How do you reconcile them power hungry beasts?

K

kartikbala

New member
How do you guys connect up all ur equipment ensuring that there's no overload? Currently im daisy chaining 3 multipin sockets for all my stuff and i forsee its gonna get real worse in the future?

Shld I get something like the Samson/Furman Power distributor thingies? What do these devices actually do?Does it protect from overload or does it prevent surges or what?

Hope u guys can help!

Thx!
KB
 
I go from a single wall outlet into a Furman strip, from there I'm powering:

- Computer
- Powered Monitors
- Laptop computer
- Aardvark Q10
- Roland XV5050
- Midistudio keyboard
- Mackie mixer

None of these things uses very much power. I really want to add an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) to the set up.
 
Most equipment uses miniscule amounts of power. Look at the wall warts: something like 12 volts, 1 amp is on the high side. An RNC (just to pick an example) has a 9 volt, .6 amp wall wart. And there's probably extra room there over what the box normally uses. The typical US power circuit in a house supplies 110 volts, 15 amps. Okay, the transformers waste some power (that's why they get warm), but even taking that into account you've got room for a couple dozen little line-level audio boxes on one home power circuit.
 
22 separate "dangling power strips" equipped with circuit breakers connected to a specially-made fuse & junction panel
with trip and overload sensors in my lil' basement stoo-dee-o
designed and created by my mad scientist/electrician brother!
 
There are power conditioners and voltage regulators. Voltage regulators are more expensive, and smooth out minor variations in voltage from cruddy lines. By and large, you don't need light modules unless you're powering a rack for live or DJ work. I like Furman PM-8 for a power conditioner and RP-8 just for a power strip to add more plugs off of the PM-8. Power conditioners will handle the bigger surges such as lightning, and will filter out most RFI (radio) that get's into the power lines.
For pro level work, a voltage regulator is indicated, but it's not yet quite in my budget. In any event, the Furman units are great, but the light modules, if they have them, usually bite.-Richie
 
A UPS (uninteruptable power supply) is pretty essential if you are doing project recording using a computer-based system. The last thing you want is some weird power fluctuation in you lines crashing your computer in the middle of a take and corrupting your files and/or hard drive. This way you have a few minutes to shut everything down safely.
 
Add up the amperages of all of your equipment and compare that to the circuit you have all of it plugged in to. Your total should be less that the circuit's rating.

If some of your equipment is rated in watts. Divide the wattage by the voltage to gets the amp rating.

Most rack gear draws very little current and you should be safe if you are on a 15-20 amp circuit. If you are sharing the circuit with another room, say the kitchen, you may have less to work with. The refrigerator may draw a considerable amount of current along with a microwave, dishwasher, etc.

Many bedrooms are wired on the same 15A circuit in two and three bedroom homes. Not always though.

Your CB's are what protects the circuits from overload. You'll know if you have too much plugged in the first time it trips.

It's best to have your own isolated 15-20A circuit for your recording room. But this isn't always possible or practical.
 
Sennheiser said:
Add up the amperages of all of your equipment and compare that to the circuit you have all of it plugged in to. Your total should be less that the circuit's rating.

If some of your equipment is rated in watts. Divide the wattage by the voltage to gets the amp rating.
Click to expand...

Sennheiser's got it EXACTLY RIGHT.
That's how ya do it.
Don't forget other things on the circuit though: lights in the room for instance.
Flip a breaker, and see what's already on that circuit.
 
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