HELP I think I have an electrical issue??


A few months ago I had 2 20amp dedicated lines with hospital grade duplex's installed. All was well with my Bel Canto Ref1000 mono's. Well a few days ago I just got a pair of Genesis m60 tube amps. I was noticing a clicking noise coming through my speakers. I first noticed this when I was just warming up the amps with no source on. Then I also noticed the clicking when a source was on with music playing.

So it turns out that the clicking noise is my electric ignition of my gas furnace, is somehow playing through my speakers (Or maybe its just one of them, not exactly sure yet) This is a very strange and annoying. If anyone has any ideas please let me know!

Tim
tmesselt
A balanced transformer didn't eliminate my problem, I do agree it eliminates a lot of garbage riding on lines.

A transformer and balanced cables may or may not do the trick for Tmmesselt.
If the outlet is hospital grade or isolated ground it must be wired as I said before. The differance between an isolated ground and non isolated is that the outlet ground and the ground screw are connected to each other only and not to the metal section that hold the outlet to the box, non isolated outlets the three are connected to each other. If you used an old work plastic box there is no bonding of the grounds and is not LEGAL and you could get hurt. I would change the outlet to a good regular outlet or get a metal box and a pair of ears for old work and replace it, I would do the box myself if it were me, you must srcew the ground to the box for good contact.
Doing this will defeat the reason to use an isolated outlet. How hard would it be to replace the wire? If you paid for this to be done it is wrong & the electrician should redo it. If not tell him you will ask an inspector to check it. You could also try a sub panel and run a seperate ground. This would be best.

As far as your furnace gos. I would make sure your equipment is on the opposite side and fed first. Equipment top breaker 1 & 5 right side 2 & 6 left side furnace as low as you can go in panel. I do not know how many breakers fit in your box or the type so I cannot tell you any more. I always feed furances and a/c unit at the bottom of the box for power and connect the ground as close to the ground wire as I can or I add sub panel.
This could also be because your furnace is not wired correcly by the way.

Talk to a local electrician they will know more of your local code. What state are you in?

I recommend you do not try the sub panel yourself or any of this for that matter it can get tricky.
The most fundamental difference between now and when the problem was not present, aside from the different amps, is that previously there were balanced connections, and now there are single-ended connections.

As Jim's "myths" link makes clear, the shields of single-ended interconnects, while serving as the return path for signals that are transmitted between the connected components, also conduct extraneous currents caused by ac ground differentials between the components (since the shields tie together the chassis of the components, which in turn are connected to both signal ground and ac safety ground). The common path causes coupling of ac-related noise into signal, since the receiving component has no way of distinguishing between the two. Balanced interfaces are a completely different story, and are essentially immune to this kind of effect.

So my first suggestion, if you have not already tried it, would be to connect EVERY component in the system to the SAME dedicated line, to minimize ground offsets between the components.

Beyond that, it IS very conceivable to me that a better quality interconnect would help, because it would presumably (although not necessarily) have lower shield resistance, which would tend to "short out" voltage offsets between the chassis of the connected components. As well as providing better immunity to airborne rfi.

Regards,
-- Al
First, ensure the pilot assembly and ignition module are grounded. The pilot can be grounded by using a double insulated or bare, solid copper wire from a mounting screw directly to the "GND" terminal on the module, if so equipped, otherwise to chasis. You can also ground the neutral side of the 24V transformer.

If that doesn't work, consider an isolation transformer.