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Dedicated Circuits - Subpanel importance?

My system is no more. Sold everything. Starting from scratch. Thanks to you and seven months of experience I am doing the following, which is taking care of the number one component, the room:

  1. Treating. The full GIK order in October is starting to arrive.
  2. Running one or more dedicated circuits.

I am addressing #2 in this post. There are extensive discussions here and one can spend hours if not days trying to wring-out the critical details needed for a DIY solution. I have spent hours and there a few things I need to confirm before I proceed because I was unable to find definitive answers.

I am doing this myself. I do not want or need lectures on only having a licensed electrician do this work. I have been doing my own electrical work for many years and am very comfortable doing so.

  1. Does a subpanel help? Is it required? Subpanels are typically supplied from a breaker off of the main panel's bus, so I'm guessing there is no advantage in terms of SQ? Perhaps if I can independently ground the subpanel it might make a difference?
  2. Opening up my walls is not an option, so I need to use conduit. This may restrict the number of lines if the wire should not share the same conduit? If I am restricted to Romex 8 or 10,2 versus metal-clad, is it okay for two runs to occupy the same conduit?
  3. How much better is metal-clad? Is it required vs Romex? Will metal conduit accomplish the same result with Romex?

Answers to these questions will complete my plans and I will go forward at speed. Hopefully this discussion helps others as well even if it's to know what to have their electrician setup for them.

Thank you!

 

 

 

 

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Showing 1 response by retiredfarmer

retiredfarmer's avatar
retiredfarmer
339 posts
 

My thoughts.

 

First off if you are going to run more than on dedicated circuit make sure they are both on the same side of the 220. Of not it sounds bad. I have seven dedicated circuits in my main listening room. The other things I did was they are all 20. Amp circuit s. I also made sure that every wire was the exact same length. They all have furutech top of the line plugs on them started with industrial grade 20 amp plugs and there was a huge huge difference going to the badboy furutech plugs. At three hundred Canadian a piece it was one of the best HiFi spending I ever did. I also braided the powerline s around eachother to cancel out Rd and EMI. I had open walls so everything was buries in the wall. After that was in placee 5/8 OSB then a layer of 5/8 fire rated drywall much more dense than regular 1/2 in fact it wieghs over twice as much. 

 I should have double layered that but didn't. I stall have very strong and stuff walls. I have the studs and the ceiling all stuff with Rockwood insulation. The back wall is canted one inch in seven and a half feet. And the corners are cut off at and able at the back wall as well. Had the ceiling sprayed with acoustic popcorn ceiling. The wall diffusion and some suction in a very few places. Enjoy and remember when you build something you have to be prepared to realize you made a mistake and start over. You can groove wide thick baseboard to hide wires behind to move power around the room. Also make sure if you run wires down a conduit that the twist around each other some long runs that are parallel are bad. 

 

Regards Tom

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