|
|
Hi Crazy John {:>),
I am in full agreement with you. If you design your power circuit properly (wire sized to carry the required load plus a margin) then fusing for the equipment will ALWAYs protect the wire. Fusing for the wire will almost never save the equipment. I have seen more equipment catch on fire than I have wiring bundles. I recently had a small display (cell phone size) catch fire being powered with 9 volts - I was amazed at how well the plastic used to contain the circuitry caught fire and how well it burned.
I have long been puzzled by the save-the-wire sizing of fuses. If a smaller fuse is used to save the equipment then it will surely save the wire.
I believe the reason that practice came about is that when you install wiring in an aircraft (or anything) that is offered for sell to a customer, you don't necessarily know or have control over what future equipment(s) might be hooked up to it or what loads they might require. Therefore, if you fuse to the size of the wire, then damage is prevented to the wiring from any overload. So undoubtedly not a bad practice from that viewpoint.
Ed
Hi Al;
Thanks for the reply. After reading Joe's response
on the proablem you experienced I decided to go with a
separate 15 AMP PTC resettable fuse for each coil
instead of a 10 AMP for both. Regarding protecting
wires instead of loads, when dealing with a $10,000
radio, or a $7,000 EFIS I'm much more concerned with
the load than the wire. Call me crazy.
John
--- Al Gietzen <ALVentures@cox.net> wrote:
|
|