Electrical Current in the Studio

[Michael Jones]

Just out of curiosity, what sort of electrical current demands are typically found in a professional - semi-professional studio facility?
Currently, in my home project studio, I have a single 20amp dedicated curcuit. I'm lucky that it's dedicated soley to this room, and seems to provide all of my electrical demands.
I suppose I could go through all of my equipment, lighting, etc. and add up all the wattage, divide by the voltage, and get an idea of how close I am to that 20amp threshold, but I've not had a problem with current yet. But I wonder if I'll overload that curcuit at some point. Going to a larger curcuit breaker is NOT an option, because with 14ga. wiring, a 30amp CB would never kick before the wiring melted.
I'm also running out of outlets. I'm not too concerend with overloading any single outlet, because they are all on the same CB.
Anyway, what sort of current demands are typical to drive all the rack gear, the monitors, the lighting, the amps, the instruments, etc, etc...
Has anyone ever gone in and calculated their current demands?

 

[foreverain4]

dont know if this helps or not, but i have about 12 separate 20 amp breakers in my studio. the place that i am using used to be a machine shop, so there was 3 phase power already run. i know this is probably way overkill, but i had the avaliability. in my control room, i have 3 outlets behind my console desk, each with 4 outlets. all 3 are on a separate 20 amp breaker. i am powering 4 power conditioners off these with 8 outlets each. that is a total of 32 outlets, all used except maybe 2 or 3. i was previously running all this off a single 20 amp in my house (before i moved into my facility). did that for 2 years with no problems. although i did fear starting a fire or something.



lynn

 

[scuppari]

My rough-in electrical work was just finished two weeks ago, so this is fresh in my head.

I've got:

- two double-gang boxes behind my desk in the control room on a 20amp circuit (#1)
- five single gang boxes for general use in the control room on a 20amp (#2)
- seven single gang boxed in the Live Room / Hallway on a 20amp (#3)
- Low voltage track lighting in both rooms have their own 20amp circuits (#4&5)

My electrician added up the amps from my PC, two 17" monitors, bass cabinets, lights, etc. and said the five circuits is overkill for now, but would be enough to allow for future expansion.

 

[darrin_h2000]

Three 20 amp circuts for mine but I have a home theatre in the tracking room, and a Lounge/gameroom adjacent to the studio area.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

20 amp/14 ga.?

Hi, I'm no expert at this, but where I live, 14 ga. wiring cannot be used on a 20 amp circuit. Maybe a 15 amp. I know that from running a single phase compressor once(120V) on a 20amp circuit with a 14 ga. extention cord. Fried the plugs cause the wiring burned before the breaker blew. Wiring here must be 12 ga. on a 20 amp circuit. How many amp supply do you have? My supply was 100 amp, and I changed it to 200 amp. Gave me a lot more breakers. Can you run a subpanel from your supply? Thats what I did. 60 amp. Then divided off the circuits I needed for the studio. If your future expansion goals are beyond your 20 amp threshold, look at your supply panel and see if your present panel load has already been met. If not, you might be able to run a subpanel to your studio. This is only a suggestion if you need more power. If this IS an option, rather than going to a larger CB, and your not sure about this stuff, definitely hire an electrician to check this out for you. Hope this helps.
fitz

 

[Michael Jones]

Rick thanks for the info. I could have sworn it was 14 Ga. but I could be mistaken. The main pannel is not max-ed out, and I could run more, if I h ad to. I guess I need to take a close look at my current loading, see how much current I have left, and plan for future expansion around that.
At some point, I want to do either a garage conversion, or a stand alone building for my studio, and I was curious as to what typical current demands are for that type of facility.
Thanks again!

 

[frederic]

It all depends on the size of the studio.

Larger studios, being multiple rooms, typically have multiple breakers, whereas smaller studios need two.

Mine, which basically is a 13'x18' console room with a vocal booth inside has three 20A breakers - one for lighting and the outlets around the perimeter, one for the computer and the recorders (same rack), and one outlet for the rest of the recording gear.

 

[knightfly]

Rick is right on the code for 20 amp circuits. 14 ga is only supposed to be used for 15 amp circuits.

Commercial facilities have vastly higher power requirements for several reasons - 2" analog tape machines take large amounts of power, with 3 large motors and lots of electronics. HVAC systems for large studios are another power drain, althoug this would not be on equipment supplies, obviously. They also have all the power requirements any office would have, for the same reasons - whereas a home studio is usually it's own subsystem and doesn't take into account air conditioning, bathroom, water heater, office equipment, flashing neon lights, :=)

The reality is that no equipment ever draws the current it's spec'd at, unless there's a problem - it's called CYA...

My own personal studio has two computers, a 21" and 17" monitor, a 500 w/channel power amp, 120 watt sub, about 6 feet of full equipment rack with MIDI modules, processors, etc, 3-4 floor guitar processors, 4 external keyboards besides MIDI modules, a Tascam 38 r/r machine, two mixers, and I power it all from a single 1400 VA APC UPS due to power problems in winter (it goes away) I measured quiescent power draw with a clamp-on ammeter once and found it averaged about 8-9 amps. Probably would go up to about 11-12 amps playing loud. This is with KRK passive monitors, so I'm not using anywhere near the 500 watts/channel. Still, one 20 amp circuit should work until you have enough money for gear/buildings that you can hire an electrician/engineer to figure this stuff out for you.