Building gameroom in my basement - ideas?

[RetroJames]

Hey,

I have another very important suggestion.  Iwent over to a local collector's house today and he has a great arcade / gameroom in the basement.  On the subject of power, he said he has a full dedicated panel for the basement only.  He has at least 10 upright arcade games and at least 8 pins as well as a jukebox.

The feature he pointed out that I thought was very well done was the outlet switches.  All outlets in the gameroom are controlled by a panel of about 10 light switches.  Each is designated according to the area they serve allowing you to flip your machines on and off from a central location. Very slick, no rooting around for a surge protector on the floor.

You can see his gameroom here:

http://www.alsarcade.com/

His site is a little hard to navigate, but just click "Video" then "Current" for the video games or "Pinball" then "Current" for the pins.

He also has a Varkon. It is an upright arcade cabinet with a pinball game inside.  Actual pinball, reflected in a half-silvered mirror.  I got to play it and it is WAYYYY cool. Only 90 made.  He also has a Reactor, Serial Number 2.  Very nice guy to boot.

Good luck!

[RayB]

Why's it necessary to have a second electrical panel? Is it because he likes to run all his games at the same time?

[Wade]

I'm constantly trying to pictures the roome dimensions needed for this stuff. Wade, what size is your gameroom?

It is about 22'x22' I think, but one wall is irregular and has a hallway and only accommodates one game currently.  The rest is a couch, stereo, mini fridge.  Same wall where we plan to add a booth (in place of the couch).

It's important to make accomodations for all the "regular people" too.

I accomodate people like that by not inviting them

And who are these...how you say....re-gyoo-lur? people you speak of?

Seriously, a lot of my friends love the gameroom.  But when we have parties, my wife and her friends tend to spend all their time upstairs.  I'm really making an effort to make the gameroom more appealing to the non-gamers.  It sucks to have parties that are clearly divided up.  I'd rather everyone just hang in the gameroom, or at least stay somewhere in the basement.

Why's it necessary to have a second electrical panel? Is it because he likes to run all his games at the same time?

I don't think having a second panel serves any real purpose (no higher capacity), it is mostly for convenience.  For example, if I trip a breaker, I have to run all the way upstairs to the garage to flip it back on.

Being able to have all the games on at the same time SAFELY is just a matter of having enough circuits that are designed for the proper loads.  Most people really overload their circuits, but it is dangerous and can cause a fire.  Not worth it.  A 20amp circuit should have ALL 12 gauge wire, 12 gauge grounded outlets, and should only have 5 or 6 games on it.  And that's pushing it.  So realistically a gameroom with many games should have 4-5 20amp circuits.  Most homes have one circuit per room or worse, and usually are only wired for 15 amps too.

This is why I keep adding circuits, even though I don't have a huge number of games (3 pins 6 vids). I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Wade

[Trimoor]

Don't worry about overloading.  As long as everything is wired to code, the breakers will trip long before it would cause a fire.

[RayB]

Hmmm... In my house, the lights will flicker once when an appliance turns on (dryer, furnace, washer, etc...). What causes that? The house is less than 2 years old. I'm gonna have at least 5 games in the basement, plus a home office.

[GGKoul]

Not sure what would case the lights to flicker, but you'll be fine as long as you have a lots of plugs wired to a 2 or 3 breakers. 

[DrewKaree]

When you say "flicker", do you mean the lights dim slightly, or do you mean the lights actually turn on and off for a breif half of a second?

If it's the latter, it's poor electrical work somewhere.  If it's the former, that's normal, but may be improved by isolating those things further with their own breakers so they aren't drawing that large initial load of power-up juice....I dunno if you're reaching the limit of that particular breaker, or if they draw SO much at start-up that they should have their own dedicated breaker to help those things run smoother over time, as well.

[RayB]

It's just the brief dimming.

[DrewKaree]

That's normal, from my understanding, unless steps are taken to isolate those big power suckers from stuff like your lights.  I'm betting when they wired your house (you said it was fairly new, yes?) they saved money by either running less wires and putting more stuff on larger breakers, or they tied larger items like the furnace/HVAC into less used (but capable of handling it) breakers, which happen to be tied into a large lighting circuit.

Father-in-law installed A/C on the house, separate circuit, furnace is on a separate circuit, and no problems with those, but the built-in microwave, which shared a circuit with all the upstairs electrical, did the same thing you mention every time it turned on/off, until too much stuff was plugged in and it started blowing fuses, after which he ran another circuit, and solved the problem altogether.

[Wade]

Don't worry about overloading.