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Showerthought: found out a basic panel pulls less than 1 amp on standby, and I had no idea
I was reading the spec sheet on a standard 12-zone panel last week while waiting on a client call, and the standby draw was listed at 0.8 amps on a 12V system. I always just figured these boards sipped a little trickle and never thought twice about it, but seeing the number written out made me stop. I've wired up probably 40 of these things in the last year and always sized the backup battery on gut feel and the chart in the manual. Turns out my gut was close, but a couple of jobs in the spring I went bigger on the battery than I needed because I guessed wrong. Cost the homeowner an extra $30 or so each time and I never said anything, just ate the difference in my head. Now I want to actually clock a few of these on the bench with a meter instead of trusting the sheet. Has anyone here put a real load test on their standby draw, and did it match what the manufacturer says?
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