Electric Heat Troubles

[Amechanical]

Hello, today I had a no heat service call for electric baseboard heaters. Arrived at the site, discovered that one for the terminals on the t-stat was burned, see pic..

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn353/omara5266/heat_stat.jpg


Checked the voltage at L1 and L2 (240V Heaters) and was surprised to read 240v on meter, because this should have tripped the breaker when the terminal burned. I went to the breaker panel and indeed the 2-pole breaker was off, but I was still reading 240V. I thought maybe my meter was acting up or something. so I bypassed the t-stat and jumped the wires and the heaters started working. So it seems the breaker is bad, but just wanted to get your guys' comments/suggestions on this matter...

[Focko]

Try to sell them a different system :D Baseboard heat sucks. If there's no natural gas there, maybe a heat pump. I know that doesn't answer your question, but that's what I would do.

[Airmechanical]

Hello, today I had a no heat service call for electric baseboard heaters. Arrived at the site, discovered that one for the terminals on the t-stat was burned, see pic..

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn353/omara5266/heat_stat.jpg


Checked the voltage at L1 and L2 (240V Heaters) and was surprised to read 240v on meter, because this should have tripped the breaker when the terminal burned. I went to the breaker panel and indeed the 2-pole breaker was off, but I was still reading 240V. I thought maybe my meter was acting up or something. so I bypassed the t-stat and jumped the wires and the heaters started working. So it seems the breaker is bad, but just wanted to get your guys' comments/suggestions on this matter...

yes, the wire looks like it seen some heat, any technical discussions belong in the pro technical section!



.

[skippedover]

There are literally hundreds of fires every day in the U.S.A. without breakers tripping. Why? Because breakers trip based on amperage draw. But wires burned like your picture are not over amped, they're burned, like an arc welder burns metal. The heaters you're controlling are just that, electricity turned into heat by a high resistance. The breaker doesn't trip, right? You expect the electric heater to get hot and it does. Well, if the wire or t-stat has a bad connection, that's a high resistance and you get heat. Get enough heat, you get a fire! Get a good fire when you're sleeping and you won't much care anymore how the system worked. You'll be dead. Circuit breakers should not be relied upon to squelch heat. Only amperage, short circuits and the like.

[beenthere]

As technical as I'll get.
Some electrical devices take more then one breaker to de-energize them.

Electric baseboard heat. PITA.

[Amechanical]

Try to sell them a different system :D Baseboard heat sucks. If there's no natural gas there, maybe a heat pump. I know that doesn't answer your question, but that's what I would do.

yea, I don't care much for baseboard heaters either, I have taken the gas/heat pump route with the HO, guess I'll have to see where that takes us.:confused:


yes, the wire looks like it seen some heat, any technical discussions belong in the pro technical section!

waiting for the magical number 15...


As technical as I'll get.
Some electrical devices take more then one breaker to de-energize them.
Electric baseboard heat. PITA.

hence 2-pole breaker, whats PITA?

[Focko]

whats PITA?

Pain in the . . . :)

[Amechanical]

oh, thanks

[beenthere]

hence 2-pole breaker,

Nope.

Thats not what I meant.

You'll learn one of these days what 2 means of disconnect means.

Has absolutely nothing to do with the number of poles the breaker has.

[Amechanical]

Nope.

Thats not what I meant.

You'll learn one of these days what 2 means of disconnect means.

Has absolutely nothing to do with the number of poles the breaker has.

ah, why don't you enlighten this young grasshopper with your wisdom, ol' kind and wise master...:D

[beenthere]

Mostly because this is the open resi forum where I'm not suppose to get technical.

But, 2-2 pole breaker s can be used to feed multiple heaters.

Meaning, you turned one off, and can still be nailed by the second one.

Hence, more then one disconnect device is required to de energize that circuit.

[Amechanical]

srry to force you in this situation, but thanks for the info, that never occurred to me..