Sometimes you get handed a less than favorable situation. For example, somebody comes in and installs your new church sound system and fails to inform you of how the power is laid out for everything. One common problem we run into with churches is that their sound and lights are on the the same circuits.

Why does that matter though?

There are several reasons why having your lights and sound on the same breaker is a whole slew of problems waiting to happen. We’ve seen them all. The short version? Put everything on separate circuits from the beginning.

Reason #1: You Could Flip The Breaker

So here you are with brand new sound and lighting systems everything looks and sounds great. Then the sub hits and BOOM. The power goes out. Imagine the fear that you would have. What the heck just happened? Yep. You flipped the breaker. Now, granted there is some math involved with how much a breaker can handle that I won’t bore you with on this post. It’s best practice to put lighting systems on a separate circuit than your sound system to soften the load that it places on the breakers. In some cases you may find that you would benefit from having two breakers designated to each area depending on the load of the circuit. Most circuits can only handle about 80% of their overall amperage, meaning you should calculate a 15-amp breaker at about 12-amps and a 20-amp breaker at about 16-amps.

If your using older lights that aren’t LEDs, you should really take time with an certified electrician to calculate exactly how much your circuits are being pushed to avoid such a catastrophe. Technically, you should take the time and do this across the board but it’s especially needed when dealing with high-output par cans or older ellipsoidal fixtures.

Modern sound systems still consume a good deal of power, especially things like large subs. It’s not that they take up too much space on the circuit alone but combined with old, or even new, LED lighting systems, things can add up really quickly.

Reason #2: Ground Noise

You could write a book on the amount of things that can cause ground noise. Without getting too scientific, we’ll stick to our current subject of sharing circuits. The most common scenario that I see is non-led lighting fixtures being dimmed anywhere between 1-99% causing a buzz in your speakers. This means that when the lights are off, no buzz. If the lights are at 100%, you also don’t have a buzz. This is case-by-case and doesn’t always work out this way but it’s super common nevertheless.

Two Temporary Solutions

1: Hum-X

Track down the buzz and plug the culprit speaker or sound console into a Hum-X. This shouldn’t be a permanent solution though. Actually, nether of these should be permeant solutions. Purchase a Hum-X here.

2: Break The Ground

There’s a technique that’s as useful as the day is long. Take the IEC power cable that your speaker is plugged into the circuit with and snap the ground pin off. If you plug it back in and the buzz is gone, it’s time to separate the circuits. It’s generally safe to use the speakers for a while like this but THIS IS A TEMPORARY SOLUTION. You should use this with caution.

Bonus Tip: Even though IEC cables are extremely available and cheap, you can always replace that end of the cable with a new one from Lowes. Use all parts of the Buffalo, as Jon Favreau would say.

Don’t Forget The Power Conditioner.

I would be remiss to say that all rack mounted power strips are technically power conditioners. Don’t skimp in this area. Clean power is super important for church stage systems. I recommend JuiceGoose or Forman as a starting point. One difference is that the cheaper units are typically just a power strip that rack mount. Meanwhile, a power conditioner can protect sensitive loads by smoothing out voltage fluctuation such as spikes, transients, and electrical noise. View another useful explanation here.

How Many Amps?

This is a loaded question but typically I would start at no less than 20-amps per circuit. 20-amps is a great place to be, anything more than that should probably be separated anyway. It’s generally a pretty easy swap out as well. I’d avoid 10-amp breakers if possible just out of a general concern for longevity.

It All Starts With Power

You can have church audio, visual, or lighting without electricity. It’s absolutely priority number one when our Lake Charles and Sulphur team at HoneySonic do a site visit. As Lake Charles and Sulphur audio visual consultants, we understand that sometimes a corner was cut somewhere in the construction phase of your building. Though that’s common with church members volunteering to help, I will always recommending hiring a Lake Charles or Sulphur electrician to help you with your power grid. Typically a best case scenario is to have us meet with you and your electrician together to plan things out the right way.

Plan Your Site Visit Today

Site visits are so important when considering your Lake Charles audio, video, and lighting installation. We’re not just limited to Lake Charles though. We’d love to fly out to your church and meet up with you. We can build your churches dream AVL design in a way that’s volunteer friendly but also has plenty of room to grow. These systems can get as complex or simple as you need or desire. Schedule your site visit today.

Sound and lights on different circuits?