advice on dedicated line


Hello.

I need to have an electrician do some work on my house, and am mulling over a dedicated line for my sound system while she or he is there.

I am new to this, though, and not especially sophisticated about electrical matters. So I am wondering what exactly I want to ask for, and thought maybe you all would know.

I have an amplifier, a cd player, a Sonos unit, and a DAC.

Do I want two dedicated lines--one for the amplifier and one for everything else? So 2 20 amp circuits with 10 gauge wire?

Do I need to say something else about ground wires etc? About the breaker box?

Can I get 3 outlets on one dedicated line?

What kind of outlets do I want?

Anything else I should know?

Thanks!

mc
mcanaday
Margot, I believe that as you appear to suspect the statement does seem to imply that if two dedicated lines are being used, the safety ground connections of their respective outlets (the U-shaped openings of the outlets) should be connected together, and in turn wired through a single ground wire back to the circuit breaker panel. However, I feel pretty certain that if that is what the statement intends to indicate, it is wrong.

While I am an electrical engineer and not an electrician, I suspect doing that would be neither code compliant nor proper practice. I suspect that your electrician will tell you that each dedicated line has to have its own safety ground connection running back to the panel together with its AC "hot" and neutral wires. (The "hot" connection, btw, being the smaller of the two vertical slots on the outlet, and the neutral connection being the longer of the two vertical slots, which is T-shaped on a 20 amp outlet).

Hopefully one of our electrician members will comment further.

Best regards,
-- Al
Thanks, Al! This makes more sense to me, and I am glad to have the advice of an electrical engineer. cheers, Margot
A 15 amp circuit is 1800 watts,a 20 amp circuit is 2400 watts. I don't know of any audio or video system that comes close to using that much power! I think this is all overkill if I am wrong please someone clue me in? I always thought it was safer to have a 15 amp circuit breaker so it would trip before frying your components! Like I said if I am wrong please explain! Thanks much
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