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Post a picture of your Fuse Box

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Whales:
Dave & deadlylover: your fuse boxes look positively futuristic.  I mean, you even have a box.

1920/1930's Californian bungalow in Sydney, no solar and only single phase:



I think the upper board is screwed to the wall, not hinged.  Maybe the service fuse is behind that?  At least it looks like there is no asbestos (if you ignore the roof above).

Lower Hager box with DIN-rail inside was added by sparkies to modernise the place some 20 or more years ago when I was very young.

Wasp at the top right is to keep guard, make sure no one steals our electricity.



Aww it's got babies  ^-^



Meter is "properly of St George County Council".  Sadly that later became Ausgrid ("bring back the PMG!").  I love these mechanical types, it'll be a super sad day when it gets replaced by a Borg-personality smart meter that has no spinny bits.



From left to right: 
[*] Main switch
[*] K = 40 amp supply for electric pottery kiln out back
[*] 32A kitchen oven.  Not protected by the RCD, something I noted when last repairing the oven.
[*] RCD (in theory covers everything to the right of it)
[*] A single 20A breaker that supplies all of the pottery studio building out back (LOL I expected much more, but I don't think it has a sub panel ???)
[*] Various house internal breakers[/list]

The hager surface mount box's lid holds on through the hopes and wishes of one screw at the top right that doesn't do anything.  Inside:



(Don't blame me for any of this, I've never touched this panel beyond flipping breakers.  Not my house, not a sparky)

It looks like they chose to use both of the brass blocks at the top for neutrals (the one on the right is probably post-RCD), ...but then twist the earths together and just tape them?  Huh?  Lol.  Maybe that's fine, I don't know, but I would have preferred at least some sort of connector to keep force on the copper strand mating surfaces (I believe this avoids corrosion creeping in as easily?).

If you squint you can see bars spanning the bottoms of the breakers.  I presume these are the actives.  I'm sure the rust is there to make it marginally safer against accidental contact  >:D  EDIT: Sadly no it's copper

That's it, unless you want to see some haphazard connector boxes strewn in the attic above the plaster ceiling.   EDIT: Heater is gas, stove is gas, bigger kilns are LPG bottle.

T3sl4co1l:
Sure why not... but for a twist, not the mains panel (it's a rather uninteresting NEMA breaker panel, actually), but one I made for the battery at the bench here:



Just a handful of automotive fuses wired to bus bar and barrier strips, nothing fancy.

Construction is aluminum corner rail and G10 fiberglass panels; and yes I did due diligence and tested the joints and they definitely needed the "sand through the wet epoxy" trick to bond to the aluminum worth a damn.  Which is what I did.

Tim

Whales:
Tim: what words do you use when searching for & buying the FR4 material without copper?  EDIT: Ah "G10", I'll give that a go.


--- Quote ---Battery fuses in parallel
--- End quote ---

Hmm.  I presume that only works if they're the same model?  If you put a 30A from one company in parallel with a 30A from another company then I presume they'll have different impedances?

Also I'm curious about the flathead screws.  To me that signals they are some obscure unobtanium "electrical thread" :)  I'm surprised none are missing!

T3sl4co1l:

--- Quote from: Whales on October 07, 2022, 06:43:34 am ---Tim: what words do you use when searching for & buying the FR4 material without copper?

--- End quote ---

McMaster has it as "Multipurpose Flame-Retardant Garolite G-10/FR4 Sheets and Bars".  Used 1/16" (1.6mm) stock.  It has a glossy finish so needs a lot of sanding, annoying.

I probably would've used copper clad, ;D but decided against it, between the high currents and needing a bit more strength.  And against using aluminum panel for the same reason.  Don't want unfused battery going loose and blowing something up.

The barrier strip is only rated 30A so I "doubled up" by adding the copper bus bar on top.  Feels not terrible.



--- Quote ---
--- Quote ---Battery fuses in parallel
--- End quote ---

Hmm.  I presume that only works if they're the same model?  If you put a 30A from one company in parallel with a 30A from another company then I presume they'll have different impedances?

Also I'm curious about the flathead screws.  To me that signals there are some obscure unobtanium "electrical thread" screws underneath :)  I'm surprised none are missing.

--- End quote ---

Flathead screws are just because it's an old terminal strip. :)

Fuses in parallel, like anything else in parallel, the current won't share perfectly so expect less than the total; in practice it seems pretty close anyway, like say this is good for maybe 50A, or, don't forget that fuses are quite loose anyway so it might open up at over 100A say within a minute or so.  And the ratings are adequate (24V system, 600ish CCA, fuses rated to clear 32V 1kA).

Tim

Whales:

--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on October 07, 2022, 06:57:37 am ---McMaster has it as "Multipurpose Flame-Retardant Garolite G-10/FR4 Sheets and Bars".  Used 1/16" (1.6mm) stock.  It has a glossy finish so needs a lot of sanding, annoying.

--- End quote ---

McMaster doesn't ship to Australia sadly.  I've lost a few too many afternoons perusing their stuff.  Very jelly.

There are knife-making suppliers in Australia that supply G10, but it's coloured (might be conductive) and typically quite expensive.  Chinese suppliers are a bit cheaper, but for some reason PCB houses end up being even cheaper again (I wonder if JLC will accept blank gerbers :P).

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