Text 9990, 114 rader
Skriven 2010-08-17 22:13:56 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Just Curious
====================
Hello Robert,

On Tuesday August 17 2010 18:21, you wrote to me:

 MV>> But what is stopping an idiot from replacing a 16A breaker with a
 MV>> 50A one if it keeps triggering?

 RB> Availability would be my answer - I'm not even sure if they make
 RB> breakers in the particular form you need with higher ratings than 16A.

Sure they do, no problem. These dircuit breakers are pretty standarad and
available up to 63A in the same housing.

http://tinyurl.com/27ywxzu


And if you can not find one... what is stopping an idiot from bridging it with
a piece of wire?

 RB> And of couse, that would be more work than shorting a fuse. Have to
 RB> think of the laziness of people ;-)

Not if they are of the new "just insert, no screws type"...

 RB>>> Our main line fuses can be replaced by the customer -

 MV>> How does the power company stop people from stealing electricity
 MV>> if they can simple tap in before the meter by removing the main
 MV>> fuses and plugging in something else?

 RB> The fuses are _after_ the meter, not before.

Ah, I see.

 RB> No way you can get at the lines going into the meter unless you
 RB> actually work with the live wires - and something like that would be
 RB> evident the next time the meter is read or the electricity company
 RB> wanted to check anything.

I would not be too sure of that. Things like that HAVE been done you know.

Here the main fuses are befort the meter.

http://www.vlist.eu/fotos/electra-5.jpg  On the lower left, you see he gray
cable that runn to the streat. It terminates in the black box with the red card
with the emergency number from the power company. In that box is the main 35A
fuse. There is room for two more fuses to expand to a three phase installation.
That box is sealed. You can just see the seal at the lower left corner of the
box.

Above it is the meter, also sealed. The box on top of the meter is the main
switch. In this picture temporarely connected to a 32A CEEform socket. In that
plugs a temporary fuse box with two 16A fuses. Thet is the orange box right of
the big grey box that is the invertor fot the solar cels.

This isn't really a legal way of making a temporary connection, but I figured
it was safe enough as a temporary setup while I renewed the installation.

See the whole article at http://www.vlist.eu/electra/

In the last picture (click to enlarge) you can see the end result. At the top
there are seven circuits with fuses and switches. Above the manin switch is the
box with the earth differential switches. Above the inverter are the Volt and
Amp meter for the solar cells. The Ferraris meter n the right measure totak
power generated by the solar cells.

 RB>>> We also have what they call FI switches here, which trip and
 RB>>> interrupt the power when a certain small amperage (I believe
 RB>>> 50-100 mA) drains to ground...

Ah, "Fehler Interuptor"

 MV>> Those are a circuit breaker and an earth differential switch in
 MV>> one package. They trip at 16 A overload or 30 mA differential.
 MV>> Here they are called "alamat".

 RB> The two are separate here.

Same as in my house then.

 RB> There are circuit breakers for the various circuits in the house, and
 RB> a line of FI switches at the top of the electric cabinet for the
 RB> various circuits in the house.

So each circuit has its own FI switch? There s a difference. Here on may run a
maximum ov four circuits on one FI switch.That is why the FI switches are
before tha circuit breakers.

 RB> I might add that 30 mA seems a little low to me. I think we have 50 mA
 RB> here,

Doubt it. 30 mA is a EU standard. Heve a close look at the thing, the rating
wil be on it. In small print....

 RB>  and in agriculture (stalls, barns) they use 100 mA. If the FI
 RB> switch has an excessively low rating, it will trip at the slightest
 RB> problem again and again, cutting off your power.

The 30 mA is for residential buildings. Higher values are allowd in an
industrial environment.

 RB> I had that problem when I first moved into my renovated (and
 RB> professionally re-wired) house, finally only could eliminate it by
 RB> increasing the rating slightly, and since then no problems - also no
 RB> electrical shocks. This kind of thing can be overdone.

There exists a 10 mA variety. Maybe you had one of those. One can indeed overdo
things.


Cheers, Michiel

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