Quick question in terms of cabling

Arietans said:
That's my guess too which is interesting since you can just as easily burn the house down with a 30a DC supply.
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You can, but it is unlikely. In the event that the transformer is plugged into a socket, and the transformer burns / melts, the idea is that the wires would short, causing either your plug's breaker, or your earth leakage to trip and killing the power. The chances are that your cabling would also melt first, before there are risk of fire which would lead to a short and your breakers tripping.

A 30A transformer on a plug (rated for 20A max) would already be a problem though, seeing that the plug's wiring is only certified to carry about 25A of power. So a dedicated circuit SHOULD actually be installed for such big transformers if you want to carry the full 30A load (and this would require 4mm or 6mm cabling, like your geyser and/or stove).

But yes - just imagine now how dangerous solar / generator / large ups installations actually are... 48V running at hundreds of amps from the solar panels / batteries to the inverters.

The sad part is that generator / solar systems are ALSO actually a huge grey area, as the COC *only* covers electricity supplied by the authority (i.e. eskom and/or municipalities).
 
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savage said:
You can, but it is unlikely. In the event that the transformer is plugged into a socket, and the transformer burns / melts, the idea is that the wires would short, causing either your plug's breaker, or your earth leakage to trip and killing the power. The chances are that your cabling would also melt first, before there are risk of fire which would lead to a short and your breakers tripping.
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Being DC it would have online fuse(s) for sure.

A 30A transformer on a plug (rated for 20A max) would already be a problem though, seeing that the plug's wiring is only certified to carry about 25A of power. So a dedicated circuit SHOULD actually be installed for such big transformers if you want to carry the full 30A load (and this would require 4mm or 6mm cabling, like your geyser and/or stove).
Click to expand...
I think we're confusing input current and output current max capacity. The 30A refers to 30A DC maximum supply on the DC side. Not sure how many AC watts / amps are required to supply the max 30A at 12v DC tho...
 
Arietans said:
I think we're confusing input current and output current max capacity. The 30A refers to 30A DC maximum supply on the DC side. Not sure how many AC watts / amps are required to supply the max 30A at 12v DC tho...
Click to expand...

True...

30A @ 12V = 360W
360W @ 220V = 1.6A

And yes, fuses and overload protection should come standard too...
 
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