Dedicated Electrical Circuits

I-SIG

As some of you are aware, I bought and moved into a house back in October. It wasn't new so I didn't have the chance to have some big circuits ran for some dedicated audio outlets. Luckily, I one spot left in my panel, I'm thinking of adding at least a single pole 40A breaker to feed a couple of 20A outlets and creating a small subpanel somewhere to split the 40A into (2)20A.

I know what it will take to get the wires ran and panel installed, however, I was hoping for some suggestions on materials that might be more audio friendly. I was also gonna oversize at least the main wire to maybe a 60A size in case I decide to add a 20A plug in my bedroom for a future bedroom rig.

Materials:

For outlets, I know I want at the least, the commercial/shop grade that are in the $4-5 apiece range. Any better suggestions or specific brands?

I'm thinking Milbanks for my little subpanel and breakers. I know their meterbases are very high quality. Anybody disagree?

For the biggie: Wire? I know (from work) that 100' of #6 ain't gonna be cheap, but I'm not looking for the type of wires used in some of those high-end power cords either. I'm all ears on this one.

Thanks,

Wes

BTW, I put in the 2-channel to get more action since this is for my 2-channel rig.

madmax

I've read some chatter somewhere about using or not using both polarities of the 240 volt line in the same system. I don't remember anything about it but maybe you might want to do a search.

I-SIG

madmax wrote:

I've read some chatter somewhere about using or not using both polarities of the 240 volt line in the same system. I don't remember anything about it but maybe you might want to do a search.

All I have is a single spot, so without replacing my entire panel, it has to be single-pole, 120VAC.

Wes

dkg999

Go to a real electrical supply store, ie one where contractors would shop! Look for the higher end switches, outlets, breakers, etc. used for wiring hospitals, labs, LAN's. The ones I used are a combination of high end Leviton and Hubbel. There are higher grades of service wire also used for these applications, some with RF shielding I believe. At my house on the farm, I installed a commercial grade power conditioner and surge suppressor that protects the circuits used for audio, video, and computers. My contractor found a slightly used on through one of his connections, and it ran about $600 installed if I remember right. The higher grade wiring cost me about 3x as much as the regular stuff, although not that huge of expense for just the needed circuits vs. doing the whole house.

unc2701

madmax wrote:

I've read some chatter somewhere about using or not using both polarities of the 240 volt line in the same system. I don't remember anything about it but maybe you might want to do a search.

Yeah, don't f---k up

I believe someone was doing double runs to an outlet and the runs were out of phase- big sparks and popped breakers. Might have been another forum, though.

Anyhow, I've had a lot of luck with leviton hospital grade outlets. Currently I'm using their surge suppressing 15 & 20 amp outlets and I'm very impressed with the build quality/ durability and it's good to know I've got that extra layer of supression on there. If you can't find them (try ebay) I might have a few left somewhere that I'll let go.

I-SIG

Thanks for the suggestions dkg & unc

Wes