wiring closet

[guba807]

I am setting up the equipment room for the non mechanical aspects of the house. Does anyone have any suggestions for this space? Such as putting the room on its own circuit? How many outlets do you typically have / need for futureproofing?

I am planning on housing an Elk M1G system, security cameras/DVR, home server and routers/modems, and eventually home theater equipment. The theater equipment will probably be attached to the theater room circuit, but the equipment will still be in the closet.

Does anyone consider ventilation? With all the electronic equipment in there and no air ducting, would you put a fan to exhaust air from the room? I can do a mesh underneath part of the stairs that way the fan would not be seen and air could be pulled in from the entry door on the other side of the room.

 

[Digger]

I am setting up the equipment room for the non mechanical aspects of the house. Does anyone have any suggestions for this space? Such as putting the room on its own circuit? How many outlets do you typically have / need for futureproofing?

I am planning on housing an Elk M1G system, security cameras/DVR, home server and routers/modems, and eventually home theater equipment. The theater equipment will probably be attached to the theater room circuit, but the equipment will still be in the closet.

Does anyone consider ventilation? With all the electronic equipment in there and no air ducting, would you put a fan to exhaust air from the room? I can do a mesh underneath part of the stairs that way the fan would not be seen and air could be pulled in from the entry door on the other side of the room.

If you can I would run a minimum of two seperate circuits to the room. I would also have each line on a different leg coming in if you only have two (some people call them phases but I dont feel that is quite accurate). You may also want the lighting on yet another circuit so when you are working on the electrical circuits you have normal lighting. This is if all of this is possible.

You will never have enough outlets in my opinion as you will add more and more "toys" as time goes on.

It might not hurt to have ventilation for not only heat but humidity if this is in the basement. Probably worry more about a quiet fan then the maximum airflow as it probably wont take much to chane over the air in that small of an area a few times an hour.

You may want to put a water sensor or two and a smoke detector in the room "just in case".

 

[PaulD]

Line the walls with plywood so you can have the freedom to mount stuff at any location. I also brought all my wire runs (Cat5e, cable TV, security, audio feed, etc) in at different locations to keep everything more organized then I use 4x4 or 2x4 cable channels with snap on tops so I can open them to run wire and close up to keep it neat. I am in the middle of that process now but should be able to post some pics in a few weeks.

 

[programmergeek]

I would do 2 circuts for the closet, on seprate phases. A fair amount of outlets but you will have to add them as you need them as long as the guy puts in a large 4 gange box for each one you should be ok to start. I think the elk you can wire a box directly to the bottom of it. For the pc and other stuff you will want to use battery backups and they have multiple outlets on the back. Make sure you run a real ground to the closet you will have to ground the cable and maybe the elk.

As for the HT AV equipnemtn that depends all what you plan to put in there. Usally you need at least one 20A dedicated circut from there you go to a power conditioner then to your equipnment. However it is not unusual for me to run 3 circuts to a AV closet if I am doig big amps and high end equipnment etc. AV equipnemtn should be all on the same phase this helps prevent humm.

 

[Digger]

I would do 2 circuts for the closet, on seprate phases. A fair amount of outlets but you will have to add them as you need them as long as the guy puts in a large 4 gange box for each one you should be ok to start. I think the elk you can wire a box directly to the bottom of it. For the pc and other stuff you will want to use battery backups and they have multiple outlets on the back. Make sure you run a real ground to the closet you will have to ground the cable and maybe the elk.

As for the HT AV equipnemtn that depends all what you plan to put in there. Usally you need at least one 20A dedicated circut from there you go to a power conditioner then to your equipnment. However it is not unusual for me to run 3 circuts to a AV closet if I am doig big amps and high end equipnment etc. AV equipnemtn should be all on the same phase this helps prevent humm.

Elk does not reccomend grounding to the earth ground terminal on the M1G.

 

[sic0048]

I have a small wiring closet that is an actual closet under my stairs. I run two 20amp circuits to the closet to ensure enough power. Your question about ventilation is a good one. The equipment will certainly put off a lot of heat. If your room is going to be regular or smaller in size then you definitely need to consider ventilation. Perhaps it is just an couple of fans to move the hot air away from the equipment, or maybe a dedicated HVAC vent. If the room is large enough, you may not need to do anything special because the volume of air is so large that the hot air won't be a problem.

Personally, I have to leave the closet door open until I decide how to vent my closet. This doesn't lower WAF much because the closet is on the rarely used lower floor. I can/do close it if we are having company over in that area of the house. But I really need to vent the closet better. In my case, that will probably mean putting two vents in the closet door. One down low to supply the room with cool air, and one up high to vent out the hot air. I just haven't taken the time to buy the vents and cut the door yet.

 

[ysualum]

I had them run 2 20 amp circuits to my closet. I'll have one side for security panels and the other for server/AV.

Mine is a regular linen closet so I had them run a vent with a temperature controlled exhaust fan. We'll see how that works. I didn't put in the regular HVAC supply/return as I would have to have the fan for the whole house run all the time to keep air circulating.

 

[Monk]

I had a 125A subpanel installed in my room. (Of course that is meant to be for the whole basement.)

http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php...q=si&img=41

 

[guba807]

This is probably off topic, but how did you calculate circuit need for the new panel. I have a 200 amp panel, but think that the long term plan will require larger. Who should I contact to determine if I can add another sub-panel to accomodate? Right now I have about 8 open slots in the breaker panel, but probably need about 6 more beyond that point. I don't want to overload the line into the house.

 

[86turbodsl]

This is probably off topic, but how did you calculate circuit need for the new panel. I have a 200 amp panel, but think that the long term plan will require larger. Who should I contact to determine if I can add another sub-panel to accomodate? Right now I have about 8 open slots in the breaker panel, but probably need about 6 more beyond that point. I don't want to overload the line into the house.

If you follow the NEC, you can subpanel off as many times as needed. The total sum of the breakers in a panel need not add up to the total amperage of the panel.

My house has a 200A panel wired as a subpanel off the automatic transfer switch, a subpanel off that for the pole barn, and another subpanel off the main for the centralite. No issues. I added panels because I needed more breaker space.

 

[sic0048]

This is probably off topic, but how did you calculate circuit need for the new panel. I have a 200 amp panel, but think that the long term plan will require larger. Who should I contact to determine if I can add another sub-panel to accomodate? Right now I have about 8 open slots in the breaker panel, but probably need about 6 more beyond that point. I don't want to overload the line into the house.

You can also generally get half size breakers and replace your normal sized breakers if you run out of space. They are half as thick as a normal breaker, or sometimes you'll find them with two separate breakers in the space of one normal breakers.