How long are the CT leads?

[ptr727]

Hi, I had my electrician install low voltage enclosures right next to the mains panels, but my cabinet maker is asking me to move one to make room for a closet that is supposed to go in that space.

I have GEM's and CT's on order, have not received them yet, but I need to know the CT cable lengths to come up with a plan.

Can anybody tell me how long the CT leads are, 400A split, 200A split, 100A micro, 80A micro, 40A micro?

Thanks
P.

[ben]

Hi, I had my electrician install low voltage enclosures right next to the mains panels, but my cabinet maker is asking me to move one to make room for a closet that is supposed to go in that space.

I have GEM's and CT's on order, have not received them yet, but I need to know the CT cable lengths to come up with a plan.

Can anybody tell me how long the CT leads are, 400A split, 200A split, 100A micro, 80A micro, 40A micro?

Thanks
P.

The lead length for each CT is listed under http://brultech.com/products/ECM1240/CT ... /types.htm. I'm pretty sure the shortest lead length is 5 FT.

[ptr727]

Thx.

Wow, 5ft is really short, that seems unusable as is?

Imagine:

4ft tall switch panel
Mounted next to a
4ft tall low voltage panel
with 16" stud to stud spacing
and 32" left side high voltage panel to right side low voltage panel

For a run starting top left in one panel ending top right in the neighbor panel,
means at minimum (allowing no slack and no additional spacing) that cable should be 11'?

P.

[ben]

Thx.

Wow, 5ft is really short, that seems unusable as is?

Imagine:

4ft tall switch panel
Mounted next to a
4ft tall low voltage panel
with 16" stud to stud spacing
and 32" left side high voltage panel to right side low voltage panel

For a run starting top left in one panel ending top right in the neighbor panel,
means at minimum (allowing no slack and no additional spacing) that cable should be 11'?

P.

A bit limiting yeah, once the leads leave the panel however you can extend them with CAT5 cable for example.

Ben

[ptr727]

Yes they can be extended, but my point is that for typical use 5' is way too short, why would you make the default too short?

In my case I have to extend cables for 90 CT's, by hand, in a way that looks good and passes inspection.

Just make them 12' and almost everybody that installs next to or near the panel will be happy.

Cutting off excess is much easier than extending, and surely the cost can't be that much more, I'd happily pay a few cents more for longer leads.

P.

[ptr727]

I'm about to start soldering, before I do, I just want to check back and find out if there are any newer CT's that have longer leads?

P.

[ben]

I'm about to start soldering, before I do, I just want to check back and find out if there are any newer CT's that have longer leads?

P.

Our CT leads are still the same, we looked into making them longer but it would've added significant cost.

Ben

[ptr727]

Ben, I would gladly have paid double the price for 12' leads.

Now I need to deal with cable type changes, soldering, splicing, insulation, space issues, and that is at $$$ per hour labor, and the building inspector that is none to happy about any type of wire splicing.

I am sure I am not alone on this, especially given the cost of an entire setup vs. the CT costs vs. labor cost.

But, ok.

P.

[ben]

Yeah, we understand the issue for some customers with the CT lead length.

We're considering some solutions for these situations. For example, a junction box where the CTs leads could come into and extend from.

Ben

[ben]

Turns out we do have a CT with long leads, our Micro-80s with 600V rated leads have 10FT leads. It has a little heavier wire though compared to the normal Micro-80s.

Ben