September 19, 2022
Dianne Russel
The panel is the heart of your electrical installation. It is the starting point for all the electrical circuits in a building. It provides both power and protection for all the devices in the house. But what does an electrical panel consist of and what is the importance of each element? Let's take stock of it in this article.
Circuit breakers are the main components of your electrical panel. They provide protection for all the electrical circuits in your home. When an overcurrent or short circuit occurs, the circuit breaker will shut off the power.
Its main difference from fuses or fuses is that it can be reset after a blow without having to be replaced.
There are several types of circuit breakers, namely:
- The thermal circuit breaker: it protects the appliances from the risks of overcurrent and fire. It is particularly robust and simple. However, it is less precise and takes time to activate and reset;
- The magnetic circuit breaker: This type of circuit breaker is effective in preventing a short circuit. It is also very accurate and has the ability to absorb a much higher current than normal.
- The thermal-magnetic circuit breaker: this type of circuit breaker fulfills both the function of the magnetic and thermal circuit breaker. In other words, it is suitable for both short circuit and overcurrent cases;
- The differential circuit breaker: this last type of circuit breaker ensures both protection against current overloads and short circuits. But its specificity is that it can also protect your home from current differences between phase and neutral. This is often the case when your installation suffers from poor electrical insulation.
Circuit breakers have replaced fuses. Fuses are now present in older buildings, and current safety standards call for their replacement with circuit breakers.
Residual current switches are used to protect the occupants of a home from electrical shock. One switch covers only one or more circuits in a home, but not the entire installation. That's why it's necessary to install several at a time in an electrical panel. In the event of a problem, it isolates the electrical circuit that is the source of the fault to avoid any risk of electrocution.
There are different types of differential switches:
- The type A differential switch that protects the stove, the cooking plates or the washing machine;
- The AC type differential switch which generally corresponds to standard uses such as lighting, sockets and others. Only one is needed in a house of 35 m², while 2 are needed for a living area between 35 m² and 100 m². Above 100 m², 3 are needed;
- The Hpi type differential switch is necessary to protect a freezer, computer equipment or the alarm system.
Lightning rods and surge protectors are devices that are used to protect the house, the occupants and the electrical installation from lightning. A lightning rod is a metal spike installed on top of a house. It is connected to the ground via a cable and drains the lightning energy through the metal rod to the ground. This way, the building is spared, which avoids many material and physical damages.
While the lightning rod protects the house, it does not prevent lightning from striking the power lines, which could still affect the electrical installation. To avoid this kind of inconvenience, a lightning arrester is necessary. It is installed in the electrical panel and allows to channel the surges caused by lightning. This way, the electrical installation is spared, which puts all the electrical appliances in the house out of danger.
A load shedder is a device that automatically manages the power supply of your appliances according to your power needs. Its main advantage is that it allows you to save energy. Indeed, thanks to the load shedder, you can subscribe to a subscription that is smaller than your usual consumption.
Thus, when you reach the subscribed power threshold, the load shedder will automatically cut off the power supply of the devices that are not a priority in order to compensate for the power needs.
Let's take a concrete example. You run the heaters in all the rooms in winter. After a few hours, you need to use the oven. But the power you have subscribed to is not enough to meet these needs. The load shedding device will momentarily cut off some of the radiators so that the oven can run. This way, you save money while not suffering from the lack of power.
An electrical load breaker can be single-phase, three-phase or mixed. It can work in 3 different ways:
- Cascade: the device cuts off the power supply to the electrical circuits in a predefined order;
- Cyclically: the load shedding is done alternately so that the same appliance circuits are not always cut off;
- In combination of both: the load shedder operates cyclically at first, then in cascade if the rotation is not sufficient to meet the power requirements.
Also known as a day/night switch, it is a device that allows you to operate appliances of your choice at off-peak times, especially at night. Generally, it is wiser to choose the appliances that consume the most energy in order to save on your bills, such as the washing machine, dishwasher, water heater or electric radiator. During the day, the power supply to these appliances is automatically cut off so that only those that are essential are left running.
It is possible to program an off-peak switch in different ways. The automatic operation allows to operate the appliances at predefined hours. Forced operation allows you to run appliances even during peak hours if the need arises. Finally, the off position stops the operation of the contactor for a normal use of the appliances.
The off-peak contactor is a modular element of the electrical panel. It is not essential, but can be advantageous for those who have subscribed to an off-peak/peak subscription.
RQB 5791-9938-01
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