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<blockquote data-quote="Mark Dawson" data-source="post: 32370" data-attributes="member: 848">Re: Breaker Panel Tie-in... What is the CORRECT way to pull power?All electrical work regarding tie-in&#039;s should be done by a licenced electrician.&nbsp;&nbsp; However when you are on the receiving end of such a supply it is good practice to know the code, what is legal what is not, and how to best guarantee your safety and compliance. This will give you the ability to identify potential problems before a life is lost.&nbsp; Most importantly would be learn how to use your meter correctly. It is your best tool to identify illegal/unsafe connections before you blow up your gear or even kill an innocent bystander.&nbsp;Cable is protected by the upstream breaker.&nbsp; This breaker must be the correct value for the size and grade of cable it is protecting.&nbsp; Everytime you downsize cable you need another breaker.&nbsp; Observe the electrician that is tie-ing you in.&nbsp; Ensure he correctly tightens your hots, neutral and earth.&nbsp; Many problems arise with loose electrical connections. In these situations it will often meter correctly, only giving a problem when a load is connected.&nbsp;&nbsp; You will have seen melted plugs and fittings. Often this is caused by loose connections causing arc-ing, which introduces a lot of heat to the surrounding area (that&#039;s how arc welders work)&nbsp;&nbsp; When connecting and disconnecting cams, ALWAYS connect earth, neutral, hots; disconnect the opposite way.&nbsp;&nbsp; An electrician here (who specialises in our industry) mentioned that even cams should be energised by a licenced electrician, given the currents involved and the ability to miswire.Hopefully we are providing some good practise for those who should know exactly how to deal with the larger power supplies required by our production equipment.Here in New Zealand we have 240v Single phase outlets domestically.&nbsp; 3 pins; Hot, Neutral, Earth.&nbsp; &nbsp; The advantage to the higher voltage means our single outlets supply most items fine. ( A &#039;dryer plug&#039; is unheard of here)&nbsp; Once we move up to three phase we have 32A 400v system on 5 pins; 63A 400v on five pins; and then into camlocks/tie ins.&nbsp; You can run a sizable system off a domestic outlet, and tie-ins don&#039;t really exist untill you get into line-array scale shows.&nbsp;&nbsp; There is another standard, found in workshops for welders/tools etc that has three hots and an earth.&nbsp;&nbsp; At a 32Amp level it is the same plug, just without the neutral centre pin.&nbsp;&nbsp; We did a show in a empty commercial warehoure.&nbsp;&nbsp; SOMEONE HAD DRILLED THE CENTRE PIN HOLE OUT OF THE OUTLET!!As a result, our five pin three phase plug fitted in just fine; un-known to us that we had no neutral.&nbsp;&nbsp; Popped the protection resistors on a rack of Lab.gruppens.&nbsp; Thankfully that was all that was damaged but highlights an example where illegally modified outlets and NOT METERING before you plug in can seriously spoil your day.DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT AN ELECTRICIAN.&nbsp; I DO MY BEST TO BE AS INFORMED AS POSSIBLE ABOUT ALL RELEVANT AREAS OF OUR INDUSTRY, FOR THE SAKE OF SAFETY AND INSURANCE.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mark Dawson, post: 32370, member: 848"] Re: Breaker Panel Tie-in... What is the CORRECT way to pull power? All electrical work regarding tie-in's should be done by a licenced electrician. However when you are on the receiving end of such a supply it is good practice to know the code, what is legal what is not, and how to best guarantee your safety and compliance. This will give you the ability to identify potential problems before a life is lost. Most importantly would be learn how to use your meter correctly. It is your best tool to identify illegal/unsafe connections before you blow up your gear or even kill an innocent bystander. Cable is protected by the upstream breaker. This breaker must be the correct value for the size and grade of cable it is protecting. Everytime you downsize cable you need another breaker. Observe the electrician that is tie-ing you in. Ensure he correctly tightens your hots, neutral and earth. Many problems arise with loose electrical connections. In these situations it will often meter correctly, only giving a problem when a load is connected. You will have seen melted plugs and fittings. Often this is caused by loose connections causing arc-ing, which introduces a lot of heat to the surrounding area (that's how arc welders work) When connecting and disconnecting cams, ALWAYS connect earth, neutral, hots; disconnect the opposite way. An electrician here (who specialises in our industry) mentioned that even cams should be energised by a licenced electrician, given the currents involved and the ability to miswire. Hopefully we are providing some good practise for those who should know exactly how to deal with the larger power supplies required by our production equipment. Here in New Zealand we have 240v Single phase outlets domestically. 3 pins; Hot, Neutral, Earth. The advantage to the higher voltage means our single outlets supply most items fine. ( A 'dryer plug' is unheard of here) Once we move up to three phase we have 32A 400v system on 5 pins; 63A 400v on five pins; and then into camlocks/tie ins. You can run a sizable system off a domestic outlet, and tie-ins don't really exist untill you get into line-array scale shows. There is another standard, found in workshops for welders/tools etc that has three hots and an earth. At a 32Amp level it is the same plug, just without the neutral centre pin. We did a show in a empty commercial warehoure. SOMEONE HAD DRILLED THE CENTRE PIN HOLE OUT OF THE OUTLET!! As a result, our five pin three phase plug fitted in just fine; un-known to us that we had no neutral. Popped the protection resistors on a rack of Lab.gruppens. Thankfully that was all that was damaged but highlights an example where illegally modified outlets and NOT METERING before you plug in can seriously spoil your day. [SIZE=1]DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT AN ELECTRICIAN. I DO MY BEST TO BE AS INFORMED AS POSSIBLE ABOUT ALL RELEVANT AREAS OF OUR INDUSTRY, FOR THE SAKE OF SAFETY AND INSURANCE.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]

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