Instructions to electrician about dedicated line


I just bought a Krell KAV-3250 and also am building a new house. What kind of specific instructions should I give to the electrician when he installs the 15 amp dedicated line. Krell recommends a 15 Amp line for the KAV-3250 amp. Is that all I need or should I ask for a 20 Amp line? Could I also hook up the receiver to this line?
Thanks
toubib46

Showing 2 responses by ozfly

I'd go ahead and request three dedicated lines: Power amp, digital equipment and other (this assumes a cost of about $50-$75 per dedicated line). If you want a bit of insurance, you may wish to consider two to three more: Future second mono amp, TV / video (if that is in the same area) and analog if you are considering going there in the future. Unless there is an issue with the total fuse box capacity, the 20 amp circuit provides more future upgrade potential.

I am also building a house and have five dedicated lines at 20 amps each: Power amp about 5 ft left of center, power amp about 5 ft right of center and three circuits in the middle. I chose to go with 10 guage twisted solid wire (Southern Wire Co available at Lowes or Home Depot). I've left additional length (i.e., there is about 10 additional feet of wire between the outlets and fuse box) in the event I choose to go with a star grounding scheme later and add another ground rod. I'd love to go with ceramic fuses but am running into some code issues around that.

Search some prior posts -- there are a ton of them on the topic and there's lots of great advice. Look up "dedicated line". Good luck. Don't forget the outlets -- lots of good choices here too.
Chazzbo, the current draw on a 20 amp line is a maximum of 20 amps (then the fuse blows). The actual current draw depends on the equipment being hooked up to it and will generally be much less than 20 amps in any typical home system. You are, I believe, correct in stating that the PS Audio 600 is not designed to handle the maximum amperage a 20 amp line can deliver (it translates to about 2200 watts). But it also won't be able to handel all the amperage a 15 amp line can deliver (about 1650 watts). That's OK so long as the equipment being hooked up toe the PS Audio 600 does not demand more than the 600 can deliver (BTW, you can still use the other outlet on a duplex plug for other things). Why get 20 amps? In my mind, for future upgrades only -- and probably for big power amps only. Sean makes a good point about mixing and matching on a dedicated subpanel.