Young Frankenstein
New member
Electrician here ............
Your Electrician Here
- Thread starter Young Frankenstein
- Start date
Young Frankenstein
New member
They make thin breakers what we call twin circuit breaker or pigyback for square-d panels. In one space you can fit 2 breakers. Here is a pic.
Young Frankenstein
New member
To determine if your tank has to run on a separate breaker you have to measure the current that you are pulling from the breaker by using an amp meter, and you should not exceed the 20 amp rating on a #12 wire. If you don't have an amp meter and the breaker gets hot or trips you need another circuit.
BruiseAndy
New member
Don't mean to highjack, here it is
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1098122
Young Frankenstein
New member
BruseAndy did you complete the chiller? Thanks for the thread. If yes can you post some complete project photos ?
House electrical question
House electrical question
Hi there,
I want to install a tankless water heater in my condo to replace a traditional water heater. The purpose ofcourse it to make more room for fish stuff.
The requirements of this tankless water heater are to have a minimum household capacity of 200 amps with the individual heater drawing maximum 115 amps. This is a 240V device.
I checked the main condo circuit breaker and they are two breakers each rated at 100amps connected together. So I take this as two hot lines being brought in...each line capable of 100amps. This would satisfy the requirement of 200amps correct?
The manual says to install 1 125amp breaker using #2 gauge wire to the supplied sub-panel box for the water heater. However, it seems that installing a 60 amp double pole breaker would be sufficient as the source of power to this sub-panel...ensuring that each side draws under 60amps.
If that is correct we could use #6 gauge wiring between our panel to the sub-panel?
Please let me know if this is correct thinking or if the house is endanger of burning to the ground.
Thank you!!!
Jason
House electrical question
Hi there,
I want to install a tankless water heater in my condo to replace a traditional water heater. The purpose ofcourse it to make more room for fish stuff.
The requirements of this tankless water heater are to have a minimum household capacity of 200 amps with the individual heater drawing maximum 115 amps. This is a 240V device.
I checked the main condo circuit breaker and they are two breakers each rated at 100amps connected together. So I take this as two hot lines being brought in...each line capable of 100amps. This would satisfy the requirement of 200amps correct?
The manual says to install 1 125amp breaker using #2 gauge wire to the supplied sub-panel box for the water heater. However, it seems that installing a 60 amp double pole breaker would be sufficient as the source of power to this sub-panel...ensuring that each side draws under 60amps.
If that is correct we could use #6 gauge wiring between our panel to the sub-panel?
Please let me know if this is correct thinking or if the house is endanger of burning to the ground.
Thank you!!!
Jason
Young Frankenstein
New member
Instant water heater draw alot of power for the time water is heated up. Small instant hots start at 2 pole 20 amps and big ones can draw up to 100 amps per phase. The manual you have said you need a minimum 200 Amps, meaning per phase. So adding 100+100 dosnot work. You are probably ok running #6 if the amperage of the water heater is less than 60 amps. You canot connect this tankles water heater to your system, it will either overload your main breaker or in the long run it will probably damage the main breaker or burn connections in the #2 wires feeding your apartment. You can return it and get a smaller one not drawing more than 30-40 amps per phase. Thats 220 or 240v at 30 or 40 amps, good luck and let me know if you need more info.
Young Frankenstein
New member
Glad to help you.
Randall_James
Premium Member
A single tube heat exchanger? I doubt that it is very efficient...
I have never seen one with less than 12 tubes. (round anyway, some flat tubes run 3)
You need the surface area for the heat exchange or you are going to run that thing a lot more than necessary to remove the heat. (If it even keeps up)
danceswithfish
New member
I have a question! I am planning an upgrade to 120g and I want to run two 250w metal halide lights.
I am wondering if my appartment can handle this. I only have regular outlets and I looked at my electical box and it sais that it is 100amps.
Thanks for any tips!
I am wondering if my appartment can handle this. I only have regular outlets and I looked at my electical box and it sais that it is 100amps.
Thanks for any tips!
Young Frankenstein
New member
500 watts is about 4 amps, so you should be fine. lets say 4 amps for lights + 2 or 3 amps for pumps that will leave a regular 15 amp breaker with another 7 or 8 amps. You should be fine.
BruiseAndy
New member
Surface area is a constant so you can adjust flow to compensate. Tube in tube HX's are quite common in refrigeration field. Efficency will correlate with absorbtion which is why most commercial aquarium chillers require such high flow rates. Typical chiller (not aquarium) needs 2-3GPM per ton of water flow which for a 1/4hp would equate to 45GPM for peak efficency. The reason you see many chillers in our hobby asking for such a large flow is because many use a similar tube in tube design and make up for surface area by increasing flow. Time will tell I guess. Purpose of project wasnt to make the best HX but to make a reasonably inexpensive one that works the same as the commercial units do. Pleas post any follow up on this in the link I provided earlier so as not to detract from electrical thread.
crhis
New member
ok here's one for ya......i have an older home (circa 1950)
theres been a service upgrade but theres been no wiring upgrade (still just a nuetral and a hot) actually there's still a sub panel w/4 glass fuses in it.
in theory couldn't i pound in a ground rod and tie it to the nuetral side of thr panel ?
theres been a service upgrade but theres been no wiring upgrade (still just a nuetral and a hot) actually there's still a sub panel w/4 glass fuses in it.
in theory couldn't i pound in a ground rod and tie it to the nuetral side of thr panel ?
BruiseAndy
New member
Dangerous, if your neutral gets cut and you have an internal short in equipment anything in your house that is in same loop would be connected to your electrical.
Young Frankenstein
New member
Ok according to NEC only the main should be bonded, although the old days they used to bond and fuse the neutral in branch wiring.EXPLANATION: When the neutral is lost from the power company the grounding takes over. At this point usualy the lights dim and you can tell theres a problem. The point of atachment betwen the newtral and the grounding can get red hot and also burn, usualy the wire is a #4 for 200 amp residential services preventing an overheating at the main. If you bond the neutral bar in the house panel theres a risk of the wires overheating inside the house therefore starting a fire. GROUNDING IMPROVEMENT: 2 copper 8ft ground rods minimum 6 ft apart connected with a #4 for 200 amp service, also connect a ground wire to the water main with a grounding clamp. All this get connected to the main disconnect outside the house.
Young Frankenstein
New member
Heres a drawing I made for you.
O Agios,
Instead of using one GFCI duplex outlet to protect a regular duplex outlet (both mounted in one two-gang box) I installed two GFCI's in the box. Figured if something tripped one unit, whatever was plugged into the other would keep on working.
The other day I unplugged a small pump from an extension cord that was plugged into one of the GFCI's. Heard the "pop" and my main pump (that was plugged into the other unit) stopped running! Both GFCI's tripped...
What's up with that?
Instead of using one GFCI duplex outlet to protect a regular duplex outlet (both mounted in one two-gang box) I installed two GFCI's in the box. Figured if something tripped one unit, whatever was plugged into the other would keep on working.
The other day I unplugged a small pump from an extension cord that was plugged into one of the GFCI's. Heard the "pop" and my main pump (that was plugged into the other unit) stopped running! Both GFCI's tripped...
What's up with that?
Young Frankenstein
New member
You probably have to open the panel and tighten the neutral screws. Sounds like a weak neutral. The way GFI s work is they sense a current difference between line and neutral, if theres a small arc and the difference is more than 5-30 ma they trip.
