The number of household appliances in the apartment is constantly growing. The simultaneous inclusion of electrical appliances creates problems with connections and excess load on the power grid. To protect against overload, it is necessary to separate the control by circuits. To do this, correctly install the electrical panel for the home. To do this yourself, you need to understand its internal structure, wiring diagrams and connections, installation rules.
In addition, you must have the skills of electrical installation.
Electrical Board Requirements
The safety and comfort of living depends on how correctly the choice is made and the installation of the electrical panel in the apartment is made.
The rules and requirements for installing the shield are as follows.
- The permissible number of protective devices and their rated current are indicated in the technical documentation for the device.
- The housing is made of materials that do not support combustion and do not allow electric current to pass through. For this, metal with a special coating or polymer is used.
- The rated voltage must be indicated on the housing.
- The connected wires must be marked with the designation of the group of connected devices. For this, tags are used.
- The metal case and doors are grounded.
- To the pads PE and N, one wire is connected per terminal. They are taken with a margin of at least 5% so that there is an additional reserve.
- When buying for the shield, a technical passport must be available, which indicates the following: its type, manufacturer, certification, standard number, rated voltage, current, frequency, breaking capacity, degree of protection, class, installation rules, weight, dimensions, basic characteristics of RCD devices.
After the installation of the electrical panel in the house has been done, it should be passed to the ZhEK specialist.
In addition, you must provide the electrical circuit of the device. Usually it is glued to the door to make it convenient to use.
Choosing an electrical panel
You should not buy a shield made of cheap plastic. Over time, it becomes fragile and begins to chip. Modern plastic boxes look impressive and stylish. Metal structures with a good coating are stronger and more reliable, but have a high cost. They are installed if necessary to create mechanical protection against external influences.
The dimensions of the shield depend on the number of switching equipment.
Schematic diagram
The scheme is needed primarily in order to make the installation of an electrical panel. It is necessary when carrying out repairs or modernization of the apartment electrical network. Without it, an electrician will not accept installation work. The installation diagram of the electrical panel is drawn by hand or using a special program.
The switchboard is installed at the very last stage, when all the wires in groups are connected from the premises to the selected place. This approach has many advantages. Materials are saved and installation work is simplified .
For each group of wiring, a load calculation is made and the type of automatic machines is selected. As a result, the total power consumption of the system will be known. If necessary, it must be replaced. Usually a copper core wire is taken.
Mounting the shield
Installation of an electrical panel in an apartment is usually done in a niche near the front door. In the absence of a prepared place, you can hollow out the opening or hang an external shield on the wall. This method is the fastest and easiest. It is used when laying external wiring. It can be hidden under the false wall. If fastening is done on drywall, embedded elements are installed under it to increase the bearing capacity. It will be better to pre-make a niche from a metal profile with an allowance of 2-3 cm.
Installation of the electrical panel is done in such a way that access and its maintenance are convenient. The distance from its lower edge to the floor is usually 1.4-1.7 m. The top row of machines should be no higher than eye level.
When you want to install an electrical panel in a wooden house, usually mounted attachments with protection against dust and moisture.
The circuit breaker for protection against short circuit must not be lower than class C.
It is advisable that there be a lock on the shield that can be closed from children.
Flap assembly
For each group of wires, the necessary machines are selected. At hand you should always have a wiring diagram for the electrical panel. With it you need to constantly check and, if necessary, make changes to it. The central main switch, connecting all the circuits at the same time, should be a little less power than the external one. It is located as close as possible to the incoming power cable. In addition, you should add 2-3 spare bags so that they can be used to turn on powerful consumers, such as an electric boiler or electric oven. Devices with a power of more than 5 kW have their own fuses.
How to install an apartment electrical switchboard and properly connect the ground, you should consult a specialist. For mounting the equipment, mounting brackets are placed in the shield body. First, they are installed zero and ground bus. In the photo below they are shown at the top and can be supplied with a shield.
It should be checked that they coincide in power with the main switch. After the case and the flap doors are connected to the bus N. In a private house, the ground wire is introduced from a special circuit mounted externally according to all the rules.
How to connect ground
In old houses, the TN-C grounding system was used according to old GOSTs, where zero and ground wires are combined. For a modern home, the TN-S and TN-CS systems are used. On the floor board there are 3 phases and separately the neutral (N) and ground (PE) wires.
Often, some "craftsmen" connect the neutral wire and ground. In the event that the neutral wire burns out in the shield, 220 volts can get on the body of the electrical appliance. The correct solution will be if you create a separate ground loop, which is very problematic in multi-storey buildings.
Power cable connection
The power cable has three wires of different colors. The phase is connected to the input of the circuit breaker. It can be white, red or brown. Blue zero connects to the corresponding bus, and yellow with a green stripe goes to the ground terminal block . A similar operation is done with wires in the premises. Only the phase wire is connected to the bottom of the circuit breaker corresponding to this group.
Do-it-yourself installation of the electrical panel is much simpler if all the machines on the upper side of the phase are connected by busbars. They are called combs, and when choosing you should pay attention to the cross section, which should not be less than 10 mm 2 . Some manufacturers sell them cheaply by reducing the thickness of the core.
They are more reliable than pieces of wire that were used previously.
Protection against electric shock
To protect a person from the action of current in case of unexpected contact with a bare conductor and the appliance body, a residual current device (RCD) is installed in the shield . By simultaneously touching the phase wire and the grounded conductive casing, the power supply is cut off. For the apartment, the tripping current is selected 30 mA. It is not dangerous to humans, although it causes unpleasant pain. From a short circuit, it does not work. Therefore, in the electric circuit, an automatic machine must be connected with it. If you use a differential machine, it performs the function of both devices, working not only for a short circuit, but also for current leakage.
Wet rooms and powerful consumers are supplied with separate RCDs or difattomats. In a humid environment in wooden structures, even a current of 30 mA can cause a fire. In such areas, wiring requires special attention and protection.
Connection to devices
It is convenient when there is a separate machine on each circuit. If necessary, you can always turn it off. A breakdown of connection points is preferable:
- grouping of outlets in each room;
- lighting in rooms;
- individual connection to the washer, boiler, electric stove, dishwasher.
The most powerful machines are installed closer to the main thing.
The electrical connection of the assembled equipment electrical panel is as follows. The counter outlet terminals are connected to the input of the main switch. From it, the wire is connected by a loop to differential switches, and from them it is diverted to energy consumers. Between themselves from above, the machines are connected by a comb comb. It is more reliable than jumpers from a wire.
Electrical appliances are equipped with their own protective equipment, from the simplest fuses to electronic ones. Shield automats are mainly used to protect wiring.
Installation of a three-phase electrical panel
At the entrance there is an introductory machine, and behind it a three-phase meter and a difavtomat are installed, after which the power is evenly distributed along the load circuits.
Three-phase connection has some differences. If the total power is 15 kW, then it is divided by 3. Each kWh will have 5 kW. The machine is placed 3 or 4-pole. If the current is exceeded, one of them turns off everything.
They try to distribute the load evenly, but this does not always work. No one at the moment can say for sure what is included in this or that outlet. But distribution is still necessary. In this case, a margin of power should be left.
The use of RCDs in a multiphase version creates problems and is advisable only in the case of a very limited budget. Here it’s better to install difavtomats right away, which makes the system more expensive. But with subsequent switching to change the circuit there will be no difficulties.
Do-it-yourself installation of a three-phase electrical panel requires special knowledge and skills. When changing wiring diagrams and introducing new circuits, it is necessary to maintain a uniform load on each phase. Proper installation involves the use of a cross-module, which is a bus in an insulated closed box. The phases and the neutral wire are connected to them, and then the necessary branches are made. On one input, you can connect multiple outputs to consumers. The device is securely attached to the bar and significantly saves labor on wiring. Above is a transparent cover for visual inspection.
Conclusion
For modern energy-rich life in the apartment you need an electric panel. It is designed to distribute electricity throughout the apartment and protect a person from electric shock.
Having specific skills, you can do the installation of the electrical panel yourself.