I am making an LED strip system around the top of my room and the power supply I have is rated for 300 watts and 60 amps. My LED strips will be using about 80 to 85 percent of that when the lights are at their brightest. Am I safe to use this power supply connected to a standard wall outlet?
From what I understand the typical wall outlet is only rated for about 15 to 20 amps and I am not sure if the amp from the power supply will be the same draw from the wall outlet.
Power Supply
Thanks
cledfo11:
Am I safe to use this power supply connected to a standard wall outlet?
Totally safe.
cledfo11:
From what I understand the typical wall outlet is only rated for about 15 to 20 amps and I am not sure if the amp from the power supply will be the same draw from the wall outlet.
You are correct, where I live (Spain) the outlet circuit are designed with 16A circuit breakers and so that is the maximum intensity that can withstand the line.
Buuut, your power supply delivers 60A at the rated voltage. That according to my calculations will be 5V. So you have P=VI=5V60A
That means that for a 300w power supply and a 230V mains voltage ideally the power supply will draw 1,3A aprox from the wall (applying the same formula as before).
Moreover, and this is as an extra. If the electrical circuit of your home is well designed and implemented even if you connected a higher load than the maximum allowed by the circuit nothing would happend. The circuit breaker would just turn off the circuit. Again, this will happen if your installation is correct.
Thanks for the detailed answer. Ill keep this in mind in the future.
cledfo11:
Am I safe to use this power supply connected to a standard wall outlet?
Not unless its inside a suitable enclosure, as this device is only safety rated for
such use. Well, actually its safe to use on the bench if you know what you're doing,
but its intended for being used in an enclosure as the live connections are accessible.
Power Supply
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017YEOAPA/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza
And of course all this presupposes its not a knock-off and actually does qualify for the
CE mark...
The power supply itself should be fine, just make sure you use adequate wiring to the LED strips. 85% of 60 amps is 51 amps, so you are going to need some fairly heavy gauge wire, unless there are multiple feed wires to the LEDs.
low voltage high current is susceptible to fire risk so make sure you plan for that. I suggest breaking the power supply into several low-current (around 5a each) sub-circuits protected by a fuse and make sure you use appropriate wire gauge for the current.
Hi,
What are the specs of the strips?
What are you controlling them with to get 85% brightness?
As already stated, at those current levels, your wiring is extremely important.
Thanks.. Tom... 
Don't try to lead more than 2-3A through the strips themselves, use multiple connections with proper wires to connect them.
Qdeathstar:
low voltage high current is susceptible to fire risk so make sure you plan for that. I suggest breaking the power supply into several low-current (around 5a each) sub-circuits protected by a fuse and make sure you use appropriate wire gauge for the current.
It's not quite as simple as that.
We are - presumably - talking about WS2812 "addressable" LEDs. For every strip not directly connected to the "output" - data, that is - of the previous, you must include that 270 or 470 Ohm resistor. And you should run a ground along with the data wire. Because the ground will then carry some of the major current, this wire (but not the data wire) must be rated for the full current. This is not so much of a problem because those section fuses will only be in the 5 V positive lines.
But remember that ground and 5 V power wires must always travel together as a pair.
You only need the resistor on the data line. If you are running the data line out over large distances you should use an rs485.. You should be (especially for 5v strips) injecting power at each strip. What i do is connect two strips together, move forward two strips and connect two more. In that case the ground wire between the two strips in the middle do not have to be rated for the full current of the strip.
Low voltage high current. Sounds like my welder.