Things are proceeding apace here in Texas. We bought a house--located right in town--that is a gem. It's an historic house, but has been fully restored, from new sonotube concrete piers (pier and beam construction) to rescuing all the old woodwork, shutters, wainscoting, door knobs, latches and bead board. The house has some history and even has a hyphenated name! All the mechanicals/infrastructure are newish, circa 2004, when the restoration was completed. We will gradually be doing things to make the house more liveable- right now, it looks like an old West museum, with period wall paper, lot's of period wood work and details.This will be a gradual process- moving a couple walls, enlarging the kitchen, adding a full tub to a dressing room area, etc. The house is set back in a wild growth lot that looks like un-manicured field and forest, but it is really in the midst of town- there is an apartment complex surrounding it that is virtually invisible once you are on the property. It's like a time warp when you are there- quiet, and completely removed from the city. A few blocks walk to South Congress, where all the clubs and restaurants are in the 'Keep Austin Weird' zone. The house also has city views from the widow's walk at the top---accessed through a marine hatch! So much for the house itself.
My plan is to build an outbuilding for the system and record collection. Since this is an historic house, it has to meet a variety of approvals, and of course, there's the outlay to construct it, in addition to the changes we want to make within the house itself. So, in the interim, I'm going to set up my main system on the second floor- a large modern space (unlike the main floor).
Subpanel- check- probably Square D with a copper buss bar, tentatively mounted on the second floor in a room closet adjacent to the listening room.
Isolation Transformer- I already have the big Equi=Tech wall cabinet in storage, but I don't want to try to install that in the house-in fact, I'm not sure it would be code compliant since it is balanced power. I'm saving that for the contemplated outbuilding, where I gather I can get a separate service line. (Big Yay! on that ).
Instead, I want an electrician to connect a 'naked' isolation transformer (in a NEMA box) to this sub panel. I'm having a couple of electrical contractors come visit in the next week or so to talk about feasibility; obviously, I want to be code compliant. (One of the things I like about Texas is that you can call the Electrical Inspector and get him on the phone! I spoke to him in rough terms about what I wanted to do, and it seemed to be no issue, but I want to bore down on the details with the electrical contractor, and have it permitted and inspected so there are no issues).
I plan to run several dedicated lines from this sub panel to the second floor set up--precise location of receptacles to be determined. One thing I learned from my last house was not to bundle the cable together in conduit (in that case, brought up from the basement to a third floor)- the electrical noise from the air compressor motor zapped across the audio power lines, so individual, unbundled dedicated lines from a sub panel on the same floor shouldn't be too hair raising--
I doubt I'll spring for the $400 a pop outlets for this set-up, since it is an interim one until we do the outbuilding.
I'll also need some dedicated power to feed my "vintage" system which will be located in the front parlor on the ground floor.
One oddity, at least for me, having lived in the NorthEast most of my life, is not only the absence of a basement-- there is a generous height crawl space under the foundation that is accessible through a locked door- but given the construction, the main electrical panel is mounted to the outside of the house. Virtually every house I have seen of this type leaves the main panel unlocked!
One of the issues here is heat. It gets brutally hot in Austin during the summer- the un-conditioned attic spaces can be extremely hot. So, I'm reluctant to install any of this electrical equipment in an attic space, but may revisit that issue with the electrical contractor.
Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions are welcome. I'm not going to do a fancy ground array for this, since it will share the main house ground- which I will have beefed up. If and when I get separate service to an outbuilding, I can go to greater extremes on the grounding as well.
We are pretty excited-- lot's to do, beyond the hi-fi, but I'm pretty thrilled about this house-- it is hardly a run of the mill place, and I think a lot of people who saw it when it was listed admired it, but couldn't imagine how they could live in it. For us, I think the eccentric nature of the place hits our buttons. I had sworn off historic houses after having a brownstone, an old Spanish Colonial villa and a late 18th century Greek Revival. I was really hoping to find a Richard Neutra-style International modern house. But, the sad reality is, most of the mid-century modern here is modest, small and of poor construction- some have been renovated, but the really killer ones are new and insanely pricey. I'm just a pensioner now, retired, living modestly in the twilight of my life.
My plan is to build an outbuilding for the system and record collection. Since this is an historic house, it has to meet a variety of approvals, and of course, there's the outlay to construct it, in addition to the changes we want to make within the house itself. So, in the interim, I'm going to set up my main system on the second floor- a large modern space (unlike the main floor).
Subpanel- check- probably Square D with a copper buss bar, tentatively mounted on the second floor in a room closet adjacent to the listening room.
Isolation Transformer- I already have the big Equi=Tech wall cabinet in storage, but I don't want to try to install that in the house-in fact, I'm not sure it would be code compliant since it is balanced power. I'm saving that for the contemplated outbuilding, where I gather I can get a separate service line. (Big Yay! on that ).
Instead, I want an electrician to connect a 'naked' isolation transformer (in a NEMA box) to this sub panel. I'm having a couple of electrical contractors come visit in the next week or so to talk about feasibility; obviously, I want to be code compliant. (One of the things I like about Texas is that you can call the Electrical Inspector and get him on the phone! I spoke to him in rough terms about what I wanted to do, and it seemed to be no issue, but I want to bore down on the details with the electrical contractor, and have it permitted and inspected so there are no issues).
I plan to run several dedicated lines from this sub panel to the second floor set up--precise location of receptacles to be determined. One thing I learned from my last house was not to bundle the cable together in conduit (in that case, brought up from the basement to a third floor)- the electrical noise from the air compressor motor zapped across the audio power lines, so individual, unbundled dedicated lines from a sub panel on the same floor shouldn't be too hair raising--
I doubt I'll spring for the $400 a pop outlets for this set-up, since it is an interim one until we do the outbuilding.
I'll also need some dedicated power to feed my "vintage" system which will be located in the front parlor on the ground floor.
One oddity, at least for me, having lived in the NorthEast most of my life, is not only the absence of a basement-- there is a generous height crawl space under the foundation that is accessible through a locked door- but given the construction, the main electrical panel is mounted to the outside of the house. Virtually every house I have seen of this type leaves the main panel unlocked!
One of the issues here is heat. It gets brutally hot in Austin during the summer- the un-conditioned attic spaces can be extremely hot. So, I'm reluctant to install any of this electrical equipment in an attic space, but may revisit that issue with the electrical contractor.
Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions are welcome. I'm not going to do a fancy ground array for this, since it will share the main house ground- which I will have beefed up. If and when I get separate service to an outbuilding, I can go to greater extremes on the grounding as well.
We are pretty excited-- lot's to do, beyond the hi-fi, but I'm pretty thrilled about this house-- it is hardly a run of the mill place, and I think a lot of people who saw it when it was listed admired it, but couldn't imagine how they could live in it. For us, I think the eccentric nature of the place hits our buttons. I had sworn off historic houses after having a brownstone, an old Spanish Colonial villa and a late 18th century Greek Revival. I was really hoping to find a Richard Neutra-style International modern house. But, the sad reality is, most of the mid-century modern here is modest, small and of poor construction- some have been renovated, but the really killer ones are new and insanely pricey. I'm just a pensioner now, retired, living modestly in the twilight of my life.

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