Power distribution in workshop

[dirtyhanfri]

Hi

I'm planning to change all the electricity system in my workshop. It's 50sqm divided in a small office (12sqm), a smaller toilet (about 2sqm) and the shop. The shop is placed in the bottom of a apartment building, so I have 1 phase power with (I hope) properly installed earth.

I plan to install power lines with PVC tubes and surface multi sockets in the wall and hide distribution boxes over the false ceiling. It's not my property and I don't want to put more money than necessary on this. It's ok with local regulations on the subject.

My basic plan for power is to run different 16A lines to the each workstation (soldering, anodizing, metalworking...) with it's own breaker, another 16A line to the office, and leave AC, Air extraction and toilet as they are, each with it's own apropiate breaker and conduction (I'm not going to change the 4mm cables for the AC, I don't really use it).

Lighting is my main concern, I will replace all the fluorescent tubes, right now I have almost 1KW with the shop fully lighted, that's crazy, more if we keep in mind I don't stay there for 8 hours with the lights on, so old fluorescent tubes are quite inefficient for this application I think. Also, I have a high frequency noise in every speaker I use there (around 10khz I think, never measured) which it's not the best for a audio gear workshop... I suspect this comes from lighting ballasts as it changes with more or less lights engaged.

I would like to use LED lights, but I'm not sure if they will be the same about noise, or If I could avoid or minimize the noise by applying some cautions in the installation.

Also sometimes I take some pictures using extra lighting and a small and cheap 4 channel lighting dimmer, which is a known source for noises. I don't make audio measurements while I'm taking photos, but, well, I can easily run a dedicated socket from the lighting circuit for the dimmer .

I know the basics about electricity, enough to do a safe installation, but I get lost easily when things go complicated.

Guerrilla AV installations taught me dimmer noise use to come into audio via earth, so in first place I think about keeping earth distributions as separated as I can, joining them only at the building power connection of the shop, but not sure if that will be enough.

Any advices? Also been thinking in the audio workbench, maybe I should run differenced lines for computer/tools and audio/test equipment?

As you can see, I'm a bit lost, so any advice is welcome

 

[joaquins]

  You could filter the line going to the lights (or the one to the audio), common mode chokes and caps, or just buy the filter, isn't so expensive. Usually is good to filter the source of the noise so you don't have to pay for that noise in your bill.

  Be sure the wire going up to the apartment can handle all the installed power, you are talking about a few 16A independent lines, but if you run 10A from each is likely you will have a problem. The appropriate way is to have a general breaker rated for the general wire, usually is one on the basement of the building, at least here, but that's not funny if you trip it as is far far away and not always accesible to the owner. Having a general one in your house, one bit lower rating or faster than that one is a good thing. The other option is to have all the high current installation in one breaker so it doesn't let you use all them at the same time.

JS

 

[dirtyhanfri]

Thanks

I don-t know about filters, I think I'm going to make a little research on the subject.

I don't intend to run more than 20A simultaneously, It's a one man workshop so the most I could do is work in some audio stuff while the cnc or the anodizing rig are working. Not a massive production line.

The wire coming into the shop can handle up to 63A,  The external breaker (power company breaker) is set at 20A right now, it¡s a digital power consumption reader with limiter, but when the previous owner was here, he had 63A, one phase.