officially 3-5 pins per circuit.. in reality, you can put more on, especially if you put LEDs in the game.

If you're going to re-do your electrical, you might as well run 20 amp circuits.

What he said. Especially on upgrading your circuits

Tip #1

Start building Pin room #2

it never hurts to upgrade .

Build a loft to put extra pins!

Good luck on your buildout mbob. Have you put any thought about the lighting situation for the pins?

Congrats, that is awesome! Plan for more than you think you will buy, trust me

i'm planning my for conversion in the next couple months.

temp - plan for heat and ac.

lighting - i'd do a row of small recess lights above the pins. 3-5 lights or 2 tracks. measure 3" out from the wall shining down on the playfields. find mid point of the playfields and go across the pin row. lighting is one of the most important things. Large chandeliers centered in the room works well too. I use both methods. gives pins a showroom quality look and you'll never have to worry about your pins being too dark.

ceiling - if it's a theater/game room i'd recommend ceiling tiles as well. burgundy paint for the wall and gold ceiling/copper tiles works well.
http://www.americantinceilings.com/pattern/?gclid=CMCV48a2hbICFYhxQgodGhAAKg

carpet - i'd go with a burgundy style carpet like: casino style gives the room a rich classy look.
http://www.stargatecinema.com/Gameroom-and-Sports-Carpet-c-487.html

not sure about your taste and style but just a couple things to think about.

I added a 100 amp subpanel in my garage, split out a few 20 amp circuits, and dropped a 220v outlet for the welder/generator, depending.

Dimmable track lighting works well, plus you can aim the lights where you want to avoid glare. It will give you the most flexibility. Another thing to think about is offset lighting via some sort of crown moulding in the upper corner. You could hide lighting in the upper corner and have it reflect off the wall or ceiling, or even use rope lighting. Those new programmable dimmers that are available have a nice "fade out" feature when you turn them off, like theaters.

For 4-5 pins, I would run two separate 20amp circuits with 12-2 wire. Better than two or one 15amp circuits with 14-2.

Hey,

I'm not an expert on the thing by any means, but when I did my basement, I dropped in three twenty amp circuits. The plan was to only have two duplex receptacles on each (i.e. a max of 4 games per 20 amp circuit). Overkill? Probably, but it's cheap and easy to do when the walls are open, and pretty difficult to do once the walls are closed up. Hypothetically, I should be able to run a dozen machines at once with few problems.

Luke

Disclaimer: technically, if you look at the back of some games, they'll say 8 amps. So, really, if I wanted to do it by the letter of the law according to Williams or Stern, I would have run six twenty amp circuits, each with only one duplex receptacle on it. Even I thought that was a bit of overkill.

Remember there are things you can do to reduce power consumption on games. Especially B/W games you can set the GI illumination levels low and have the power saver kick in after 3 minutes.

Id ask a certified electrician before taking any advice from someone on this forum, please tell me you know that!

That's actually a really good point.

The only reason I did my own is because I know what I am doing. If you are even the least bit uncertain, it's not worth risking your house over. Plus, it's important to know the codes, so if you do decide to sell your house down the road, you don't have to remove everything you did if it doesn't pass inspection.

I know that your comment wasn't directed towards any particular person, but:
I'm not a certified electrician, but I did wire houses for 5 years before I started my current field of work. My suggestion is how I would do it if I was wiring my own home. Just a suggestion is all. I don't see the harm in asking fellow Pinsiders for help before paying some guy to tell you their opinion. Just my two cents.

BTW: Three 20amp dedicated circuits for 4-5 pinball machines is PLENTY enough. No code violations there.

Agreed, any electrician outfit that charges you to get advice from I would not hire. Fact is hiring a certified shop to do the work is good for the economy too!

I have all 4 of my pins (all LED) on one 15amp circuit and have never popped the breaker....btw Im a self employed contractor so thats where the economy statement came from

Since we are talking about electricians, let me tell you a little story about a recent experience I had. I am having an additional A/C unit installed next week, and I was looking to have a new 240 volt circuit run from the panel on one side of my house to the other side of my house. I had a well respected local electrician come out, and he quoted me $3,480 for the job. This seemed a little ridiculus to me, so I had another guy come over that I had used in the past. He quoted me $470. Yes, that's right, the first guy was more than SEVEN TIMES higher.

The moral of the story ... If you are hiring an electrician, get more than one quote.

Fair enough!

He quoted me $470.

Yeah, I'd say about a $375-500 job.

220house.jpg

More good advice, get at least three quotes

$470 to run wire, cut/secure conduit, crawl in the attic, drill holes & etc?

I think that dude is silly, I wouldn't do it right for less than $3,480.00

I did a similar job for my mom about two years ago. I added a 220V receptacle in her laundry room for an electric dryer. It took about two hours. Obviously she wasn't charged, but I would say it was about a $350 side job in my book.

I'll give a +1 to the "ask a certified electrician". Yes, I did pull a home owner's permit, yes, I did have it inspected, and yes, there were reasons as to why I did things the way I did. But I am not a professional. Long story short, if you're dealing with an electrician, it may be something you'd like to discuss with that person; tell him/her your requirements/what you're going to be doing and let him/her give you advice.

Luke

Definitely have the guy do the room to code. If he would do it against code, I wouldn't hire him. As I understand it the new standard is 20A circuits with 15A receptacles with 20A pass thru.

I think he is asking what are things to consider when planning to build a game room.

If I were to build a new game room then these are what I would do.

A door 32" wide or wider so you can get them in and out easily. If it is a garage then this isn't an issue.

At least one 20A circuit per 4 pins. Yes, you can run more but this gives you some flexibility for when you buy more. You will buy more as long as you have space.
Plan the floor plan accordingly. Don't forget to add in the space needed to remove the playfield glass.

A separate circuit for lights. Need bright lights on the ceiling so you can see what you are doing when working on the pins. I would put in rope lights around the side of the walls, ensconced or whatever it is called, so you can have indirect lighting but no glare when playing the pins.

Do you plan on having neon lights, TV, clocks, or other powered items on the walls? I would run a receptacle to those position(s) so you can hide the cords.

Speakers mounted on the walls or in the cieling with the wires run behind it.

Some sort of lightning/surge protection in the panel. These can get expensive but...

Sounds awesome mbob, get us some pics when its all done!

+1on the 20 amp.. No reason at all to build out a new space with 14-2 if your planning on any sort of electricity use.. 12-2!

I run 4 pins on a 20 in my converted garage space.

You going with a retractable screen? And you only have two pins today. So I say build out the room with the plans for pins along one wall, let's say 4. Wire electrically for pins everywhere. Then build out the theater and pin room compromising.. This is a house project, meaning it will cost you more then you expect. So less pin money..

My wisdom.. Happy wife, happy life. Put in the bar and theater, as most wives don't approve that. Then fit pins everywhere else possible!

4 pins in a house with a family I personally feel is awesome.. I find most of my pin friends that have more then 4 pins ..don't have others living with them. Haha.

My only advice would be to put in more breakers and outlets than you think you're gonna need.

HA HA HA

Ask 10 different "certified electricians" and you'll get 10 different answers.

Never in my life have I seen a field where there is so many different opinions on how things should be done.

It's always a good idea to ask around, but don't assume just because someone is "certified" that they really know what they're talking about.

Seems like a lot of wasted space. 20x22 is pretty big room.
Are you going to watch TV and play pins at the same time? Probably not as pins are loud. You can put the screen in between the two rows of pins.

A typical pin is 2.5' wide by 4.5' long. That means your 20' wide room will have about 11 feet between the pins. Plenty big for a screen. Just remember you need about 4' clear in front of a pin to remove the glass.

Or, you could put the pins in one row along the back wall. You can squeeze 8 modern pins in a 20' long wall but 7 would be more comfortable. Add in the 4' area in front of the pins, that would give you a 20' x 13' space for everything else.

I should have been more specific, find a Master electrician, not some dude who just started 3 weeks ago. Up in the North here we have certain building codes and schooling programs, not sure how its done in the Bayou....

We have the same codes and guidelines, but every contractor has a different story. I brought nine different licensed master electricians to look at a property I was renovating, and every gave me a different story about how much work I needed. In the end, I had to research code myself.

So now your changing your story?

In the end, I had to research code myself.

Good call.

http://www.textbooks.com/BooksDescription.php?BKN=1019762&SBC=PAF&mcid=XCS-GoogleBasePLAorPE-9780877659143-U&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_term=9780877659143U&utm_source=googlebaseplaorpe&adtype=pla&kw={keyword}&gclid=CKK-5_jrhrICFQWCQgodtQsA5g

neccode.jpg

While the NEC Book has it all, it may be overkill when it comes to just installing a few outlets.

I was in the Library a while ago and there was a laminated ~ 10 page guide to the most common Codes that one would encounter. I'm gonna try and find it next time I'm at that Library. it was really good and it is quick to give you the code info that you'll need for the majority of Home electrical work.

I dig this, looks like a perfect set up. Put a couple up outlets in by the ceiling for a few neon signs behind the bar, just a tid bit from experience (wishing I did)

looks good. what about the garage door? are you putting up a temp wall to cover it on the inside? leaving it or removing it?