ᐅ Electrical Planning – Power Outlets

Maybe your measuring device is just a guess meter.

You could tell me the model, so we can quickly check the performance without removing it. I'm simply interested as a sound enthusiast.

I don’t think it’s an estimating tool, but it can certainly have a margin of error of plus or minus 10%. Let’s handle the rest via private message to avoid going off-topic here. You’ve got mail.

Sebastian79 schrieb:
It's no different with 12 sockets side by side—unless you mean each one has a separate supply line (if so, then that’s of course not an issue)?

Of course, the sockets are wired separately and can be switched individually... anything else wouldn’t make sense... and since we think a bit before spending money and don’t just have things done blindly... I would always recommend this to everyone... in the media corner, make sure everything can be switched individually.

And one more tip:

For young families or anyone with children in general... have sockets installed with child safety shutters... I didn’t think about this and had to upgrade all the sockets a year later.

The additional cost for childproof outlet boxes, for example from Gira, is minimal. If the installer does not add a €6 (about $6.50) surcharge for themselves, it is usually in the low single-digit euro range. So it’s definitely worth considering equipping some outlets with them.

So far, we've been lucky with our little ones; the media switch, which is now accessible to them, hasn’t been used unnecessarily.

What can be switched on and off? Well, to control the devices... who really needs a million clocks, etc.? Everything consumes power constantly when plugged in… sure, it’s only half a watt here, two or three watts there… but with 5, 6, or 7 devices, that adds up to about 20 watts. I prefer to save that by turning off devices when not in use, and instead keep my bus power supply running, since that has to operate 24/7 anyway. In regular houses, you can save this unnecessary power consumption just the same.

In my setup, the outlets can be switched in any combination or individually. For example:

- Everything turns off when we leave the house
- The Christmas lights come on automatically in the evening and turn off sometime during the night
- The TV, satellite receiver, and 5.1 sound system turn on together when you want to watch TV
- Or the TV turns off and the projector, satellite, 5.1 system, and Blu-ray player turn on when you want to watch on the screen

And so on. Only what you need is on at any time, and the remaining devices are disconnected from the power supply.

No, you misunderstood a bit: I don’t really see much point in having everything switched individually. I set up the three sockets on the rack to be switched together—otherwise, a master-slave power strip would also work easily. That way, for example, a Blu-ray player could stay on standby while the TV is on, which is negligible.

I also control Christmas lights and various outdoor lighting with DIN rail timer switches that have external inputs and astro functionality.

I just want to say that for certain lighting and socket scenarios, you don’t necessarily need a bus system.