Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Flex conduit?

Robert...since you have fooled with this stuff I got a question for you.

If I were to run the 2" conduit (for TV A/V cables) up to "around" where the TV would be and just leave it in the wall (2x6 exterior wall with bat insulation). Do you think I would be able to later cut a opening in the drywall exactly where I need it... find and grab the 2" conduit and hook it to a low volt box and then mount it? How does the conduit hook to the wall boxes?

For the power I was thinking I could do the same. Have a wire run and just end, with some slack, around where the TV will be and have some wire nuts on the end because I am assuming it would be live. And then mount a power outlet where I need it and wire it up.

This is the TV wall...the orange is the low volt stuff the red is high volt. The fire brake (horizontal boards between studs) are about five and a half feet off the ground. When im standing they are about eye level on me. I am guessing the center of the TV would be slightly lower so the a/v and power outlets can stay under the fire brake. A single 2" conduit run into the attic to run 5 coax and 6 12-14ga speaker wire (2" big enough???). Coming out of the slab on the left is a conduit for speaker wire to go to the couch (shakers) and can go into the bottom of the 8 gang low volt box. The conduit on the right is for a power wire to be run to under the couch.

Thoughts...comments....anyone

I don't see any problem leaving a conduit in the wall behind the drywall.

However, I do believe it is against code to leave a high voltage wire behind drywall. Not even that, but safety wise it isn't safe, unless you DO NOT hook up that line to the power box, not at all.

Yeah I wasn't sure about the high volt wire being live and wire nutted in the wall like that.

So the power line could be run but just not hooked to that lower outlet. Then when the time comes I would need to wire it to the lower outlet and then put a outlet behind where the TV will end up.

Would it be safe/code to have the run of wire IN the junction box just not hooked up?

So it seems it could work...the trick will be finding the conduit/power wire and then grabbing/moving it to where I need in the wall behind the TV.

Since the flex conduit is not rigid it will probably not want to stay where I want it through the drywall hanging process. Do you think if I ziptie it to the dead power wire it would keep it in place?

Thanks for all this help...I am feeling better about doing the wire myself lol. This room will house m80's ,vp150, qs8's and dual svs 39cs+ subs (for now). I cant wait to hear it!

yes, you can tie the conduit to the dead power line (good idea). Then get some wire staples and just secure the dead line to the stud. Then you will know exactly where it will be, right attached to the stud.

I think you are ok leaving the dead line in the live outlet box, just secure the ends.

-Hutz

Sweet I am ordering the stuff today but wont be installing till monday/tuesday.

Cool I know how you feel, I finished my basement a couple months ago, pre-ran speaker wire behind the walls and did all the electrical runs myself. Everything turned out great! I think I did over kill as I have 4 15a breakers dedicated to just my theatre room (16x14 room).

1 breaker for the lighting (I couldn't tap into existing lighting in other parts of the basement), 1 breaker for the front wall where the sub is plugged in, 1 breaker for my East wall where my AV stuff is plugged in, and 1 breaker for the back wall and ceiling outlet for my projector. I have stayed away from using the back wall outlets for anything as I want to have full dedicated power to my projector.

All I know is that I am set completely for power, I will never be under-powered . If I had to do it again, I would have ran 20A power wires to the front and side wall incase I get a big beefy amp in the future, however I think my setup will even work for that load.

-Hutz

Edit: Even though you are running your own electrical, I would highly advise getting an electrician to hook all the outlets up and such, and all the wires to the electrical box. He can make sure all is working as it should and you get a good sense that everything is hooked up properly.

I am only running the low volt stuff like coax for sat TV and speaker wires. The builders guy is running power and telephone lines lol. I am not going to run the power in the house...it would burn down!!

I told them where I wanted the power outlets on the wall. I am not sure what the amp ratting is going to be on all of it. The box in the middle of the wall will be a 4 way outlet and then there is a 2 way outlet closer to the left and right corners for powered subs to plug into. For now my samson 1000 will be plugged in the center outlet. I have an old onkyo receiver now but will eventually get some sort of 200w x 7 amp. Either emotive (spelling?) outlaw or possibly the axiom amp but that's an expensive sucker.

I wonder if I will have enough power in the middle....I mentioned to the builder I wanted the center plugs to be 20amps and he thought that's what they would be buuuut who knows. Maybe he didn't realize what I was talking about......

How does that work...if it has 4 outlets in that center plug...would each outlet be 20 amps or is it divided by 4 so 5amps per plug. And if its like that would that 4 way outlet need its own wire straight from the breaker box? And what if that center 4way plug is daisy chaned to other outlets on that wall...are the amps cut even lower? And when I tap into the outlet for my "behind the TV" outlet...am I stretching it to thin?? The electrician hasn't started yet but probably will any day now.

The 20a breaker will be in your breaker box. All 4 outlets will feed off that 20a.

I would suggest a dedicated breaker in your breaker box of a 20a run to where all your AV stuff will be. All your amps and pre/pro's and such should be on a dedicated 20a breaker IMHO.

And then I would run a dedicated 15a or 20a for your subs and plasma TV outlets.

And then run an additional 15a for the rest of the oulets in your room for lamps and whatever else, even your ceiling lights can go on this run.

I know that sirquack as well as dwellel (however you spell that!) otherwise known as dave ran a dedicated 20a to their AV rack, and is used only for their amps and processors and whatever else.

So if I wanted to power all the a/v stuff (200x7 amp,pre-pro,cd,dvd,sat boxes ect) in the middle of the room INCLUDING the plasma NOT INCLUDING the subs would a 20amp be enough? I can then do a dedicated 15amp to each of the sub outlets in the left and right corners of the wall OR could those 2 sub outlets share a 20amp?

On a lighter note I found this wall outlet. It is recessed for the power plug behind the plasma. Only thing is it does not attach the flex conduit to it...but as long as its in the wall I think I can grab it to run a few wires through and make it work.
recessed outlet

I think that would be ok (AV stuff and plasma on a 20a).

Both of the subs can go on the same 15a breaker.

Its actually a good idea to keep the subs of the same run as the display, I know when watching a CRT, my sub was plugged into the same line as my CRT, and every time the sub went off I got lines on the screen.

So keeping the subs off of the display is a good idea.