Most homeowners would rather keep their hands off the electrical systems, calling professionals whenever necessary. However, it would be nice to know how their basic parts work to understand what electricians must do to fix your problem.
For instance, if the technician tells you that your busbar is busted and worn out, wouldn’t you be interested in knowing what a busbar is and its role in the system? Whatever your answer is, one thing remains: living without electricity is highly challenging.
If you want to know the basics of panelboards and busbars, you’ve come to the right place. This article discusses what a panelboard is, what busbars are, and how they work.
Understanding The Panelboard
A panelboard is an essential part of an electrical system, primarily used to control and manage power, heat, and light. It also ensures that the power system remains safe and easily accessible. Panelboards differ slightly in composition based on their applications. It typically has busbars, busbar modules, fuse links, switches, and automatic overcurrent devices. In households and other settings, a panelboard is placed in a cabinet.
Some boards have switches, while some don’t. Regardless, a panel board’s purpose is to separate electricity feed while protecting each circuit through the bypass equipment. This device prevents power connections and systems from overloading and other issues.
What Are Busbars?
Busbars are metal tubes, bars, or strips that transport and manage huge current volumes. Often made from copper, brass, or aluminium, a bus bar can ground and conduct electricity simultaneously, making it extremely effective in making power distribution and management less complex and cheaper. Despite the name, bus bars come in various shapes and sizes.
Electrical busbars are staples in residential panelboards. Most residential panelboards are housed in one location, and busbars effectively distribute power to many circuit breakers.
In industrial settings where more supply points are needed, bus bars are typically housed in busways or busbar trunking systems, switchgear, and panelboards and are used to manage high-voltage requirements without the risk of short-circuiting and overloading. Electrical busbars can be structured and assembled differently to cater to specific functions and needs. For example, they can be placed in an enclosure or laid out in open channels with continuous access. Between the two, enclosed busbars can conduct higher volumes of current. How Do Busbars Work?
Busbars perform mainly electrical functions and serve as a junction that collects power from the source and distributes it to different feeders. For instance, busbars make it easier to distribute power within various points of the busway routes instead of limiting electrical feeds to one location from the main source.
Besides transporting and distributing electricity, busbars also make the entire process safe with the help of isolators and circuit breakers. In the event of electrical deficiencies, like a faulty wire or supply, a circuit breaker malfunctions, and the busbar connected to it becomes disconnected from the circuit.
Main Types Of Busbars
A busbar’s material, size, and shape significantly affect its ampacity, short for ampere capacity. This metric measures the optimal current a specific conductor can carry without exceeding its temperature limits, shortening its lifespan. Flexible and coated or laminated busbars are two of the most popular types.
- Flexible Busbars
These busbar types consist of several layers of metal attached and welded at the mounting areas. Despite these layers, the middle section of these primarily electrical devices remains malleable and highly resistant to vibrations and thermal expansions. It keeps the site cool while maintaining high electrical conductivity and easy installation.
Common Applications For Flexible Busbars
Flexible busbar uses are strictly electrical, often found in power-switching cabinets in residential and industrial settings. These devices are also fixtures in power plants, charging stations, and electric, hybrid, and fuel-cell cars.
- Laminated Or Coated Busbars
Busbars can also be coated, and the material used in laminating the device can impact its lifespan, functionalities, and conductivity. For instance, tin or silver coating increased oxidation resistance while increasing thermal and electrical conductivity.
Copper-coated busbars are less rust-resistant but maintain high conductivity and resistance to heat. Meanwhile, epoxy-coated busbars are best used in applications requiring complex installations.
Common Applications For Laminated Busbars
Laminated busbars can be used in other applications that aren’t exclusively electrical. Besides being installed in power and base stations, they’re staples in mobile and fixed communication systems. Moreover, silver laminated busbars are often used for medical, military, and automotive applications.
Concluding Thoughts
Busbars are vital in settings that require power distribution and management. Just like electric power cables, they transport energy between two points or more. However, busbars are more cost-effective because they need less invasive installation methods, don’t require frequent replacements, and have better heat absorption and ampacity. As such, they’re more effective in handling high voltage energy required in complex distribution systems.
Because busbars can be customized according to the specific needs of a business and distribute power more effectively, they’re the best solution applications that need multiple and scalable solutions.
