ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Austrian Diazed Panels

Wow, that's a huge beast. The largest panel I've ever seen was at a school, don't know the age, but it was about 1x2m. The wiring inside was new but a mess. I remember arm-thick bundles of black and blue wires all over the panel, no chance to figure out what belonged where. i think the breakers weren't even labeled. _That_ was ugly! In those old Diazed panels you still have a chance to trace all wires to the respective fuses without tearing apart the panel. At another (newer) school they did better and split it up into amazing numbers of subpanels, all breakers labeled with laser printer. The wiring wasn't much better though, each time it snowed the RCD feeding the receptacles in our classroom would trip. It didn't mind rain at all, but snow somehow got it. Well, after the story... they had to tear out _all_ wiring and redo it because _nothing_ worked! Luckily they used generous amounts of trunking, so at least they didn't have to tear up all walls.

well, luckily most of these units here are made comprehensibly and well marked. you can see they labeled every clamp. The breaker labels on the front plates are even engraved.
and nearly every unit like these carries a map or book with all schematics on the inside of the door.

Nice pictures Andy!

I borrowed a digital camera today and played around with. As you will see, I need to practice. Unfortunately, I ran out of batteries... And at the moment I haven't any photo editing software in the computer to resize and sharpen the photos. The photos are directly from the camera. Large files.

The new panel for a lunchroom. Ongoing work.

Upper part of the same panel. Terribly blurred picture

The main panel, ca 1948 with some bits and pieces replaced or added later.

The old cloth covered cables for the old panel. Common way of placing cables now and then.

Nice pictures guys -- Thanks!

@ C-H

are there heavy loads connected to that panel, or do you use diazed fuses as standard instead of breakers?

No heavy loads. Most of it's 10A circuits, with some 16A circuits for the kitchen. I think the electricians are simply a bit conservative and don't trust MCB's.

thats why its prescribed here to have at least one melting fuse system in your house (normally 50 or 63A). this doesnt save from small overloads, but sure blows if theres a short and MCBs should stick (has anyone ever seen or heard of a MCB that stuck due to contact arcs?)

It's standard practice in Britain for the main service fuse(s) to be the cartridge type. Their higher rupturing capacity provides the necessary protection when the prospective short-circuit current is higher than the MCBs can handle.

As for breakers not tripping and opening properly, just ask our American friends about Federal Pacific!

It's still normal practice (here in Ireland anyway)to include a neozed fuse, typically 63A on a standard distribution panel.

ESB owned equipment:
<Service Fuse 80 Amps>----<Meter>---Isolating switch
Consumer owned equipment:
<Main switch on board>----<Main fuse e.g. 50 or 63A>---30mA RCD---MCBs

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 12-06-2003).]