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AC Power 101

I thank anyone in advance for taking the time to answer a part or whole of this set of questions. I am new to looking at my AC power and probably moving within a year or so and therefore do not want to do anything too expensive to the house wiring. I think that my situation is pretty good now but want to have the cleanest power possible for my situation. Following the threads it seems best to start with the quality of power coming in before employing power conditioners or regenerators.

I live in the country and have my own separate transformer to my home. Does this help? The power comes into an 8 year old Square D 200 amp service to a new addition to the home. The circuit that the stereo is on has only 10 wall outlets on it and nothing else, There are 4 lamps besides the stereo plugged into these. The run from the panel to the stereo is about 40 feet with the stereo being the furthest thing on the run. The circuit is the top circuit in the breaker panel, I think the wire is copper but with some aluminum in the box, in that the electrician said the connections there should be tightened yearly. There is a 240 Jacuzzi circuit in the box, but all the other motors in the home are on a separate service panel entirely that services the main part of the home. Now the questions:
Given all this, do I have a fairly close to a dedicated circuit and the potential for fairly naturally clean power?
Would I benefit from replacing the outlets, and with what? Are there other things I can do that would benefit such as using a different breaker on that circuit? Does a device such a Brick Wall take the place of my current surge protector Panamax and do any of these cover replace cost like Panamax does. I have had two lightening hits in 30 years at this location so the Panamax replace has come in handy. I assume however clean my power is that it is still important to isolate each component from each other. If this is so what is a cost pleasant way to do this without restricting power or otherwise degrading sound?
Best Holiday wishes
Joe
128x128gammajo
gammajo's avatar
gammajo OP
843 posts
 
Rfj - Thank you for the input. That is what I am wondering, if there is noise that I would not be aware on until its stops. I know for example adding vibration control tightened images that I did know could be tightened. Guess I will have to try and see the result.
Joe
jea48
4,279 posts
 
The circuit that the stereo is on has only 10 wall outlets on it and nothing else, There are 4 lamps besides the stereo plugged into these. The run from the panel to the stereo is about 40 feet with the stereo being the furthest thing on the run.

Given all this, do I have a fairly close to a dedicated circuit and the potential for fairly naturally clean power?
No.... A dedicated branch circuit is a direct run from the electrical panel to an electrical outlet.

What you now have is a convenience outlet branch circuit.
The electrician that made up the electrical joints inside the outlet rough in boxes had a multitudes of wiring methods he could use to feed onto the next outlet box.

The best way is to make up the hot and neutral wires and extend a pigtail out for the make up on the electrical duplex receptacle. But many residential electricians use the duplex receptacle for make up and feed the branch circuit wire to the next duplex and so on. Daisy chaining..... Some use the terminal screws for the feed in and out. Others use the stab in the back feature of the receptacle. This is the worst. Can and does create a lot of micro arcing AC noise.

Also your 40' run from the electrical panel to the duplex receptacle you have your equipment plugged into could be more like 50', 60' or more in length before it got there. And just guessing the wire size is #14 awg.

Would I benefit from replacing the outlets, and with what? Are there other things I can do that would benefit such as using a different breaker on that circuit?
Yes for the audio equipment. Good chance the existing duplex receptacle/s are residential grade at best 79 cent each.

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gammajo's avatar
gammajo OP
843 posts
 
Jea - Thanks for taking the time to respond. Your explanation was very clear as to why my current circuit could be far short of the benefits of a dedicated line.
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