Hopsteep’s Panel Build

[user 18729]

First questions of many for those electrically gifted members:

1) I'm wanting to go down the Din rail route. Planning the basic layout and will use MCBs for each individual low power circuit (ie the PIDs, timer, pumps) in order to isolate and detect any fault in the future. Instead of having a live bus is it easier to use a mcb bus bar and connect them together so that the mcbs become the hot bus, rather than having din mounted terminal blocks supplying the live for each mcb?

2) Wire sizes. Please can someone sanity check this for me. I will have a 30A breaker from the garage into the panel. Power in will go via a 62A contactor (overkill I know) and will use 6mm2 cable for the wiring drawing up to the 30A. Stepping down from the MCBs/hot bus I'm thinking will 1.5mm2 be sufficient?

3) What mcb protection have people opted for? I was going to go with 1A for each PID and then 4A for each pump (one riptide and one Chinese mag pump).

Thank in advance

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

First questions of many for those electrically gifted members:

1) I'm wanting to go down the Din rail route. Planning the basic layout and will use MCBs for each individual low power circuit (ie the PIDs, timer, pumps) in order to isolate and detect any fault in the future. Instead of having a live bus is it easier to use a mcb bus bar and connect them together so that the mcbs become the hot bus, rather than having din mounted terminal blocks supplying the live for each mcb?

2) Wire sizes. Please can someone sanity check this for me. I will have a 30A breaker from the garage into the panel. Power in will go via a 62A contactor (overkill I know) and will use 6mm2 cable for the wiring drawing up to the 30A. Stepping down from the MCBs/hot bus I'm thinking will 1.5mm2 be sufficient?

3) What mcb protection have people opted for? I was going to go with 1A for each PID and then 4A for each pump (one riptide and one Chinese mag pump).

Thank in advance

I think this one is quite difficult - what we might do ourselves and what we might feel comfortable advising others is probably very different where safety is concerned. Having said that, one recommendation from me...

I would use RCBO’s. These are each supplied with their own live and neutral ( and often earth) connection and they each provide overload and leakage protection. They are more expensive than RCB’s and MCB’s but do have many advantages associated with each effectively being isolated from all the others.

Most consumer units tend to use a master RCB to protect against leakage and then several MCBs to protect against overload. The trouble with this setup is that modern power supplies are quite “leaky”, some by design. The master RCB aggregates this leakage across all the circuits it supplied and trips for seemingly no reason.

 

[user 18729]

I think this one is quite difficult - what we might do ourselves and what we might feel comfortable advising others is probably very different where safety is concerned. Having said that, one recommendation from me...

I would use RCBO’s. These are each supplied with their own live and neutral ( and often earth) connection and they each provide overload and leakage protection. They are more expensive than RCB’s and MCB’s but do have many advantages associated with each effectively being isolated from all the others.

Most consumer units tend to use a master RCB to protect against leakage and then several MCBs to protect against overload. The trouble with this setup is that modern power supplies are quite “leaky”, some by design. The master RCB aggregates this leakage across all the circuits it supplied and trips for seemingly no reason.

Thanks for the advice mate. Safety is my priority wiring this up as I imagine it will be used for a long long time. So would a single RCBO be sufficient then stepping down to MCBs?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Thanks for the advice mate. Safety is my priority wiring this up as I imagine it will be used for a long long time. So would a single RCBO be sufficient then stepping down to MCBs?

You would use separate RCBO’s for each circuit you want to isolate but there’s no need for MCB’s after that. MCB’s only provide protection against overload and the RCBO’s provide that. Think of RCBO’s as the best version of an MCB providing leakage protection as well as overload protection - the leakage might be through you or someone you love!

For my home as an example I have separate RCBO’s for downstairs power, downstairs lighting, garage, garden, cooker, underfloor heating in the kitchen, upstairs power, upstairs lighting, immersion heater, and shower. I have no MCBs.

 

[cushyno]

Thanks @Hopsteep and I think I have been a bit thick. I have already bought the PID‘s which are IST-900‘s ISTR. The boil kettle element is 4kw and whilst I am comfortable in how to safely wire that up I was stupidly thinking that it would be good to adjust its power.

As I read your post I had one of those head slap moments where I appreciated my stupidity. Obviously, if I set a temperature the PID will hold the kettle at that temperature and the power of the element will only dictate for how long it is on for. I think that’s right?

Ask I right in thinking you want to have both PID and voltage regulator active at the same time? I managed to achieve that with my panel, but goodness knows what the wiring is. I have a sketch somewhere that showed what I did.

I remember soldering all the joints and it was a PITA. Use spade connectors.

 

[user 18729]

There she is. Looks nice in black! Finished off the enclosure by running a bead of black glazing silicone around each of the PIDs and the Amp meter

 

[dalecek]

View attachment 27452
There she is. Looks nice in black! Finished off the enclosure by running a bead of black glazing silicone around each of the PIDs and the Amp meter

Really nice job. Is it gonna be wall mounted?

 

[user 18729]

Really nice job. Is it gonna be wall mounted?

When I finally get around to wiring it all up I’ll mount it to my stainless bench. Probably use a tv mount as long as it can take the weight. I’d like to be able to swivel it in for storage

 

[Clint]

One in Wales,one in Essex...the HBF own Gavin and Stacey...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

View attachment 27452
There she is. Looks nice in black! Finished off the enclosure by running a bead of black glazing silicone around each of the PIDs and the Amp meter

Looks beautiful!

 

[Kiwigaz]

When I finally get around to wiring it all up I’ll mount it to my stainless bench. Probably use a tv mount as long as it can take the weight. I’d like to be able to swivel it in for storage

I’m currently building a panel myself, I’ve a question about the alarms on the pids.

did you link them together as on the electric brewery? I’ve only used the normally open contact from pin 11 on the back of the Inkbird. Thought the alarm would go constantly otherwise

 

[user 18729]

I’m currently building a panel myself, I’ve a question about the alarms on the pids.

did you link them together as on the electric brewery? I’ve only used the normally open contact from pin 11 on the back of the Inkbird. Thought the alarm would go constantly otherwise

I’ll drop you a pm