Crowded House Can your house handle the additional demands made by a business?

Bill scott discovered one critical fact every homebasedentrepreneur should know-it may not be a good idea to turn on yourmicrowave oven in the kitchen while a computer is operating in youroffice.

Scott uncovered this little gem when he moved his advertisingdesign firm into his winter home in Marathon Key, Florida, lastyear.

"We found out we couldn't use the microwave or otherkitchen appliances at the same time as the computer because theywere on the same circuit," explains Scott, who has fourcomputers, two printers, a color scanner, a modem and a fax machinein his home office. His solution was to rewire the entire house,replace the old fuse box with a circuit breaker, and run twocircuits into the office exclusively for his computers.

As Scott learned the hard way, when high-tech office equipmenttakes up residence in your home, it's not always smoothsailing. Have you considered whether or not your home and itsinfrastructure can safely handle the extra physical burden yourbusiness equipment adds?

"It all depends on what you do; what the scale of the homeoffice is," explains New York City architect Denise A. Hall.Adding equipment may require an entirely differentset-up-possibly including electrical rewiring. In thestandard home office-such as a converted bedroom or spareroom-you should be able to use the existing outlets."But if you are going to put a copy machine, computer, fax andcoffee maker all on the same outlet, it's not going towork," cautions Hall.

Pittsburgh architect Marsha Berger goes one step further."Most outlets are duplex," she says. "If it'snot a grounded outlet [one with a hole for a third prong],you'd better get an electrician in to ground it. I don'tadvocate using an adapter because you're short-circuiting asafety feature."

To find out if your home office can take the heat, Hall suggeststhese steps: Examine all the equipment you plan to put in the homeoffice to determine the individual power requirements. Then countthe number of outlets in the room you'll be using.

How do you determine whether they can handle the load? Not byplugging everything in and waiting to see if the fuse blows.Instead, Hall recommends making a list of what equipment will gointo the office, then calling an electrician to come in for an hourand determine the maximum capacity of your available outlets.

"You can put your computer on a regular outlet, but it mightbe a good idea to have a dedicated line so it doesn't overloadthe circuits," suggests Hall, adding that this line also givesyou a little extra protection if there is a power surge in theneighborhood. But in most cases, depending on the age and conditionof the wiring, there is no need to have a room rewired.

Hot Air

In addition to the electrical load, adding electronic equipmentbrings up heating, ventilation, air conditioning and securityconcerns.

Ventilation needs are based on the room's size, the number ofpeople in it and the amount of machinery, says Hall. As thosethings change, heating and ventilation must be adjusted to yourpersonal preferences.

"You want to keep air moving all the time-bring in freshair and let out the stale air," advises Hall. "Sometimesthat's as simple as a ceiling fan or an open window." Inother cases, it might require a room air conditioner. The basicrule of thumb for ventilation: Whatever it takes to maintain yourown comfort level will also be enough to regulate the temperatureof computers and other electronics.