The reason for fuses

[brummie1372]

As a newbie I am probably bringing up something that has been discussed to the nth degree.but how many people realise that a fuse is only put into a circuit to protect the cabling of the circuit not the component on that circuit whether thats the new expesive ICE you have just installed or you,re fridge in the kitchen.
In automotive wiring looms the cable used is as close to the bare minimum as can possibly be used with safety.This is for cost. Save 2p per loom ? say no more.
So if the nice shiny new "thingy" is blowing the fuse on the circuit of the old less powerfull one it replaced don,t put a bigger fuse in REWIRE !!! Sure try a new fuse of the original size (fuses do get old and tired) but dont put a bigger one in if it keeps on blowing.
Trying to patch together or replace a wiring loom is a pain. Been there, done that.

Brummie.

[bobbinsjob]

well said, as an engineer working with 415v and with 1000amp breakers people assume that fuses are there to stop a fault from killing you. A 5amp fuse will probably not blow until it has maybe 8 or 9amps going through it. The recognised safe amount of current for a normal healthy human is 30milliamps, 0.03 amps Remember, you cant see it, cant smell it, cant hear it till it's too late

[Road Hog]

Fit RCD`s could be a life saving investment

[bobbinsjob]

too true bernie. RCD's are set at 30mA

[Road Hog]

Ahhhhh I cheated Ian................. 16th Edition wire puller

[brummie1372]

Maintenance Engineer then a Locomotive engineer . I bet we,ve all attended "horror stories" over the years and the man in the street would think we were full of B.S. if we were to tell them.

[priestinthejeep]

i knew a guy who ended up in hospital after blowing a fuse on welder hadn got another so he put a screw tip as a fuse
he didn try it again

[bobbinsjob]

On my leccies course, I got a belt off 500volts, luckily no amps, it was off a giga but it took the edge off my day just through a mometary lapse of concentration. 5 minutes earlier i had been working on a live 415v circuit, i wouldnt have known much about it

[Alchamist]

The Fire Brigade use a useful trick when searching in places they can't see fully, or are unsure of ... they use the back of their hands to check along walls and the like, as if there is a live AC feed there, it will force their hands away when touched due to the muscle contraction. If you use the palm of your hand, there is a good chance if you made a circuit, you would actually grab hold of the feed!

But remember kiddies, DC can hurt just as much! Especially in tight cabinets for industrial 110v Emergency Lighting feeds, where you put your hand in (stupidly), touch a contact on one side, hand gets pushed away, only to touch a contact on the other side, to be pushed back onto the original contact .... rinse and repeat a few times before managing to get your hand out!

However, I can go one further than connecting myself to the 3 phase ... I actually managed once to connect someone else to the 3 phase via me! I am sure that is the only reason we are both still here ... we literally shared the load!

[FUDDY MUCKER]