# My new home theater step 1: Dedicated Panel



## Talley (Dec 8, 2010)

Just finished up wiring up my dedicated AV panel.

10 circuits total. 9-20a and 1-15a. Every equipment will have a seperate dedicated circuit and I can add as necessary. My panel to outlet box which will house the outlets is 62' total in length. I ran some big cable and you can see the breakdown here:

#1- 20a - Krell amp - Fed with #4 awg feeder (1600w load at max... max voltage drop is 0.4% or 0.5V)
#2- 20a - Sub #1 - Fed with #6 awg feeder (~same load as amp possibly or less. Expecting less than 0.7V voltage drop)
#3- 20a - Sub #2 - Fed with #6 awg feeder (~same load as amp possibly or less. Expecting less than 0.7V voltage drop)
#4- 20a - Preamp/Processor - Fed with #6 awg (only around 400w load virtually tenths of a volt drop)
#5- 20a - Blue Ray Player - Fed with #10 awg
#6- 20a - Satellite box - Fed with #10 awg
#7- 20a - Spare
#8/9 - 20a - Projector - Fed with #12 (this will be setup for 220v to keep losses to a minimum)
#10 - 15a - Network Hub - Fed with #14 awg (just to tie in all the cat5 stuff as I only ran one cable back to my main switch)


If you notice the buss bar at the bottom I have all the grounding isolated and there is a #2 awg that ties down into it's own set of 3 ground rods driven 10' apart in a triangular format. I have bonded that triad ground to the house ground rod underneath with a #2 also. All the equipment will have isolated grounding.

I also used T&B Kopr-Shield on all connections which is a copper compound based anti oxidant for electrical joints.

Figured I'd share. I wanted the voltage to be as stable as possible. My next step will be to redo the feed to this sub panel and route the feed through an isolation transformer.


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

Did you do all of that yourself?

Are you an electrician by trade or did you use a contractor
to help you out?

I would love to do something like that for my room. I'm in
a 60+ home in Philadelphia and my wiring was done before
3 wire standard. I forget what it is called.


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## Talley (Dec 8, 2010)

mpompey said:


> Did you do all of that yourself?
> 
> Are you an electrician by trade or did you use a contractor
> to help you out?
> ...


in the 50s was alot of 2 wire and before that was knob and tube and the crazy thing is in those older 70yr old homes there is alot still being used.

Yes, I am an electrician by trade. Started right out of high school and now 32yrs old. 14yrs of experience. I actually got my Journeymans license at 22 and my Texas State Masters License at 25 so I've literally been a Master electrician for the past 7 years.

There is simply too much involved with electrical to know everything but I know alot about most of it. Residential/commercial/industrial. Been in a supervisor/management role for the past 7 years in the petrochemical industry but my previous experience was a residential/commercial service electrician where pulling cables in existing homes and such was my expertise.

I'll tell you one thing... I dont' work near as fast as I use to lol


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

Look I hear you. 

Late at night I think about pulling get the walls and ceilings down in this finished basement and redoing everything. It was a finished room before I bought the house. 

Then again I may just put up with its quirks and start over new in a new place. From the ground up.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Our house was built in the 60s, and some of the wiring is wrapped in a black cloth sheath (of some sort) with 2 wires only too.


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## Talley (Dec 8, 2010)

ellisr63 said:


> Our house was built in the 60s, and some of the wiring is wrapped in a black cloth sheath (of some sort) with 2 wires only too.


how does that work out with the AV gear... any issues with it.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Bmxer241 said:


> how does that work out with the AV gear... any issues with it.


We have sporatic lights flickering in the house (not in the HT). We have a dedicated circuit for the HT (3 wire), and we still had a ground loop problem. We installed cheater plugs and Ground lifting XLRs to remove the noise. Now the only noise we have in the HT is the projector or the HVAC (which you don't hear when you are watching anything. :T


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## Talley (Dec 8, 2010)

ellisr63 said:


> We have sporatic lights flickering in the house (not in the HT). We have a dedicated circuit for the HT (3 wire), and we still had a ground loop problem. We installed cheater plugs and Ground lifting XLRs to remove the noise. Now the only noise we have in the HT is the projector or the HVAC (which you don't hear when you are watching anything. :T


Good deal. Glad to hear.


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## Axiomite (Dec 18, 2013)

Seeing as you're a Master Electrician I don't mean to question your work. But having a dedicated 20A circuit for each piece of equipment seems beyond excessive compared to most electrical set ups found in home theaters. A separate 20A just for a Blu-ray player? I'm assuming the voltage drop is the crucial reasoning but could you please explain? Though my current setup is most likely insufficient, especially if I add any more subs or amps, I currently have everything on one 15A circuit and have only popped the breaker once with everything running at the same time with a space heater on also.


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## Talley (Dec 8, 2010)

Axiomite said:


> Seeing as you're a Master Electrician I don't mean to question your work. But having a dedicated 20A circuit for each piece of equipment seems beyond excessive compared to most electrical set ups found in home theaters. A separate 20A just for a Blu-ray player? I'm assuming the voltage drop is the crucial reasoning but could you please explain? Though my current setup is most likely insufficient, especially if I add any more subs or amps, I currently have everything on one 15A circuit and have only popped the breaker once with everything running at the same time with a space heater on also.


I have no issues answering questions and/or being judged on the installations seriously at all. YES... it is indeed excessive. Voltage drop was only a consideration for three items... amp, sub 1, sub 2. this is all. The rest was really easy....

I could!

Seriously for me I had all the breakers in surplus, the panel, all the wire too. My panel to outlet box was 62' away. and was a straight line through a covered patio attic so it only took me 4hrs to install all the wiring and another 4hrs to put the panel in and wire everything up. another 2hrs spent putting in my outlet box and wiring the circuits. For me the total cost involved was around 75 bucks for some misc parts which was mainly consumed by my isolated ground bar setup (3 ground rods just for the a/v panel).

One of the FIRST immediate things I noticed was alot less floor noise on the speakers when cranked up to 0db on the receiver and my ear to the speaker was alot less noise then hooked up to my main house wiring.


I still have some isolated transformers to install on the circuits as well. The issue with alot of the a/v gear is the isolation of the digital equipment to the analog (amp). This was the main reason for me to go seperates. Digital will add alot of high frequency noise to the circuit which can cause some DC induced issues that can be audible. alot of things like my 8 port network switch I'm using at the rack to tie everything to the network... it's DC powered (big box with plug prongs that goes into the outlet) which is a/c to dc meaning a switching supply. These generate noise onto the a/c circuit. 

By everything being on an isolated dedicated circuit and then having an isolation transformer on each one of these circuits you this eliminate common noise issues and any feedback from the other equipment.

I haven't done the isolation transformers yet but they will be coming. The main thing is I don't have to worry about power at all and...

...nothing is overkill when it comes to power AND/OR power quality. many companies makes millions of dollars that only work with power quality improvements. electrical noise is not clean power.


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Bmxer, it's really cool to see what a master electrician would do for his own system wiring. Thanks for posting the details and the photos for those of us who are still mystified by voltage.


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

Look, overkill or not you are ready for whatever you throw at it.

Electricity scares me to death. I feel like a neanderthal whenever
My electrician friend comes over to do any work.

"Ugh, Chaka scared of wire thingy! 

You go, fix thingy. 

Chaka give money and beer!"


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