# Jam Space Electrical Requirements



## LanceT (Mar 7, 2014)

Hi all,

I have been fortunate in being able to acquire some space from my employer for myself and a few others to begin jamming. 
It will be wired to our requirements so I thought to ask the forum what they would do if given the opportunity. Our electrical room is close to the space and easily accessed so we can pretty much do as we please.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!!


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

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## whywhyzed (Jan 28, 2008)

we run a 200W bass rig, two 20 watt combo guitar amps, a 150watt practice PA, and a few lights off a single 15 amp breaker.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

nkjanssen said:


> I'd have everything running off the same circuit.
> 
> If you have, for example, a PA plugged into "circuit A" and a guitar amp plugged into "circuit B" you run the risk of hum (at best) and shocks (at worst). If everything is coming off the same breaker, it doesn't seem to be an issue. Has something to do with different paths to ground, I think. I'm definitely no electrician, though. Maybe someone with some actual electrical knowledge can explain it better or come up with a better solution. It's definitely something to be mindful of. My rehearsal room is wired with all the outlets on one side of the room going to one breaker and all the outlets on the other side on another breaker. That's a PITA. I have to run extension cords from one side of the room to the other to make sure everything is on the same circuit. Otherwise - hum and shocks.


It doesn't necessarily need to be on the same _circuit_, but if you can keep all of your audio on the same _phase_, it will avoid a lot of potential problems. If you can, mark all of your outlets with which phase they are connected to - whoever installs your circuits will know what this means.


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

bw66 said:


> It doesn't necessarily need to be on the same _circuit_, but if you can keep all of your audio on the same _phase_, it will avoid a lot of potential problems. If you can, mark all of your outlets with which phase they are connected to - whoever installs your circuits will know what this means.


Great advice on the phase issue.....get that done and have plenty of circuits available...
( 4 or 5 would be great and it will handle anything you may need in the future).

G.


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## Church-Audio (Sep 27, 2014)

You should not be getting any shocks if you are you have an outlet wired wrong. Also hum is from ground loops between the pa and other gear. To avoide that use di boxes with ground lifts on them. Also shocks should not be an issue with gear that is grounded correctly. This has nothing to do with branches of the power circuit.

- - - Updated - - -

Actually loading the phases down equally is more important than wiring everything in the same phase. In large sound system AC distribution panels we split the loads as equally as possible. There used to be issues with making sure everything was on the one phase away from lighting dimmers but that's pretty much a thing of the past. It's not super criticle with a band rehearsal space. Because your not pulling enough amps for that to be an issue. It can be an issue when you have refrigeration systems that can kick back voltage to neutral.


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## Church-Audio (Sep 27, 2014)

I would have 4-15 amp circuits 1 for the PA if we are talking a vocal PA one for bass guitar two for guitars and other small things. This does not include heat or lighting. This could be overkill but should be sufficient for anything your going to do. On a stage situation with a big show I would run 4-6 curcuits with 2-6 outlets x4 on each cuircuit. That would do pretty much any band for stage power only. For Pa power for large shows I would use 200 amp distribution. And 400 Amps for lighting, bit more than you need


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## SensoryOverload (Apr 19, 2015)

In my college house basement we had really ghetto sketchy outlets and still ran like 15 wires in the room. heaters, air conditioners, vox ac30s, bass amps, multiple lights, speakers and .etc. definitely got zapped a few times unplugging stuff the wrong way but we were fine. I feel like if this hazard zone we used worked for 8 months then you shouldnt have to worry about it being a fire hazard


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Very unlikely you will need more than two 15A breakers to supply enough power. But more outlets is much more convenient. As long as they are wired correctly, and if the walls are easy to run wire through, there is no reason not to have multiple outlets. Again, as long as they are wired correctly, you can daisy chain outlets off one breaker or home-run ever outlet to a breaker (more breakers = more money = more capacity down the road). But as long as all the hots, neutrals and grounds are connected correctly, there is no reason you should experience any ground hum whatsoever. I mean, unless your room is 50,000 square feet and the wire runs vary from 5 to 1500 feet.


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## pat6969 (Feb 4, 2013)

The typical 100 watt amp will draw roughly 1 amp, P(100watts)/V(120volts)=I(current draw), a little less than an amp. Using this power formula allows you to calculate your requirements. Having two 20 amps circuits is more than enough, unless you plan on using a 10,000 watt PA system.


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## whywhyzed (Jan 28, 2008)

pat6969 said:


> The typical 100 watt amp will draw roughly 1 amp, P(100watts)/V(120volts)=I(current draw), a little less than an amp. Using this power formula allows you to calculate your requirements. Having two 20 amps circuits is more than enough, unless you plan on using a 10,000 watt PA system.


My 100W head draws 475W in. Tube amps aren't real efficient. But you're right about two 20A circuits being enough for any band jamming.


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