To be fair,
the electrician will probably
be looking at the manual as well
for recommended best practice with any individual piece of gear. Or maybe an installation manual.
@cbrandt Definitely! Writing in support. (I was an
IBEW installation and maintenance electrician prior to retiring)
Things you commonly count on a
manual for include electrical requirements, acceptable voltages, currents at specific voltages, minimal physical clearances, air flow directions and volumes for minimal ventilation, acceptable ambient operating temperatures, acceptable moisture / condensation range.
A common end user error when racking audio amplifiers is failing to consider the direction of air flow. Too often users will mount an
amplifier which draws cooling air in from the rear and exhausts out the front immediately below an
amplifier that draws air in from the front and exhausts out the rear; this leads to the two amplifiers essentially cooking each other to death or at least an over-temp shutdown.
Think about it: Warm air exhausts out the front of the lower
amplifier only to rise and be drawn in by the
amplifier above then exhausted out the rear into a neatly enclosed rack and drawn right back into the
amplifier below.
Dimmer racks, even permanently installed
dimmer racks, require the same considerations.
One of my last installations prior to my mini-stroke was the installation of four Johnson Systems Icon series
dimmer racks. Four racks, each containing 24 dimmers. Shaun definitely includes information regarding air temperature and flow considerations and
prominently recommends a minimal amount of clearance when mounting racks one above the other on a wall; mounting racks beside each other can be accommodated in appreciably less square footage of wall space as all racks will draw air in from the bottom and exhaust out the top.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard