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| Question: Is this a solution for the whole house? |
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Answer: The primary benenfits of a PowerCore™
system are gained when it provides power for the AV elements and other sensitive equipment
for the home such as telephone, security and automation systems. Less sensitive
equipment such as lighting generally wouldn't benefit and should be powered
separately on standard branch circuits. |
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| Question: Would there be any reason to put lighting on the PowerCore™
circuits with the AV system? |
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Answer: No, lighting circuits can be noise sources and should be kept separate from PowerCore derived branch circuits. Typically, lighting will be powered directly from the house main panel. If the system gain is extremely high and the lighting dimmers are very “noisy”, the lighting system can be fed by an additional PowerCore™
unit for the ultimate in isolation. |
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| Question: Where would you typically locate the PowerCore unit? |
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Answer: You would normally locate the PowerCore system within 60ft of the equipment racks, however the closer it is to the equipment rack, the better the isolation performance. |
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| Question: What are the mounting options? |
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Answer: The PowerCore™
unit is heavy and should be mounted directly on the floor, secured using the
provided floor brackets. |
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| Question: As a free standing unit, what NEC restrictions apply? |
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Answer: The PowerCore must be secured to the floor using the brackets provided and nothing can be mounted above it. 8” side clearances apply. |
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| Question: I see that the input voltage is 240V or 208V. Is that available in residential systems? |
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Answer: Yes, normal split-single phase residential electric service is provided to the main panel of the house at 240V. The installing electrician can easily feed at that point. For homes with 3-phase service, the 208V input is used. |
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| Question: Must an electrician wire it up? |
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Answer: YES, the PowerCore™ system must be installed by a licensed electrician. It is designed to be a straightforward job and comes with easy to understand installation instructions. The PowerCore unit comes preassembled from the factory.
The electrician connects the 240V/208V feed from the main panel to the input
and connects the branch circuits to the PowerCore™ load center. |
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| Question: What if we need more circuits than one PowerCore is able to provide? |
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Answer: Not a problem, simply replace the single breakers with tandem breakers, or install additional PowerCore systems. Providing the power supply to
each PowerCore™ system is derived from the same place (i.e. the 240 volt supply from the main panel) all circuits across all PowerCore systems will still be on the same phase. |
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| Question: Can you explain “in-phase” again? |
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Answer: Standard residential power service is normally “split” into two banks of circuit breakers (and circuits). This ‘split-single’ supply approach provides 240 volts between the two ‘hot’ legs, but the 120 volt circuits that are “split” are 180 degrees out of phase with each other. This “out-of-phase” arrangement can cause noise problems for installed AV systems. The ‘hot’ legs of the PowerCore output are ‘in-phase’ with each other, resulting in zero volts between them, and provides clean, quiet power for AV systems. |
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| Question: Is this the same benefit offered by “balanced power” systems? |
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Answer: NO! The technology used in this system is more effective than “balanced” power systems, which are prohibited in residential installations by the 2008 National Electrical Code. (Article 647.3) |
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| Question: How much attenuation does the transformer provide? |
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Answer: 140–160dB (common mode) |
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| Question: What is the K-rating of the transformer? |
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Answer: Since the system is single phase only and has independent neutral conductors there is no excessive heating due to harmonics and thus the transformer does not actually require a K-rating. |
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| Question: Is there any advantage to using an isolated ground system in conjunction with a
PowerCore™ installation? |
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Answer: No - however, if there are steel studs and metal boxes bonded independently, care should be taken that no “stray” grounds are connected at the end of a PowerCore branch circuit. |
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| Question: With the integrated conditioning module is there any need for additional rack level filter/conditioning? |
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Answer: Normally no – the PowerCore™ conditioning module is perfectly impedance matched to the source (the secondary of the isolation transformer) and provides the best possible solution for this application.
There are two situations where rack-level filtering may be helpful: When the
PowerCore™ unit must be located far away from the supported equipment (more than
60 ft.) or when any equipment within the system is suspected of generating noise
back onto the power system. Of course, any installation without a PowerCore™
system will benefit from rack-level conditioning. |
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| Question: How does the PowerCore™ work with generator provided power? |
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Answer: The PowerCore™ works perfectly with any AC source as long as the waveform is reasonably sinusoidal. |
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| Question: How does the PowerCore work with a UPS? |
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Answer: The PowerCore works perfectly with any UPS that outputs
a decent sine wave. Transformers do not like square waves; the temperature will
rise. |