More Questions about Dedicated Circuits

Rick, sounds like you need a new electrician. There is no problem with putting the circuits on one side. There is a "hot" bar your breakers attach to, a set of terminals for the neutral wires, and a set of terminals for the ground wires. The electricity doesn't care what bar you use for your breakers. There are books you can get at any hardware store to learn up on this basic stuff, if you need it.
Good luck.
Al

Hi,

Having been an Electrician my whole life and an audiophile at least half of that I would have to agree with your Electrician. Putting everything on one leg throws off the balancing of your panel and taxes the nuetral conductor big time.

It always amazes me when people at this web-site give advise on subjects they no nothing about. Man I've heard some doozies here when it comes to electrical installations.

Some how I just don't think it's worth my house burning down.

And for god sakes leave the ground in tact.

Check my teck talk threads for the right way to do dedicated lines. Sean is another good poster on this subject.

Beware of the shade tree electrician!

PS - This subject has been covered time and time again so don't be afraid to research it in the audiogon archives

Rick:
I would suggest that you listen VERY carefully to Glen. In my experience in talking with him, he knows exactly what he is talking about.

Amen! Couldn't have said it better. Of course, the real question is: Why do people look for answers here from people (mostly) lacking in credentials and/or credibility, and then take their word as gospel?

Glenn,
Well said. A well qualified licensed electrician is the ONLY one you should be listening to. If he or she is doing their job, your installation will be according to NEC and your local municipality code.

I agree with all of you that I should listen to Glen AND my electrician. Enough said about that, we go with splitting the circuits in the box.

Thanks for your help!

Rick

Wow, no one dissed me, I'm the man!

Just for the record I'll say it one more time. Always run a dedicated neutral with every hot. And try to run an isolated ground too with IG recptacles. That's what I use in my house, I personally run a 20 amp circuit to each piece of gear, subs and one to my plasma all from a dedicated sub-panel. Is it over kill absolutly, do I care absolutly not :^)

I wish I had the time to explain why this works so good when installed correctly but it's just to boring to talk technical (at least for me) so instead I say trust me.

You have to make sure you clean up all your electrical issues around your house too.

I'll never understand people wineing about noise or dimmers or ballasts. I use lot's of track lights in my house and practically every switch is a dimmer. I have ceiling fans in every room, AC, All the taboo stuff, but none of it ever effects the sound comming from my gear, except maybe the occasional power dip in the grid which makes my subs hum like there's no tomorrow :^( But aside from that the AC is always very clean, crisp and quite. and no I don't run any surge protection or line gear. Strictly house AC that's it.

Thanks guys I guess I really is an ELECTRICIANO!

And I can only hope that's a good thing, I think I'll forward this thread to my boss :^)

>>Putting everything on one leg throws off the balancing of your panel and taxes the neutral conductor big time.<<
Correct, and a NEC violation on top of it. Though I'd submit that it actually taxes the particular phase leg in question, with the resultant voltage sags as a problem.

>>It always amazes me when people at this web-site give advise on subjects they no nothing about. Man I've heard some doozies here when it comes to electrical installations.<<
Amen, a hundred times over... Isolated ground rods, cheater plugs, non-listed AC filtering devices, on and on. I'd rather ask how to cut my own hair here, than wire up "dedicated circuits."

When I added the three 20As dedicated for my HT system over 5 years ago, I WANTED the amplifier circuits on one side and the “TV, pre/pro, CD, etc” circuit (fed/filtered by power conditioner) on the other. 
 

Later, I had friend & “family*” member w/20 years electrical experience look over my work in a storage building AND the same panel. He wholeheartedly blessed my work

Why can't your electrician just relocate some of the existing breakers to balance the load?

ozzy

If after 18 years the OP is still waiting for his electrician to return he best find another to do the job!

yogiboy,

Your right! I didn’t catch that! I hope he isn't charging by the hour!

ozzy