Join earth wires (from 3 power cables) together when wiring temperature controller (ITC 1000)?

jezzurp said:

Hi all
I haven’t done much of anything with electrics since secondary school (long time) and hoping someone might just double check what I’m saying isn’t totally wrong!

Im building a keg system for home brew using an old chest feeezer. To regulate the temperature I’m using an ink bird ITC 1000 temperature controller. I will attach some pics to illustrate what I’m talking about but essentially I’m chopping up a couple of 2 way adaptors and the plan is...

Mains supply comes in through small hole in freezer, I wire up live and neutral to relevant terminals (1 & 2) for power supply.

Temperature sensor is wired to terminals 3 & 4.

There are then two outputs.

One two way adaptors live and neutral are wired into terminals 5 & 6 for the heating output (little tube heater and pc fan to circulate)

The other two way adaptor live and neutral wired to ports 7 & 8 for cooling output (will feed freezer plug in to it).

I have watched lots of videos and read up abs from what I understand I should combine the earth wires from the three power cables (mains supply, hot and cold outputs to adaptors) and solder and cap off. As I’m not super sure about electrics I thought I should check with people who know before I plough ahead and blow myself up, or worse still waste beer!

Any help much appreciated. Thanks

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Slimmct said:

It doesn't read quite like that in the datasheet if it is the itc1000f. The heating and cooling pins appear to be relays, not power sources.

You would have your live feed into 1, 5 & 7. Then pin 6 would go to the live side of your heater. Pin 8 would go to the live side of your chiller. Pin 2 and both your heater and chiller neutrals together to your supply neutral. And your earths from the heater and chiller together with your supply earth.

Then it looks like the relays operate on reaching the thresholds configured on the front end.

At least that's the way I read it.
View attachment 85634
Edit: although, that doesn't follow their diagram either. Unless pin 2 is meant to be live and pin 1 neutral. It isn't clear of polarity of the supply voltage matters across pin 1 and 2, even in the DC example. Either way, I'd put the live to pin 5 and 7,you wouldn't want to switch on the neutral side.

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jezzurp said:

Wow ok thanks glad I asked now!

A little bit worrying that it sounds a bit confusing to someone who knows what they’re doing though!

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Slimmct said:

I'd be clear that I'm not an electrician, and I'm not telling you it would be safe to do that. Just the way that I would interpret the data sheet if I was making it myself.

Did it come with the brown and blue wires attached already? I'd be tempted to use brown for all of 5,6,7 and 8, as they would all be part of the live supply.

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jezzurp said:

No it didn’t, that was me making a start trying to get my plan together and prepping it to be attached.

Ok got you, you probably know a lot more than me tbf.

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timhoward said:

I agree with @Slimmct that what you have there are relays, think of them as electronic switches that join 5 to 6, and 7 to 8.

BUT you need to use 2 for live and 1 for neutral as per picture below.
You want the relay or switch on the live side of the connected loads, otherwise they will have 230v at them even when turned off, as you would be turning them of by removing the neutral.
Just as in a domestic lighting circuit you wouldn't want the bulb-holders live when the lights are off - same principle.

(If you don't understand my last sentence then respectfully don't proceed and get some help.)

There are also several more things to think about:
The relays are rated at 10A, so you wouldn't be able to put a 13A fused plug on the power supply, it would need to be 5A or 10A fuse in the plug. The flex you use throughout would need to need to be minimum 1mm sq. csa to carry 10A.
You also need to consider the power consumption of any loads you intend to plug in and ensure they don't draw more current than 10A.

Finally, yes, it's important to connect the earths from the supply flex to the other two earths.

There is potential for short circuit, electric shock and even fire if this isn't done correctly so please get some local help if you are not confident you can do it safely.

View attachment 85637

Click to expand...

timhoward said:

I agree with @Slimmct that what you have there are relays, think of them as electronic switches that join 5 to 6, and 7 to 8.

BUT you need to use 2 for live and 1 for neutral as per picture below.
You want the relay or switch on the live side of the connected loads, otherwise they will have 230v at them even when turned off, as you would be turning them of by removing the neutral.
Just as in a domestic lighting circuit you wouldn't want the bulb-holders live when the lights are off - same principle.

(If you don't understand my last sentence then respectfully don't proceed and get some help.)

There are also several more things to think about:
The relays are rated at 10A, so you wouldn't be able to put a 13A fused plug on the power supply, it would need to be 5A or 10A fuse in the plug. The flex you use throughout would need to need to be minimum 1mm sq. csa to carry 10A.
You also need to consider the power consumption of any loads you intend to plug in and ensure they don't draw more current than 10A.

Finally, yes, it's important to connect the earths from the supply flex to the other two earths.

There is potential for short circuit, electric shock and even fire if this isn't done correctly so please get some local help if you are not confident you can do it safely.

View attachment 85637

Click to expand...

jezzurp said:

Presumably the cable that was previously attached to a 13amp plug is all good to go for a 10amp plug (as I understand it the minimum is the issue rather than it being a bit bigger?)

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timhoward said:

That should be the case, yes. You should check though.

To be clear the reason I made a big deal of the connections was that your photograph showed the live and neutral one way, the helpful post by @Slimmct described it in a way that would work but didn't match the diagram sticker on the top.
I thought it best if you had everything consistent so the sticker was representative of the arrangements.

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timhoward said:

That should be the case, yes. You should check though.

To be clear the reason I made a big deal of the connections was that your photograph showed the live and neutral one way, the helpful post by @Slimmct described it in a way that would work but didn't match the diagram sticker on the top.
I thought it best if you had everything consistent so the sticker was representative of the arrangements.

Click to expand...