I've been thinking about this for a few weeks now, but would like some advice on which option I should go with for this year. I'm not 100% sure yet on the draw i'll be pulling, but overall my show is going to be based on 2 active hubs with about 20 SSCs loaded up with 100pixels each, 10 DSCs with about 400 rgb nodes in total and still to be determined, I have 3 LEs and 3 SSRs and still trying to figure out how to put them to use (icicle lights, simple candy canes, some mini trees, not sure).
My house electrical panel - 200amp service is located on the same wall that I want to mount the outlets outside so in either scenario I'll likely not need more than 10' of wire to get from the main panel to the outside.
Option 1 - a 125amp Subpanel with a 60 amp feeder breaker (via a 4 wire at 6AWG)
- i'd put in 3 x 15amp gfci breakers in it
- then run the wires down to three outlet boxes that are weather proof and have an in-use cover on it
Option 2 - three direct runs off simple 15amp feeder breakers from main panel and use a GFCI receptacle in weather proof box again with in use cover.
I'm not 100% sure if this is up to code (either the Canadian Electric Code or local code) but from a pure cost perspective option #2 is the $100 solution vs what's looking to be about a $500 job for option #1.
Any thoughts on the approach here? Do I even need 45amps for the show?
I'll be sure to validate the approach I take with an electrician before I move forward on this, but thought I'd start with getting the design on this important step done with some assistance of the folks here.
Thanks!
Ryan