electrical wiring guru's

NanoReefWanabe

NanoReefWanabe

New member
i am planning on building two circuits like this for new little tank...

i will have GFCI breakers in the panel and have a project box of some sort built into my stand like these...

i want to protect everything, and i want everything to be switchable...

so does anyone see anything that will kill me, hurt my family, burn my house down, or fry my tank? i am not sure if the box will be metal or plastic, i am thinking plastic hence the grounds to everything. also i doubt very much i would use duplex split receptacles, the would likely be single receptacles and four of them so i can plug in 12 & 24 V transformers

and through the powers of MSpaint i present..
wired.jpg
 
I think your drawing over complicates and confuses things a bit....

1.) If you're going to carry the grounds into the box, you should probably just use a metal box.

2.) Use Toggle switches rated for your application instead of household switches, they are much smaller and easier to mount in an enclosure. For a regular switch, you'll need to punch a rectangular hole, for a toggle you just drill a circular hole...

3.) Each receptacle, assuming you use four single units, will needs it's own isolated neutral line, hot input from the applicable switch, and a ground.
 
yeah, i would use little toggles or smaller switches of some sort...

my initial plan was to use GFI receptacles but i dont think i could split them so i had to go with GFCI breakers instead...i was more worried about the switching etc of GFCI protected outlets that share a common hot and neutral...

as for a metal box, it is going in my stand so i dont want to chance rust, etc...plastic will also be nice and water tight to prevent salt creep issues too..

now that i think about it though the box will have to have two extension cords coming out of it to be plugged into wall receptacles beside the stand, so i dont hae to use GFCI breakers as i all ready have Gfi outlets lying around, i can just switch the outlets in the wall rather then run a new circuit through the house.
 
You only need a single neutral to each receptacle, don't cut the tab on the neutral side and run two wires, it serves no purpose.
 
kookie that is very nice...little overkill for what i am doing...but very nice, that is how i will do it when it comes time for my big tank...
 
I wouldn't have cut the corner and only ran 1 neutral for both hots. even though you are not running many amps and im assuming you used at least 12gauge rated for 20amps. it all depends on what your hooking up. sense i don't know what you are then i would use 1 neural for 1 hot regardless of what your hooking up, the wire is already cut. why not use it for the added safety. i was gonna say you could run thicker AWG wire and splice your grounds off that but didnt realize you are only going no more that 2 feet.

Also you mentioned you were using GFCI breakers? its more cost effective to just run GFCI outlets, or run all your outlets off one constant GFCI outlet to save even more.

Though it seems you already did your project and i must say looks damn nice. makes me want to build one now.:bounce3:
 
By no means is he cutting a corner, neutral is neutral. There is no benefit in feeding each receptacle with 2 neutral wires. Remember, both halves of the receptacle are fed from the same branch circuit, it makes no difference what he is hooking up, the neutral wire is protected by the breaker. One less connection makes a neater, easier to terminate receptacle and junction box.

If both halves of the receptacle were fed from DIFFERENT breakers, then other things must be considered (both from a CODE standpoint, and a safety standpoint) but that is not the case here.

Using a single GFI device (breaker or receptacle) creates a single point of failure where any faulting device or nuisance trip will bring down the entire tank.

The OP had hoped to use multiple GFCI receptacles, but due to space considerations (you cant SPLIT a duplex GFCI receptacle into two switched halves) he decided to use multiple GFCI breakers so that he could at least separate SOME of the equipment.
 
Quick question for STU...what do the switches over the gfci outlets control?

this is how my finished box turned out...now i just need to add another outlet in the wall and and replace the breakers..
IMG_3870.jpg
 
It looks like he is feeding the SPLIT receptacle to the right of each GFCI from the load side of the GFCI via the switches. That is ONE GFCI is split into two switched loads.
 
Bean is correct.

Each GFCI feeds two switches. Each switch controls one outlet to the right.
To do that, you need to break away the connection on the outlet to have independent control.
There is a small brass piece that connects both outlets together.
They are designed so that you can snap it off easily.

Stu
 
If you are wanting to mount all your electrical equipement under your tank and in an enclosure like I am and wanting to protect them from moisture and the unexpected splash- I am installing a non metal nema 4x box with all my electrical outlets inside. Companies will sell these enclosures that have options of metal mounting plates inside and clear hinged/latched doors for easy viewing. The box I am looking at is under $200 and should be able to house (atleast its the plan) 3 power strips and all the dimming equipement for my lights. I plan on using a certain controller and drilling and tapping the metal plate thats inside the nema box to mount everything. I have used boxes similar to these at work and its really easy to drill and tap and mount components. Just need the tools. So just another idea- for those interested just do a search on the internet to get an idea. The typical box stores around here did not have what I was looking for and I could only order this product from an electrical supply store- which they will probably order as well- not something usually carried in stock. But its a clean look and the box itself is easily drillable to add conduit if needed/wanted.
 
There are numerous sites that sell surpluss NEMA 2,3,3R,3S,4,4X.. etc enclosures.

Just about ANY NEMA RATING ABOVE 1 will work for our purposes.
 
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