rewiring basement for games

That80sGuy

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Ok.. Its become pretty apparent that I need to upgrade the wiring in the basement to handle the number of games. Can anyone offer advice for making sure I only have to do this once? How many amps does an avg game draw?
 
Without getting into anything technical you can almost always put 5 or 6 games on a 15A circuit or 7 or 8 games on a 20A circuit. Pinballs draw a bit more so say 3 or 4 on a 15A circuit and 4 or 5 on a 20A circuit.

Do yourself a favor, only run 20A circuits(using 12 gauge Romex). For the slight cost increase, it gives you a better piece of mind.

And if you want to get anal and measure everything, grab a Kill-A-Watt meter. Search around the 'net since these things are almost always on sale somewhere. :)

Good luck, :beerchug:
Jeff

p.s. I'm sure there will be loads of technical answers I just tried to give you a common sense, plain English one...
 
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Cool..thats just the info I needed. I am finding the lights are wired inline with the outlets that are there now. I was vaccuming without any games on and it tripped a breaker for the room. I don't think any of the wiring was done by a professional. Its a bummer..but at least I will feel better about making it right.
 
Yeah, if you're having issues like that then definitely get piece of mind and have someone come in and upgrade it. And make sure you put in a couple "extra" outlets(preferably on different walls, in different areas)... you'll be surprised at how quickly you find uses for them. :)
 
Oh I think at least 3-4 seperate lines/breakers for wall outlets AND putting the lights on their own breaker should do it. I know I'm going to have to upgrade the fuse boxes for sure. There are two. One upstairs and one downstairs..and one breaker upstairs controls part of the power downstairs. It all just needs to be straightened out. I have a friend who is an electrical engineer that is going to help me so I'm hoping to save some money if possible.
 
I have a similar issue in my gameroom (basement). The lights and ungrounded outlets are on the same 15a breaker. When I want to play games, I have to unplug the washer and run and extension cord into the game area ;). Before summer I'll finish re-wiring, and it will be better.
 
I just did a complete remodel on my game room, I ended up having my electrician buddy wire up 3 20 amp circuits. Each of my pinballs draw about 8 amps each so I have 2 pinballs per circuit. My arcades run about 1.5 amps each so I was able to put all of them on one 20 amp circuit. I have a wall switch for each circuit so it takes me 1 sec to turn them all on and off. My lights are on a separate circuit so I have no problems at all anymore. Hope that helps :)
 
When upgrading, it's not much more cost $$$ wise to add extra breakers (if you have room in your main panel.) You also have to run the extra lengths of wire for each circuit - but if you ever decide to have a lot of Pinball games, you'll be glad that you did. The other option is to add a sub-panel and that way you can add several breakers - check with an electrician to see what kind of load this will be pulling off of your main panel.
 
12/2 20A lines are definitely the way to go. My gameroom is in a finished basement so it was a little more challenging. Fortunately, it had a suspeneded ceiling. I have two pins and four vids on switched outlets controlled by one wall switch and have had no problems. Make sure you buy high-quality 20A rated switches--there's quite a surge firing up all those at once.
 
yeah.. I'm taking notes and am going to have my electrician friend over tonight and we will be working out whats needed to bring things up to current code and meet the arcade requirements.
 
12/2 20A lines are definitely the way to go.

12/3 is actually a bit better if you are going to be ganging two 20A outlets in the same box. You need to make sure each hot is on a different 120v line, that way the neutral will only carry whatever isn't being equalized by the two circuits. If you're buddy is an electrician he'll understand.

If not, just run 12/2 cables and keep it simple. :)
 
Without getting into anything technical you can almost always put 5 or 6 games on a 15A circuit or 7 or 8 games on a 20A circuit. Pinballs draw a bit more so say 3 or 4 on a 15A circuit and 4 or 5 on a 20A circuit.

Do yourself a favor, only run 20A circuits(using 12 gauge Romex). For the slight cost increase, it gives you a better piece of mind.

And if you want to get anal and measure everything, grab a Kill-A-Watt meter. Search around the 'net since these things are almost always on sale somewhere. :)

Good luck, :beerchug:
Jeff

p.s. I'm sure there will be loads of technical answers I just tried to give you a common sense, plain English one...

Agreed. I was blowing my circuits b/c too many were plugged into a 15A. My dad (a retired electrician) installed an additional 20A next to my breaker box. Plugged more games (and refrigerator) into there, and everything runs like a charm. Note: If you have a fridge or mini-fridge near your arcade area, make sure it's on a separate circuit than your games (or at least on a 20A). They draw a lot of power due the the compressor.
 
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