# Lights dim with buttkicker



## Scuba Diver (Sep 28, 2007)

I finally purchased some buttkickers to give them a shot. I love it. Except it draws so much power my light dim when heavy bass hits. This will not work as it will mess with my projector. Is this normal? 
Is there something that can be done to correct this from happening?


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

The lights are dimming because you are drawing to much power from the circuit that your Buttkickers and equipment is connected to. Connecting the Buttkickers to a different circuit will fix the problem.


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## Scuba Diver (Sep 28, 2007)

The entire room is on the same circuit. I was hoping there might be an easy fix without running new wire to this room. 

I have 100 feet or power cable in the garage. I will just run a seperate line to the buttkicker if I need to.


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

You could get an A/C regenerator or other power conditioner that prevents sags. It would be cheaper to get an electrician in and install another circuit though. There would be only about $60 in parts and would take him/her under an hour to do (depending on location of your HT).


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## ACGREEN (Feb 23, 2007)

MatrixDweller said:


> You could get an A/C regenerator or other power conditioner that prevents sags. It would be cheaper to get an electrician in and install another circuit though. There would be only about $60 in parts and would take him/her under an hour to do (depending on location of your HT).


Ditto


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## Guest (Dec 11, 2007)

If you are pulling that many amps that you dim the lights, my question is why did not your breaker trip? This is just a guess but you might want to have an electrician check your ground for your power distribution center. This is probably not what it is but some of the older grounding systems on occasion needs to be checked. If you have a good electrican there to put in a new circuit have him check you ground.


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

The breaker would trip if the total amps pulled exceeded the breakers limit. Why the lights dim is because the current going to the incandescent light drops because it is in parallel with the buttkicker and everything else in the room. Lights will do that with current surges going to another item in the circuit. All devices on that circuit would suffer too but it's most apparent with incandecent lights. Receivers, projectors, computers, etc have A/C to DC power supplies and/or filters that offer a little bit of buffering so it's not as apparent with them. 

I would bet that it is very close to tripping the breaker however. Is it a 15 or 20 amp circuit? You should run a dedicated 20 amp circuit to your AV equipment and run your amps off of that. The only other option is to remove items from the circuit.

BTW: Grounding has nothing to do with circuit breakers or fuses. Only GFI's deal with ground. Circuit breakers trip when the amperage running through the breaker exceeds a certain amount only. Breakers also take time to trip. A slight increase may take 30 seconds or more to trip the breaker where as a large increase will trip the breaker very quickly.


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## Scuba Diver (Sep 28, 2007)

I have wired this to a separate breaker and solved the problem. I used a voltage meter and it was showing a large drop in the voltage at the original outlet when the amp was pulling power. 

Now there is no drop at all. I will be investigating this more later. For now I my system is wired to its own breaker.


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## Danny (May 3, 2006)

Question why are the sub and lights on the same circuit? Generally wiring is done so that the lights and power circuits are run seperately back to the switchboard. What size cable are you using? and how much current draw.


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

Danny said:


> Question why are the sub and lights on the same circuit? Generally wiring is done so that the lights and power circuits are run seperately back to the switchboard. What size cable are you using? and how much current draw.


Maybe in an ideal world they are. You'll find most homes will have whole rooms, lights and outlets, wired together. The heavy current drawing devices like the washing machine, air conditioner, stove and dryer will be on their own circuits and maybe if you're lucky the fridge will be too. Any GFCI will be separate too.

If anyone is designing a home theater from scratch. I would heed Danny's point. Run the lights on a separate circuit. Take it one further and run a separate circuit for your projector and one or more for your equipment. The small price you pay initially will be worth it.


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## Danny (May 3, 2006)

wow really.

In Australia it's a legal requirement to put lights and power on different circuits


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## Guest (Dec 16, 2007)

Danny said:


> wow really.
> 
> In Australia it's a legal requirement to put lights and power on different circuits


mmmm same in the uk as well


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

I'm in Canada. My house is about 5 years old and rooms and even multiple rooms are entirely on one circuit. It takes less wire, less work for the electrician and reduces the size of the panel needed. Since it's cheaper most builders will choose that method unless you specifically ask (and pay) for it.

Maybe there are other things that come into play when you're dealing with 230/240V in the UK and Australia. It is smart electrical common sense from a comfort level to do it that way and why Canada and the US have not adopted yet is above me.


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