Electrical 20 amp outlet questions....

disneyjoe7 · January 2012

pitdogg2 wrote: »

DJ7,
If you're asking which would be a better route, the direct path will be best. main panel 20amp breaker to the outlet.
When i rewired my house i made sure my audio gear was the very first breakers in the box. My thinking was that it would be less contamination from any large appliances. Both my HT gear and my 2ch gear got their very own breaker with nothing else on that circuit.

I can agree with this also. But what I'm losing if done be sub #1 90% or so?

disneyjoe7 · January 2012

Any input on this " But what I'm losing if done be sub #1 90% or so?" But should read 10% loss not 90% loss?

The whole thing its like a $2400 difference of sub #1 vs. redo main panel and all. I'm having trouble thinking I could get $2400 dollar upgrade. In the end its a dedicated outlet, either one way or the other way.

gdb · January 2012

Your first problem is goofy substandard Square D Homeline panels & breakers (never heard of a "quad breaker until you posted about them) A standard "QO" panel could be installed by just throwing a breaker in your panel with the two mains and with the QO type you can arrange the breakers in any order you want, except when tapping both legs for 230V. four hours should be more than enough time to accomplish the "simple" changeover. Or not....YMMV PS: the QO type tandem/piggyback breakers only occupy 1 skinny space in a panel. A 12 space panel can accomodate up to 24 120v circuits. I don't know if Fla. has anything "oddball" in their elec. codes, Montgomery County, MD will make an electrican "Go Postal" in a hurry with all their BS. PPS: I prefer Cutler Hammer products by far over Square D nowadays. Happy wiring !

disneyjoe7 · January 2012

Well the house is built around 1996, and many houses around here are built by the same builder. I can't see why I should fix there crap, it works its not the best to update this but it works.

Tour2ma · January 2012

^ So you're saying the existing is the original configuration?

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Any input on this " But what I'm losing if done be sub #1 90% or so?" But should read 10% loss not 90% loss?

If you're asking about an incremental increase in your rig's sound quality, I doubt you're looking at anything close to a "10% improvement". Even if you had a very noisy motor or multiple fluorescent lights on your existing 15A circuit, I'd doubt it. But that's me...

Besides... I don't think you have anything significant on the circuit other than your rig, because there's so little capacity leftover given your amps' current draw potential and your reporting that tripping breakers isn't an issue.

I do want to mention again that if you add dedicated circuits, I only see a need for two, not three.

Have you considered simply upgrading your outlets on the existing circuit? A lot of folks swear by "Hospital grade" outlets. Also not too long ago I stumbled across an old DarqueKnight thread on some in-wall, power conditioning outlets he liked. If I have the link somewhere, I'll post it for you...

gdb wrote: »

... (never heard of a "quad breaker until you posted about them)...

Ditto...

disneyjoe7 · January 2012

Bruce,

I'm asking if this new circuit if wired to a close main breaker, and it not no a sub panel. If this it a 100% rating, what would I loss doing the way which is powered by the sub panel? Do I loss 10%?

Today Michelle and I was looking at new houses. We wanted to see what any new house have, since I started making windows and door cornices. The first house we seen had some cornices on the patio door, but almost throw up because this house is over $1M+ to $1.2M eek. So we drove around looking at other houses found a David Weekley demo house, nice since I live in a David Weekley house its nice to see what he doing today.... In the garage 2 sub panels, larger maybe a 40 space panel each, with a 300amp service panel outside. He stated nothing is wired there, but maybe the sprinkler controller is. Maybe David Weekley as learned a few things over the years, still using sub panels. Didn't see any quads or doubles in those panels, but being that size I wouldn't think it have those. That house a bit bigger then mine 3200sq ft vs 2300sq ft.

disneyjoe7 · January 2012

gdb wrote: »

never heard of a "quad breaker until you posted about them

Me too at one time.....

Here's the story about them being used. When I had the pool built 7yrs ago, while being built I ask about power for the pool sub electrical controller panel. They said oh not a problem we wire it too the main panel. I said ok, but knew it was maxed out. The day came where the electrical sub contractor stopped work and returned 2 days later with a Quad breaker. It replaced 2 15amp breakers so it became a 15/30/30/15 quad, the 30 amp 240vac feeding pool sub panel. Before that I never seen one either.

Electrical 20 amp outlet questions....

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