Should I Expect That Adding An External Amp Will Overload My 15 Amp Circuit?

[mj30250]

<---Not an electrician by any stretch.

Here's my current layout:

15 amp circuit 1:

77" A80J OLED
Denon X4500H running a 5.2 setup (speakers: 2x Emotiva T2+ L/R (4 ohm), Emotiva C2+ center (4 ohm), 2x Polk FXi A4 surrounds)
Hsu VTF-3 MK5 (front corner)
Various components, only 1 - 2 of which should be on at any given time (gaming consoles, UHD Blu Ray player, etc).

15 amp circuit 2:

Hsu VTF-3 MK5 (rear corner)

With this setup all is well, no breaker trips even at reference level volumes with an HT soundtrack going nuts.

I'm considering adding a Monolith 3X200. It would be necessary for this to be plugged into circuit 1. Could that then push me in breaker tripping territory? Or should I be okay since I'm going to be primarily offloading most of the power draw at the AVR and shifting it to the external amp? If this will be an issue, my best option short of running a dedicated circuit (I imagine this would be rather costly as it's a long run from the box in a finished basement with lots of twists and turns) would seem to be to run a long power cord from the front sub and plug it into the same circuit that's being used for the rear sub. Is that even a good idea? For the other components, given the layout of the room, running power to them from circuit 2 would not be practical. It's just too far of a run.

Thanks in advance.

 

[highfigh]

<---Not an electrician by any strech.

Here's my current layout:

15 amp circuit 1:

77" A80J OLED
Denon X4500H running a 5.2 setup (speakers: 2x Emotiva T2+ L/R (4 ohm), Emotiva C2+ center (4 ohm), 2x Polk FXi A4 surrounds)
Hsu VTF-3 MK5 (front corner)
Various components, only 1 - 2 of which should be on at any given time (gaming consoles, UHD Blu Ray player, etc).

15 amp circuit 2:

Hsu VTF-3 MK5 (rear corner)

With this setup all is well, no breaker trips even at reference level volumes with an HT soundtrack going nuts.

I'm considering adding a Monolith 3X200. It would be necessary for this to be plugged into circuit 1. Could that then push me in breaker tripping territory? Or should I be okay since I'm going to be primarily offloading most of the power draw at the AVR and shifting it to the external amp? If this will be an issue, my best option short of running a dedicated circuit (I imagine this would be rather costly as it's a long run from the box in a finished basement with lots of twists and turns) would seem to be to run a long power cord from the front sub and plug it into the same circuit that's being used for the rear sub. Is that even a good idea? For the other components, given the layout of the room, running power to them from circuit 2 would not be practical. It's just too far of a run.

Thanks in advance.

The 15A rating for a circuit isn't a brick wall and it doesn't react to transients unless they're extreme. Loads are supposed to be de-rated to 80& of the breaker's capacity, but if a breaker has frequently been tripped by excessive loads, it's not a bad idea to replace it, although the NEC now requires arc fault breakers in more applications and those can trip if you have any inductive loads or motors with brushes on the circuit.

Don't try to use an extension cord unless it's heavy enough to handle the load without voltage drop.

 

[lovinthehd]

LOL I run four external amps and other av gear off a single 15A outlet. While I'm not trying to set spl records, not a problem.

 

[EpsilonZer0]

15A is not going to be a problem. Most devices never reach their maximum load. However I would caution running any kind of blowdryer, hvac, or other small appliances on that circuit when at load because it will likely trip.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Not a problem for me. Have a projector with 400W lamp and 3 external amps because I had them for a good while. Plus some EQ gear in the chain and a BD player.

 

[Verdinut]

On a single 15 amp circuit, I'm driving 10 power amps with a total rated output of 2000 watts, an AVR working in a pre-pro mode, and a 50 inch plasma TV drawing 400-500 watts continuously. The amps outputs often reach over 3 watts for a maximum peak SPL of 87-8 dB at a 9 foot distance, but I never got any of them to put out even 10% of their rated output.

 

[mj30250]

Ok, it sounds like I will be in good shape. In poking around the web I just came across too many posts from people wanting to run dedicated 20a lines for each one of their amplifiers, subs, etc. Obviously that's a bit ridiculous but I wanted to make sure I wasn't being as equally ridiculous from the opposite side.

Thanks!