[Welly Wu]

grounded!

 

[cyberhazard]

OK folks, I am a real electrician. JW, IBEW Local 357.

6 volts to lighting bolts!

Know this. All electrical work should be done by a licensed contractor under permit and inspected by your local city or county authority.

Also, hospital grade receptacles are a waste of money in your home. Why? Well the main advantage of these types of plugs is that they
have a isolated ground as well as a regular equipment ground. Unless your home is hooked up to a isolating transformer ( which it's not )
it will not work as designed. I would suggest a true 20A dedicated circuit for your audio equipment. First thing you'll need to do is check
that 200A service and see what breakers are available and if there is room to add breakers. To meet national code requirements ( local
codes very ) you'll need one receptacle within 6' of the door and from there every 12'. This is minimum so to be custom put them where
you need them, behind night-stands etc. This circuit would be for table lamps alarm clock housekeeping etc. This circuit can homerun back
to the panel or tap off an existing circuit. But, do not exceed more than 9 receptacles on any branch circuit.

Or do the math.
20A X 110V = 2200W. You can use up to 80%, which leaves 1760W.
Each receptacle is rated at 180W.
180 X 9 = 1620

For your audio equipment run a separate dedicated circuit back to the panel.

As far as lighting. If there are no florissant or any other lights on transformers including low voltage in the house, then stick with incandescent
lighting. If there is, then all bets are off and you can use whatever you like.

If you got any questions, email.

Quote:

Originally posted by grancasa My parents just purchased a new home, and since I’m going to be living with them this summer they decided to refinish the basement as a place for me to stay. So, I was thinking about ways to maximize my audio experience. I’m planning on an amp, source and cable upgrade after the Boston Headroom show. And since I have this fresh room, I wanted to go for an audio upgrade as well. The house runs on 200 amps, and it is a fairly new, up to code, passed-inspection level system. I’d like to keep the costs fairly low (in the sub-$100 range, but recommend anything for future upgrades sake), as I’m a poor college student with too many expensive habits as it is. -I know that I could get hospital/audiophile power outlets. Any recommended brands? - I also read something about wiring a special ground for the outlet (line?) to remove ground noise. -Special cables from breaker-outlet(s)? -Any considerations as to the lighting of the room? What other possible things can I do to get good quality power/audio from this room? Also, since I get to help drywall the whole thing, any possible design tips for maximizing the little speaker/tv/dvd watching I do? The room is about 14ft by 14ft, NOT a perfect square though. Thanks for any help you folks can provide.

 

[chosen1]

hey cyberhazard, it's nice to see a brother here. I'm JRW IBEW 252

 

[Tuberoller]

JW IBEW 134.

Chicago Firefighter's Local 2(you gotta hold two cards in the windy city)

I also strongly recommend a pro.

 

[Orpheus]

Quote:

The radon suggestion was right on. We had it checked durring the inspection, and the levels were high enough that we are needing to set up a ventilation system for it.

well, ....lucky you had it checked. and if they say you HAVE to ventilate, that means there's enough radon there to cause observable mutations on some poor test animal in a relatively short amount of time. which means to you, as a human, that you really shouldn't spend any significant time down there, even if it has a movie-set grade super-duper blower blasting down there.

use at your own risk. i personally would not spend more than 1 hour at a time/week in that room.

i took a cancer biology class (upper division, and damn hard) at school..... and though i forgot the details, i do remember that radon-caused cancer and illnesses are actually extremely prevalent throughout the world. not even just in basements. it's a world-wide killer. don't think it's nothing.... cause it is bad stuff.

so, if i were you, i'd ignore whatever the instructor tells you about "safe" levels....... if he said the levels are significant, then that's that................ don't stick your head in there any more.

 

[mekanoplastik]

this is a sugestion/question since i am not sure it is a good idea, but if your room is squared you could hang rugs in different areas of the room to break that squarenes (?)

 

[cyberhazard]

Quote:

Originally posted by chosen1 hey cyberhazard, it's nice to see a brother here. I'm JRW IBEW 252

Quote:

Originally posted by Tuberoller JW IBEW 134. Chicago Firefighter's Local 2(you gotta hold two cards in the windy city) I also strongly recommend a pro.

Hello brothers.

 

[cyberhazard]

Quote:

Originally posted by Welly Wu I hate to post frequently in these parts because I found out the hard way that I am a human lightening rod. Having said that, I decided to "bump" this old thread because I have a situation of which I have no clue as to its solution. I am hoping that TubeRoller and other knowledgeable folks will help out a fellow Head-Fi member. I live in an old home that is probably 60 - 80 (or more) years old. In my bedroom, I only have two wall outlets. Both outlets are three prong versions and not simple two prong setups. Anyway, I have a cheap $20 dollar surge protector and it has two lights: Red = Surge and Green = Ground. The surge light is on and it is a bright red. However, the ground is not lit and it is dimmed out. Now, my father told me that he would check to see if this home is grounded but the old fart is taking forever. We are assuming that there is no ground for the "sources" in our home. By the way, the other wall outlet is plugged by the BPT BP.Jr II Ultra power conditioner unit. It works...but recent e-mail messages to Mr. Chris Hoff @ BPT has revealed some interesting tidbits. It is possible for my unit to work even if there is no ground in my home whatsoever; however, please read an excerpt from his reply e-mail message, "I would not spend any money on upgrades to a balanced power unit until you find a way to get a ground to your AC. Balanced power can not cancel noise without a proper ground and therefore merely acts as an isolation transformer. You will not get the lowered background noise without a ground. Even our High Current filter option requires a ground to perform properly. The only thing that will help without a ground is the Bybee purifiers, silver wire and Auric caps. Regards, Chris Hoff BPT." I checked my local Yellow Pages online for a nearby electrician. It is not cheap: $72 for 1/2 hour (1 man) and $108 for 1 hour (1 man). Taxes and fees are extra. If two men are needed to do what I think is going to be necessary, then it will cost me. My father and I would like to do this ourselves to save on costs but need some help. How do we determine if our sources are indeed grounded or not? What is the safest, simplest, and cheapest way to ground all the electricity in our home? What will we need to do this? Finally, will hiring an electrician be worth it? Thanks.

A simple way to check for a proper circuit with correct grounding is to use a receptacle tester. You can pick one up at most
hardware stores for about $8-$12 bucks. The one I use is made by "Ideal".

Ideal

Chances are a 80 year old house is going to have very poor grounding unless its been upgraded. After testing your circuits
you find that you have an open ground the next step would be to kill the power and pull off some plugs. At this point check
your wiring. You should have 3 copper wires. One black, one white, and one green or bare wire. Warning, if you find that
the wire is made of aluminum, stop right there. Gently put the plug back in, take out a second on your home, and call a
licensed contractor. If you find that the wire is copper, but you only have two wires, again stop right there. Ether of these
problems are going to take big money to correct.

If you must have an earth ground, and the receptacle is on a outside wall. Just drive a 8' X 5/8" copper clad ground rod into
the ground next to the house. Test it with a multimeter, it should be 25 Ohm's or less. This could be a workable solution with
copper wiring. As far as aluminum wiring, don't touch it. It's a fire hazard as is and if you muck around with it, you'll find yourself
sitting in the dark in short order.