Fuse the Wire or Fuse the Device?

The fuse is there to protect the wiring not your devices.

The best bet is to do the following:

1 Large fuse at the battery just bigger than all of your devices, take
this to a fuse box and fuse individual devices at their correct current
rating. ie if the device is rated at 1 amp fuse it at 1 amp.

Do NOT fuse two devices from one larger fuse.

Use the correct size wire for the current to be drawn, many nasty
things can happen if you get to larger voltage drop along the wire and
you start driving a 12 volt device with a lower voltage.

Be aware that the fumes released by some wire is very toxic and you may
find you need to leave an other wise perfectly serviceable aircraft for
no other reason that you did not fuse your wires correctly.

One other point, if the device blows a fuse the chances are that there
is something wrong with it. Do not start putting larger fuses in the
circuit get the item looked at.

With speacial thanks to Steve K, who recently lectured on this subject
on a Form 2 course I attended, I hope I did you justice

Sean


--
jorgie
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted via OziPilots Online [ http://www.OziPilotsOnline.com.au ]
- A website for Australian Pilots regardless of when, why, or what they fly -