New electrical panel

[Carlman]

How would you wire your electrical panel for a dedicated sound room to an optimum level? 

This panel will have its own run from the meter straight to a sound room for that soundroom's use only.

The things it must power at all times is:
2 500w monoblock amps
1 preamp
1 huge HT receiver (Onkyo 905)
1 Game station/PC/DVD player
1 DVD player
1 Audio PC
1 DAC
1 turntable
1 tuner
1 projector

And then I'd like to have 2 or 3 more dedicated outlets for 'guest gear' that I'm comparing or whatever:
2 sources (DAC's, TT's, phono pre's, etc.)
2 amps (tubes, large ss, and other)

All lights and the retractable screen motor will be handled by a separate panel... but tied to the same meter.

The whole house system is 100A.  I may get a 200A service instead.  I'll have 3 HVAC systems, 3 or 4 new rooms, and the sound room.  We don't use a lot of stuff so I don't know that it's all that big of a deal... but I'll see what that's going to run.

In any case, I'd like to know how you'd wire the box, what grounding you'd do, etc.  Thanks for any advice.

-Carl

[stereofool]

Carl,

I would do a 200A whole house panel...unless that's completely finished and not an option. If so, then I would do a 200A panel for the basement floor. That way you will have plenty of oompf for everything in the basement, plus you will have extra capacity if you ever need additional service for the rest of the house.

If you can do a 200A whole house panel, then a 100A panel should be fine for the basement. For grounding I would rely heavily on your electrian's expertise.

Don't scrimp on outlets...put them everywhere...you can never have too many outlets!! I know that when I built my garage I put outlets about every 24" around the walls and even put 6 outlets in the ceiling.

[spudco]

Stereofool has good advise.  Remember that unless you use an arc welder in your basement, most home loads don't draw lots of current.  The issue for most homes is the number of breakers available in the box.  Any given breaker will rarely come close to passing it's rated load.  Once your our of breaker slots, it gets lots harder to seperate circuits or add new ones.

[bpape]

If you have an electrician that will do what you want, star ground all of your AV outlets using THHN to a single point and make sure your ground is good.  Some go to the point of having that ground tied to the grounding rod with 0 or 00 wire which is what should happen. 

Have your AV outlets on 1 110v leg and the other stuff (especially any motors, dimmers, flourescents, etc.) on the other 110v leg.  Most boxes alternate legs every other terminal and ones opposite each other are on different legs

Bad Example Drawing:

1--2
2--1
1--2
2--1

etc.

Bryan