16a to 32a

[jimthedrum]

up until now i've let other people to the power side of things, getting from x amps down to 16a which i can distribute for myself and the band. i was wondering if a venue had 16a power, is it ok to use a 32a to 16a distro board such as
www.rubberbox.co.uk/shelf/small_boxes/RUB1409C.html
or do you have to feed it with 32a mains with regards the rcbo's etc. i'm aware you can only then plug in up to 16a worth of equipment.

i have a 16a to 13a distro for my own gear, is this safe plugging the 16a in from a 13a socket too? for smaller venues i've always reduced the equipment list for the power available but just wondering if its ok to do this?

[gingerbiscuit69]

got to think about the weakest link in the chain.

A 32AMP outlet gives you 32amps. if you went direct to a 16amp, you can pottentially draw twice the current through than its rated at, melting the connector and causing havoc.

every time you split the current down, you must have an RCDo stopping you drawing more than the outputs rated at/electricute people, hence distro's.

exception to this rule seems to be from 16amp -> 13amp. they always tend to be hard wired outs, no trips ect...

i have two 32->4x RCD protected 16amp distros, one for sound and one lights. also have a 63amp -> 2x 32amp for splitting a large supply into one/two of these. kept them as small units because i do such varying scales of jobs.

my dimmer packs, large (3k+) amps and the FOH rack are prewired on a 16amp plug so for my full PA, two 16's go to bass, one to midtops and monitors, and one to FOH.

i can also use steppers, 13->16, 16->32 and 32->63amp for plugging into smaller supplys (tho make sure you arnt going to draw too much, as you will overdo it.

13->16 = ok - its rated to take the max from the 13 - just be carefull
16->13 = not too good - the extra 3amps may melt the plug
16->32 = fine
32->16 = NO - may draw too much - must be on breaker!!


you get the idea, cheers

[jimthedrum]

thanks for that
i know about stepping down and have distros for that, just wondered about plugging a 16a or 32a into a 13a socket so running 16/32 distro off 13a plug as it were so a max of 13a is running through a 32a board

[pete]

Hang on now.
Convention for power is to have the male connector first.
So a cable with a 16a plug and 32a socket is a 16-32.

Running a 32a dissy from a 13 amp supply will be fine,as long as you dont try to pull more than 13as.

Ginger's wrong by the way;a 16a-13a is fine,reason?There's a fuse in the plug

[jimthedrum]

thanks, just wanted to be sure its safe rcd wise so i can use the same distros wherever. i thaught they would be as rcds are designed to trip because of earth leakage

[gingerbiscuit69]

the 16-13 ... theres a fuse in the 13 plug you may stick in, but the cable inbetween the two must be rated high enough to allow for 16amps...

worst i saw was a 10m 32amp to IEC as some guy thought his amp needed all that power... IEC's are only rated to 10amps, the cable was only 1mm conductor too... a true 32amp cable should be a minimum of 4mm, preferably 6mm!!

[muppet]

the simple answer here is yes you can run easily run 16-13amp supply. Bear in mind that most domestic mains are fed from a 32amp ring anyway. it is limited by the fuse capacity in the plug so even if it is a 63amp it shouldn’t be able to draw more than 13amps of power. If you ensure your connectors and cabling are of suitable weight and you distribute your load sensibly you will be fine. Having said all of this if you are running from larger supplies likes 16 and 32amp it should have some kind of trip on the circuit anyway. That and you would be surprised how much you can load on a 13amp supply, you could quite easily get a 6k PA and full back line on one supply.