mrsblack Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Why do some electric radiators have to be wired direct to the board and some can be plugged in? Is this to do with the wattage of the devices?Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retread Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 As far as I know French electric panel radiators, that is wall mounted ones, have a fourth blue wire which allow them to be controlled from a central point. you can use the radiator from a normal socket by ignoring the blue wire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 If they are mobile then they have a plug. If they are fixed to the wall then they are 'hard wired' and each one, technically, has to be wired to it's own circuit breaker. There is indeed an extra control wire or connection on the wall mounted type radiator for temperature control like central heating. Another good reason for the fixed connection is so that back on your distribution panel you can put a device in to 'zone' the radiators i.e. have different areas on for different times and of course an overall timer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Each one does not have to be wired to its own breaker, one MCB can feed multiple radiators up to the maximum rating of the circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 [quote user="Chancer"]Each one does not have to be wired to its own breaker, one MCB can feed multiple radiators up to the maximum rating of the circuit.[/quote]I apologise for being incorrect then. All my radiators were on individual MCB's and when I asked why I was told that they had to be (the indivdual power rating varied between 1.5kw and 2kw). Perhaps the rules have changed over the years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 If you have the money and space in your tableau (which itself costs loads) then you could indulge yourself, its far neater and easier to know exactly which appliance has tripped the circuit or that you have isolated.You can run up to 2250 watts of heating on a 1.5mm2 circuit protected by a 10 disjoncteur, 3500 watts with 2.5mm2 and 16amp right up to 7250 with 6mm2 and 32 amp although I cant see the last ever being done.If you only have one heater per room then they are probably individually wired with 1.5mm cable hence the need for a disjoncteur for each one, I actually have two in seperate rooms with individual cables but sharing the same disjoncteur for reasons of space in the tableau, its not preffered practice and is frowned apon but is not contrary to the normes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 I was rather worried about one of my old heaters which appeared to 'daisy chained' off another a few metres away with just a bit of flex which was 'hot glued' to the skirting tiles. My board has a dual zone timer and relays in it to control the heating system, perhaps that is the reason why it was wired as it was. Having moved to reversible inverter a/c now any old socket will do and no central timer etc is required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsblack Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Thanks Retread -now that I know what the blue wire is for and we wont be having it all centrally controlled and are trying to keep down the wiring and heating installation costs, we have moved our thoughts over to floor-based ones.Also the cost of the douce-inertie wall-mounted ones is high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsblack Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Thanks Chancer and Quillan - your replys have focussed us on the eventual cost of having power sockets installed for heaters and the info you have given allows us to be more careful when writing out what we want done for the devis. We are now thinking of power sockets-it is a renovation of a 30 yr old pavillon which has only 2-pin sockets in the bedrooms for these rooms and using the existing power sockets in the salon, cuisine and sejour for probably oil-free radiators with wheels . These we hope will be cheaper to buy, and easily moveable. Thanks again -it is so helpful to have someone to share our rambling concerns with. I know I have at least two errors in the writing od this but i have not yet figured out how to correct a word once it has been finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Trollope Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 [quote user="mrsblack"]Thanks Retread -now that I know what the blue wire is for [/quote]If your life depends on it, believe someone who knows. The blue wire is the Neutral. mixing this and the black control wire could have unfortunate results.As always with electricity, if you don't know what you are doing, call an electrician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Well spotted Nick, been there done that and got the T shirt!Funny how old habits die hard, faced with a blue and a black (and not wanting to use the fil pilote function) I opted without even consciously thinking for the black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retread Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Mia Culpa Yes it should be the black wire you ignore. but it was a while since I had to do my own leccy, when in doubt call in a (French) qualified electrician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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