Balanced Power

Hopefully somebody will come along to clean up my post and verbiage here.

From what I think I know, in order to obtain say a 20 amp 240volt (balanced power) circuit, you would need a 20 amp dual-circuit breaker installed at the service panel.

Of course, this is assuming you have one slot available on both phases/legs of the service panel. One directly across from the other.

Secondly, you would need 10/2 gauage wiring. The black or hot lead is connected to one side of the dual circuit breaker and the white or neutral is connected to the other side of the dual circuit breaker.

There's a number of safety issues involved but I believe that's it in a nutshell. Grounding is optional but recommended.

And of course you must ensure your equipment is wired for 240 volts. If you are looking for 120 volt balanced power, then I believe there's some kind of down converter required to bring the 120 + 120 volts down to 60 + 60 volts.

-IMO

what Stenho is talking about is wiring up 220v power, like you would for an oven or clothes dryer.

the sort of balanced power that applies to audio, uses a large toroid (usually) isolation transformer to convert from 120+/0- to 60+/60-. I have a unit right now from Equitech (the 1.5Q, equitech.com) that does this, it's a monster (80lbs or so), but does 15A of power so the whole system can run on it. If you need less power, Monster cable makes a product that does 5amps or so (HTPS 7000, I have one for sale, coincidentally). Equitech also does breaker-panel style units that can run the whole house balanced. Their expertise is in this arena, they do a lot of BP stuff for recording studios, etc. It definitely is an upgrade to the system, I think - if you can, try one out in your system, the differences/improvements are noticable.

-Ed

Ed, any time you have a circuit where the opposing phases cancel each other is also known as balanced power. Whether it be +60 and -60 or +120 and -120.

To the best of my knowledge anyway.

I've read many of the papers found on Equi=Tech's website some time ago. I believe those papers will substantiate my statements.

And Ed, please substitute amplifier for clothes dryer. It helps add credibility to my statements in my previous posting.

-IMO

I believe that Exactpower makes a unit that does this, for around $1k. You can't get there just by simple wiring changes to your existing house wiring; as stated above, you need an isolation transformer and they are not cheap.

Karls, what would be the purpose of an isolation transformer? Could you be thinking of a down converter?

A down converter would be required if somebody has set up a 230 volt circuit/line (balanced power) at the service panel with the intension of using that ciruit with 115 volt components.

-IMO