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D.I.Y. electrical work around your aquarium


livingart

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Legislation concerning electrical work you are allowed to do in your home can be found here

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1997/0060/latest/DLM229444.html]http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulati ... 29444.htm

Disclaimer:

Inexperience & improper wiring is dangerous and can cause fire, personal injury or death.

With electricity, there's no room for errors.

In some cases it may also void your insurance if not compliant.

Water and electricity do not mix

The FNZAS recommends getting any electrical wiring work around your aquarium done by a suitably qualified person.

IN SHORT FORM

You are allowed to remove and replace light fittings, cords, etc, this does not mean you are allowed to DIY new fittings from scratch.

You are allowed to install new or extent sub circuits, PROVIDED they are inspected and signed off by a qualified sparky.

Replacing a plug or broken bulb holder is fine but building new fittings is not.

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  • 3 weeks later...
define low voltage would 240v be classed as low voltage

i thaught low voltage was say round 12v or a voltage unlikely to cause electric shock if live, saying the amperage was of a lower amount

If you read the Regs you will find the low voltage is anything exceeding 50VAC or 120V ripple free DC but not exceeding 1000VAC or 1500V ripple free DC

now "extra low voltage" is anything not exceeding 50VAC or 120V ripple free DC.

now you can see the even when a electrical engineer say "Extra low voltage" Is can still do damage to you.

And suphew is right most older houses wont think twice about passing 10,20,30,40 amps through yo to ground, it only takes in the order of 100mA (0.1 amp) across your heart to stop it.

It is my strong recommendation that you (fish keepers in general) find out if your house is RCDed and if it is not, get a electrician to install one in your board or go out and buy a RCD to plug into your power socket and run your tank off it.

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And well worth the money paid, there is no price on your life is there?

Indeed, but if you spend a little more you you can have an rcd that wont need resetting after a power cut that happens the day after you go on holiday.

Note: a portable RCD (the plug in type) is designed to cut the circuit when supply power is lost and has to be manually turned on / reset when the supply is restored,

however a sw/bd mounted rcd or rcd wall socket will stay latched during a power cut and won't need resetting (unless there is a downstream fault).

If you are fine with resetting the rcd every time the power goes off the a plugin / portable one is fine.

Other wise I would recommend a combination rcd outlet such as: PDL 691RCD30 http://www.pdl.co.nz/product-details.aspx?rcat=products&catid=0&id=914

but you are right, there is no price for a life

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Does Bridget know? :lol:

Actually, she's the one that suggested it...

BTW, I think water and electricity do mix well. If they didn't how could I have measured a 110v induced current in my marine tank? If they didn't mix all the electrons would have just fallen out of solution and droppped to the bottom of the tank.

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  • 12 years later...

Dear all,

Came home from the Christmas break to find my tank had sprung a small leak which made its way along a power cord from a light, into a timer, and down to an extension block filling it with water ?. The extension block was lying on the floor without a drip loop - I KNOW BETTER THAN THIS, BUT IT HAPPENED ANYWAY. Very thankful that the overload tripped and shut this down before anything really bad happened while we were away. I got away with it this time but will be changing my ways; lesson learned. In 40 years of fishkeeping I've never had this happen but...

Please be careful.

- Rory

Dunedin

IMG_0987.jpg

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