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Building an audio room - 12x22 - electrical plan?

I am at the pount of adding a new room which will be my audio room. It will be 12x22 feet with the audio on the short wall. While I would like to Go wider than this I do have size limits that I have to adhere to. The contractors will be adding electric to the room and I have not yet decided what to request. Based off of what I have read I am assuming that 2 20 amp circuits are the way to go. Any other recommendations? I am looking to add things now that will be easier done during construction then down the road.

I will also be adding a layer of Homasote sound barrier to the sheetrock to keep me toe tapping to myself. The floor will be carpet. Any other items to consider up front?
128x128michaelkingdom
rtilden
156 posts
 
Michael:
The advice above is good. They are talking about (4) duplex receptacles, with each duplex on its own dedicated circuit. Amps on 20A with #10 is good advice and only a modest upcharge from USA code minimum of #12. Lighting is a separate (5th) ckt. Yes, your electrician will think you are wacky. Good luck.
pbnaudio's avatar
pbnaudio
1,610 posts
 
I did run 2 ea 220 Volt lines into my room (1 on the amp wall and one on the front end wall) in addition to the 6 ea 120V lines so that I can run 220V equipment when needed. I was however made aware of, here on this forum, that it is not up to code to do so in a residential setting so your electrician may not want to do it for you.

Best of luck

Peter
s7horton
1,077 posts
 
It's not code to run 220 power in a residential setting? I'm curious where you got your information. Electric dryers, water heaters, and ranges all run on 220 power. There is no code that says you can't have 220 power in your house. Or even three phase for that matter.

I don't know any stereo gear that runs on 220v, however.
pmotz
409 posts
 
Running 220/240 single phase into a dwelling is not an issue, but there are probably restrictions on the type of room, e.g. a bedroom, you can run it to. This should be checked with the local building inspector. I concur with S7horton about the availability of 220 VAC 60 Hz equipment, very few if any. My only recollection of a 220 VAC unit was a Very high current amp a few years back in a show report. An important comment on European equipment, it is designed for 50 Hz and won't work on our 220 (60 Hz). You would need a transformer or power regenerator to use it.
pbnaudio's avatar
pbnaudio
1,610 posts
 
Here

Above link to an earlier discussion about this subject JEA48 gives excellent advise on the code issue of 220V outlets in a residential setting.

As far as running stereo equipment on 220V / 60Hz it is actually easier for a transformer to run on 60 Hz than on 50hz and most of the equipment will happily run on 60Hz. In most equipment the AC signal is rectified as soon as it enters the machine at which point the AC line frequency is irrelevant. If the transformer have multi winding primaries its only a matter of running these in parallel for 117V operation and series for 234V operation.

Some of the larger companies that wish to control where their equipment ends up do build some frequency monitoring devices into their stuff to prevent its use in other markets than originally sold. However without these the equipment would happily work on either 50 or 60 hz.

Good Listening

Peter
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