Use of CU enclosures to house QRIs and QLDs

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  • Nad
    Automated Home Guru
    • Jul 2008
    • 145

    Use of CU enclosures to house QRIs and QLDs

    Hi all,

    I've made up my plans for how/ where and what i'm going to be using for my install and am about to place the order for all my phase 1 gear, but i was just wondering if there would be any problems with the following ...

    I'm planning to buy 2 of these enclosures (20 Way CU). I will also be usig the flush mounting kit for these (Clicky).



    In one of them I plan to run 4 x QRI002 and the other will have 3 x QLD001. Will I have problems with the units over heating and/ or premature failure due to heat?

    Thanks in advance,
    Nad
  • chris_j_hunter
    Automated Home Legend
    • Dec 2007
    • 1713

    #2
    looks quite a good deal, as these things go - presumably it's actually a 22 unit CU (the flush-mount option is 22, and when I count switches in the illustration there seem to be 22 there, too ... ?
    Our self-build - going further with HA...

    Comment

    • chris_j_hunter
      Automated Home Legend
      • Dec 2007
      • 1713

      #3
      PS: did you also see :



      plastic, rather than metal, though ...
      Our self-build - going further with HA...

      Comment

      • Nad
        Automated Home Guru
        • Jul 2008
        • 145

        #4
        I've already actually got the MK 21 unit CU ... but I think i'm just going to leave using that for now (it's not as pretty as the Contactum one). I'm planning to get my main CU changed to the Dual Split Load Contactum 32 unit CU with the flush mount and having the Idratek gear in the same look enclosure will make everything loo so much neater.

        If I could I would try and rehouse the IPS-002 into the Contactus style CU enclosure, but I think that may be going a bit too far

        Comment

        • chris_j_hunter
          Automated Home Legend
          • Dec 2007
          • 1713

          #5
          interesting ... the MK ones seem to have gone through a style change, old ones with transparent door, new ones with an opaque curvy one ... transparent could be best for seeing what's the state of play, opaque might be more SWMBO friendly, I guess !

          PS: good point about aesthetics, it's something we're trying to get to grips with - our node-0 will be on the garage wall, but the garage will be the normal way of entry into the house, so we're trying to keep it presentable !
          Last edited by chris_j_hunter; 28 April 2009, 03:16 PM.
          Our self-build - going further with HA...

          Comment

          • Nad
            Automated Home Guru
            • Jul 2008
            • 145

            #6
            Originally posted by chris_j_hunter View Post
            looks quite a good deal, as these things go - presumably it's actually a 22 unit CU (the flush-mount option is 22, and when I count switches in the illustration there seem to be 22 there, too ... ?
            Yeah, I think it's actually a 22 unit CU but comes with a 100A switch, so i guess I could either use the 100A switch or just take it out. Could be useful to isolate the power in that CU but i'm going to have a MCB in the main CU that will isolate each Idratek CU enclosure.


            Choices Choices Choices

            Comment

            • Nad
              Automated Home Guru
              • Jul 2008
              • 145

              #7
              Originally posted by chris_j_hunter View Post
              interesting ... the MK ones seem to have gone through a style change, old ones with transparent door, new ones with an opaque curvy one ... transparent could be best for seeing what's the state of play, opaque might be more SWMBO friendly, I guess !

              PS: good point about aesthetics, it's something we're trying to get to grips with - our node-0 will be on the garage wall, but the garage will be the normal way of entry into the house, so we're trying to keep it presentable !
              My node 0 will be in the under stairs cupboard so doesn't hae to be very aesthetically pleasing but I like to have things done neatly so plan to essentially build one of the walls out with MDF and then have these contactum CUs fulsh mounted with all the wiring behind the false wall.

              SWMBO is not happy with me at the moment because i've hijacked the space she use to store the vacum cleaner and other odds and end, atleast this way everything is out of the way and I don't have to worry about her accidentally leaning something on any equipment or accidentally hitting anything.

              Comment

              • Solosid
                Automated Home Lurker
                • Apr 2009
                • 3

                #8
                Hi Nad,

                what exactly are you putting into the CU's?

                sorry if its a daft question...but everyday's a school day!


                cheers

                Mark

                Comment

                • chris_j_hunter
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Dec 2007
                  • 1713

                  #9
                  >CUs flush-mounted with all the wiring behind the false wall ...

                  yep, sounds good ... we might do the same, not sure, because there's a false-wall planned for the garage that was for the gas-boiler, now deleted (*), that we could use ...


                  * on economic grounds, but the noise the one in our current place makes drives me mad, so the idea was to acoustically isolate it from the rest of the house ...
                  Our self-build - going further with HA...

                  Comment

                  • Nad
                    Automated Home Guru
                    • Jul 2008
                    • 145

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Solosid View Post
                    Hi Nad,

                    what exactly are you putting into the CU's?

                    sorry if its a daft question...but everyday's a school day!


                    cheers

                    Mark
                    Hi Mark,

                    The plan is to use two CUs. One will house 4 x QRIs and the othe will house 3 x QLDs

                    My main concern is the heat that would be trapped inside the CUs with these devices.

                    Thanks,
                    Nad

                    Comment

                    • pdwarriner
                      Automated Home Jr Member
                      • Nov 2008
                      • 25

                      #11
                      Nad,

                      The QRI units should be fine as they generate very little heat.

                      The QLD units may be an issue ... they are housed in vented DIN units and require passive airflow through the units. We could not guarantee correct operation if they are used outside the datasheet guidelines.

                      It may be possible to vent the CU if you are careful to not expose internal mains wiring, or perhaps fit a small case fan?

                      Regards,
                      Peter.

                      Comment

                      • Karam
                        Automated Home Legend
                        • Mar 2005
                        • 863

                        #12
                        It looks to me that these should be ok from a ventilation point of view, ie. with all the holes in bottom and top sides of the box (though take heed of Peter's comment on exposure above). The other factor to consider is venting of the space that this will go into if flush mounted into a false wall for example.
                        Last edited by Karam; 28 April 2009, 11:46 PM. Reason: Account for Peter's safety comment

                        Comment

                        • Nad
                          Automated Home Guru
                          • Jul 2008
                          • 145

                          #13
                          As Peter said the QLDs were my main concern but was not too sure of the QRIs, but thank you for clearing that up for me.

                          I guess the best solution is to have the enclosure with the QLDs with some form of active cooling. I can create a ventilation port with a couple of low speed case fans to keep the air flowing through the enclosure. I gues i could also take it up a notch by having a temp sensor in there and have the fans controlled dynamically

                          Thanks for all the advise guys, I have a lot of work to do ... lol

                          Comment

                          • chris_j_hunter
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Dec 2007
                            • 1713

                            #14
                            wonder if a smoke detector could be good, too ... especially if any fires could be buried & drawn by fans ??
                            Our self-build - going further with HA...

                            Comment

                            • Nad
                              Automated Home Guru
                              • Jul 2008
                              • 145

                              #15
                              Already planning to have a smoke detector in the understairs cupboard, I'll also put one in the comms/ node 0 cabinet.

                              It may be a bit over kill but then again it's a safety issue so probably isn't ... I am looking into CO2 extinguishers that can be triggered via a relay, so if a fire was to be detected (smoke alarm and temp sensor) then the extinguished automatically fires. That's still in the early stages of thought though but something like that would deffinately help me sleep easier

                              Then again it could just be me getting carried away with safety

                              Comment

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