Originally posted by Fresh_Coffee
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But it did make one thing clear about the relative responsibilities of the electrician and the coffee equipment tech - the tech should be responsible for specifying what sort of power supply is required (single or 3 phase, plus amperage requirement) and how close it should be, and it should then be up to the electrician to provide that, safely and within legal specs. Unless the tech has a connect/disconnect licence (which I don't yet) he should go no further than plugging in to the provided outlet, but he should also be smart enough NOT to modify things to suit if the wrong (underpowered) circuit has been provided. This is often an issue in my job, as the coffee companies we work for often don't communicate the technical requirements to their customers very well, so it's a common issue to turn up to install a 20 amp or 25 amp machine and find the customer has only provided a 15 amp circuit. They often don't like to be told we can't plug the machine in until they upgrade the power, as often they have had the previous machine running off that outlet without burning the place down, but it may well have been running right on the safety margins of the circuit. That's the real reason for the different size plug pins for the different amp ratings - I installed a machine last week that was 20 amp, and there was only a 15 amp circuit. I told the customer they had to get an electrician to upgrade the circuit to 20 amp - in the meantime, the fact that the 20 amp plug physically wouldn't fit the 15 amp socket means they can't plug the machine in by themselves and trip a circuit or start a fire. And when the electrician attends, he can change the socket, fit heavier gauge wiring if required, and upgrade the breaker. Of course, I have seen many cases where the 'upgrade' was done solely by replacing the socket, but the responsibility for any consequences falls onto the electrician, who ought to be trained well enough NOT to take such short cuts. The ultimate dodgy short cut I saw was where we needed an outlet upgraded from 10 to 15 amps for a temporary relocation of a machine due to renovations. The onsite 'handyman' couldn't find the switchboard that circuit was running from, so without knowing the breaker or wire ratings, or even what else was on that circuit, he just replaced the 10A outlet plate with a 15A one - and because he couldn't find the breaker, he did it LIVE - the sole concession to safety was to handle the wires with pliers (not even proper insulated pliers!) rather than his bare hands!


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