Critique my electrical plans

[jeffbrig]

Looking for feedback, or anything I might be overlooking.

I have three circuits servicing the tank - 15A, 20A, and 20A. I'm laying out 9 switches because I plan to put 3 triple switches together in a 3-gang box. That should give me a little room to expand. I also expect to have a few extra outlets that are "always on", not shown on the diagrams.

The Relay on V2 is to do reverse photoperiod lighting for the moonlights and refugium. I'll wire up an AC coil relay to turn these on when the light timer switches off.

I had originally planned unique GFCIs everywhere (option 1), but after looking at the first diagram, I thought I could do one per circuit, with separate ones for the lighting (option 2). That way I would still get all the protection, but with only 5 GFCIs instead of 11. I think with the equipment groupings I put in, it would still be pretty safe.


Option 1: Separate GFCIs for everything

Option 2: Shared GFCIs (also, separate timers for the T5s)

 

[jeffbrig]

Hmmm, crickets?

Bueler......Bueler.....

Bump for the west coast crowd

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I like 2 myself

 

[jeffbrig]

Thanks Grim, I'm leaning that way myself. Just need to make sure I have no major omissions first. This is something I want to get right on the first attempt.

 

[pjf]

Timer Instead of Relay for Flexibility

Timer Instead of Relay for Flexibility

jeffbrig,

Instead of using a relay to switch on your moonlights and refugium lights, I'd suggest a separate timer that can be easily overridden. I have an RDP refugium in a dark cabinet and it is convenient to manually turn on the refugium lighting during the day for servicing and for water changes.

In my setup, a override ON/OFF switch on the timer can be used to manually activate the refugium lighting. The manual switch does not remove the timer programming so the automatic switching resumes.

Excellent drawings! It was a pleasure to examine them.

 

[besl]

Although option #2 makes more sense than option #1, I don't understand the logic of having multiple GFCI in approach #2. I would just have one GFCI for each circuit.

 

[jeffbrig]

Re: Timer Instead of Relay for Flexibility

Re: Timer Instead of Relay for Flexibility

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8800463#post8800463 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pjf
Instead of using a relay to switch on your moonlights and refugium lights, I'd suggest a separate timer that can be easily overridden. I have an RDP refugium in a dark cabinet and it is convenient to manually turn on the refugium lighting during the day for servicing and for water changes.

That's a great point, I may need to do that. Lately, I've been running my refugium light 24/7, so I didn't think about the need for light inside the stand during the day.

 

[jeffbrig]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8800529#post8800529 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by besl
Although option #2 makes more sense than option #1, I don't understand the logic of having multiple GFCI in approach #2. I would just have one GFCI for each circuit.

My original approach was to have separate GFCIs for each piece of equipment, so that one equipment failure wouldn't turn off an entire group of tank equipment. When I revised that to option #2, I decided to keep the lights separate for two reasons. One, I've found that my icecap ballasts can trip some brands of GFCIs erroneously when firing under certain circumstances. Not something I want to worry about taking my pumps offline if the power flickers while I'm at work. Two, the outlets for the sump equipment will be inside the stand. I'll have another inside the canopy to plug the light timers into. The incremental cost to make both GFCIs is negligible.

 

[tedu]

Option 2 looks good to me as well.
Just wondering about balancing the load on each circuit ? Looks like you've got 2 of your biggest consumers, MH & Chiller on the same one ? Was this by design to make it easier to power specific things in the event of switching to generator or ?

 

[H22ATypeS]

Option 2 looks good to me...Just make sure you have all your load calculations correct and you'll be fine..

 

[jeffbrig]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8800993#post8800993 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tedu
Option 2 looks good to me as well.
Just wondering about balancing the load on each circuit ? Looks like you've got 2 of your biggest consumers, MH & Chiller on the same one ? Was this by design to make it easier to power specific things in the event of switching to generator or ?

Good observation, and a couple of things pushed me down this path. My Tunze streams are on a UPS, and because it's located away from the tank, that's plugged into the existing 15A outlet. I didn't want my return pump on the same circuit as the streams, so it needs to be on one of the 20A circuits. Because the return pump also feeds the chiller, I wanted them on the same circuit. That way, if the return pump circuit gets tripped, the chiller won't freeze up and burst. So, it was either put all of the lights on a single 20A circuit (which is an option), or go with what I have above. The other mitigating factor is that my halides run a pretty short photoperiod to simulate midday sun, T5s really makeup my primary lighting.

Would it make more sense to do all of the lights on one circuit, and all of the other stuff (return, chiller, skimmer, utility pumps) on the other? The circuit has the capacity to go either way. I'm looking at 500w of MH, and 440w of T5. The return pump is 168w, chiller is 550w, skimmer 80w.