caused the shipping delay. Good question to ask because it’s something most people aren’t aware of about UPS systems and then get surprised.

BTW, remember that 800W will be peak and you almost never run at peak power - it’s bad for the tube. Also, high power is used for cutting while engraving is usually done at half or even less power. You can also reduce the power needed by running it slower as a slow engrave (or cut) at low power = a fast pass at higher power (the laser is spending more time on any given point and thus delivering more net effective power for a given power level setting from the laser).

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The plan is to have the Glowforge located in the workshop area of my garage in a special cabinet that allows access by lifting the worktop of the cabinet that it is in. The workshop worktop area is not that big, so worktop space is at a premium. Luckily, the garage circuits can be easily upgraded (conduit snaking along the wall) if needed and its nearby the workshop area too. The filter will be a great addition to keeping dust down. Oh, and there are several slots available in the breaker box too. I don’t have good wifi coverage in the garage but I installed ethernet into the garage so an affordable access point will probably be needed to get the GF to work its magic.

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Never checked what power consumption my current lasers have but I have a computer, laser and compressor all connected to one surge protecter power strip…never had an issue. On another wall plug is another computer and the other laser. There are two more computers running at the same time in a different part of the office suite as well as a mini frig, microwave and of course the A/C…lol. They have all been running at the same time many times😝
Since my shop is in a commercial office park, Im guessing its rated higher than my house electrical circuits…idk…my daughter is the electrical engineer…lol

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ya at most it would be a 20 amp circuit but then you would have nema 20 sockets those are the ones that have a slash in one of the prongs when you look at it. I’m thinking that this 800w+600w is just a hairy number out of the air

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