electrical question: PC's, printer, ceiling fan

[audiophil2]

My home office did not have a ceiling fixture and only had a switched recepticle for a plug in lamp.

I had my electrical guy neighbor come out (he is non-union electrician) and install a ceiling fan with light and change the wall switch out to a dual slider dimmer than controls the fan light brightness and fan speed from off to fully bright/on.

Prior to that I had may office equipment including 2 800watt PC's, 4 monitors, and a Brother MFC all in one laser jet. The laser jet would affect the switched light when it started up for print jobs so I bought it a dedicated batter backup thinking it would condition the line and act as a capacitor. It greatly diminished the light surges during start-ups but it is not a true line conditioner.

So now that the ceiling fan with dual dimmers is installed I get an audible sound from my computer speakers when the fan or light dimmer is slid. Of course I never bothered to get a battery backup for my computer yet since the last set of SLA's died so here is my question(s):

Should I have a dedicated 20 amp line installed in my office just for my office equipment? I am pretty sure the office receptacles are on a shared leg to at least 1 other room in the house.

Should I install a line conditioner Smart -UPS for my office equipment or if I have the 20amp dedicated line installed leave the Brother MFC on the current leg still on its own APC battery back up and get a SMART-UPS for the office equipment?

Or go cheap with this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000514OG?tag=price190-20

I wonder if this would be enough for my computer/monitor needs.

http://www.amazon.com/APC-SMC1500-Smart-UPS-Interface-Uninterrupted/dp/B007ZT2KKM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1425850387&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=APC+SMC2200+Smart-UPS

I am not looking for long run time for power outages. I can shut everything down 5 minutes.
I want clean power to my office equipment.
SHould

[AAShooter]

You have a lot going on there. Is everything on the same 15 amp circuit? It sounds like it. A separate circuit would probably help the situation. It is hard to tell exactly what some of the proposed solutions will do for you.

Usually once you are looking at a continuous 1500 watts on a 15 amp circuit your are a pretty full utilization.

[audiophil2]

You have a lot going on there. Is everything on the same 15 amp circuit? It sounds like it. A separate circuit would probably help the situation. It is hard to tell exactly what some of the proposed solutions will do for you.

Usually once you are looking at a continuous 1500 watts on a 15 amp circuit your are a pretty full utilization.

My 200 amp service has 4 15 amp breakers labeled "lights+recepts". I could take the time to find out which breaker my office is on and what other recepts it shares but my office is so close tot he panel outside it would take less time for my electrician to run a dedicated 20 amp line up to my attic and down inside the same exterior wall the service is on. I hope the lights and recepts are not shared but it is a typical tract house so who knows what corners were cut.

I have the following on 1 circuit as far as I know:
2 computers with EVGA 750 watt PSU's.
4 23" LCD monitors
cable modem
router
ethernet business phone
Brother MFC 8710dw that pull s a lot of power when I start a print. I start 2-3 page print jobs 20-50 times a day.
occasional use laptop
cheap logitec speakers
floor lamp with CFLs that will be removed now that I have the ceiling fan
The above items are split across 2 recepts on a few power/surge strips. The Brother is plugged directly into an APC backups only but one other surge strip is being run off the same outlet. I have no doubt both outlets are the same leg but I do not know if the leg continues into another room.

The new item is the ceiling fan with 4 LED 60w equiv lamps.


The dual dimmer switch the ceiling fan is on is in the same box as my exterior "porch" light. There is an exterior outlet below the porch light but I think that is connected to the GFCI in my garage.

There is noise getting into my computer speakers now that the dimmer was installed. Maybe it was there all along but I never noticed it since it was an on/off thing before and now it is like a potentiometer for the fan and light.

[AAShooter]

I would run the added circuit since you have a great resource to help you. That said, I would want to know what breakers control what items in my house. So mapping that is a task I would suggest anyway.

[EchoFourTango]

Mapping a room takes all of 10 minutes or less.

[audiophil2]

Mapping a room takes all of 10 minutes or less.

How do I do it with keeping the power on and my computers on?

[AAShooter]

How do I do it with keeping the power on and my computers on?

That is exactly the problem. If you don't know what breakers control what, you really can't without taking a chance of switching off the wrong breaker. Your electrician may know which breaker controls the power on your computer given his recent work.

[klewan]

Get rid of the slide controls on the fan and light; just install simple on-off switch and everything will be quiet. I made the same mistake, had a buzz in all the radios when the fan or light was on. Unless you have some fan with blades off a B-29, just run it on high. Same with the light. My fans and lights have pull cords to change speeds and rotation. The sliders put some kind of RF out, it's not on the power line; at least mine weren't. Mine were completely separate circuits and it still buzzed. I have a compact fluorescent that messes up the TV and radio, again, it's RF...

[audiophil2]

Get rid of the slide controls on the fan and light; just install simple on-off switch and everything will be quiet. I made the same mistake, had a buzz in all the radios when the fan or light was on. Unless you have some fan with blades off a B-29, just run it on high. Same with the light. My fans and lights have pull cords to change speeds and rotation. The sliders put some kind of RF out, it's not on the power line; at least mine weren't. Mine were completely separate circuits and it still buzzed. I have a compact fluorescent that messes up the TV and radio, again, it's RF...

That would be the easy thing to do. I don't care about the ceiling fan speed control but I want the light on a dimmer. I have 240waTts worth of daylight LED in the ceiling fan because I like bright light at times and other times I want it weak enough to be barely 1 candle power. The fan is quiet. The problem is that when I slide the light dimmer I can here the RF through my computer speakers.If I can hear it through my speakers then it is in everything.

I think just short of tearing out the drywall and running an isolated ground circuit through EMT to a dedicated outlet I will just have my electrician install a dedicated 20 amp outlet in my office with romex and plug a line conditioner/AVR into it then send power to all my electronics. I'll leave the brother MFC on the old circuit. It dims the LED's a little but I don't mind. I could always get a small conditioner for it.

I might grab the line conditioner from my home theater setup and see if that gets rid of the RF. If it does I will still install a dedicated circuit for my electronics but at least I will know it can be fixed without losing my dimmer.

[EchoFourTango]

A dedicated ground could do it, but you would need to add another wire or Romex and change out the outlet. If your buddy can run another line with out terring up the drywall, then go for it.

[audiophil2]

A dedicated ground could do it, but you would need to add another wire or Romex and change out the outlet. If your buddy can run another line with out terring up the drywall, then go for it.

If I was to go dedicated ground it would be isolated like the orange outlets in commercial buildings and hospitals. Romex won't work. I've seen it it used on residential A/V installs with orange outlets and it is just a waste of money since there is no shielding. It needs to be properly shielded so either BX or tear up the drywall and install thinwall. It's an exterior wall so I have to deal with insulation. I'll ask my guy if he can run BX. I doubt it from the way the houses are built out here.

[ebencikiv]

A dedicated ground could do it, but you would need to add another wire or Romex and change out the outlet. If your buddy can run another line with out terring up the drywall, then go for it.

bingo!

[ebencikiv]

I am pretty sure if you were to run a dedicated line to your office for your equipment it would fix your problem.

Did you check to see if any of the lights and switches are grounded?

You can run a new grounding electrode aka ground rod next to your panel and connect it to your new dedicated outlet as a last expensive resort.

I hate electrical, only have 20 more years till I can retire Heh!

[Dubious_Beans]

Not all dimmers are created equal and some have better noise filtering than others. Try a good quality dimmer rated for inductive loads and see if it helps.

[Jeff213]

Coming from an electrician, if the panel is close, it would be just as easy to add a new circuit as it would be to add a ground to the existing circuit. It sounds like that circuit is pretty loaded down right now, I would go with a new circuit with a quad receptacle.