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Dedicated Lines - Sub panel or no?

Hi folks,

In a few months time I will be moving to a new home, where a spare bedroom and an understanding wife will enable me to enjoy the luxury of a dedicated listening room.

The first thing that comes to mind is installing 4 dedicated 20A lines. The breaker panel is on the ground floor, the room is on the 3rd.

I'm wondering which is better:

-to run all four lines from the breaker box all the way to the wall outlets,

-or install a sub-panel (is that the right term?) in the room, and use a single, very heavy guage line from the breaker box to the subpanel, then run 4 short lengths of 10 or 12 gauge from the subpanel to the outlets.

Thanks in advance for your advice

Kind Regards
Mick
128x128mickey_sg
ngjockey
1,042 posts
 
Hevac1: Did the xformer make a lot of noise and heat?

When I moved, I had mine hooked up to 120V just as I had before but it made noise and heat. It was getting saturated. Rewired for 240V and it's dead quiet and only slightly warm, like before the move. Efficiency is over 95%. Transformers can be picky.
ngjockey
1,042 posts
 
The only group 4 (50Hz) Sola HD on EBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/EGS-Sola-Constant-Voltage-Power-Conditioner-63-23-775-8_W0QQitemZ400038861928QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH

Way over your needs, even if you went to balanced AC output. 480 lbs!
zargon's avatar
zargon
453 posts
 
Hevac1,

A transformer with no load on the secondary consumes very little current. Five amps at 120 volts is 600 watts and that is way too much for any normal and proper installation. There must have been something else going on.
hevac1
812 posts
 
I was using a 208 to 120 center tap stepdown transformer. 60Vac to ground both legs for balanced power.
I call the manufacturer and they said just to charge the coils is 4-5 amps on a 5 KVA trans.
ngjockey
1,042 posts
 
Hevac1,

Similar to mine, except I have a 5KVA 480/240-240/120. Wired 240V to 480V input and X1, X4 is +/- 60V with X2/X3 connected ("optionally" to neutral).

Just tested with analog clamp-on and I got 3.5A (average)per 240V leg and 7.5A on the outlets (93%). Unloaded, it was 1.5A on the 240V side, which was higher than I expected. Analog meter is not precise.

Wiring 120V to the 240V inputs proved inconsistent. We are going beyond the design and rating but it seems to help to stay as close as possible. I'm also using a GFCI on the balanced outlet, for safety.
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