Burning up - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

Jon Thunda · 10-20-2007, 09:01 AM

My house seems to have issues with anything with a heat element in it. I go through light bulbs like you read about. I've lost the elemnt in my dryer twice and I just lost the element in my stove. I've upgraded the service and have the correct voltage the many times I have checked. I just got a new dryer and now need a new stove and don't want them to burn up. Any ideas?

brian john · 10-20-2007, 01:25 PM

Number one issue leading to short life, is voltage variations, then overheating, but overheating would normally be one or two appliances and/or fixtures not whole house.

The best solution IMO would be a long term voltage recorder, now this does not have to be an expensive meter get a Fluke meter with min max functions and a DC power supply to replace the 9 VDC battery check daily. Phase to neutral readings are what you want, to simplify buy two meters.

MDShunk · 10-20-2007, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brian john

The best solution IMO would be a long term voltage recorder, now this does not have to be an expensive meter get a Fluke meter with min max functions and a DC power supply to replace the 9 VDC battery check daily.

Now then, that's using the old noodle, right there!

John Valdes · 10-22-2007, 12:18 PM

Why buy a recorder. Call POCO and see if they can set one up. Tell them whats happening.

Do these failures happen at any certain time of day? Like during hot or cold weather. Night or day? Power correction caps do cause substantial spikes when switched.
Since your issues are on 240 volt circuits, it sure sounds like a power issue.

WireNut · 10-22-2007, 05:11 PM

I had a similar situation at my old house. I replaced more bulbs that I'd like to discuss. I did exactly what brian john explains only to find during day time hours my line voltages would spike to 137VAC on either of the phases. Since it didn't appear to effect my 240 appliences I purchased and istalled all flouresent bulbs in the house. Lower wattage use, cheaper to opperate and NO MORE replacing bulbs.

This may be a canidate for a Transient Voltage Surge Suppressors or TVSS on your load center.

http://www.iaei.org/subscriber/magazine/00_b/manche.htm

Here is a link to give to some research. Hope this help and good luck!

Michaeljp86 · 10-22-2007, 11:40 PM

Sounds like you lost a neutral, I seen this 2 times. The wire broke on the pole and caused this and one time in a migrant camp the guy put in a new breaker box and didnt hook it up. They called and said that the lights were really bright and the refridgerator sounded like a jet engine. I would think you have a bad connection some place like out on the pole which is why its not really bad.

brian john · 10-23-2007, 05:29 AM

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Not sure what that means, a lost neutral can lead to permanent removal of the house form the market, as in FIRE!!!!!

Jon Thunda · 10-25-2007, 08:28 AM

I spoke with a contrator friend of mine and he told me to call the utility company and explain the situation. I guess they'll do the monitoring for free and replace or fix the transformer.

Thanx for everyones input.

macmikeman · 10-25-2007, 02:35 PM

If you have a degraded connection in the neutral you will usually see lots of flickering or random dimming in incandescant lights, coupled with some short bursts of extreme brightness. And short lived light bulbs. If you are having some of those effects, then as Brian says, possible fire on the way. If you can get to it, put a clamp on amprobe around the gec and see how many amps are going thru it when your house is under a normal load. A couple of amps is normal, by the way due to parallel path back to utility xfmr, but if you read much more on the gec, you should get the neutral checked pronto.

Michaeljp86 · 10-25-2007, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macmikeman

If you have a degraded connection in the neutral you will usually see lots of flickering or random dimming in incandescant lights, coupled with some short bursts of extreme brightness. And short lived light bulbs. If you are having some of those effects, then as Brian says, possible fire on the way. If you can get to it, put a clamp on amprobe around the gec and see how many amps are going thru it when your house is under a normal load. A couple of amps is normal, by the way due to parallel path back to utility xfmr, but if you read much more on the gec, you should get the neutral checked pronto.

I was trying to say the same thing.

During strong winds I notice the same thing here some times in light bulbs. From the pole the service entrence cable is all under ground. So Im wondering if its way down the line someplace.

Joe Momma · 10-26-2007, 01:29 AM

2 amps through your ground rod?
That is not normal, that is very bad.
That means your grounding system; water pipes, everything metal in your house has 400 times the amount of current of what it takes to kill a man.
Your grounding system, aka GEC, should have no current whatsoever in normal operating conditions.
If there is ANY current on your GEC you need to check tightness on your neutral or have the power company check their end.

JohnJ0906 · 10-31-2007, 04:59 PM

Joe, remember that due to grounding the neutral at the service disconnect, and also grounding the X0 of the xfmr causes the earth to be a parallel path for neutral current.