Consumer Unit

[faraday]

Is this of sufficient size for a 3 bedroom house, with 3 showers & 4 air conditioners?

 

If it isn't, can you explain why it isn't & what  should be used instead?

 

 

 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

58 minutes ago, faraday said:

Is this of sufficient size for a 3 bedroom house, with 3 showers & 4 air conditioners?

Yes, though I have a few more circuits in my CU

[RichCor]

3 hours ago, faraday said:

Is this of sufficient size for a 3 bedroom house, with 3 showers & 4 air conditioners?

 

If it isn't, can you explain why it isn't & what  should be used instead?

Typically, you'll at least want a 'breaker' dedicated for each major area or major appliance. Some electricians suggest even separating lighting from plug points, so separate breakers there.

 

(2) Overhead lighting (split in two legs so you're not in total darkness if one trips)

(5) Plugpoints in (3) bedrooms, kitchen, living area

(3) shower water heaters

(4) air cons.

(x) Major kitchen appliances (ovens)

 

...so 15 circuit breakers if you wire it like many electricians would recommend. Although my house is running with just 7, but I''m seriously thinking of swapping in a larger consumer unit as I seem to be building the Thai version of the Winchester Mystery House (adding, adding, walling off, adding...), please don't look at the wiring.

 

ALSO, highly recommended to have an RCD on some or all of the circuits.

 

[Crossy]

IMHO Too small I'm afraid.

 

Assuming you are using electric on-demand water heaters each will need its own circuit - 3 breakers.

I would suggest 1 breaker for each aircon - 4 breakers.

Upstairs lighting - 1 breaker.

Downstairs lighting - 1 breaker.

Upstairs outlets - 1 breaker.

Downstairs outlets - 1 breaker.

Kitchen outlets (extra circuit for counter-top stuff) - 1 breaker.

 

Add in separate breakers for outside lighting and outlets (so you can turn it off if the wet gets in), pool, man-cave, shed etc. etc.

 

You would probably want to include some lightning surge protection too.

 

Plenty of options, I would go for a DIN mount unit for customisation, but for ease of use the plug-in units are popular. https://www.homepro.co.th/p/248685

 

Make sure you use a RCBO main-switch or individual RCBOs on "damp" circuits (water heaters, outside lighting etc.)

 

Our home is 3 bed, 3 bath (4 aircons in total), pool, garden water pumps, koi pond, outside lighting, electric gates, grid-tie solar, backup generator etc etc. We have 7 (I just counted them) consumer units scattered around but they contain all the generator control stuff, surge protection, under/over voltage protection with separate boxes for the man-cave and solar. About 30 circuits in all. It's one of those things that has evolved over time, if I were doing it from scratch now things would be smaller (not a lot smaller, but smaller).

 

 

 

 

 

[Misab]

4 aircon?  If your electric meter is 15 amp then you multiply 15 with 220 volt -it gives max 3.300 Watt that is what your system can take at the same time. A fuse will normally be 10 amp (2.200 watt) for one fuse. If each aircon use about 1000 watt. then you have a problem.  You can not run all 4 at the same time because your installation with a 15 amp meter is too small. 

You can of course change your meter to 35 amp (35x220 - 7.700 Watt)  Warning. wire size is important here, your present wiring might not be sufficient, talk to an electrician.

 

 

[carlyai]

As well as agreeing that the one in the pic is too small I wish I would have added a draw wire. If you need to add any more circuits, then you can pull the wires through with a draw wire.

Not sure if it's good practice for consumer units, but as I'm setting up some fish tanks in the garage I need to extend the genset feed to the garage and remove my water heaters from the genset. Would be easier I think if I had draw wires.

[faraday]

Thanks for all your helpful replies. 

 

 

[Crossy]

51 minutes ago, Misab said:

4 aircon?  If your electric meter is 15 amp then you multiply 15 with 220 volt -it gives max 3.300 Watt that is what your system can take at the same time. A fuse will normally be 10 amp (2.200 watt) for one fuse. If each aircon use about 1000 watt. then you have a problem.  You can not run all 4 at the same time because your installation with a 15 amp meter is too small. 

You can of course change your meter to 35 amp (35x220 - 7.700 Watt)  Warning. wire size is important here, your present wiring might not be sufficient, talk to an electrician.

 

Very few of us will have 5/15 meters, your average farang home would be on a 15/45 most likely on a 50A incoming breaker, that adds up to about 11,000W probably nearer 12,000W before the incomer even thinks about opening. You may be able to get a 30/100 meter which is good for 22kW but it depends on your village supply.

 

Why put your A/C on 10A? Even wired in 1.5mm² it's good for 16A and most would wire in 2.5mm² on 20A for A/C. That would be good for up to about 30,000 BTU (40k if inverter).

 

[faraday]

Updating this thread, albeit 9 months later..

 

Finally got the consumer unit changed, & as you can see it was wired up like spaghetti.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Crossy]

That looks rather better despite the somewhat "non-standard" colour coding.

 

[faraday]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

That looks rather better despite the somewhat "non-standard" colour coding.

 

Oh dear... just when we thought we'd found a decent electrician.

 

What should the colour coding be ?

[Crossy]

15 minutes ago, faraday said:

Oh dear... just when we thought we'd found a decent electrician.

 

What should the colour coding be ?

 

Euro Norm would be:-

• Live/Line/Hot - Brown (Thai code - Black)
• Neutral - Blue (Thai code - White/Grey)
• Earth/ground - Green/Yellow (Thai code - Green)

Which he does seem to have followed inside the CU it's the house wiring which appears backwards.

 

So long as you know what's been used the electrons really don't care what colour the insulation is.