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10/3 or 10/2 to each outlet?

Going to have electrician install 4 dedicated lines from my main panel. If using 10/2 to the outlet, both plugs will share the same circuit. Am I better off going 10/3 wire with a hot wire to each plug and sharing the neutral and ground as in a 10/2 setup? What are the advantages or disadvantages of going 10/2 vs. 10/3 wire? Should I be looking at a subpanel with my runs going to be approx. 30-35 ft?

Outlet 1 - Dual mono amp with 2 cords
Outlet 2 - processor and Dvd player
OUtlet 3 - Cd player
Outlet 4 - Tube preamp

This is the plan, at the moment. Where would you put a 5 channel amp with the above? What would you switch around. I also will use a 1 duplex Stealth mini Digital conditioner and a Regular (3 duplex) conditioner. Would you use 10/2 to all outlets or go 10/3 with some? ANyhow, I value your insights and thank you all for the lesson in electricity. Cheers. Dave
canucks0
theo's avatar
theo
2,695 posts
 
The subpanel is great idea. Then I would run the 10/2 which will allow you to use both poles of the panel and i would also just wire each outlet as circuit. You will never overload each circuit and use a 20 amp breaker, the 30 amp might make your components absorb too much overload before it trips. You might check into the new Romex 14/4 w/ground that would give you greater skin effect than the 10/2 since you would have 2 14ga leads for each pole.
chriskeating
189 posts
 
I would run 10/2 w/ ground or run an isolated ground which is essentially an extra ground that runs along with the 10/2 w ground. 30-35 feet is nothing. You are already home running 10/2 to each duplex outlet. That's plenty of separation. Just make sure your ground is good. All this can be for naught if your house ground is inadequate. You might look into a ground rod just for the 4 runs to the system. This is where isolated ground hook up could be beneficial. Then the extra ground could go to the rod and really be effective if the rod is installed correctly.
jeffcott
143 posts
 
Canucks0:
Using a sub-panel to shorten the lengths of the runs is a good idea. Be sure to use adequately sized feeders to the sub-panel. It is also true that for 10 Ga, a 35 foot run is not a big deal. However, if you use a well placed sub-panel, you will minimize costs for cabling.

Theo is right about the 30A breaker. This is, IMO, a very bad idea. Theo's suggestion about 14/4 is interesting and worthy of consideration. You might also do a review on his website the ideas that Russ Andrews recommends.

Chriskeating brings up the point of verifying your ground system. This cannot be overstated. This should be done first. See the thread http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1102789057
for a thorough discussion of grounding systems and AC issues. Seperating the ground source for the runs to the audio equipment (seperate from the house system) is a no-no according to many local codes. Yours may vary. Some seem to have done it with success. If you add ground rods and bond them together you still get much of the benefit.

Using 10/3 in the manner you described with individual hots and a shared neutral and a shared ground is also a bad idea. Sharing the ground....maybe. I would not do it, but then I may be particular. Sharing the neutral is a very bad idea as you are then placing twice the return current flow on ONE conductor AND sharing all of the noise.

The thread above talks about a lot of this in great detail.

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