today we're going to take a look at specifying electrical enclosures
you could call them electrical boxes gordon
you call them what you want gary but we're going to be using this range from HYLEC this de box
range to help us on our journey to look at some of those important factors and let me tell you it's a
massive range so they start from some yeah small enclosures large plastic enclosures and even some
exotic materials such as stainless steel that we've got behind us the electrician's going to
always pose questions so i'm going to pose them to you gordon we're going to be thinking what is
it going to be used for what environment is it going into how we're going to mount it and what
is going to go inside the electrical enclosure in order to make the electrician's life easier you
need to answer those gordon yeah well i'll try my best gary it's an iterative process but let
me give you a top tip first because you know you're choosing in class you've got to think
yes what's going in there plc power supply some circuit protection din rail terminals
and you know you probably carefully work that out and my sort of rule of thumb is
whenever i finish the project i've always thought actually chose a box that was probably one size
too small okay so you've moved that one i would suggest you probably specified this size box and
in real terms gordon you probably wanted one at this size yeah and obviously so apologies
to anybody who's ever had to fit an enclosure well i've somehow been involved in the design of that
yeah you probably struggled to get everything wired in so first of all then so we're going
to pick the enclosure that's big enough for what we're going to be doing but there's other things
to consider we talked about environment and impact and stuff like that where do you want to go next
gordon yeah i mean the environment's often one of the first key parameters in there in a number of
ways really so we think about ip ratings this range from highlight goes from IP65 up to IP68
now obviously that you know if it's outside yeah or depend on the application inside that can have
an impact on the ip right here and we fitted an enclosure outside of here didn't we at the studios
because we needed to increase the amount of room for terminations we chose a box from highlake do
you want to see that gordon so we use one of our HYLEC enclosures as well as our quick fix glands
on this camera outside the unit we used it because we needed to extend the terminating area in order
that we could make the connections for the camera and obviously we've got the ip rating appropriate
for being used outside as well gordon yeah that's outside so that's an ip66 enclosure i'd suggest
it's not going to get that many high pressure jets of water out there but it's perfectly suitable
for the environment and we even paired it up with some of these quick fit glands that we've
seen in a previous video if you check that out they're good they are good that's why we use them
so that matching it to the environment and we used it from an ip rating point of view but obviously
there's areas where impact comes into it what's the impact rating yeah so again depending on the
product you pick in the range you have IK ratings that go from eight all the way up to ten so IK08
a it's protected against five joules impact but what does that mean in the real world equivalent
to an impact of 1.7 kilograms of mass dropped from 300 millimeters above the impacted surface
and a flip to IK10 similar scenario 20 joules of impact well that's equivalent to 5 kilograms
of mass are dropped from 400 millimeters above the impacted surface so what we say is really
the higher the number the better in this case okay thank you for that so suitable finishes would be
where i'd go next matching that to the environment as well gordon yeah so obviously that will lead
you down the route of a plastic enclosure so that again depends what's in the environment you know
is it going to be subject to uv or is it going to be subject to some chemicals so there's this this
re-engine abs or polycarbonate depending on the size of the enclosure and obviously then you can
choose whether it has a clear door or an opaque door okay and obviously at the other end of the
range we've got the stainless steel range here which this one take a little bit three or four
grade stainless steel and what does that mean well okay that's the most common grade of stainless
steel around us the sort of things you'd probably find your kitchen sink made from right okay the
alternative is a marine grade stainless steel available in special order but that's for yeah
that's a 316 grade but again that's for probably a very high end specification probably somewhere
that's going to be quite aggressive chemicals or particular salt water hence the marine okay
let's go let's talk about doors next so this door here is clear okay and this door here in
the metallic enclosure has the earth lead on it so there are two things that we're going to discuss
next why clear door uh well cleared off yeah so you're thinking do you need visual indication
without having to open it up so you might have some indicator lights obviously there's two ways
you could you could bring an indicator light and mount it on the panel yes but obviously
that means more holes to drill more holes more chances to you know somehow impact that ip rating
so a clear door might be the choice you might have a plc in there they might have some other
equipment where you want to read a display so a clear door option can be can be good okay and the
earth lead here this is something we really like didn't we so in in all their metallic enclosures
they earth the front door for you don't they yeah it comes and that's that's what we found with this
range from highlight that everything seems to be included that you might need and that extends
to obviously yes you mentioned the earth tag there gary but also including the gear tray yeah
both of these yeah both options uh some external mounting tabs yes as well so that helps you with
the uh with obviously the amount of all the keys and all the accessories so a lot of enclosures
you find you've got to order those as separate bits and you tend to forget and you only find
out you've forgotten when you go to mount it and think well i wanted the external fixing yeah and
that also extends to even the smaller range of boxes you can specify them with a length
of din rail okay already mounted in there so this is probably good for din rail terminals
circuit breakers but you possibly wouldn't put a circuit breaker in that box gary why is that
well you want the circuit breaker in there yeah because you'd have to obviously undo the enclosure
to reset it wouldn't you okay but there is lots of different mounting positions in there gordon so as
you look in there there is loads of different ways in which you can mount that dimmer i'm not just
necessarily in a position we mounted it in so again they're thinking about the versatility
of that enclosure as well so there any other considerations for the equipment going inside
the enclosure gordon okay so again it's that choice between plastic or metal normally and the
impact what equipment going in there can have an impact on it so i would suggest if it's a possibly
something that needs wireless communication to it it's not a good idea to put that in a metal
box just remember also the metal range comes in a painted finish galvanized underneath but painted
on top um or obviously the plastic range but then you know again the weight of the equipment
in there so a lot of times you'll have a control panel with a heavy uh low voltage transformer in
there as well that might push you back in the direction of a metal enclosure we could say
that hoylec have got it covered we've only got a sample of the enclosures they've got in front of
us haven't we gone we've even got a pre-drilled one here gary to look at where you might put some
standard push buttons and we're going to look at that in another video yeah you're sneaking
into the next one that's why we've got these down here as well we're going into the controls
that hoileck also offer as always we're interested in your comments okay what types of enclosures do
you think what type of closures do you choose in certain conditions have you got a go-to enclosure
or manufacturer are you using the range from hilic at the moment and what's your feedback
on that range as always leave those comments below and we'll try and get back to as many as we
can