| Service Technical Tips (by Brad Clampitt) |
Know Your Amps, Volts, Wiring and Breaker Size
If you’re building a new salon, it’s critical to try to anticipate the type of tanning equipment that will ultimately be installed in every room. As a result, you have to know what size wire is needed for each bed and what size breaker is needed for each bed. We have prepared a series of charts that can help you understand the relationship between the amp draw of a bed given a specific input voltage, and the amp draw at the breaker panel if a buck booster transformer is used. These elements work hand-in-hand to give you optimum performance from your Ultrasun Equipment. We hope that this new information answers a lot of questions that salons have regarding their electrical requirements - for a safe salon that complies with National Electrical Codes (NEC), now and in the future.
Plan Today, Save Tomorrow
Most salons usually install a variety of beds so they can satisfy the needs of various customers. For example, you might want four or five entry-level beds, three or four mid-size beds, and two or three high-end beds. You’ll want to put the smaller beds that require the less expensive wiring the farthest distance from the breaker panel, and the beds that require the most expensive wire the closets.
Wire for the Future
Even if you have mostly entry-level beds now, you should still plan on having some higher performance beds in the future and wire your store accordingly. You’ll find that this will be a big money saver in the future. It’s easy to imagine that your customers are going to demand more powerful beds down the road. If your customers don’t persuade you, your competition will.
If you’re planning on upgrading ean existing salon, you must be aware of the amp draw that the new bed will have compared to the old bed, and whether the wiring and the breaker is equiped to handle a higher current pull. If you go from a bed that needed only 30 to 40 amps, to a bed that is going to pull 60 to 70 amps, chances are, unless you “over wired” to being with, your’re going to have to run new wire to that room and add a proportionately larger breaker.
Bucking the Limits
There’s trend in the industry that is quite common: the addition of a buck booster to increase the power output of a tanning bed. We don’t recommend anything that pulls more than 225 volts because of the excess heat on the equipment’s components. But if you do add a buck booster to your bed, you should be aware of the electrical requirements that come with it. You’ll always get a higher amp reading between the buck booster and the breaker panel than you will between the buck booster and the bed. You simply have to pull more current from the breaker panel to account for the energy the buck booster needs to increase the voltage at the bed.
Energize your Success
To understand the difference between volts and amps, you need to realize how electricity flows. It’s very similar to how water flows through a pipe. Volts are like the water pressure and amps are like flow rate. The electrical wire size is similar to the size of water pipe you will need. If you try to force too much water through a pipe that’s too small, the pressure can burst the pipe. By the same token, if you try to send too much current through a wire that’s too small, the wire will become overheated. You need to equip your salon correctly to get long-term safe performance from your beds. The more informed your are about the electrtical needs for all your beds, the better they will perform. And the more success you’ll realise for your salon. |
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