That feeling when you power on your panel for the first time and nothing blows up...

I knew better than to wait until my panel was 90% complete to test it. I'm software engineer, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you build, test, build more, test again, etc. I've been dragging my feet on building my panel for the past 4-5 months and until yesterday...never tested any of the work.

But finally, yesterday afternoon I was at a point where most of my wiring was loosely laid out and hooked up and it was time to test.

With a fire extinguisher at the ready, I plugged it in and powered it up and everything worked flawlessly. What a satisfying feeling!



Now I just need to bundle some wires together, run the final power lines, and I'll be ready to start testing my vessels.

 

And it looks good too.

 

Nice looking panel !! OrAL doesn't count! LOL ...Post back after you've attached your temp sensors and calibrated!

 

I've never worried about first power up at the power range of our panels much as I have an electronics and electrical background. I do power ups part way through if possible to test major sections. I do use caution and saftey glasses etc on first power up. For my brew panel I connected it into an ordinary 230V 10A outlet with lower circuit breaker current ratings for the initial tests before I connected it to a 32A outlet. If you are really worried you can easially put a high wattage incandescent lightbulb in series to protect shorts as the panel should not draw much current with no elements connected.

I work in the power electronics industry as an embedded software engineer and that combines both software testing and high power equipment.

Got to love a glitch that draws 2MW of power when intending to test at 200KW... Turned out to be an incorrect parameter set by a control engineer and not my software but with the project manager watching and panicking at the current drawn the Emergency Stop got hit pretty quick.

The equipment was rated for it but generally a good idea to ramp it up slowly as we are not just testing software but hardware integration.

Its always a good feeling when whatever you are working on powers up and doesn't let smoke out

 

Nice job, congrats! Have a brew and celebrate and toast your new panel!

John

 

No,no,no don't toast your new panel.

 

Haha that is a good one! I hope he got my meaning, to hold up his beer, stand there proud, and say a few words!

John

 

Congrats. Not to be a A-hole, but the expectation should be that everything works exactly as planned. You should be surprised only if there is a problem. If the schematic and build quality are where they ought to be, it will be automatic. We are dealing with insane amounts of power - chances of a mis-wire can have bad implications!

Ok... soap box back under the bed.

 

Nice panel. I know the feeling you have when you turn on the power and there are no pops and two weeks later your house hasen't started on fire. I bought a house when I was 19 and gutted it with all new electrical, plumbing and heating, doing it all except the main service to house. There's always that feeling something is going to pop and smoke that makes flicking the switch for the first time so exciting.

 

Gorgeous panel. Well done.

 

From a guy who understands this like a native language from a foreign planet on Star Trek, from one brewer to another, a simple way to go. I hope the rest just rocks easily for you and you kick out brews you love.