Brown out Ajijic Centro

Anyone else?

We didn’t notice anything at #30, 16 de septiembre.

It turned out that one of those old-style fuses had blown in my old fuse box thus killing one of my phases. The fuse looked like it was at least 50 years old. I wish I had of checked that first. I know better for next time.

You can have that fuse box replaced with a newer circuit breaker style. Not a big deal and a whole lot safer too.

Definitely go for the circuit breaker. Easy to fix the outage by throwing a switch.

If replacing a main disconnect, you should use a type with cartridge fuses and not thermal circuit breakers. Circuit breakers are fine for all branch and sub panel fusing applications from the main panel on.

The fuse box I have is already cartridge fuses. They don't use these up north so why should we use them here?

Incorrect.  I'm am talking about a main disconnect which should be seperate from your main fuse panel. Disconnects are required in all commercial/industrial applications.  Depends on what current rating and number of phases you need to protect. indoor/outdoor such as the NEMA rating needed. The cartridges are used to fuse/protect each phase of the incoming service and are available in difference slow-blow, time delay or fast configurations. Many service entrance configurations here bring all 3 phases into the buildings.  The disconnect should be a manual lever operated type with blade strikers so you can totally disconnect from the incoming mains when servicing the main distribution panel. They also have arc protection. The other advantages are they are far less expensive than a 3 phase circuit breaker in the larger current ratings and easier to operate, can be locked out if security is an issue.  An example of a small one I have used for 30A 2 pole the Siemens GF221 which costs about $1,000 MX and the cartridge fuses for it are only $40 ea.

I already have exactly what you are describing however can you explain why I didn't have anything like this in Canada? My main throw in Canada was a conventional circuit breaker albeit a very large one.


This is what it looks like in Canada:




As you can see the main throw is a breaker not a cartridge fuse.

Yes, that is the way we do residential service entrance panels in Canada - it is called a "combo" panel.  Industrial/commercial installations use seperate disconnects.  Try and find a panel like that here in Mexico though.  I am assuming you are talking about the service entrance for your AirBNB?  It would be classed as a commercial install, but hey, here in Mexico you can do whatever you want as there is not yet any mandatory inpections and a lack of adherence to the Mexican electrical code (which is similar to the US and Canadian ones).  Note though that inspections are coming.  I was recently required by CFE to increase our contracted peak power on one of our communty's well sites. It was mandatory to have a certified electrical inspector check the site before I could proceed through the process.  I spoke with the inspector about what he is seeing in the installations he goes to.  He said almost 100% of the ones he sees have grounding deficiencies.  There was a fatal accident at a hotel complex in PV last year when a guest was electrocuted in the hotel's swimming pool.  The culprit was shoddy grounding practices so CFE is really starting to clamp down starting with industrial and commercial installations.