Hi folks,
As an electronics guy, I mostly operate in the 5V and 12V realm but wanted to run the following question on loads and wiring ahead of our test equipment arriving next month:
We'll have 16 x test machines running 24/7 with each consuming max 850W off a standard 13A UK plug/kettle lead (that's 13.6kW or ~60A @ 230V).
Whilst there are many ways of doing this no doubt (and we have 3 phase too), cost is a concern. I like the idea of having dedicated circuits for these sort of things so would the following suffice:
The rest of the premises uses very little to no power (a few laptops and 3 tube lights - no other heavy loads). If the above works, it sounds simple (and cheap) for a sparky as everything is ready, open and easily accessible.
As an electronics guy, I mostly operate in the 5V and 12V realm but wanted to run the following question on loads and wiring ahead of our test equipment arriving next month:
We'll have 16 x test machines running 24/7 with each consuming max 850W off a standard 13A UK plug/kettle lead (that's 13.6kW or ~60A @ 230V).
Whilst there are many ways of doing this no doubt (and we have 3 phase too), cost is a concern. I like the idea of having dedicated circuits for these sort of things so would the following suffice:
- Fit 2 x 32A new breakers/RCBOs to create 2 new Ring Mains each with 4 x double sockets (16 sockets in total)? That would allow us to have 8 machines per ring main. According to my calcs, the above would give a 2A contingency per new circuit (<7% of load) but remember, 850W is the max consumption with the average being closer to 800W and the units themselves as well as the power supplies are all fused.
- Should this be done in 2.5mm or 4mm T+E given the max distance from fuse board to last socket on either circuit will be <6m?
- Off topic but do sub-meters sync accurately with main meters? If so, are there any cheap-ish recommendations so we can gauge the total units consumed (I assume we'd need 2 if the above setup works)?
The rest of the premises uses very little to no power (a few laptops and 3 tube lights - no other heavy loads). If the above works, it sounds simple (and cheap) for a sparky as everything is ready, open and easily accessible.
