A few years ago, I got a good deal on "as new" Klipsch La Scalla II speakers. I was so excited, I purchased a demo Primaluna prologue premium integrated amp. Couldn't wait to hear them! Wouldn't you know, there was a buzz I could hear 12 feet away at my listening position. Sent the amp to Upscale Audio (not the seller) who gave the amp a clean bill of health. The speakers worked fine with other amps so the problem must have been with my A/C. Drat! Anyone know the cost of a whole-house rewire?
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Hey @ozzy Ideally, zero, assuming perfect superconductors on the neutral wire, but the reality is that when current flows this voltage rises a little. The neutral and ground are bonded at 1 place (either the meter or your service (the first) panel. At that magic point there is no voltage difference at all. However under normal household operation current flows on the neutral wire, but not the ground wire, and this current flow is what leads to the voltage difference (N-E). Current in the neutral is normal function, but you want to make sure your neutral is big enough, and well enough bonded to ground that this doesn’t rise significantly under maximum load. When it does rise under load, that is about half of the voltage drop seen by any other device on the circuit. The reasons is that the voltage drop on the neutral is going to be about the same as the voltage drop on the hot wire. That is, the resistance of your AC circuit is the combined resistance of the hot and neutral, so if we assume that is roughly the same, we can use the neutral drop to estimate the hot drop. Of course, a bad upstream connection can upset this calculus. When your outside AC units and hot water heater and stove going there is very little neutral current though since they are 220V and only have hot to hot current (mostly). However any big 120 VAC appliances like window AC units, hair dryers, microwaves, as well as those big class-A tube amps you have heating up the house will.
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- 30 posts total