Chip

haha,
here's the daytime shots, just had the spanners & socket out to rectify what was clearly a misfire in the installation process Lesson, don't do it in the dark unless you have to!!


Now I've just got to fix that busted fog light...

 

have you painted that shiny stainless steel??

 

Yep. They don't sit exactly square & the skew offended me!
Stone chip rules

 

At last September's TE @pkrboo gave me a length of LED strip for our engine bay.

At this April's TE I found it stashed inside our rear hatch & pkrboo took it away & soldered tails onto it in an attempt to motivate me to fit it

So today I have....

The switch was a booger to fit as there's not a lot of room behind the sound deadening but it's tucked up under there with a 5 amp fuse in a holder.


The strip was a booger to fit coz. feeding the 12v cable behind the board and cable ties through the holes upside down in the rain is unfunny...


but now all is bright in there...

 

Good job and something I'd like to do. But isn't 5amp to high a rating?

 

Way higher than required for a small run of LED. I have the LED's n most of the bits myself but haven't got round to fitting it in the last 18months...

 

It was the only blade fuse I had that wasn't 10,15,20,25 0r 30! & I couldn't wait to switch them on
Sorry chaps will try harder next time lol

 

It's very posh isn't it MC.
Sorry must dash, got to get into my bathers, it's nearly Pimms o'clock!

 

Can't get smaller in a blade fuse, possibly 2.5A?

 

Yeah, you can get 1 amp blades, just didn't have one to hand earlier.
I have to say that the lights draw about .6 of an amp through the wire so I really don't think electrical fire is an issue here! TBH not sure why I bothered wrestling with the fuse holder at all...lol

anyway, look, thankyou very much

 

Quite artistic I think

 

The fuse is to protect the wiring in case of a dead short. Needs to be lower amps than the wire rating, I think, don't quote me though.

 

I concur

 

He must be quoted ! oh yes!

AS said above. Normal process of selection is: ascertain load, identify wire size in relation to electrical load, select fuse which is less that wire rating! That said we all usually use wires that are bigger than required.

 

Yep, it's all good. I was being flippant. There is always the possibility of chaffing (ooh Mrs) so the correct method is:
+ wire from supply (in this case the bus bar), fuse & fuse holder, switch, appliance (light), return to earth (the other bus bar).

Fuses, as you say, protect from over current in the wire NOT the appliance. Obviously the light draws next to nothing but if the + was to short against the body it is potentially carrying all the current from the battery to which it is connected.
Therefore the fuse should be as close to the battery as possible!

I should have made that boringly clear earlier & not assumed peeps knew. Therefore in this case the 5 amp fuse is perfectly adequate to protect the cable which can handle up to 11 amps in that cross-sectional size! There...

 

I think it's to protect either / both

 

Yep, coz most can't be bothered to work out the bane of DC systems which is volt-drop.

That becomes an issue when running high draw appliances (things with elements or motors) a long way from the battery. Not so much of an issue on vans (though it can stop fridges from running correctly if supply cable is too thin & can eventually cause fire due to heat being dumped out of the cable or motor) but is is a real consideration on 60' boats!

 

Here's an article I wrote a few years ago on the very exciting subject of volt drop using the magic number 18, which is the resistance of copper wire YAWN..

http://www.thefitoutpontoon.co.uk/buying-building-canal-narrowboat-voltage-drop.html

 

So many people don't though and IMO you have a rep for "doing your homework". See your link for example!