Dedicated Power Lines

Jea48 -- great post. Kudos on your prescience!!!

Al -- on the one hand you say balancing the load between the two phases has no relevance to the output phases of my gear because the AC current is converted to DC anyway. Ok, that makes sense. OTOH, you quote from the handbook that says running dedicated lines that use different phase hots increases the chance for ground loop related hum and noise. Bottom line: is the smart move to use same phase dedicated lines, BUT ask the electrician to move other house circuits to the other hot phase rail to keep the house load balanced??

Thanks, Bruce

Is the smart move to use same phase dedicated lines, BUT ask the electrician to move other house circuits to the other hot phase rail to keep the house load balanced??

Hi Bruce,

Most likely redistributing other loads is not worth worrying about. See the last two paragraphs of Jim's post just above.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al,

Thank you for your kind words.
Jim

Bifwynne; In response to your question, the answer is no, the signals will not be out of phase if connected to different phases of the electrical panel. I suggest to the OP to be very clear in the instructions to the electrician. If you want 10 gauge conductor and are willing to pay for it, then so instruct the electrician. If you want 20 amp service per dedicated line, then also so instruct the electrician. Same for separate conductors as opposed to "Romex" style conductors. You can't go wrong with 10 gauge, 20 amp service per dedicated line. Each dedicated line having its own ground, hot and neutral back to the panel and will not be shared. If you want to place all your electronics on one phase at the panel. Go for it. If the load is too high and unbalanced, a good electrician will not do it. However, some will. Also, you will not have ground loops or noise if you split the load to each phase on the panel. Not if the ground and neutral are dedicated and not shared. They all terminate (and I mean all of them) back at the same ground and neutral point in the panel anyway. But, go for it anyway you want. just don't violate code and risk issues as I mentioned previously. Be on the safe side, and follow proper electrial standards. Again 99% of ground loops are caused by improperly designed and constructed equipment with bad internal grounding schemes and poor interconnect cables. You will appreciate dedicated lines.

Minorl,

What is your take on the reason why you should put all your audio equipment on one leg and putting all your noisy devices on the other to avoid noise transfer. My understanding is a electrical device sucks electricity in and it's a one way street, the device then generates noise, etc., which then goes back into the system via the neutral or return line. The return line for both legs are then tied together along with the ground, making the ground a very important point to eliminate noise, and not the hot line as the key culprit.