Friday, July 27, 2007

Re: [papercreters] electrical -was- Re: modular block

An additional reason you might want to use conduit in your PC construction is ease of repair. With conventional stick-built, you have to rip off the drywall or siding to open up the wall if you need to rewire something. With a monolithic or block wall, this becomes much more difficult. Plus pulling cable through conduit is much easier because it has a smooth surface and you can use lubricant. Seems like it'd be a hassle to pull cable through a rough surface like concrete. Might be worth embedding conduit just to simplify things later on.

I can attest that romex will get hot & melt if you have a short. Those wires will glow if you pump enough current through 'em.

Greg


----- Original Message ----

From: Spaceman <Spaceman@starship-enterprises.net>

To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 6:14:05 PM

Subject: Re: [papercreters] electrical -was- Re: modular block

Any conductor with current flowing through it produces heat. The amount depends on the amount of current and the resistance of the wire. For an extreme example look inside your toaster. Lots of current and high resistance produces lots of heat. The more thermal insulation you put around the conductor, the harder it is to dissipate that heat. That's why romex is run through cavities in hollow block, and other places where it can get rid of the heat.

I wouldn't worry too much about setting pc on fire except in extreme cases, but I would be concerned with the electrical insulation melting.

Spaceman

____________________________________________________________________________________
Park yourself in front of a world of choices in alternative vehicles. Visit the Yahoo! Auto Green Center.
http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/


Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/join

(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:papercreters-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:papercreters-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
papercreters-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/