Guys, I am remodeling my house and I would like to solicit some advice from the experts on this board. Since I am almost going to pull everything down and rebuild, I would like to rewire my entire house. At the moment, I have it operating on two separate circuits off one electric meter. The reason for this is because there was the old house (using the old Eagle breakers and apparently solid copper wiring and the extension I had built five years ago using ABB microbreakers and stranded copper wiring with a 10 kva isolation transformer for my computer room/work den. In addition, I have a 5 kva Comfac AVR in my work den powering all the COs there and the entire house is also serviced by a 25kva Denyo diesel set with magnetic switchgear.
Here is my question:
1. I got my ABB microbreakers from the Kuryente shop in Shangri-la Edsa Mall but that store has disappeared. Does anyone know who sell these? I find them very good and practical in that their breaker boxes look nice enough to not be hidden from view. I have them exposed in my kitchen and they look like any appliance. This is important to me because being able to make a quick visual inspection sounds like a good safety practice to me. Can anyone recommend a similarly good product which also looks nice? I know Square D breakers are good too but their utility boxes are ugly.
2. I have used Ticino switches and outlets and have not been very happy with them because I had to replace a few after three years. There are a lot of nice looking ones today but I fear that the ones made in china like Omni would have quality issues and Eagles, while roven are butt ugly. Does anyone have any experience with Clipsal or Panasonics?
3. I am going to put in three-wire grounded COs as I heard Meralco will be requiring this downstream anyway. Unahan ko na. Would it make sense to use residual current circuit breakers too?
4. Unavoidably, I have a number of 110vac appliances/equipment. Right now, I power them off step down transformers/AVRs but I would like to have 110vac built-in. What would be the best solution to do this while providing stable clean power? Should I just get one big stepdown transformer like a 10kva and wire that in? How much electricity might that consume on standby?
5. For long term use, what would be the best conduit to use? Plastic flexible conduits like the orange/black ones in the hardware stores? or GI pipes? BX? I will be running several types of wires through the entire house and would like to know if they can all go through one pipe or separate ones. My electrical plan calls for 75 ohm coax to every room for cable Tv, cat 6 ethernet from my work den to every room, and telephone/PABX in addition to the basic electricals.
I know I am asking for a lot but would appreciate even partial answers/opinions before I commit myself for a build project to start in March 2008.
Hi,
To answer some of your questions:
1. Yes, Square D's are good. For the housing or the Panel. Try RMR, it's a local outfit who manufactures these panels. Try the yellow pages under Electricals.
2.Clipsal and Panasonic, both are great products. Though Clipsals are basically on the high-end in terms of design and aesthetics.
3. Actually, matagal na yan three-wire connection. The problem is we SELDOM practice it. It's in the Philippine Electrical Code. Sa house nga dapat may nakabaon na bare copper cable around the house e. But due to the high price of such conductor, seldom na may maglagay nun. Kaya sa tubo ng tubig nakakabit ang grounding.
4. You will have to use two cicuits or set of CO's for that. If you want it, talk to to a registered Master Electrician for that.
5. Long term use? Hmmm. All of the products you mentioned are for long term use. You should probably ask which should I use for what APPLICATION?.Flexible are for unplanned and unscheduled installations. Orange tubes or pipes are best used for in-walls installation. BX or armored comes with 2-4 conductor configurations, meaning they already have wires inside, the problems with this is if one wire goes kaput, you have to replace them all. Communications and the like goes through a different route than POWER. So I guess nothing lasts forever. You still have to do maintenance works of your power circuits at least once in 5 years. Hope this helps.
Kuryente !
in Technology and Computer problems
Posted · Edited by triram
Hi,
To answer some of your questions:
1. Yes, Square D's are good. For the housing or the Panel. Try RMR, it's a local outfit who manufactures these panels. Try the yellow pages under Electricals.
2.Clipsal and Panasonic, both are great products. Though Clipsals are basically on the high-end in terms of design and aesthetics.
3. Actually, matagal na yan three-wire connection. The problem is we SELDOM practice it. It's in the Philippine Electrical Code. Sa house nga dapat may nakabaon na bare copper cable around the house e. But due to the high price of such conductor, seldom na may maglagay nun. Kaya sa tubo ng tubig nakakabit ang grounding.
4. You will have to use two cicuits or set of CO's for that. If you want it, talk to to a registered Master Electrician for that.
5. Long term use? Hmmm. All of the products you mentioned are for long term use. You should probably ask which should I use for what APPLICATION?.Flexible are for unplanned and unscheduled installations. Orange tubes or pipes are best used for in-walls installation. BX or armored comes with 2-4 conductor configurations, meaning they already have wires inside, the problems with this is if one wire goes kaput, you have to replace them all. Communications and the like goes through a different route than POWER. So I guess nothing lasts forever. You still have to do maintenance works of your power circuits at least once in 5 years. Hope this helps.