Separate Circuits For A/v Equipment?

[Parsonsk]

I'm in the process of wiring the basement for the home theater and wanted to provide a designated 20 amp circuit for the audio and video equipment.
What should i include on a circuit - do i mix A/V equipment and lighting and the sub or leave it just A/V and sub but not lights or do i put the sub on the circuit with the lights? do i mix the tv with the equipment or with the lights????
aaaggghhh

What do i include and what do i put on a different circuit?

Thanks

[mitch57]

I would go with two dedicated 20 amp circuits. That's what I did because the electrician said it costs about the same to run two as it does to run one. Then you can split it as you see fit and still have two dedicated circuits for your entire home theater without fear of overloading the circuits.

[Parsonsk]

i guess the question should be what pieces of equipment should i put on each circuit regardless of weather its a 15 or 20 amp
Is it best to separate the audio from video from lights from sub???

[mitch57]

I would seperate the lights and sub from the rest of the system. If you have two dedicated 20 amp circuits in addition to another 15 or 20 amp circuit that currently existed in your basement I would connect all your lights to the existing circuit. Then I would split my video on one of the "New" dedicated 20 amp circuits and your audio components on the other. You could also put the subs with the rest of the audio components if you like. But I would definitely put your lights on a different circuit as they can introduce noise into your system.

[bigburner]

My understanding is that all your A/V equipment (including the sub) should be on the same circuit, and only your A/V equipment should be on that circuit.

Nigel.

[Glen B]

A/V equipment can be on separate circuits, however those circuits should all be on the same 120V leg.

[schnauser]

yes, keep the lights on a "lighting circuit" and put all your gear on one or two 20 amp circuits dedicated just for that. it doesn't matter one iota how you mix and match your gear on each circuit, all that matters is that you calculate how many amps each piece of gear is drawing, and keep the total to under 20 for each circuit. then crank it up, if you don't trip a breaker testing at a really really loud volume, your done. tripping a breaker is annoying, but it won't hurt anything.

[Pookie007]

When you calculate your circuit load, remember a 20A circuit will trip at 16A (80%). When designing, I don't load a circuit past 14A. If you are running dedicated circuits, these should be for your HT system only. The lighting can be on a non-dedicated circuit with other household stuff. You won't gain anything by putting it on the same circuit. A dedicated lighting circuit won't give you better light.

The reason they said it is the most cost effective to pull 2 circuits is conduit loading. If you pull one, you have unused space in the conduit. If you pull 3, you have to up size the conduit.

When separating the loads, I would just try and balance them. I would find the two biggest draws and put one on each circuit and then fill in the remaining space with the other components. When you pull the circuits, I would get oversized dedicated neutrals and pull an additional ground conductor with each circuit. This will eliminate the concern about your circuits all coming from the same leg. If you do connect to different phases it won't be a problem. The transformer inside the equipment converts it to DC and that is what the gear runs on. If you were trying to match phase angles for closed transitions or spin a 3-phase motor the right direction, I would be concerned about the phase you circuit is on. Short of that, it isn't an issue. Most homes only have 2 of the 3 phases available on the pole wired to their house.

Back to the original post, if you are wiring the basement now, is the drywall off? If that is the case, you can wire the outlets with Romex cheap. I would look at how much space I had in the breaker box and pull the 2 I need and see if I could squeeze a spare our two circuit while I was at it. Proper grounding will solve a lot of your problems. This includes bonding the grounds to the conduits and back boxes (if metal). You also could change the panel in your basement to a 200% neutral if you want to go wild. I could do this all night.