Designer in wall wiring - worth it?


I have two dedicated outlets for my system using standard 12 gauge with short runs of about 15' to the breaker box. I used 12 gauge in this case due to the very short runs. I have recently experienced some very positive results with Audience speaker and ethernet cables, and it got me thinking it would not be crazy money to try the Audience in-wall shielded 10 gauge cable. Has anyone tried the Audience cable or other "designer" AC cabling? Did you find it to be a significant upgrade?

 

zlone

@rikkipuu 

Would you check the cable and post if it is one of these that you have? 

First.

Does it look like this one? Audience In-Wall AC cable .Look at the two photos in the article.)  On the jacket is it labeled CL3? Does the cable have a small bare solid ground wire that is a lot smaller in size than the 3 insulated #10 AWG stranded copper conductors? May be a 16 or 18 gauge solid aluminum wire?

OR

Like this one?

Does it look like this cable?  Hidden Treasure In-Wall AC Power Cable found on the "Cable Company" Website. May look like the one in the Link above.

Does the labeling on the cable jacket say CL2? Does it have a small gauge bare solid aluminum ground wire? May be 16 or 18 gauge? 

OR

Kinda look like this cable. The aluminum clad may be painted. 

10/2 x 125 ft. Stranded CU MC (Metal Clad) Armorlite Cable

 

 

 

 

@rikkipuu 

Thank you.

Do you know if the Electrician used the red #10 conductor for the safety EGC, (Equipment Grounding Conductor), for each dedicated circuit?

If you are not sure would you feel safe checking at least one of the dedicated branch circuits? You can check just one of the wall outlets. Pick the easiest one to get to.Turn off the breaker that feeds the outlet. Verify 100% the outlet is dead. Plug any item into the outlet to verify it is dead.

You will have to remove the outlet cover plate. Then remove the two 6/32 machine screws that hold the duplex receptacle to the wall box. Pull the outlet from the box just enough to look inside the box. You may need a flash light. Is the box steel or plastic?

Look for the red #10 wire/conductor. The electrician more than likely taped it green using green marking tape.

IF the box is made of steel...

You should see the Red wire, (green taped with green marking tape), has two pigtails attracted/connected to it with an insulated wire connector.

One pigtail fastens to the back of the steel box with a green color 10/32 machine screw.

The other green pigtail fastens to the green color equipment grounding screw on the duplex receptacle outlet. (Good chance the green insulated pigtails are #12 AWG copper wire manufactured grounding pigtails.

IF the wall outlet box is plastic, the #10 stranded red, taped green, wire/conductor is fastened directly to the equipment ground screw on the duplex receptacle. If that is the way he did it, he more than likely used a crimp on spade lug. He also could of used a manufactured #12 green grounding pigtail and jointed/connected it to the #10 stranded ground wire. The green pigtail fastens to the duplex outlet green equipment ground screw.

Jim

@jea48 

I would have to move my rack to get back to the plugs. 

I also fear electricity more than snakes and spiders so I am hesitant to muck around.  

I would guess the electrician wired it as if it was regular Romex, however that's done.

The cable you installed is not like regular Romex though. Romex, NM-B sheathed cable, 14 gauge, 12 gauge, and 10 gauge, the safety EGC (Equipment Grounding Conductor) is the same size as the hot and neutral conductors. 

In the event of a Hot to EGC ground fault the EGC must be capable of handling the maximum available fault current back to the source, the Utility Power Transformer.

Many layman think because the branch circuit wiring circuit breaker is 20 amps, the fault current will be limited by the 20 amp breaker. That is false... 100s to over a 1000 amps could travel in the faulted circuit instantaneously before the 20amp breaker, hopefully trips open. The bigger the size of the branch circuit wiring, the greater the available fault current in the circuit.

So I have to assume if the electrician was licensed, he used the red #10 AWG conductor for the EGC. Not the little small gauge shield drain ground wire.If the small shield ground was used. In the event of a Hot to EGC fault, the high fault current would more than likely melt the small gauge wire like a fuse. My guess it would burn, blow, itself free at the duplex outlet EGC ground contact lug screw. At any rate it will break, open, the ground fault circuit. 

.

Do you still have the electricians phone number?  Could you give him a call? Find out what he actually did for the EGC wiring? Did he use the red #10 conductor for the EGC?

 

Do you know someone that is comfortable removing a panel cover and putting it back on? 

 

My electrician being smarter than me ran the 4 lines off a 50 amp box that a Hot Tub was on but not being used because I moved the Hot Tub.  I had calculated the distance from a sub-panel to the target wall behind the gear when I purchased the Hidden Treasure but because the 50 amp box is on the target wall he only used a fraction of the wire I purchased. 

 

 

the 50 amp box is on the target wall he only used a fraction of the wire I purchased. 

50 amp box?

A 50 amp 120/240 volt sub panel? The electrician installed four 20 amp single pole breakers in the sub panel for the 4 dedicated  audio branch circuits? 

IF there is a sub panel with four 20 amp breakers for the 4 dedicated circuits, that’s good...

There will be a 2 pole 240 volt 50 amp, (???), breaker in a sub panel or in the main electrical panel you can turn off and kill the electrical power to the sub panel that feeds your audio equipment. Verify 100% the panel is dead. None of the audio equipment outlets should have power to them... Verify 100%...

When you are 100% the power is off, then have your friend remove the panel cover. Have him look for the 4 red insulated 10AWG copper wires/conductors. One from each of the 4 cables.

Hopefully they connect to a separate ground bar that is bolted directly to the metal enclosure of the panel. There should be an EGC ground conductor that is part of the feeder wiring that feeds the sub panel.

All white neutral conductors are connected to an isolated, insulated, neutral bar that is insulated from the panel metal enclosure. 

Feeder. Four conductors total. 2 Hot 240V conductors. One white neutral conductor and one EGC conductor. (Might be bare or insulated green wire.) (Feeder conductors? Might be copper, or aluminum).  

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