General > General Technical Chat
Workbench electrical safety advice
nctnico:
--- Quote from: Monkeh on December 20, 2022, 04:47:52 pm ---
--- Quote from: themadhippy on December 20, 2022, 04:27:50 pm ---yea it looks crap,but even in the uk ,that particular installation would comply with the regs as the cables are double insulated, all its doing is offering additional mechanical protection.
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I don't know, I'm not convinced that qualifies as good workmanship!
I was also under the impression PVC conduit (and trunking) was not classed as mechanical protection, although let's be honest, we all consider it better than bare cables to be bumped and scraped. Metal conduit just isn't needed in most cases.
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Over here PVC conduit can be bought in 2 grades: 'regular' (typically yellow) and 'impact resistant' (typically grey). The 'impact resistant' variation is typically used to guide sheathed cable (with the bends open indeed) where the regular variant is used inside walls, cement floors and piping along a ceiling (for example) to carry individual wires. When individual wires are used, the pipes are supposed to cover these end-to-end to inside the junction boxes.
nightfire:
--- Quote from: AVGresponding on December 20, 2022, 11:27:00 am ---The BS7671 regs are not a legally binding document though, just guidance for making safe and reliable installations, ie, if you follow the guidance and someone dies from a problem with your installation, you're unlikely to be prosecuted. If you deviate and someone dies however, you're in trouble.
If you deviate and can provide a good engineering explanation/risk assessment for how and why your deviation is as safe as the preferred method, and why it's necessary, you'll get it signed off (as long as the Clerk of Works/Installation Tester is knowledgeable enough to understand, not guaranteed...)
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The german VDE standards are also privately developed recommendations how to do stuff- but there is a referral from the law (ยง49 enWG) that the people erecting installations have to work accordingly to the acknowledged rules of technology- and this is considered to be followed if people work accordingly to VDE standards.
vad:
--- Quote from: l9o on December 16, 2022, 03:44:51 pm ---What is some advice you would give to someone who is setting up a bench from scratch? Do I need GFCI outlets? An AFCI breaker? Something I should do to ground my workbench? Anything else?
Currently I have planned:
1. A separate 20A breaker for the workshop area, shared between lights and all the outlets in the room.
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It is always a good idea to have GFCI protection in workshop.
Lights may or may not be on GFCI protected circuit, depending on local code. In Massachusetts, where I live, it is against the code to wire every lighting outlet behind GFCI: "210.70(D): GFCI Protection of Lighting Outlets in All Occupancies: The operation of a single GFCI device shall not deenergize all lighting outlets in a given area."
AFCI is debatable. I do have AFCI breakers on two out of three 20A circuits in my workshop. My DIY Controleo3-based reflow oven used to trip AFCI, so I am now plugging it into GFCI-only circuit. I also had incidents when conducted EMI from misbehaving DUT (SMPS) was tripping the AFCI.
nightfire:
In germany we have similar regulations, but here it is ok to wire them half/half behind 2 RCDs.
I would also read this regulation in a similar way- the aim is not to have everything in the dark when a group RCD trips.
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