electrical upgrades to handle another amplifier (1 Viewer)

[JoeGibs]

I bought my first house a year ago, and have been rocking my dual GR research 12's for quite a while, and have finally decided its time to do an upgrade. I have two rather large and powerful car audio subwoofers sitting in my bedroom that were given to me by a friend, and intend on using them in my car. so what's in my car thats going to be taken out? two 15" titanics. where are they going? my livingroom. currently, i have a carvin dcm1000 running the two gr's, and it will work to power a single titanic. i plan on finding another dcm1000 to add to the mix, but i know i'll be tossing the circuit breaker as soon as i turn it up playing music. not to mention the dimming lights, annoying. i've done some looking around, and it wouldnt be too difficult to add another breaker to the box and run the wire to the livingroom. using the formula watts/volts, i get 16.6 amps. i should be ok running a 20 amp breaker and a 20 amp socket, right? and what gauge wire should be used? am i retarded for needing to run a separate circuit just for my amplifiers?

 

[Robert_J]

There are probably electrical codes that need to be followed with the appropriate gauge wire. Burn your house down and the insurance company probably won't pay. A quick Google search shows that 12-2 is the most popular wire for 20 amp circuits. It's not insane to run a separate circuit for an amp. I have three 20 amp circuits in my theater room in addition to the regular plugs. The rear circuit powers all of my equipment in the rack. The ceiling circuit powers my projector. The front circuit powers a Behringer EP-2500 which puts out about 800w/channel at 20hz when pushing my dual 15's.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

By Code, you must use at least 12 ga. wire for a 20-amp circuit. It’s okay to use a larger gauge, but not smaller. Regards, Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[JoeGibs]

Thanks for the replies guys. Good to know i'm not crazy in adding another circuit to power amplifiers in my silly stereo. Is a single 20 amp receptacle going to be ok handling two of these amplifiers, or should i go with two to be safe? I'm thinking it'll be fine with a single, it's not going to be pulling a constant 2000w, thats just its potential.

 

[Robert_J]

One will be enough. You aren't crazy. The guy at AVS that put in four 220V, 40 amp circuits to power four 5,000 amps is crazy. He has eight 18's in the room.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I put in two dedicated 15-amp circuits for my system.

Is a single 20 amp receptacle going to be ok handling two of these amplifiers, or should i go with two to be safe?

Looks like you have a handle on things, specifically mentioning a 20-amp outlet. However, I’d recommend moving up to a commercial or industrial-grade outlet. I had an electrician tell me once that there is no physical difference between 15- and 20-amp residential grade outlets, except for the latter's provision for a horizontal blade. Regards, Wayne A. Pflughaupt