Does your house wiring supply enough power for your audio system?

[Rick Sykora]

The short answer here for most people is yes.

Am creating this thread as a home to consolidate relevant content scattered across other threads.

Thank you to @AdamG247 for helping with some of the consolidation!

Not every post gets moved, so will have to provide links instead.

See these:

Buckeye NC502MP 8-Ch Amplifier Teardown

As has been touched on (and just a quick summary): The IEC C13 inlet I use is rated up to 15A @ 250VAC (based on UL and CSA certification), but for European certification (VDE), it is listed as 10A. Welcome to the world of different standards/rating requirements. Regarding usage: these IEC...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Sokel]

As insurance guys say to each other looking at a burned wall of a house "two inlets-ten devices,start smiling".
Yep,the good,old paranoid me,but one of those is close to me and you can not imagine how happy they are when they don't have to pay with technicalities like this.
Make sure you declare situations like this,built your houses accordingly,peace of mind is the corner stone of fun.

 

[Laniciffo]

Nah. The electric code and therefore the house wiring are designed with all these taken into consideration.

There surely isn't reason to worry if the application is only audio in a typical size room, with normally efficient speakers, etc...

But let me troll again about the electrical risks and *your* responsibilities, to make you realize that the electric code mainly protects the electrician who wired your house, not you.

Even if the electrician perfectly followed the rules, and the breaker and sockets are new and in-spec, you may still ignit a fire if you overload one socket.

The breaker is sized to protect the in-wall wires, not the individual wall sockets, because it is not practical to have one circuit and one breaker per socket.
The breaker rating is generally directly derived from the gauge of the wires of the circuit. In France, 2.5mm2 requires 20 amps max breaker. You may use lower ratings if you want.

But 20 amps continuously is 2 times what the typical wall socket is specified for.
With that load current the breaker will not trigger and the in-wall wires will not burn. That's what the electric code and the electrician guarantee.
The wall socket and your electric strip will however certainly over heat if used like that, and may eventually burn your house.
But that's your fault, not the electrician's.
You can not sue him. He's protected by the code he respected, but the code did not protect you and your house.

It is your responsibility to use safely and in-spec what the electrician installed.

To reduce a bit the risks, especially if it's hard to predict the power consumption, you could use a power strip (just one per wall socket !) with its own thermal breaker. This breaker is sized to protect the strip, its cable and the wall socket. There are many available. They generally have a 'reset' push button to re-enable the strip after everything cooled down.
Or spread the load over multiple wall sockets, even if they are on the same breaker and circuit.

The surprising config of the amp with 2 mains leads reviewed in this article is actually wise, but should come with clear explanations.

I insist because while I thought I was well educated on those topics, I did overload one circuit that nearly caught fire.

 

[EJ3]

There surely isn't reason to worry if the application is only audio in a typical size room, with normally efficient speakers, etc...

But let me troll again about the electrical risks and *your* responsibilities, to make you realize that the electric code mainly protects the electrician who wired your house, not you.

Even if the electrician perfectly followed the rules, and the breaker and sockets are new and in-spec, you may still ignit a fire if you overload one socket.

The breaker is sized to protect the in-wall wires, not the individual wall sockets, because it is not practical to have one circuit and one breaker per socket.
The breaker rating is generally directly derived from the gauge of the wires of the circuit. In France, 2.5mm2 requires 20 amps max breaker. You may use lower ratings if you want.

But 20 amps continuously is 2 times what the typical wall socket is specified for.
With that load current the breaker will not trigger and the in-wall wires will not burn. That's what the electric code and the electrician guarantee.
The wall socket and your electric strip will however certainly over heat if used like that, and may eventually burn your house.
But that's your fault, not the electrician's.
You can not sue him. He's protected by the code he respected, but the code did not protect you and your house.

It is your responsibility to use safely and in-spec what the electrician installed.

To reduce a bit the risks, especially if it's hard to predict the power consumption, you could use a power strip (just one per wall socket !) with its own thermal breaker. This breaker is sized to protect the strip, its cable and the wall socket. There are many available. They generally have a 'reset' push button to re-enable the strip after everything cooled down.
Or spread the load over multiple wall sockets, even if they are on the same breaker and circuit.

The surprising config of the amp with 2 mains leads reviewed in this article is actually wise, but should come with clear explanations.

I insist because while I thought I was well educated on those topics, I did overload one circuit that nearly caught fire.

True But GFCI breakers are designed to protect you. In my 1968 home the original electrical system (120 Volt) has all 20 AMP breakers and 20 AMP outlets. And in the living room (for some unknown reason) there are 2 20 AMP outlets, each on it's own dedicated 20 AMP breaker. The whole house only had a 100 AMP service, which I revised to 160 AMP service.
Therefore, I am set for my system. In something else strange: every light in the house was run to one breaker. That was fixed when replacing the service panel.

 

[Laniciffo]

True But GFCI breakers are designed to protect you

Very interesting !
I did not even know GFCI outlets existed.
I never saw any in France as we only have rcd in the service panel.

I just downloaded a General Electric brochure titled 'Installing and Testing a GFCI Receptacle'

And it explicitly states :
'A GFCI receptacle does NOT protect
against circuit overloads, short circuits
or shocks.'

Therefore the over current problem persists, and you still have the responsibility to load each outlet reasonably.

 

[EJ3]

I just downloaded a General Electric brochure titled 'Installing and Testing a GFCI Receptacle'

And it explicitly states :
'A GFCI receptacle does NOT protect
against circuit overloads, short circuits
or shocks.'

Therefore the over current problem persists, and you still have the responsibility to load each outlet reasonably.

Which is why I am happy to have all the outlets and all the breakers as 125 V 20 amp service, as well as 20 amp CGFI's at the kitchen sink, kitchen counter tops, bathrooms and the laundry room.

 

[Hov]

I remember running a beefy extension cord from the kitchen to the living room at a friend's place because the only outlet near his home theater area was on the same line as his office and bedroom. When the home theater was going and enough usage was happening at the same time in the other rooms, he would run into some issues. The extension cord was a temporary solution until he added a dedicated (15A) line for the home theater, no problems since and the power capability far exceeded what a 15A continuously puts out.

I suppose some setups can suffer sometimes but it's fairly straightforward and usually not a big concern. Especially with the efficiency of today's Class D amps, it's even less of a concern.

 

[Sal1950]

I suppose some setups can suffer sometimes but it's fairly straightforward and usually not a big concern. Especially with the efficiency of today's Class D amps, it's even less of a concern.

I've avoided such issues by having two independent 20amp lines feeding the wall my rig draws from.
I've got my Denon X4700H running purely as a pre/pro, the 5 Adcom amps, the 2 SVS 2000 subs and the 75" Sony TV, divided evenly between the 2 circuits. The music/video server PC and it's peripherals draw from another independent 15amp line in a different service box. When my AC unit kicks on the house lights, etc dim momentarily but the HiFi's
lines never even know it's happenin. LOL

 

[EJ3]

I've avoided such issues by having two independent 20amp lines feeding the wall my rig draws from.
I've got my Denon X4700H running purely as a pre/pro, the 5 Adcom amps, the 2 SVS 2000 subs and the 75" Sony TV, divided evenly between the 2 circuits. The music/video server PC and it's peripherals draw from another independent 15amp line in a different service box. When my AC unit kicks on the house lights, etc dim momentarily but the HiFi's
lines never even know it's happenin. LOL

My whole house has 20 AMP lines (someone decided that in 1968). And there are 2 independent 20 AMP circuits in the living room just perfect for my stereo system. (I do wonder what they were doing in here back in 68, though). The office (That's what I call it) with my PC, ETC also has to 20 AMP circuits. (I wonder, wonder, what the hell they were doing back then?) Anyways, it works great.

 

[Spkrdctr]

My whole house has 20 AMP lines (someone decided that in 1968). And there are 2 independent 20 AMP circuits in the living room just perfect for my stereo system. (I do wonder what they were doing in here back in 68, though). The office (That's what I call it) with my PC, ETC also has to 20 AMP circuits. (I wonder, wonder, what the hell they were doing back then?) Anyways, it works great.

Probably grow lights.

 

[EJ3]

Probably grow lights.

Every outlet in the house a 20 AMP outlet? And only 100 amp service. They must have liked moving things from one room to another for variety, then.

 

[Sal1950]

Every outlet in the house a 20 AMP outlet? And only 100 amp service. The must have liked moving thigs from one room to another for variety, then.

You should have seen the panel and added breakout panels at my home in Chicago where I ran my business and a full machine shop out of my basement.

 

[EJ3]

You should have seen the panel and added breakout panels at my home in Chicago where I ran my business and a full machine shop out of my basement.

I changed this one to a 160 amp panel and split some circuits up when I installed all new breakers. As you did, I am sure, there will be sub panels as I get things like a 120 Sq Ft. shed (the maximum allowed by the City of Charleston), maybe I'll end up with more than one. I am not at all used to being restriced in size whith what I have in my backyard, as I am used to living in unincorporated areas (Or just places where they did not care, as long as it wasn't visible from the street going by the front of your house).

 

[Rick Sykora]

This post bookmarks content created from other threads from content after this thread was created.

 

[jhenderson0107]

I added two 30A services for my home theater. Prior, attempts to brew coffee at the bar would occasionally trip the breaker and power down the theater rack.

 

[anotherhobby]

In my living room I have 2 JL Audio e112's (each amp is 1500w @ 2ohm), so I ran a 20amp circuit dedicated for them. Compression testing in REW showed no problems with both running at full output, and I've never popped the breaker. It also keeps the lights from dimming when the bass hits hard. Before the dedicated circuit, the lights would dim quite a bit with big bass hits.

My office has two Crown XLS1500's driving 4 ohm loads, so 1050w each. Those run on a single 15a circute that is for my entire office, not specifically dedicated. Again, no problems at all with output according to REW, but the lights do dim a bit when the bass hits at high levels. No other performance issues though, and I've never popped a breaker.

 

[Grotti]

In my living room I have 2 JL Audio e112's (each amp is 1500w @ 2ohm), so I ran a 20amp circuit dedicated for them. Compression testing in REW showed no problems with both running at full output, and I've never popped the breaker. It also keeps the lights from dimming when the bass hits hard. Before the dedicated circuit, the lights would dim quite a bit with big bass hits.

My office has two Crown XLS1500's driving 4 ohm loads, so 1050w each. Those run on a single 15a circute that is for my entire office, not specifically dedicated. Again, no problems at all with output according to REW, but the lights do dim a bit when the bass hits at high levels. No other performance issues though, and I've never popped a breaker.

Jesus, at what volume do you listen to music or movies??? In most Western European living rooms it should be about 1-5 Watts simply to avoid your neighbors breaking your front door ;o)

 

[pjn]

The short answer here for most people is yes.

Am creating this thread as a home to consolidate relevant content scattered across other threads.

Timely thread! I've been wondering the exact same thing - typically I seem to draw about 0.15 kW (so ~1.4A) - a Denon AVR (4700), 2 subs, sometimes a TV.

 

[Spocko]

I added two 30A services for my home theater. Prior, attempts to brew coffee at the bar would occasionally trip the breaker and power down the theater rack.

Me too (2x 20A). Reviewing 6 TVs all running at the same time with a dual 18" subwoofer in a 9.2.6 system can be stressful without a dedicated circuit (or two). My studio and editing room is also on this circuit, I need everything separate and apart from the rest of the house! This is not so much because my system is pulling so much power but rather I don't want somebody plugging in a hair dryer and curler or turning on the microwave at the wrong time.

 

[Matias]

I use 220V for my amps and 110V for the rest, so it's fine here. Double the voltage = half the current = wiring happy.