Connecting the air conditioner to the mains with your own hands

So your dream has come true — an air conditioner has appeared in the house, now the heat in the summer and the dampness in the room in the off-season are not terrible, when the heating has not yet been connected, and it is raining outside the window. Immediately after the installation, the air conditioner is connected to the mains — it must be carried out strictly according to the schemes indicated on the internal covers of the modules. The operating instructions also contain recommendations for making the connection and set out the basic requirements for the electrical network of the installation site.

General recommendations for connection

It should be understood that the air conditioner has a lot of power. In addition, it is distinguished significant starting currents. Therefore, you can connect such a device directly to the premises network only if the following conditions are met.

1. The power of the device does not exceed a couple of kilowatts.
2. The wiring in the house is arranged with a cable with a cross section of at least 2.5 sq. mm, for modern split systems it is desirable to have 4 sq. mm.
3. The air conditioner is turned on in an unloaded branch, where there are no other powerful consumers besides it.
4. A circuit breaker with a current of 20A must be present on the air conditioner connection line.

In some cases, you can connect the air conditioner temporarily, until the necessary infrastructure of the power supply network with optimal characteristics is arranged.

Auxiliary line laying

Auxiliary power line connects the external and internal blocks of the split system. In this case, the latter acts as a leader, exercising centralized control. The power cable of the outdoor unit must be selected according to the manufacturer’s recommendations for power. Usually it’s copper. stranded wire with a cross section of at least 2.5 sq. mm.

The power cable can be laid along with the freon line. There is an option to install a separate plastic box for it, fortunately, today it is easy to buy it in the color and size necessary for perfect integration into the interior. The most accurate method is to lay the cable and freon lines in strobes, one or two separate ones.

Main power line

The indoor unit is connected to the residential power supply. If the split system has a large capacity, it is reasonable for it to equip a separate voltage input directly from the meter. This will protect the rest of the wiring in the room. The cable of the main power line is selected with a section corresponding to the power consumed by the air conditioner.

The wire is also laid in strobes, plastic boxes, behind the decorative wall trim. Emergency shutdown machines or RCDs are located in the shield. He must be grounded. The operating current of the automatic protection is determined by the power of the air conditioner.

Advice! There is an easy way to find the desired value. To do this, the power of the air conditioner in Watts is divided by the mains voltage, and add another 30% of the margin to the resulting amount.

We connect the evaporator

Under the front panel of the evaporator there is a special box where wiring terminals — this air conditioner unit or split system is always mounted indoors.

The wires from the evaporator are connected to the contacts of the outdoor unit, guided by the numbering, the free cores are carefully insulated with a special tape. A circuit diagram will help you understand everything correctly. Before connecting the air conditioning system, check insulation of each coreso that later the normal operation of the air conditioner is not interrupted by a short circuit.

In principle, the method of connecting the system modules is identical, with the exception of minor nuances, so we present a detailed method for connecting the internal module, and the remote one, by analogy with it.

1. Remove the decorative front panel.
2. We dismantle the protection cover, the cable clamp at the bottom.
3. We pull the cable through the technological opening in the wall — it can be located behind the device or on the side of the wall facing the balcony.
4. We remove the protective insulation from each core at a distance of 20-30 mm from the end.
5. We insert the prepared ends of the cores into the corresponding terminals and tighten the fixing screws.
   
6. We securely strengthen the wire at the exit from the box.
7. Install the removed cover in its original place.
   

After the connection of both modules is completed, check again correct connectionreferring to the diagrams, only after a rigorous check is a trial and short-term switching on of the air conditioner.

Choosing an outlet

The home outlet must meet certain requirements:

• welcome differential relay or reliable grounding;
• it must fully meet all the requirements and parameters that the manufacturers have compiled, according to the annexes in the instructions for using the split system;
• if at the outlet the power supply is carried out by aluminum wires, it must be changed to copper counterparts with a normal cross section;
• it must be connected to the shield through the circuit breaker.

Modern standard euro sockets ideal for connecting household appliances of special power, but all work on connecting the air conditioner must be carried out by a specialist with the appropriate approval, otherwise the product warranty will be canceled. If you moved to a new place and decided to install a product that was already working, especially since you did the dismantling yourself, then follow the recommendations and do everything carefully.

Which cable to choose

When choosing a wire, you need to focus on the type of network of the apartment. It comes in two and three lines. In modern apartments, sockets have grounding. Therefore, to connect air conditioners, it is used three-core cable. The cross section of its conductors is chosen according to the power of the future split system. The manuals on electrical engineering have all the necessary data. It is also not difficult to determine the cross-sectional area of ​​u200bu200bthe wire using online calculators on the Internet.

For example, for the mode of long-term operation of the air conditioner, select:

• for devices with a power of up to 3 kW, a cross section of 2 sq. mm is sufficient;
• for power from 3 to 5 kW, choose a cable of 2.5 sq. mm;
• a power of 7 kW will require a copper cable with a cross section of 4 sq. mm.

It should be understood that the ratio of the cross section and the allowable power is different for aluminum and copper cables, products with stranded conductors and solid ones. Therefore, using reference books or online calculators is a must.

The cable is also selected according to the characteristics of the insulation. For example, a product intended for the street will be prohibitively expensive. The optimal cable in terms of price-quality ratio is the VVG type. It is made in PVC insulation, the service life of the product is 30 years. A flat modification of this cable is also produced under the VVG-P marking, as well as a non-combustible VVGng.

Do you need protective equipment?

Automata and RCDs reliably protect the network from overloads and short circuits. The first means are simple. The automata open the circuit when the threshold current strength is exceeded. But the RCD controls the operation of devices more strictly. For example, circuit opening occurs when parasitic leakage currents are detected, a person touches ungrounded cases, and in other cases that are inaccessible to automatic machines.

However, if you want to fully protect your air conditioner, it is recommended to install both types of hardware. So, the RCD will indicate a specific network malfunction. And the machine will serve as a backup or complementary protection. In addition, it will allow you to easily change a broken RCD without stopping the operation of the air conditioner.

There is also a more expensive option. Differential switch reliable, while taking up less space than a pair of RCD and machine. However, it is worth remembering that you will have to pay more money for protection of a similar level. In addition, in case of breakdowns, the difavtomat will have to be changed, which means spending a lot of money again.

In conclusion, I would like to warn all users again: electricity does not forgive mistakes and inaccuracies, therefore, when connecting yourself, adequately treat your skills so that later you do not have to extinguish the wiring and repair expensive climate equipment.