C-bus in the roof

does any one have experience of c-bus being mounted in the roof space? i have been asked to quote on extending a existing c-bus network which has relay and dimmers not din units fitted in the roof is this ok i would have thought it would get to hot in mid north nsw. i want to replace with din and move it out of the roof. customer says the system has worked ok since 99 but gets unreliable on hot days

 

I'd has it a guess that if the roof space got hotter than 50 deg ambient (anywhere in Australia will) then don?t do it.
cheers

 

Roof Space

I have a 12 channel relay unit in my roof space running the air conditioner dampers it is mounted within an pvc box with hole top and bottom for ventilation, i have had no problems over 2 summers since installed. Installation address South Australia and it still gets to 40 deg + .

 

you asked, i answer

Yeh,

a lot of problems with mounting the gear in the ceiling...

seemed a good idea at the time, along with using PHONE Cable for the BUS, hindsight tells us now , DON"T DO IT.

As one of the other guys mentioned previously, he has had problems when it gets hot.

To add to insult , i have even seen people place the product in the apex of the roof ( hottest part ), presumably because it is taller and they can stand up straight while working on it.

Depending on the temperature, heat generating devices like power supplies will tend to cut in and out if you exceed their operating temp 45-50 deg C.

If using PRO dimmers they have very specific mounting requirements supplied with them, depending on the load ( derated by exceding max temp range ) they will cycle the load on and off.

One of the main reasons for transferring the product from the old "BLACK BOX" stuff to DIN RAIL mount was to save people from having to put it in the ceiling space due to the large mounting area that the old stuff took up.

It is also a pig to fault find gear stuck in the roof.

What has now been an alternative choice to ceiling mount is multiple boards at distributed locations throughout the installation where possible.

 

All of my C-bus gear is mounted in my roof space.
Majority of it is the old C-Bus (non din rail) but have about 3 din rail dimmer units.
Also to add insult to injury it is all cabled in 2pair telephone (only saving grace is I cabled it in star configuration back to 1 point in my roof.)

Live in Newcastle NSW and as yet touch wood have not really had any major problems.
I had an old 4 channel dimmer fail after about 6 months which was replaced under warranty.

Any new installs now are done in cat 5 and not installed in roof space.

If you can install the new gear in a switchboard in a wall then that would be better.
But in my experience roof space installed gear still seems to work ok.

Jason..