Wiring for a Basement Arcade - Opinions Needed

rainman154

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Hey all,
I have an electrician coming to look at installing some outlets in my unfinished basement.
How many machines should be plugged into one outlet? 3-4?
I am getting the heavier gauge wiring (20?) put in.

I have around 13 games and anticipate maybe 15 total in the future.

Any other recommendations for wiring your arcade?
Do you have one switch to control them all? Or do you use just the circuit breaker?
 
Figure each video game runs about 2 amps and pins 3-3.5 amps. If you go with a 20amp circuit 6 pins or 8-9 vids would be ok to run on one outlet. With a 15 amp outlet about 4 pins or 5-6 vids.

I bought some 8 switch power centers but each plug on these only support 15amps.

http://www.amazon.com/Eliminator-E107/dp/B000OMXZ3I/ref=pd_cp_MI_0




Hey all,
I have an electrician coming to look at installing some outlets in my unfinished basement.
How many machines should be plugged into one outlet? 3-4?
I am getting the heavier gauge wiring (20?) put in.

I have around 13 games and anticipate maybe 15 total in the future.

Any other recommendations for wiring your arcade?
Do you have one switch to control them all? Or do you use just the circuit breaker?
 
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Hmmm.

I was planning on having 3 outlets on one wall, and on that wall is 10 games. So instead of doing 20 amp, maybe I should do 15??

I wonder if it is less for cost?

The guy wanted to charge me $450 to install 5 sockets and 2 20 amp circuits. Sound ok?

Just trying to make sure I am not getting more than I need.
 
I have 15 in my basement right now, I haven't done anything to my wiring at all.

I turn them on one at a time, they use way more power the moment you turn them on than they do the rest of the time.
 
What do homes use as standard? In other words, getting 15 would be an upgrade over standard, but 20 would be overkill?

I think 15 is "standard", but 20 is preferable. Wire is cheap. Breakers are cheap. If you're paying someone to put it in, it's the labor that's expensive.

If you have the space in your box for 15 ish games I'd recommend minimum of Two 20 amp breakers and 12 gauge cable.
 
Is this a new or existing house Rick? Does your "gameroom" qualify as a bedroom or are there no windows. Biggest question is will you have to pull a permit.

Go with a pair of 20 amp circuits, and tell me your room has no egress window. If it does and your electrician is requiring you to pull a permit and have the work inspected, you're gonna get stuck with shitty arc-fault breakers which are completely suck ass. You can change them to a regular breaker after inspection but you'll be buying breakers twice. There's also a real good chance (if it's a bedroom) that you'll have to wire a smoke/carbon monoxide detector in as well as additional outlets to fill the room to proper code. All this for a few simple games, welcome to the state mandated electrical code!

No windows= non-qualifying bedroom staus= no arc-fault, you're best option here is to find somebody that knows what they're doing, is willing to leave the code book in the truck and wants a "side job" for cash. As a homebuilder, i should not even be telling you this so please burn after reading.
 
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Is this a new or existing house Rick? Does your "gameroom" qualify as a bedroom or are there no windows. Biggest question is will you have to pull a permit.

Go with a pair of 20 amp circuits, and tell me your room has no egress window. If it does and your electrician is requiring you to pull a permit and have the work inspected, you're gonna get stuck with shitty arc-fault breakers which are completely suck ass. You can change them to a regular breaker after inspection but you'll be buying breakers twice.

No windows= non-qualifying bedroom staus= no arc-fault

Hey buddy,

No, the basement is a walkout and there are windows. This was a home built in 04 (we just purchased it). The basement is insulated but there is only 1 outlet.
They don't have to pull a permit, since we are not finishing the whole basement right now. Just putting in around 5 outlets and two 20 circuits.
Figure that should be able to run 15 - 20 games.... if I ever end up getting 20.
Again, guy charging me $450 to do the whole thing.

Chris, did you have a light switch for yours? Or did you plug them in individually?

I am leaning towards having 5 per outlet and having those 5 plugged into a surge protector. Then when I want them on, flip the surge protector for each "5" to "ON".
 
WHen i did mine i used 6 gauge "romex"(its more heavy duty though) with 220vac (dual 20 amp breakers but not connected to each other mechanically) and ran that into a junction box. I then split from there with four 10 gauge romex sets. Power is ran through four heavy duty(20 a) wall switches. Each switch feeds a long "10 outlet" power strip(the hard wired type)

I could have ran each romex directly to the box but i happened to have some larger gauge wiring laying around and the box is already pretty crowded so thats why i ran 220v out and split it up near the switch box via a junction box.

I have 4-6 games per strip. No complaints to far. I had a couple electrical failures of games and yes this setup does work properly and trips the breaker no prob.

IF you do a job like this yourself plan to spend $400-600 if you hire it out you would probhably spend a couple grand.

You will save time and money if you mount your outlets way up high because if you want outlets against concrete they need to be in metal boxes and you must use conduit as well untill the wires get against the wood of your joists, so the less conduit, the easier the job for the electrician and the easier it will be on your wallet. Plus you dont have to worry about flood waters reaching your outlets in an emergency situation.
 
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The guy wanted to charge me $450 to install 5 sockets and 2 20 amp circuits. Sound ok?

Just trying to make sure I am not getting more than I need.

Yeah, the price seems OK to me. Also don't worry about getting more than you need. I feel you can never have enough outlets. Your collection might grow larger than you think..
 
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If you can afford it, plan ahead. Just because it is not finished now, does not mean you won't want it to be in the future.

Put as many outlets as you can, and use 20 amp breakers. How big is the space?

When we had electric put in our basement (like yours it had only 1 outlet in the beginning) the guy we hired had some great ideas.

Our outlets are 3' off the ground, in case of flooding. We have a few mounted really high in the bar area for signs (wish we had done more of these around the space as well).

We have 900 square feet which is divided into 5 20 amp breakers with 12 outlets.

We have had no issues, and I run 9 pinballs off one circuit with no issues.

Good luck with your project!

Chris
 
I would have them do the following which is what I plan for my basement:

  • Use 20-30 amp wire and at least 20 amp breakers
  • Wire extra light boxes or have an extra wire circuit run and temporarily terminated in the basement for black lights, neons, or spot lights for maintenance.
  • Have a switch box wired in the basement that could be put in a utility room to run the game outlets and your extra lighting circuit
  • use 4-6 games per outlet
  • No more than 12 games per breaker
  • have the outlets at 4 foot heights for the games to make it easier to unplug if needed and games are sitting side by side and water concerns
  • If you plan on running a popcorn machine, de-humidifier, vacuum, or heat gun while your games are on plan for an additional circuit
  • Wire outlets at ceiling height on the walls, and on the ceiling if you have games in the center of the room to allow for eliminating trip hazards
 
Yeah, the guy is here now. He is putting in 7 outlets and 2 20 amp circuits.
I was leaning towards having 3 (20's) but the cost was getting much higher.

Although, if I am running 15 games or so, I might need to go to 3 20's???


So $500 for 7 outlets and 2 20 amp circuits.
 
Yeah, the guy is here now. He is putting in 7 outlets and 2 20 amp circuits.
I was leaning towards having 3 (20's) but the cost was getting much higher.

Although, if I am running 15 games or so, I might need to go to 3 20's???


So $500 for 7 outlets and 2 20 amp circuits.

You're doing it right if you're future-proofing your place for more machines, albeit probably getting overcharged. I have around 11 machines, 2 mini fridges (those are a power draw right there), lots of TVs monitors, computers going all at once, and I only have one 20 amp breaker and the rest are on 15 amps. Granted, before the 20 was put in last year, my power was knocking out left and right. Not any more. IMO, you should have plenty of power with two 20s.

My father is a retired electrician and he installed the 20 amp last year to help the power draw. He told me one 20 amp would be enough for my setup and he was right. I haven't had an outage since.

BTW, what is this guy charging so much for, his time? You'll probably have less than $50 invested in parts and wire after he's all through. Good luck!
 
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You're going the right way here, Rick. Two 20 amp circuits is fine.

As far as switching the games on and off, Look into the home automation stuff...think X10. For not a lot of money, you can have all your games plugged into X10 modules that can be switched on and off with an RF remote, like this one:

largePHR03.jpg


If you wanted to get REALLY fancy, you could print up mini-marquees and put them in the label, like THIS guy did :D

(stolen from another thread, here)

2bbc162b.jpg
 
You're doing it right if you're future-proofing your place for more machines,

Lots of games are in the 1.5- 2.5 amp range, but anything with force feedback motors will draw more. Despite only having a 19" monitor my After Burner Upright will spike to 3.8 amps when the feedback kicks in.

Get yourself an Amp meter and check each of your games, then create a spreadsheet and separate them by breaker to see how much you have to play with and how to balance them.

best of luck.
---s.
 
You're going the right way here, Rick. Two 20 amp circuits is fine.

As far as switching the games on and off, Look into the home automation stuff...think X10. For not a lot of money, you can have all your games plugged into X10 modules that can be switched on and off with an RF remote, like this one:

largePHR03.jpg


If you wanted to get REALLY fancy, you could print up mini-marquees and put them in the label, like THIS guy did :D

(stolen from another thread, here)

2bbc162b.jpg

That is just sick! Love it!
 
BTW, what is this guy charging so much for, his time? You'll probably have less than $50 invested in parts and wire after he's all through. Good luck!

I think it is more for the time. He was here from 7:30 - 12:00 doing the work.
It looks really nice and I have all the games running. Very happy with it! Once I get some decor up, I will post some pics.
 
I can vouch for the X10 system. I have it in my basement setup. One game per module.
I have two of the wireless remotes mounted on the wall, one on top of the other (one is set on 1-8, the other is set on 9-16) that way I can control up to 16 games individually without doing anything but pressing one button.
 
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