How many power outlets do you use to run your home theater? (1 Viewer)

[james e m]

I was just curious because I run my whole home theater off one outlet and I wasn't sure if I was doing some damage or not. I have a Reciever (100 watts x 5), tv, tape deck, cd changer, playsation 2, turntable, 120 watt sub, dvd player, and a vcr all hooked up to one outlet. I believe it's a 15 amp outlet, but I'm not sure. I have a Brickwall 2RAUD hooked up to the outlet and I have a Belkin Surge Master II running from the Brickwall with all my components pluged into it. I was just curious, am I over doing it? If there is a loss of power could it affect my speakers? Thanks!

james

 

[Mark Fitzsimmons]

I have six.

TV

Reciever

DVD

VCR

Playstation 2

Powered Sub

 

[Legairre]

James,
Take a look on the back of all your gear. There should be a wattage rating. Add them up, and that's how much power your drawing. Here's what I run on two dedicated 20 amp circuits. Everything is on two outlets. Each outlet has it's own circuit.
20 amp circuit #1
Receiver 672w
CD Player 11w
Satellite Receiver 35w
VCR 23w
DVD Player 14w
LFE sub #1 12" 250watts(uses 350w from outlet)
LFE sub #2 12" 250watts(uses 350w from outlet)
Left surround sub 10" 150 watts(uses 180w from outlet)
Right surround sub 10" 150 watts(uses 180w from outlet)
Total: 1815 watts
20 amp circuit #2
Amplifier 1600w
RPTV 336w
Total: 1936

 

[ColinM]

I run it all from one, like you. Done it for years with no problem.

 

[MikeHalder]

I had the same concerns regarding the amp draw on the living room circuit. Every time I would power up my system the lights would dim and the same would happen if I was listening to a source at high volume. Everything was plugged into the only outlet behind my HT. This weekend I installed a dedicated 20 amp circuit for my HT. It was easy and inexpensive, about $50.00 for quality materials and about 2 hours of my time. Would have gone faster, but my 3 yr old daughter and my dog kept visiting me in the crawl space under the house. I feel much more confident that my equipment is getting plenty of power and that I am not over loading the circuit. I have the following items running on the new circuit:
5x120 watt receiver
2x750 watt rms subs
32" TV
sacd player
dvd
vcr
digital cable box
powered FM antenna
nintendo
playstation
If you have the time to put in a dedicated circuit, I would highly recommend doing so, even if it's just for peace of mind. Just my 2 cents worth.
Mike

 

[james e m]

Legairre,

I did what you said and this is what I came up with:

PS2 79 watts

VCR 24

tv 97

turntable 9

DVD player 16

Tape deck 26

Receiver 280

CD changer 14

Sub 250

Total= 795

So I'm assuming that I'm okay and I'm not doing any damage to my system, thanks a lot for the advice.

Mike, I might consider adding a dedicated 20 amp circuit, but I'm moving in less than a year, so if I can get away with a 15 amp circuit I probably won't change it. Thanks for the info.

 

[GarryW]

I asked my electrican to install a 20 amp cicut and he said fine, but offered the following advice; "I'll run #12 wire, but will install a 15 amp breaker instead for now. His theory was that if you keep popping that 15 amp breaker, then it''ll be easy to change it out to a 20 amp."

His concern was that a lot of the cords attached to electroinc devices are pretty flimsy, and not even rated for much above 10 amps, and that weak link could cause a fire. I have 4 duplex's on this circut.

 

[Legairre]

James,

A 20 amp circuit provides 2400 watts of power and a 15 amp provides 1800 watts. It looks like your not even close. If your 15 amp circuit is not a dedicated HT circuit. You may want to turn off the breaker and see what in the house doesn't work. That way you'll know what else is drawing power in that circuit and add that to the 795 number. A simple thing like an air conditioner can draw a lot of power. Also lights are known to cause noise in audio systems when they are on the same circuit.J ust flip the cicuit breaker and see what goes out. If all you have is you HT gear. It looks like your fine.

 

[Evan H]

James, P= V*I. V=120 in America, so:
10 amps -> 1200 watts
15 amps -> 1800 watts
20 amps -> 2400 watts
therefore you're ok

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Evan- That's for DC, not for AC. But I can't tell you how it's different!
I also use 1 outlet for everything (through an Equi=Tech balanced power unit):
2 Acurus A200x3 amps
DVD player, tuner, cassette deck
VCR, TV cable box, turntable
DAT deck, CD-R/RW burner
Sub EQ, 300W sub, pre/pro
TV
The numbers on the back of components are maximum numbers. Not likely at all that you'd be tripping the maximums on more than 1 component at a time anyway. (And obviously, even with all my stuff running through 1 outlet, I never have more than 1/2 of them on at the same time.)
I also have a V readout on my AC box. Even running a flic with the sound full bore, never seen the V drop below 117V (usually 120V). That *would* indicate I'm drawing too much juice.

 

[Neil Joseph]

- projector's outlet with dedicated surge protector

- main outlet for audio components with surge protect

- outlet for second sub

 

[Larry Chanin]

Hi James:
Recently I figured it would be wise to connect my equipment to a decent surge protector. I went with a Panamax, they have a life-time replacement warranty on their protectors with a $1,000,000 connected equipment warranty. Their protectors are all rated for 15 amps and in order for your warranties to be honored by them they insist that all your equipment be connected to the same outlet through their equipment. You are permitted to run extension cords to their protectors, but they must be their 15 amp rated extension cords. They won't even let you connect to different outlets on the same circuit, due to the chance of getting different voltages during surge conditions.
Initially I had the same concerns as you, but I realized that as long as my equipment is not drawing more that 15 amps RMS, very unlikely, I shouldn't have a problem. It looks like you shouldn't either.
Although I don't think our equipment will be subjected to conditions that will damage them, I do regret not having run a dedicated 20 or even 30 amp circuit. The reason is I have some high current amplifiers that are capable of handling peak currents of over 60 amps. It's quite possible a 15 amp circuit won't be able to deliver that amount of current quickly enough and that might limit the performance of my amplifiers.
Larry