Electric/power supply question

Phaser

Phaser

Phaser

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17 Mar 2004
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Hoping someone on here will be able to help as I don't know much about electronics, well not this sorta stuff anyway. :D

I've got a lockup which i'm using as a temporary studio, turntables, mixers, speakers and so on. Now that it's got colder i've got a couple of heaters in there, no doubt drawing a lot of power.

Now, this is the power supply:

power1yr1.jpg


power2sh7.jpg


As you can see, it's only got 2 of the 3 "blocks" installed. What are these? Would I be better adding the third one?

Also it says 60 amp but the first block is 20, and the second is 5, so is that only giving out 25a?

I've noticed that with the heaters on the power cable/actual plug is getting really hot - I suppose the fact that it's extension plugged into extension dosen't help either....

:confused:
 
Those 'Blocks' are fuses, if you turn the switch off you are safe to pull one out to look at it. It will have a fuse wire running along the underside between two pins.
You can change the wire to allow different current (so technically you could have three each with 20a).

It makes no difference having a third in except its not a great idea having those pins uncovered on the left.

By the way, 25a is a lot. You could power a number of electric heaters on a 25a circuit. You'll know if you've got too many heaters/electicals plugged in because it will overload the circuit and melt the fuse wide underneath the block. Doesn't matter what you do in terms of adding blocks/fewer heaters, the plugs will get just as hot.
 
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Think of it like the fusebox in your house (one fuse for Lights, one for sockets etc) i am not suggesting it is certainly wired that way!!! would cover that unused one up though like Mirage suggested.
 
I see, reason i'm asking is that I was running everything at once and after an hour or so everything cut off - once i'd gone round and reset the buttons on the extensions it was OK, just made me think whether it was missing anything and could I improve it.

I've currently got the following running:

1x 3 tube heater
1x fan heater
1x portable stand heater
2x turntables
1x cd deck
1x mixer
2x active monitors
1x amplifier
1x computer base unit
1x TFT

Plugged into 3 extensions (no other way of doing it).

Was wanting to get a TV and Xbox down there too but unsure if it'll handle it?

Mirage, as the plug is getting hot does that suggest there's too much stuff drawing power?

I've noticed if I switch things off eg the amp so I can turn the heaters on, that seems to make a difference it's just that a lot of the time you end up needing everything switched on at once!
 
You will most likely have a ring main's and a seperate fuse for your lights, Adding a 3rd fuse wouldn't really matter as you dont know what it's connected to.

20amps is fine that will normally be used for a ringmain's i think and a 5 amp fuse for a lighting curcuit, if you want to add anymore i would recommend getting an electrician because you could kill yourself adding another fuse (changing the wires inside the consumer unit).

I'm only a trainee electrician but that's what it looks like to me.

Aslong as you're not overloading a socket you should be fine i think a 1mm twin is able to have a peak temp of 70 degree's but dont count me on that
 
Mirage, as the plug is getting hot does that suggest there's too much stuff drawing power?
Click to expand...
Nah, every plug has a fuse (13a for a extension no doubt), if you plug too much in that's turned on the fuse will go in the extension plug. The extension plugs will get hotter with more things plugged in but I wouldn't worry too much about it.
 
As said a bove really.
The lighting circuit will be on the 5 amp
The ring main (sockets) will be on the 20 amp.

Your best bet would be to get another set of sockets put in on a new ring and wire it up to the spare fuse socket..

Either way, cover it up before someone gets electrocted, one side of those shiny pins are live LOL!
 
For starters it's 'Ring Final', ring main is part of the national grid :p /pedantic
32A is what is normally used for a 2.5mm ring final circuits. (ie sockets)
20A would allow for approx 4.6kW (P=IxV)

The CCU is missing a cover which would make it far safer (See yellow part below)
84b61fy4.jpg


Personally I would chuck in a 30A BS3036 and install a proper ring final ciircuit (Make sure however that you use 2.5mm T+E that has 1.5mm CPC and not 1.0mm CPC)

Tbh unless you know what your doing I would get a pro in!!
 
Phaser said:
Also it says 60 amp but the first block is 20, and the second is 5, so is that only giving out 25a?
Click to expand...
The 5amp will be for the light/s
The 20amp will be for your plug sockets...

You most likely find that the third one that missing is a spare and not wired to anythng..(But one them gold pins will be live)
 
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Reading through the posts you are saying that the extension cables are getting hot to touch and cutting out after an hour, is that correct ? If so that isn't very safe.

No extension lead should get any more than slightly warm when running at full load. If you have any extension reals these should be fully unwound for full load aswell. My 50m one can only take 700watts wound up but 3000w unwound this is due to heat build up. Your heaters alone are probaly taking around 2500w. The rest of the stuff around 1000w maybe less depending on how powerful your active speakers are.

You want to get another circuit put in to run the heaters without the need of extension leads, the heaters are causing most of the load. I also expect any electrican that comes round will want to replace the the whole consumer unit (the bit you have taken a photo of) due to the crack and parts missing from it.

If you do not want to get another circuit in you need to split the load of the heaters over the extension leads idealy having the most powerful one directly into the wall socket (the heaters will have sticker with there power usage). And the other two on there own single extension lead back to the wall socket.
 
The 20amp fuse is likely to be running a radial circuit if its just a small unit. As stated id get an electrician in to install a ring final circuit. Will give you more sockets to plug things into negating the use of extentions.
 
Cheers guys, learnt a few things today!

Dangerous Dave said:
Reading through the posts you are saying that the extension cables are getting hot to touch and cutting out after an hour, is that correct ?
Click to expand...

The cable gets warm regularly but it's only ever cut out the once.

Extension reels are fully unwound.

There is only 1 socket so i've got the following setup:

SOCKET > EXTENSION 1 (carries power to the other end of the lockup where all my stuff is). Plugged into this I have a heater, and EXTENSION 2. Plugged into this I have another extension, which powers the decks and mixer. I also have an extension plugged into the last socket on this, to power the rest of the items.

I will try switching the second heater from the last extension into one of the middle ones. It's not ideal tbh but the only way I can do things.

Getting an electrician in/installing extra circuits is out of the question, I get the lockup cheaper than usual as the owner says they're all empty to get away with paying rates. It's the sort of place where you just pay your rent each week and no-one asks any questions, in every other aspect it's perfect for me just a little worried about this.
 
If you have a double wall socket it would be worth while to run another extension lead down to the other end of the unit as this would half the load on the extension leads if you can balance what you have plugged into each. If you did this with a couple of heavy duty ones it should stop them from heating up.

If you can't do that you are right to remove the heaters from the last extension you want them as far up the chain as possible. You want the low powered stuff on the last extension.
 
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