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Integrated cabinet for technical equipment
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Summary
A central for electrical distribution, networking, smart house components etc., built into a cabinet.
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Introduction
When we built our house, I decided it would be a good idea to move the electrical distribution out from the wall in the technical room, so it can be accessed from behind in case anything needs to be changed in the future. This would also make plenty space for a 19" rack below the distribution board and some space inside for a UPS and battery bank etc.
- Wood construction covered with MDF sheets and two large hinged doors on the side for easy access
- Networking equipment: PoE switch, fiber modem, router, server, workstation etc.
- Multiroom sound system: Rack mounted 8 channel audio amplifier used for music, voice notifications etc.
- UPS: 2.2 kW UPS with 7 kWh Li-ion battery (based on Nissan Leaf modules)
- Home automation subsystem: Transcievers for CAN, RS-485/Modbus, Zigbee etc. in a subrack
- Communication subsystem: Telephone exchange with RF (UHF) autopatch, Owl VHF packet transceiver on VHF, diplexer for shared antenna)
- Electrical distribution board: Circuit breakers, relay modules, contactors, power meters etc. (There is one more cabinet like this in the house only for home automation, filled with DALI LED drivers, relays etc.)
- 2 x 120 mm temperature controlled fans on the top, extracting hot air. This works really well. Even more air is forced through the servers, amplifier etc. in the rack, so temperatures are actually lower than before the cabinet was closed/covered with sheets.
UPS
I bought an APC SMT2200IC, removed the internal lead acid batteries, and modified it with an anderson DC connector for an external battery bank. The 14S4P battery bank is made from Nissan Leaf battery modules.
8ch audio amplifier for multiroom sound
Fire safety
First of all, nearly all always-on electronics in the house are placed in the same location far away from bedrooms etc., rather than spreading them around multiple rooms. There is a fire extinguisher nearby and more than 10 monitored temperature sensors in this cabinet, which will trigger a fire alarm and notification when any of the sensors goes above a predefined limit. Any out-of-range values from the BMS will also trigger notifications (such as a deviating cell voltage). The cabinet itself is not particularly fireproof as it is made from solid wood and MDF, but the walls in the room are plasterboard. Anyways, the most important measure is that I will get an early notification that something is not right and will be able to cut power or similar before something goes really wrong.
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