CT Electrics Consumer Units

[Crocbait]

Has anyone had any experience with CT Electric brand of consumer units?  Went to Thai Watsadu to source a new Safe T Cut and they don't stock them anymore, only these units in stock. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Crossy]

No direct experience other than not buying them.

 

You tend to get what you pay for.

 

For something as critical to your power supply I would go for a big name brand such as ABB, Schneider (Square-D) or Bticino.

 

The pre-populated units also tend to have the wrong mix of breaker ratings, best to pay a little more to mix-n-match.

 

The above is just my opinion. In reality, if it looks reasonably well made it will likely be fine.

 

[kamalabob2]

I would also add Siemens consumer units and Panasonic  to the list posted by Crossy. Those goofy high margin Chinese made brands sold in many stores are a fire waiting to happen. Safe-T-Cut are a premium price compared to Schneider, Panasonic, ABB, or Siemens circuit breakers in Thailand. I own Siemens and Schneider consumer units in Buriram and am very satisfied with the pre sales questions I got answered and the ease of obtaining RCBO breakers for those brands. 

[johng]

Glad she got that shoulder strap back up or there might have been "trouble"

[Crocbait]

Thanks for the replies guys. I agree 100% with what you both said about quality, but In the sticks have problems getting what you want as you know. Had a great time trying to explain an RCBO to the builder and had to settle on the CT Electric unit. It is only to supply power to a small shed so should do the job.

[Crossy]

10 hours ago, Crocbait said:

It is only to supply power to a small shed so should do the job.

For your shed it should be just fine although I would be adding some sort of earth leakage protection for when you cut the power saw or hedge trimmer cable.

[Crocbait]

13 hours ago, Crossy said:

For your shed it should be just fine although I would be adding some sort of earth leakage protection for when you cut the power saw or hedge trimmer cable.

Thanks Crossy, the unit the builder got has an RCBO...same as this pic.

[xtrnuno41]

CT would stand for Connecticut Electric? So USA?

Hard to find anything about their RCBO, it looks electronic and is switchable in sensitivity, so it must be electronic. You can even set it to 6 mA.

So how would this be safe, as for instance with the moist in Thailand, the switch corrodes? 

It just looks like s sliding switch on a printboard, protected from moist? Im not sure, so it would mean fake protection, the value can change without knowing to a way higher value.

 

 

However CT is a supplier in Thailand for B-characteristic fuses, while all others, including a Siemens, deliver C-characteristics fuses, which means the C switches off later, thus more energy can be supplied in shortcut situations. Probably the standard in Asia is C.

B-characteristic switches off 3-5 X value fuse, a C-characteristics 5-10 X value.

So only if you have heavier equipment to feed with higher starting currents, you should use C. In household B is more then enough and saver then. 

 

Yesterday, in Thaiwatsadu i saw Haco is delivering a 40 A, 30 mA fixed RCBO and is dinrail mounted, same as the fuses CT can deliver and those are B characteristic, they are white with dinrail mounting, so guess go for that with an ABB box with din rail. The box is plastic, instead of some other boxes which are metal. The switch time of the Haco is 0.1 sec so is good. 

So get me an ABB plastic box , CT 16 A B-characteristic fuses and a Haco RCBO 40 A/30 mA, all with dinrail

 

The system showed in the pics isnt a dinrail, so cant place the Haco, which has my preference over the "electronic" switchable RCBO, though that system has B-characteristic fuses. But the box is metal and the fuses are a mix. Just 1 or 2, depending on box size, is 16 A. The others are 10, 20, or 32 A, well all depends on how much power you consume, devices to run.

But then dont forget to check your wiring, is it in diameter big enough to carry the current?

 

Ofcourse you can make your own box with the desired fuse sizes yourself, it will cost some more then? 

You can buy them separately, aswell the RCBO. You can even choose then 40, 50 or 63 A pass through current. Again for normal house hold 40 is enough. Ok you have to built it up.

 

Im fixing my gf's installation, as im flabbergasted (555) how that one is made. 

[Led Lolly Yellow Lolly]

Ditto on the Siemens units, I use them elusively now they're readily available in Thailand. Really excellent build quality and the RCBOs in DIN are great, much more flexibility than the Square-D/Schneider plugin system.

[Crocbait]

Thanks for the replies. This was from earlier in the year. As it was only for my storage shed decided to let the builder use it. If for the main consumer unit in the house I wouldn't have used it.