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electrical phase

1- I see many recommendations for dedicated power lines that they be wired out of phase from the rest of the home.
2- I also see posts touting the benefits of correct electrical phase at the component.

- is correct elec. phase truly important
- is wiring audio lines opposite of the rest of home cuurent important?

if both, then what should one do? wire the audio lines in proper phase and the rest in opposite phase? can running electrical lines out of phase cause damage to gear or appliances?

thanks,
KP
killerpiglet
jtinn
1,123 posts
 
Bravo Albert!
alexanderj
139 posts
 
Agree with most of AP's post except that many 240 Volt breaker panels are manufactured so that first/third/succeeding odd horizontal rows are on "A" phase and second/forth/succeeding even horizontal rows are on "B" phase. Use a voltmeter to verify construction.

Lighting dimmers can be added to the list of noisy devices to be located on the non-audio phase.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Great post Albert! I am pressing print on this one.
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
If you should decide to rearrange your household loads in the distrubution box, don't get so carried away that you wholly unbalance the loading of your drop transformer. You want basically equal current loads on both phases, when all loads in the house are operating. I measured all the loads with a clamp-on Amprobe & then put the noisiest ones on the other phase from the dedicated line, maintaining an overall balance as secondary objective. This becomes even more important when commercial power fails for a long time & we have to fire up the backup generator.
killerpiglet OP
373 posts
 
Thanks, fellows.
Albert, great explenation.
I have a 60 amp panel into the sound room.
I asked my brother inb law (he's an electrician) to explain to me how he'd wired it.
I now understand that half the outlets are one one phase, half on the other.

KP
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