davidsrsb
pfm Member
He shouldn't have been happy. The MCB or fuse is to protect the cabling, including those IECs, which will melt at 100A if there is a fault
Another mains fuse hits the streets
- Thread starter Cyclopse
- Start date
This whole post is a great example of how a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and I'm including your 'electrician'.
IWC Doppel
pfm Member
All I know is I had equipment on individual spurs, very low impedance and each unit had a dedicated MCB fuse on the dedicated CU (as well as RCBO's for each back of spurs) the fuses I chose to suit so not just 13A AND a fuse in the piece of equipment after the IEC, so in my view very safe. If it was illegal, I should go to jail because of it, so be it.
It was not dangerous I can say that !
My set up which did sound notably better (I had the other system in place so could and did A-B) was 100A incomer > Dedicate CU > each fused line to one piece of equipment via IEC on 6mm squared insulated cable. every piece of electronics also had a in line fuse as well.
I AM NOT RECOMMENDING ANYTHING in case the panic Police dive in and assume I am
narabdela
who?
Just as well. Did you actually check your electrician's credentials?
(btw, the in-line fuse on the electronics that you mention is irrelevant to the madness, but it does indicate another basic misunderstanding).
You still need a mains fuse in each piece of HiFi equipment, fused appropriately to protect in case of equipment failure.
IWC Doppel
pfm Member
Okay so one piece of equipment has a fuse at the IEC and a 5A fuse at the CU and the has a single spur the other has a fuse at the IEC and a fuse a 13A fuse at the plug and 32A fuse on the ring main
So which one is dangerous then ?
I’m not talking about regs just safety
So which one is dangerous then ?
I’m not talking about regs just safety
narabdela
who?
Try telling that to your Insurance company.
IWC Doppel
pfm Member
I hear you but as I said this installation was in a previous house, my comment was in response to it being 'dangerous'
I am not an electrician so can't comment on why a separate fused line from the CU would be seen as unsuitable when the only reason I am aware that the UK regs have fuses on mains leads is because we operate a ring main. The terrified EU don't have ring mains and don't have fused leads so obviously they don't think it's dangerous
Been reading this thread and have thought of commenting several times along these lines... staggered at some of the nonsense people get up to. Personally I doubt much of it (over and above making sure there is a properly wired and capacity calculated power supply) will make any difference to the sound of a hifi system anyway, but that's fine and just opinion (and we're allowed to have different ones), but when it starts getting into the realms of breaking wiring regulations and doing daft stuff that might compromise the electrical safety of components and circuits then I do wonder... there's a very strong argument for no one being allowed to touch any form of electrical installation without a proper qualification and penalties if they are found to do so.
IWC Doppel
pfm Member
I certainly haven’t said I disregarded regs, my electrician at the time signed off and made the install he was and is as far as I am aware a competent electrician he certainly works in domestic and factory installations as a business owner.
I did say that reducing your mains impedance from supply to equipment made a difference sonically
I did say that reducing your mains impedance from supply to equipment made a difference sonically
Beobloke
pfm Member
Just to say, the electrician that wired the new kitchen in our old house and signed it off was also undoubtedly 'competent' and 'certified'
Unfortunately, as none of the under-cabinet lights worked reliably thanks to his poor wiring, plus he left a supply feed cable unsecured, hanging in mid air and resting on the back of the dishwasher, which finally melted and shorted out after about 6 months, he was also clearly "an idiot".
Darren L
Egalitarian
You never can be too sure, in renovating our house I've found numerous lousy terminations in the kitchen, socket and ceiling roses. Easy enough to re-terminate but for someone with no electrical knowledge it's a different story.
Barrymagrec
pfm Member
When we moved into our new build flat forty odd years ago a socket in the kitchen had live and neutral reversed and the bathroom light and fan were reversed which meant it went pitch black after 20 minutes.
Was signed off O.K. though.....
Was signed off O.K. though.....
Certified but incompetent !
qualifications mean very little when it comes to competence unfortunately,
it boils down to giving a dam about your work and pride in the job along with engaging your brain while you work.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Been reading this and I think there's confusion here, quite apart from talking about spurs when radials are meant. I think IWC Doppel's installation, well, one of them, was taking a tail from the meter via the splitter box (forgotten what it's called) directly to the c.u. in the equipment room. The mains leads with IECs at the kit end are hard-wired to RCBOs sufficient to protect the mains leads (16 amps????) Apologies if I've got that wrong.
I may be completely wrong here in filtering out the info. from the above. If correct, though, I knew a chap in Peterborough who, in order to get dedicated mains to his kit, ran an armoured cable (presumably like a tail @ 25mm2 or thereabouts) outside the house and in to a c.u. feeding the kit as outlined above.
My installation simply uses one radial per piece of kit, again covered by the appropriate RCBOs in the c.u. adjacent to the domestic c.u./meter/incoming.
My understanding is and has been that with most mains leads okay up to about 15 A, they need to be adequately protected. In the case of a ring main, that's by a 13 A fuse in the plug. In the case of radials, it's by means of an appropriate RCBO. I know things move on but this was fine when I had mine connected and signed off (I did the routing myself though). Has anything changed as to me this radial protection is as safe (or even safer as I believe RCBOs are quicker than 13 A fuses) as that used on domestic ring mains.
I may be completely wrong here in filtering out the info. from the above. If correct, though, I knew a chap in Peterborough who, in order to get dedicated mains to his kit, ran an armoured cable (presumably like a tail @ 25mm2 or thereabouts) outside the house and in to a c.u. feeding the kit as outlined above.
My installation simply uses one radial per piece of kit, again covered by the appropriate RCBOs in the c.u. adjacent to the domestic c.u./meter/incoming.
My understanding is and has been that with most mains leads okay up to about 15 A, they need to be adequately protected. In the case of a ring main, that's by a 13 A fuse in the plug. In the case of radials, it's by means of an appropriate RCBO. I know things move on but this was fine when I had mine connected and signed off (I did the routing myself though). Has anything changed as to me this radial protection is as safe (or even safer as I believe RCBOs are quicker than 13 A fuses) as that used on domestic ring mains.
IWC Doppel
pfm Member
Mike, your right the CU was wired in exactly the same way as any other then this simply fed the equipment from RCBO's or MCB's, no ring main one for each 135 etc, I did use 6mm^2 cable in this installation for each piece of equipment and it sounded great !
I am sure some will be terrified of what was a 'dangerous' error by the electrician that did the install. He was confident in 2009 that it was fine and he had recommended that I missed the 'necessary' plugs. Worked perfectly, I would have done it again in the current house, but it's grade 1 listed and no room as the CU for my AV set up is on the second floor and also feeds the floor above, so only 3 available lines and I have 26 units to plug in to play one film ! (including the two 135's I bought form you Mike !!) So I have a dedicated ring main and lots of plugs and sockets