Are you ready? A Zamboni.
Using an existing 4 conductor wire to supply a 220 v surface mounted heater with electric fan
- Thread starter Snagglefoot
- Start date
15 amps at 240V still isn't much power. It's two space heaters or two hair dryers. The heater is undersized for the space it's expected to heat. It's not hot to the touch because the fan does a great job of distributing what heat it can make, around the room.
You have an unused neutral white wire to futureproof that circuit, and/or to meet code.
That thing's wired up fine. Anything that can also take 208V is "pure" 2xx voltage, as 208 is "Y-phase" and at one time was cheaper. There was no expectation of having 125V available with it.
What kind of square footage is this expected to cover?
You have an unused neutral white wire to futureproof that circuit, and/or to meet code.
That thing's wired up fine. Anything that can also take 208V is "pure" 2xx voltage, as 208 is "Y-phase" and at one time was cheaper. There was no expectation of having 125V available with it.
What kind of square footage is this expected to cover?
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I think is it. A wall mounted thermostat is just run in series with the heater. The heat was a baseboard heater and might have had a thermostat built in. It was replaced with the present heater which had no thermostat. Theoretically it’s giving out 100% of it can give, but something must be wrong with the wiring or the cut out sensor. Maybe it’s fried.
Actually it’s got two 15 A breakers attached together at the box. We haven’t opened the electrical box up yet to check what’s up.
That just controls the fan. It's not a high temp safety I don't think. 175F would be the on and then off with a 40F lower difference. You can find many different ranges if you want to change that.
High thermal protect would be over 200F-250F usually. If you follow the red and black wires were do they go? And the Red and Black at the sensor cannot be common with the 240V feed or it would be a dead short. Probably just controlling one side of the 240V to turn fan on and off like the cheap contactors in a outside AC unit.
Does the Zamboni have to be stored someplace that doesn't get below freezing?
Here is the photo. The red and black both into the cut out, then the coil.
Yup, it typically has some water in its tank, and needs the fabric water spreader to be unthawed. Zamboni’s normally run in arenas at temperatures close to 60 F. This one is run outside at temps down to about 0 F.
A device that is 220v totally does not need a neutral.. Just two hot and a ground. Sometimes there is a 110V fan or light and then you would need a neutral. The two hot wires would go to a ganged circuit breaker covering two slots.
Yeah the way a box works is you have a breaker for -120V and one for +120V, that gives you 240 volts at 15 amps. (The white wire is zero volts so you can get 120 from either the red or black and the white.) A "regular" circuit is 120V at 15 or 20 amps and normal space heaters/ hair dryers are spec'd to use all of that. So this heater, despite looking industrial and amazing, is at most 2x as powerful as a typical home appliance. Since its nameplate is 2000 watts, that's less than that but slightly more than a 120V circuit can handle. Check your hair dryer, it'll boast around 1800.
The red thing is a high limit thermostat, it is set to open at 175F, the 40 is the cut-in differential. 240 VAC times 15 A is 3600W, but 2000 isn’t much-a lot of small, portable electric space heaters draw 12 or 13A at 120 VAC for around 1500W. Unless you have awesome insulation, you’ll probably need something bigger.
The garage is insulated and is a single car ( or single Zamboni) garage by the way. I plugged in a consumer grade 110 V 1500 W heater and it had no trouble thawing things out.
Correct. It never stops and it is a little warm. The other characteristic is that clicks off while the inside of the building is still cold.
About 600 square ft.
The installer/electrician should have capped off the white “neutral wire with a wire nut at both ends since the heater is 220/240v. That’s a thermal disc fuse it will open up and cut off power if the heater overheated. Where’s the thermostat installed? should be a line voltage thermostat. The fan is most likely same voltage as the heating element there’s nothing on the heater that would require a neutral such as a clothes dryer that has 110/120v motor and controls. Anything is possible and the fan could be 120v using one of the hot legs of the 240 to ground.,. Only reason if this was the case is if the heater overheated the heating element will cut off and the fan would stay running to cool the unit in this situation a two pole line voltage thermostat would be needed if not the fan would always run. i doubt this is the situation..
2000w at 240v, 208v is 1500w
2000w at 240v, 208v is 1500w
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Sometimes it's like pulling teeth...
So you're saying that the fan never stops, but sometimes the outlet air is not heated-- it is blowing cold?
The red and black as it comes into the device cannot be connected together. If that is what is going to that thermal switch it would short out when it activates.
who did the initial hook up? time to get an electrician or someone qualified to make things right. That fuse is just cutting off one hot leg of the 240 now if there’s no thermostat in line with the unit it would run constantly until it overheats.
