Terra-Dome Earth Shelter Build

[SamWalton]

That looks like a lot of pipes to go in a panel bottom.
Are you running them directly in to the bottom of the panel or in a piece of trough or wire way then to the panel?

tom

These 36 conduits will be connected to this NEMA 1 enclosure which is 24"x24"x10". The two 2 1\2" conduits will connect to a 200 amp circuit breaker panel and these two boxes will be joined.

 

[SamWalton]

Hey Sam! In that picture of the snow, I see your stack of firewood right beside the house. Aren't you afraid of termites?:laughing:

Yes we fear they will gobble it down before we get to burn it. LOL

 

[SamWalton]

Mid mountain at the Steamboat Springs, Colorado ski area has 210" of the white crap.

You're getting there Sam with the house construction.

Doesn't snow become insulation after it gets so deep?

 

[SamWalton]

Here's what our electrician did. You probably have this all figured out already.
Good progress.

Steve
Maine

Your electrician did great work. What is that electronic box on your wall? It kind of resembles a variable frequency drive. I used a large box to allow the expansion of other devices such as power filters, relays, transfers and controls.

 

[tommu56]

Here's what our electrician did. You probably have this all figured out already.
Good progress.

Steve
Maine

Steve
Not to steal the thread what is the danfoss drive for?

Sam
All that took some fore thought as electrician I hate laying on my stomach to wire panels up.
Having the box up there and chase nippeling them together is a good idea.

you can put a PLC in the box for home automation

tom

 

[sajurcaju]

Your electrician did great work. What is that electronic box on your wall? It kind of resembles a variable frequency drive. I used a large box to allow the expansion of other devices such as power filters, relays, transfers and controls.

These pics are of the electric panel in the shop; the house panel is pretty much the same. We only have one feed, but it splits at the pole.

You and Tom have correctly identified the box. It is a Danfoss 7.5 HP VFD that I bought on ebay for (I think) $150, an amazing steal. I'm running it on single phase, so it will only run about half the rated HP, but my machines only run one at a time. I have a variety of machine tools; in three phase I have a DoAll bandsaw, South Bend lathe and a motorized forging press (that I built). My mill is three phase, but it has a dedicated (much smaller) VFD. The big advantage of the Danfoss units are that they tolerate mechanical switches on the three phase side. A lot of inexpensive VFD's will get fried if you have a switch--they need to be directly coupled to the machine with no switching, which means one VFD, one machine. With the Danfoss unit I can just wire it up as a three phase power source and plug stuff into it, using the existing motor starters on the equipment. It sure beats what I used to do, rope starting a 7.5HP idler motor on a phase converter. I've built maybe a dozen rotary phase converters out of stuff from the scrap yard.

We moved into the house last June; it was just this week that I finished connecting the last pieces of machinery to the three phase. Nice to get done and have it all operational.

Steve

 

[tommu56]

Steve i have been putting a lot of these in our machines at work

Lenze-ACTech SMVector [Standard Duty]

Easy to program but like you said no load switching.

Ive put a couple on some friends mills and lathes the J head is the only pain so we just let it run at 60hz and he moves the belt to change speed.

tom

 

[sajurcaju]

Steve i have been putting a lot of these in our machines at work

Lenze-ACTech SMVector [Standard Duty]

Easy to program but like you said no load switching.

Ive put a couple on some friends mills and lathes the J head is the only pain so we just let it run at 60hz and he moves the belt to change speed.

tom

I figured there were other brands that had the same feature, but didn't know which, thanks. Why is the J head a problem? Mine works fine on a small VFD.

Steve

 

[tommu56]

I figured there were other brands that had the same feature, but didn't know which, thanks. Why is the J head a problem? Mine works fine on a small VFD. Steve

He runs them at work and didn't want to change speed with the pot on the drive because he is use to the crank handle.
He does like the M head because he has speeds between the belt ratio's

tom

 

[mjncad]

Doesn't snow become insulation after it gets so deep?

No doubt; but I have no desire to personally find out.