I've tripped a breaker once with my crunchers.
Managed to break the 3600W limit for my basement a while back, so I added a second feed down there. Fortunately, here I live the "sky is the limit" (And also the wallet.... ) when it comes to power from the grid.

At the moment I have my crunchers spread out on three different circuits, One dedicated to my mini farm, and the rest of the systems tucked away in different places around here.

Does the electric company ask why you need the upgrade? What do they say if you tell them you're participating in SETI? For people with a large number of computers, I wonder what your house looks like on infrared cameras, does it stand out like marijuana farms do when police fly around with their helicopters :D ?

Does the electric company ask why you need the upgrade? What do they say if you tell them you're participating in SETI? For people with a large number of computers, I wonder what your house looks like on infrared cameras, does it stand out like marijuana farms do when police fly around with their helicopters :D ?

All of my power distribution upgrades were in my house and still within the capability of the main feed, so no involvement from the electric company. I don't think Taiwan carries out the same type of power usage investigation as the US. One time they did send me a note on indicating my water usage went up and suggested I look for a leak. They were right and I fixed it, but so far no similar note from the electric company.

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GitHub: Ricks-Lab
Instagram: ricks_labs

Does the electric company ask why you need the upgrade? What do they say if you tell them you're participating in SETI? For people with a large number of computers, I wonder what your house looks like on infrared cameras, does it stand out like marijuana farms do when police fly around with their helicopters :D ?

Normally they want to make sure there is a justification for upgrading the service. Since they are they are the ones responsible for everything up to the for the meter. Normally going up to the next service level isn't a huge issue. If you are asking to go from 100A to 250A service they do start asking questions. As that point they may not have the capacity on the local transformer and it may have to be upgraded.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Huh, when I replaced my main 1960's 100 amp screw in fuse panel with a 225 amp model, I had them upgrade my outside service and meter from I believe it was good for maybe 200 amps, to a 400 amp meter/disconnect. They didn't really question it, they just sent me the bill for whatever the extra cost for the hardware was. I believe that if I had asked to go above 400 amp (actually, I think it is physically 320 amp, but is called 400 amp service) there might have been issues with that. Since I had paid them 10 years ago to upgrade the transformer on the pole in the back yard to 45kv when I installed 400 amp service to my workshop, along with upsized wire to both the house and the shop, that may have been why they didn't question it, as it had ample capacity.

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Huh, when I replaced my main 1960's 100 amp screw in fuse panel with a 225 amp model, I had them upgrade my outside service and meter from I believe it was good for maybe 200 amps, to a 400 amp meter/disconnect. They didn't really question it, they just sent me the bill for whatever the extra cost for the hardware was. I believe that if I had asked to go above 400 amp (actually, I think it is physically 320 amp, but is called 400 amp service) there might have been issues with that. Since I had paid them 10 years ago to upgrade the transformer on the pole in the back yard to 45kv when I installed 400 amp service to my workshop, along with upsized wire to both the house and the shop, that may have been why they didn't question it, as it had ample capacity.

You likely came "PreApproved"

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Does the electric company ask why you need the upgrade? What do they say if you tell them you're participating in SETI? For people with a large number of computers, I wonder what your house looks like on infrared cameras, does it stand out like marijuana farms do when police fly around with their helicopters :D ?

I am eagerly looking forward to a visit from the police looking for a grow-operation! "No officer I'm trying to detect signals from aliens."

Technology has gotten better in the 15 years I've been building my own machines, so it all uses less power now.. but some time back, I had power strips plugged into extension cords and running down the hall to plug into three different 15A breakers.

Finally got tired of doing that and got a 4-gang cut-in box and special-ordered a 4-gang duplex wall plate and did a run of 12-3 to the breaker panel and put two 20As in on adjacent phases (to share the neutral) and got two brown duplex outlets and two white ones and wired them up so that brown was one breaker and white was the other. Installed all of that right behind my desk. No need for warm-to-the-touch 14 or 16ga extension cords anymore.

And now a few years later, my power draw is 1/4 of what it was a decade ago when I had cords running everywhere. It's not a total waste though.. I made a 10ga extension cord to plug in my laser printer that draws 14A so that it wouldn't be on a 15A breaker along with other things and plugged it in to one of my two 20A circuits. Ever since then, the lights in that room don't dim to about 50% when the fuser is running and I'm not frying power boards in the printer anymore due to self-induced brownouts.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

I've only had at most 2 PCs on at the same time. But years ago in high school, I was at a LAN party with a dozen PCs in a friend's living room floor. There was a weird tingling feeling in my feet when I walked on the floor, which I had guessed was electricity leaking into the carpet. Does that tingling feeling happen to anyone with lots of crunchers in 1 room?

No, but I feel it if the chassis isn't earthed (grounded) properly.