Wire the House A/C or get Power Conditioner?


I was thinking of wiring the house for Hi-Fi. You know, 10guage wire, separate lines for digital and amps, 20 amp breakers etc.
One of my buds asked "Why not just get a power conditioner?"
So I would like to know if a conditioner will do the same thing as new wiring?
Thanks, Scott.
abbeydog

Showing 4 responses by saki70

Wire off of the truck is fine . Just make sure that it is copper , not aluminum .

Your electrician will be happier with 12g. wire than 10g. when it comes time to make the connections at the recepticles !

Another consideration , that I like , is to have the new circuits installed with an 'isolated ground'. This will make sure that you do not get any noise/interference from anything else in your house . This is how hospitals and computer rooms do their sensitive stuff . While it is not difficult it is different and will probably require the services of a commercial electrician rather that a residential one . Just google isolated ground systems and get a rudimentry knowledge of it so that you know what you are getting . As I said , it is not difficult .

This way should be cheaper and longer lasting than a conditioner . As above , you can go to any extreme that your wallet will allow !

Good luck.
Rushton;
Interesting view on isolated grounds . Your method may be less involved .

How would you address the noise/interference issue , transmitted through the lines , from things like digital equipment , electric motors and flourecent lighting ?
I don't understand how you are 'isolating' the dedicated lines from the rest of the household system if you are connecting everything to the same ground .

Oh , and a happy electrcian often does better & 'more' work than an aggravated one ! And may charge less !

However , I will admit to running my lines with 10g. wire , which did receive a comment !
But I also fished all of that wire from the panel to the box's and pounded the ground rod , in the middle of a Florida summer !

No flames , just knowledge .
Rushton ;
I am not trying to argue with you . You seem knowledgable . I am just trying to learn and maybe help others too .
Does that explanation also apply when you connect the isolated circuit grounds to a seperate grounding bar inside of the panel ?
This grounding bar is mounted using rubber insulater pads and connected to a seperate ground wire that goes to a seperate ground rod installed 6 ft. away from the original rod .
It has been a while so I may be reaching now , but I seem to remeber that the recepticles are also different for an isolated ground system . Mine are red , which I believe denotes hospital grade , and have a green dot and an upside down black triangle on them .
This is the procedure that I found when I googled 'Isolated ground' and it is the way that my two circuits are installed .
As I stated before , when I called an electrician company , they sent out a residentual electrician who stated that he knew what I was talking about . When I gave him the parts that I had purchased , it was clear that he did not , and he called a coworker who did commercial installations . It was that coworker who came out and did the installation at my house .
Are you saying that creating a 'new' common point inside the panel is incorrect according to code ? Or is that 'common point', that you mentioned , something different than the additional grounding bar that is installed inside the panel ?

Oh , and the triangles mentioned above would be pointing 'up' if the recepticles were installed in the other direction ! DUH !
And I believe that the green dot refers to hospital grade and the red recepticle refers to emergency power .