Cavalier_Steve
Member
Hello everyone, I done an addition to my setup that I thought some of you maybe interested in, I was running all the electrical items off a 6 way power strip, this was not an ideal setup so I thought I would make a power board thing to neaten everything up.
First off, if you’re unsure about electrics then I suggest doing some research, although what I’m doing is similar to household electric’s we are still using a standard 13A plug so there is some protection there.
Anyway here is what I did,
I first off measured where I wanted my power board to be in my case at the back of the cupboard and I cut a piece of wood to the correct size. For the wood I had on old set of pine draws that I broke down a couple of years ago, I just used this.
I then sanded off the varnish, I guess I didn’t really need to do this as I m going to cover the wood over with a vinyl.
Next I covered the wood with some vinyl that I purchased from the range in a very similar style to my tank cabinet.
The film brand I used was d-c-fix which is also available in B&M home stores, I’m sure they are available in other retailers as well.
Next I laid out how I wanted my sockets to sit now I’m sad and I wanted to add an actual electricity meter way over kill for a maximum 13A circuit, this isn’t the first time that I have done this and it’s definitely not the last 😊
Next I wire up the meter and the sockets,
I’m using household twin and earth cable that I had lying around along with a lead with a plug on the end that I cut off an appliance, I strongly suggest that you use at least a 1.5mm square cable as this will be suitable for up to 13 amps, my setup wont use that my 300w heater is the most power hungry along with the light and filter both put together is only 25 watts but it’s good to have some capacity, I only had 1mm square cable so I used a 10A fuse in the plug, in my case the cable is the weakest link so I must protect it from over heating hence the use of the 10A fuse rather than the standard 13A.
If your sad like me and want to put a house hold meter in line these are wired up starting from left to right Feed Live in, Feed Neutral in, Load Neutral out, Load Live out. The terminals on the meter are very large as these are designed to take large cables that are designed to carry 100A loads, so I doubled over the multi strand cable to ensure a good solid electrical connection.
I used solid core wire to feed the sockets the wire I was using is way overkill for what it’s being used but it’s what I had laying around. It’s also the old wire colours.
Live is Red(old colour) Brown (new colour)
Neutral is Black(old colour) Blue(new colour) For the earth connections I used an earth cable that I had laying around as I couldn’t find my earth sleeving that goes over the bare copper wire in my twin and earth.
Now everything is together it’s time for a celebratory cup of tea, and what better way than to use the kettle for the test load .
And here the board is setup in the cabinet. I want to fix the board to the back but this will have to wait when I’ve nearly emptied the tank as it’s way to heavy to move now.
More to come soon.
First off, if you’re unsure about electrics then I suggest doing some research, although what I’m doing is similar to household electric’s we are still using a standard 13A plug so there is some protection there.
Anyway here is what I did,
I first off measured where I wanted my power board to be in my case at the back of the cupboard and I cut a piece of wood to the correct size. For the wood I had on old set of pine draws that I broke down a couple of years ago, I just used this.
I then sanded off the varnish, I guess I didn’t really need to do this as I m going to cover the wood over with a vinyl.
Next I covered the wood with some vinyl that I purchased from the range in a very similar style to my tank cabinet.
The film brand I used was d-c-fix which is also available in B&M home stores, I’m sure they are available in other retailers as well.
Next I laid out how I wanted my sockets to sit now I’m sad and I wanted to add an actual electricity meter way over kill for a maximum 13A circuit, this isn’t the first time that I have done this and it’s definitely not the last 😊
Next I wire up the meter and the sockets,
I’m using household twin and earth cable that I had lying around along with a lead with a plug on the end that I cut off an appliance, I strongly suggest that you use at least a 1.5mm square cable as this will be suitable for up to 13 amps, my setup wont use that my 300w heater is the most power hungry along with the light and filter both put together is only 25 watts but it’s good to have some capacity, I only had 1mm square cable so I used a 10A fuse in the plug, in my case the cable is the weakest link so I must protect it from over heating hence the use of the 10A fuse rather than the standard 13A.
If your sad like me and want to put a house hold meter in line these are wired up starting from left to right Feed Live in, Feed Neutral in, Load Neutral out, Load Live out. The terminals on the meter are very large as these are designed to take large cables that are designed to carry 100A loads, so I doubled over the multi strand cable to ensure a good solid electrical connection.
I used solid core wire to feed the sockets the wire I was using is way overkill for what it’s being used but it’s what I had laying around. It’s also the old wire colours.
Live is Red(old colour) Brown (new colour)
Neutral is Black(old colour) Blue(new colour) For the earth connections I used an earth cable that I had laying around as I couldn’t find my earth sleeving that goes over the bare copper wire in my twin and earth.
Now everything is together it’s time for a celebratory cup of tea, and what better way than to use the kettle for the test load .
And here the board is setup in the cabinet. I want to fix the board to the back but this will have to wait when I’ve nearly emptied the tank as it’s way to heavy to move now.
More to come soon.
