Got lucky today!!

Floyd

Got home from my grandson's birthday party today and had about a hour and a half to kill before we had to take
off for my wife's nephew's birthday party. The phone rings and it is the owner of a local saw mill, that I do quite a bit of work for...

He say's that his wood stove is running 230 or so and that his house is cooling down....I weigh my options quickly and decide that maybe it is something simple and that because he is only 5 minutes away I will run up and take a look quick.

I get there and sure enough the wood boiler is 230, the gas boiler is stone cold and the pipes coming from the boiler are hot, but turn cold right at the gas boiler. Obviously the circ. pump isn't running and the gas boiler isn't running.
Figuring that it is an electrical problem I get out my meter and start checking....no 24V at the Xformer....no 110 at the primary side...no breakers tripped in the breaker box....the boiler breaker is on........but HMMMMMMMMMMM there is 110 to ground!!!! So I check the gas boiler.... same thing....
So I check the switch and the outlet beside it......I don't have 110 across the outlet, but have 110 to ground from BOTH sides of the outlet!!!! Something really fishy is happening here!!!!

So I asked the guy if anybody has been messing in his breaker panel????? He says that his electrical mechanic from the mill was up to the house last week to wire up a new generator........HMMMMMMMMM

So I open the breaker box and trace back the boiler wire, there seems to be 110 from the breaker..... I trace down the neutral wire and give it a pull......BINGO!!!!!! Somehow with the messing in the box that neutral wire was still under the bar but not tight under the screw!!!!!! Loosened the crew and reinserted the wire and we were back in buisness!!!!

Could have spent alot of time chasing a bunch of differnet things, but the bottom line is...... learn electric!!!!!!
With both heating AND A/C there are many times when the problems are electric related and you can save yourself alot of time and headaches my knowing what is right and wrong with the electrical side of things!!!!!

I felt extremely lucky today to solve that problem so easily!!!!!
Always look for the UNexpected!!!!

Floyd (Sparky) Kolb

Tom M.

similar experience

A couple weeks ago, I got a call for an oil burner short cycling. When I arrived, I found the smart control of the Amtrol tank calling the boiler on. When the burner motor started, the voltage dropped to a point where the smart control shut down. The burner would stop, the voltage would come back up, the smart control would come back on, go through its start up routine (self-test I assume) and repeat the cycle.

One time the burner stayed running and the lights in the basement were brighter than they were when it was not running. This told me that the house had a weak neutral.
I advised the homeowner to call an electrician.

His electrician told him that there was nothing wrong with the service, pointed out some corrosion in the panel (he could come back Monday to replace the panel), and that I should come back and replace the burner motor, the smart control or both.

With the help of a second electrician, we found that the bolts that held down the aluminum conductors were loose both at the panel and behind the meter. The neutral had four or five strands that were behind the bar and not in the hole.

Steve Ebels

Ya know...........

A lot of problems are of an electrical nature. I was just reading the monthly news letter from the state Bureau of Construction codes and they went into the subject of mechanical guys messing with electrical stuff. In the letter they quoted the part of the code that says basically " mechanical guys can replace electrical components but, {Thou Shalt Not Touch Or Wire Anything New}" This is always a "What should I do"? situation for me. Why should I have sparky wire up the pumps and controls on a new boiler system when I have to stand there and tell him how to do it? 90% of the electricians would rather not do it anyhow. We're, by law supposed to call an electrician to run a new wire from the fuse/breaker panel for a new furnace for Pete's sake! Just a simple 12-2 w/g circuit for the equipment. Almost all the changeout installations we do need a new dedicated circuit for the equipment due to no ground wire, other stuff on the circuit, etc. We all know how fussy the new stuff is in regards to proper ground and polarity. I brought it up to the state electrical inspector and he gave me a green light to wire up our systems provided it met all codes and we realized we were assuming full responsibilty for the wiring that we did. So that's what we've been doing. How do all you other guys handle these situations??