New Install

Hi All,

Looking at doing a new install and would welcome any comments and suggestions. At the moment I am in the very early planning stages.

It will be a retro fit to a single story house with good roof access and plenty of wall space in the garage workshop area to mount the C-bus equipment box and a sub power box from meter box. The garage workshop is about mid point along the house so it should work well for cable runs. 95% of all lights are celling so cable replacement should be not too bad and hopefully the old wall switches cable can be used to pull up the new C-Bus cable.

I know a couple of sparkies and a couple I have used to do house stuff in the past, but they know nothing about C-Bus. I wanted to plan it all out , mount all the C-Bus equipment in the garage , do the C-Bus cable runs and then get the Sparky to install the new power sub board , run all the new power cables to each light point in the roof and disconnect (remove power) from old wall switches so i can pull up the C-bus cable. Hopefully this approach will keep everything legal, good with insurance while minimising costs.

I have been browsing these forums and some of the technical references mentioned until I think I have my head around what items I should need. I have attached the house list of lights, power consumption and what C-Bus parts I think I need, comments would be welcomed.

A couple of questions:

1) I was thinking getting the sparky to divert all the light breakers from the outside fuse box to the new sub board in the garage leaving the safety switch on the outside main fuse box to deal with power points and get him to install a new safety switch for the new sub board which will obviously be all the house lights.I read someones comment in another post that this way if your power points blow out or trip the safety switch you still have lights.

In fact was thinking of 1 fuse breaker for each relay unit and the dimmer unit (total of 3 fuse breakers). Is one safety switch for the lot OK or would one per C-Bus unit be overkill ?

noticed a few install pictures where people have multiple safety switches , one per C-Bus relay unit and one fuse breaker per relay channel.

At the moment on the main fuse box the whole house lights are split over only 2 16A breakers... so I would think that 1 16A fuse breaker per 12 channel relay C-bus unit would cover it... but then again I can see the logic that if each relay channel covers 10A then 1 Fuse breaker per relay channel covers the theoretical max of each relay channel.

2)

From my attachment you will see I seem to need 2 x 12 ch 10A relay units and 1 x 8 ch 1A dimmer unit. So if I get the units that include a build in C-bus power supply does that supply just cater to the relay unit etc or does it also add extra power to the entire C-Bus network. ie. I would need 1 stand alone power supply or would I get by with getting the 2 Relay units and the Dimmer each with an inbuilt power supply to power the whole network .. I will ultimately end up with about 15 wall plate switches .. just the standard ones (6 switches per wall plate for at least 3/4)

I could not see anywhere the C-Bus power consumption of the relay units & Dimmer units.

The Clipsal 4CW24FD looks like a good C-Bus equipment box ? anyone use anything better or different ?


I have edited the post to include the power needs below as per attachment., attachment is easier to read.

Light No# Description Watts / A Ch Total Ch Amps C-Bus unit - Slots on unit
1 Office Fluro 40W / .16A 1 .16A Relay 1 -1
2 Sun Rm Fluro 80W / .34A 2 .34A Relay 1-2
3 Bedroom 3 120W / .5A 3 .5A Relay 1-3
4 Family Room 180W /.75A 4 .75A Relay 1-4
5 Bath Heat lamp 1100W/4.6A 5 Relay 1-5
6 Bath Fluro 60W / .25A 5 4.8A Relay 1-5
7 Bedroom 2 120W / .5A 6 .5A Relay 1-6
8 Kitchen Bench 120W / .5A 7 .5A Relay 1-7
9 Kitchen Fluro 80W / .34A 8 .34A Relay 1-8
10 Dining Room 180W / .75A 9 .75A Relay 1-9
11 Bath Heat Lamp 550W / 2.3A 10 2.3A Relay 1-10
12 Bath Fluro 60W / .25A 11 .25A Relay 1-11
Spare Relay 1 -12

Total Load Relay 1 12Amps (for breaker)

13 Main Bedroom 120W / .5A 12 .5A Dimmer 1-1
28 Main Bedroom 120W / .5A 13 .5A Dimmer 1-2
14 Front Door in 60W /.25A 14 .25A Dimmer 1-3
15 Bar Lights 120W / .5A 15 .5A Dimmer 1-4
16 Lounge Down Lts 120W / .5A 16 Dimmer 1-5
17 Lounge Down Lts 120W / .5A 16 1A Dimmer 1-5
18 Lounge Down Lts 120W / .5A 17 Dimmer 1-6
19 Lounge Down Lts 120W / .5A 17 1A Dimmer 1-6
Spare Dimmer 1-7
Spare Dimmer 1-8

Total Load Dimmer 4amps (for breaker)

20 Front Door out 60W / .25A 18 .25A Relay 2-1
21 Driveway Front 60W / .25A 19 .25A Relay 2-2
22 Garage Fluro 40W .16A 20 .16A Relay 2-3
23 Garage Light 60W / .25A 21 .25A Relay 2-4
24 laundry 60W / .25A 22 .25A Relay 2-5
25 Back Spotlights 550W /2.3A 23 2.3A Relay 2-6
26 BBQ Area Fluro 1 80W / .34A 24 Relay 2-7
27 BBQ Area Fluro 2 80W / .34A 24 .68A Relay 2-7
29 Side Bin Area 275W / 1.2A 25 1.2A Relay 2-8
Spare Relay 2-9
Spare Relay 2-10
Spare Relay 2-11

Total Load Relay 2 6 Amps (for breaker)

Looking forward to people feedback and suggestions

 

C-Bus Calculator

You can download the C-Bus calculator which will help you with power supply requirements.

http://www2.clipsal.com/cis/technical/downloads/general_utilities#Calc