ABB modular electrical switches - Look before you leap
May 18, 2006
Modular switches are the current trend for electrical switches in a house. However there are certain nuances that you need to be aware of. Not being aware of one of them caused me quite some headache. Read through and you can avoid that mistake.
I decided on using ABB Modular electrical switches. My electrician suggested going with either ABB or another not so well known company. Since I was more familiar with the ABB name, I chose ABB.
The problem with ABB modular electrical fittings is that the plug points are a bit strange. You would want to have plug points where you can plug in both 2 pin as well as 3 pin plugs. These will have 5 plug pin holes on the plug point. The problem with ABB is that these 5 pin points are bigger than 3 pin points.
So if you want to have these plug points, you have to provide one more modular space. This increases the size and cost.
I do not know why ABB has such a primitive design for this. All other manufacturers of modular electrical switches have the same size (2 modular space) plug points for the 5 pin plug points.
ABB better take notice of this deficiency in their design or they are going to have quite a few end users who are unhappy.
Posted by liveit at 6:18 AM
