In my quest for a great home theater room, I am looking to add some form of power protection to the rather expensive equipment that I have. Over the past 3-4 weeks, there have been a number of large power events where the lights have flickered/flashed/blown.

All my computer equipment is hooked up to a UPS and that kicks in right away to protect me. But inside the Media HT room, having 4-5 ups's scattered around to be beside the equipment that needs to be protected isn't really going to work all that well for me. I was thinking of rather having the outlets run back to an electrical panel, it might be better to link them back to some C14 outlets mounted in the wall where I could locate a big ass UPS to take care of all my needs,



Has anyone else in the HT installation profession out there done anything like this?

Well, I wouldn't use that gender of C14 on the wall side!

I don't see gender.

Pinko commie librul.

Well, actually you would.. That is the side that you have with the UPS. Effectually it's like a big extension cord inside the wall. You would then run a C13-Nema15 power cable from the UPS electrical outlet to the C14 plug on the wall. This way, you could not electrocute yourself.

Ah. I misread your plan.

I'll take 'Don Cherry is a Klingon' for a thousand Alex.

Doesnt your UPS have Nema R15 outlets on it? I have a HT/HiFi double conversion UPS and am a qualified sparky. Fire away.

The best bang for buck bulletproof UPS I found that could handle all I needed was a 20A cyberpower unit. It is layered in drywall dust, insulation dust, sawdust and just plain old dust. Quite the tank. It seems happy to be abused.... Lol.

The thought is that I have a TV in the main family room mounted on the wall over top of the NG fireplace. It is not possible to run the power cord for the TV outside the wall down to a UPS. Right now I have a recessed NEMA15 plug on the wall that uses normal electrical in wall wire to connect to the electrical pannel in the basement.

I am installing another TV in the basement HT room. Again, it will be wall mounted and I don't want the power cord for that TV running outside along the wall. It is another NO GO for me.

But those power cables for the TV are not fire rated nor are they allowed to be run inside the wall. So how do you connect a wall mounted TV to a UPS??

My thought as I tried (and it seems failed) was to use normal in wall electrical cable just like normal. Put on a standard recessed NEMA15 electrical outlet behind the TV just like you normally would. Except, instead of running the cable to the electrical panel, run it to another wall outlet behind the UPS. Now the problem is how to get the power from the UPS electrical outlet plugs, to that recpetical outlet on the wall. Now I know I have seen it somewhere and said, wow that's a great idea. I saw someone use a C14 style outlet. As you are trying to put electricity to the outlet, rather than getting it.

What you are thinking can be done, but it is better to remotely locate your UPS in a mech room elsewhere. The fans can get noisy on bigger units.

1. Put a dedicated feed to your UPS in mech room.
2. From there pull dedicated feeds to your devices. Terminate as normal in receptacles.
3. Put cord ends on the UPS side and plug into the UPS unit.
4. Label the wallplates so you dont have someone using them for a vaccum etc.

Doing it this way allows you to remove the UPS later (if you move or whatever) and you simply replace the single gang device box supplying the UPS with a junction box and splice the UPS feed to the leaving circuits to return the circuit to a normal setup from the panel.

You can buy the powerbridges as you are thinking, but they are a retrofit solution. If you have basement access, fishing up to the main floor is doable. (Not always easy depending on framing.... )

You seem already pretty knowledgable on how this stuff is done, but I can walk you through it if you need.

For around $200+ you can add full house surge protection to your circuit breaker box. My electrician said to buy from an electrical supply store. I've not added one yet, but would like to.

I currently have my home theater stuff hooked up to an APC J15.

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=J15

There's also a rechargeable light plugged in under the TV that's switched off, but comes on automatically when the power to the house stops, to let me know to shut down the theater. So far, I've not lost power this way since it's been installed.

I know this doesn't address your problem, probably, but at least I get a chance to tell about something in my system.

My thought of using a UPS is not really for surge, but what happens after the surge (brownout dips) that you need to really be adding power to the line. The only method to do that is via some form of battery.

That is a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

The APC-J15 I mentioned above is battery and surge for Home Theater use.