I am planning a theater room to house a couple of rows of motorized theater recliners. This will include a series of six or seven ganged leather recliners with individual motors. My question concerns the electrical requirements. Does anyone have knowledge or experience relating to the typical electrical current demands of an operating recliner motor in start mode and in operating mode? In the design of the theater, I can visualize a situation when all the guests arrive and are getting situated and adjusting their individual chairs at the same time, wherein as many as six or seven motors are in operating or start mode. I am needing to determine whether the electrical design will require a separate 15A circuit for the seats, or for that matter whether a single 15A circuit will be adequate.
Motorized Recliners Electrical Requirements
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Good question(s).
Even if they would fit combined with other devices on the same circuit, do you really want motors which are very noisy electrically dirtying the line for other devices which may be on it? If you are already planning a separate circuit or two for A/V gear then this is less of an issue, but in theory you could still come to a point where you have something plugged in that is affected by the noise of these motors if they are on a shared circuit. This is the same reason why I always run dedicated circuits for mini-fridges. You can then also make sure all motors are on one phase, and all lighting on another.
These motors aren't that powerful and while I don't have the specs in front of me (and most manufacturers don't seem to publish them at least not online), I can't imaging that 15amps wouldn't be enough (although why not go with a 20a circuit and outlets if going dedicated circuit?). It is quite possible that if you tried to time starting all motors at once it could trip the breaker due to the increased startup current demand, even with 20amp. I think these are universal motors and if so their ratio of starup power to running power is fairly high.
When it comes to wiring and circuit planning I'm of the belief that it is cheaper (and certainly easier) to go overboard early than it is to add circuits and rip apart walls later. I usually put in the biggest subpanels I can find and use far more circuits than are technically necessary. I've finished basements that have more circuits in them than the entire rest of the house, often because the theater and lobby end up getting 10+ circuits just for those rooms. You certainly don't need that many, but I sleep better at night knowing that the capacity is there.
In most modifications down the road it is far easier for an electrician to tap off of an existing circuit leg than it is it run back to the panel to add a new circuit. If the original electrician had designed your circuits to all be at maximum capacity with the current outlets/fixtures, then you can not safely add new legs to the circuit. Worst of all, if you don't have access to the original plans, some electricians won't even bother to calculate the current load and will just go ahead and do what is easiest and therefore can overload the circuit (which is a fire hazard and you may not even notice for weeks if ever)! With the way I do my jobs this isn't a worry, since few if any circuits are running over 50% capacity. You could freely tap into most if not all circuits and add a new light our outlet without any code violations or safety concerns. It costs a little more to do it this way up front, but if you ever want to expand the system down the road it's a heck of a lot cheaper and easier (and harder to screw up and make unsafe).
- Rhino
Even if they would fit combined with other devices on the same circuit, do you really want motors which are very noisy electrically dirtying the line for other devices which may be on it? If you are already planning a separate circuit or two for A/V gear then this is less of an issue, but in theory you could still come to a point where you have something plugged in that is affected by the noise of these motors if they are on a shared circuit. This is the same reason why I always run dedicated circuits for mini-fridges. You can then also make sure all motors are on one phase, and all lighting on another.
These motors aren't that powerful and while I don't have the specs in front of me (and most manufacturers don't seem to publish them at least not online), I can't imaging that 15amps wouldn't be enough (although why not go with a 20a circuit and outlets if going dedicated circuit?). It is quite possible that if you tried to time starting all motors at once it could trip the breaker due to the increased startup current demand, even with 20amp. I think these are universal motors and if so their ratio of starup power to running power is fairly high.
When it comes to wiring and circuit planning I'm of the belief that it is cheaper (and certainly easier) to go overboard early than it is to add circuits and rip apart walls later. I usually put in the biggest subpanels I can find and use far more circuits than are technically necessary. I've finished basements that have more circuits in them than the entire rest of the house, often because the theater and lobby end up getting 10+ circuits just for those rooms. You certainly don't need that many, but I sleep better at night knowing that the capacity is there.
In most modifications down the road it is far easier for an electrician to tap off of an existing circuit leg than it is it run back to the panel to add a new circuit. If the original electrician had designed your circuits to all be at maximum capacity with the current outlets/fixtures, then you can not safely add new legs to the circuit. Worst of all, if you don't have access to the original plans, some electricians won't even bother to calculate the current load and will just go ahead and do what is easiest and therefore can overload the circuit (which is a fire hazard and you may not even notice for weeks if ever)! With the way I do my jobs this isn't a worry, since few if any circuits are running over 50% capacity. You could freely tap into most if not all circuits and add a new light our outlet without any code violations or safety concerns. It costs a little more to do it this way up front, but if you ever want to expand the system down the road it's a heck of a lot cheaper and easier (and harder to screw up and make unsafe).
- Rhino
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