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Posted by Carolina Breeze HVAC on August 3, 2005, 3:55 am
> meirman wrote:
>
>> In alt.home.repair on Fri, 29 Jul 2005 21:21:49 -0700 Eric
>>
>>>Jim Beaver wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've got a newly-built house (well, actually, it's 2/3 new, 1/3
>>>> existing)
>>>> with new wiring from the panel in. It's got a 200 amp rating at the
>>>> panel. But whenever the air conditioning comes on, the lights dim and
>>>> power dips much more than I've ever seen in another house, even ones
>>>> with lower amps
>>>> and older wiring. Sometimes it's enough to shut down my computer or
>>>> TV.
>>>>
>>>> The wire coming in from the pole is what was here when only the
>>>> existing
>>>> house was here. How likely is it that a problem like this is on the
>>>> city's side of the breaker panel?
>>>>
>>>> Jim Beaver
>>>You might want to verify the various wire connections in the panel are
>>>tight and well connected (but only if you are comfortable with things
>>>electrical) A bad connection will cause a voltage drop under load.
>>
>> This sounds right to me. If the AC and the lights are on different
>> circuits, and they almost certainly are, that would mean the bad
>> connection is at the junction or closer to the street than the
>> junction of them. That is, where the main enters and connects to the
>> fusebox.
>>
>> I've done this with my car battery with my bare hand, but I think
>> doing it with a bare hand in a fuse box would kill me, literally (and
>> literally doesn't mean figuratively, like people seem to use it.)
>>
>> But... Is there any sort of rubber glove that the OP could wear that
>> would insulate from the electricity, but allow him to feel if the
>> connection is hot, physcially. That's how I could tell where the bad
>> connection was on the car battery. The good one was cold, the bad one
>> was almost too hot to touch. Of course that was a really bad
>> connection, so bad the car stalled and wouldn't crank fast enough to
>> restart. The op's connection is still working, but I think it would
>> be warm all the time, and a bit hotter right after the AC starts up.
>>
>> Or is it too dangerous and he should just tighten that connection with
>> a well insulated screw driver and gloves?
>>
>>
>>
>>><begin sidebar>
>>>By any chance... are you using Aluminum wire? If so, i highly recommend
>>>you rip it all out and get what you can for scrap price out of it. AL is
>>>ok in very large sizes (as long as its correctly installed with proper
>>>torque and an anti-oxidant on good clean connections), oh say above 00
>>>but
>>>even still, I'd go all copper if i possibly could.
>>><end sidebar>
>>>I really doubt its a utility transformer problem, but I'll bet dimes to
>>>donuts its either a bad main breaker or a bad connection in your panel,
>>>either at the mains, the meter or one of the bus bars in the panel.
>>>Eric
>>
>>
>> Meirman
>> --
>> If emailing, please let me know whether
>> or not you are posting the same letter.
>> Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.
>
> FIRST: dont be doing that kind of crap on electrical equipment.
> Use the proper tools. Do it right and get good results with no
> damage to the equipment or injuries to yourself or others.
>
> OK:
> Its easier and much safer to just measure the voltage drop across the
> connection with a voltmeter, here's a sample of measuring the drop across
> the L2 connection.
> --------@------- L1
> -----------@---- N
> -------@-------- L2
> ^ ^
> | voltmeter|
>
> notice I'm measuring NOT line to line or line to neutral? I'm measuring
> across the connection on a single line. The idea is to see how much
> voltage
> is dropped across the connection and thus to gain an idea of how good the
> connection is. Ideally you would read Zero volts if the connection were
> perfect. Of course this all has to be measured with a fair amount of
> current flowing through the connection - I'd recommend at least 25% of its
> rated load if its possible and 100% of its "normal" (not rated, but normal
> - what it usually runs at) load is great. If you know the exact amps then
> measuring the drop will allow you to calculate the actual connection
> resistance. But barring that, if you put a decent load on it and measure
> anything more than a few volts its a problem. Also, just cuz your
> measuring
> on a single line dont forget it can kill you in a heartbeat. Be Carefull!
> Think about keeping yourself out of contact with the line wires and bus
> bars etc, put on shoes with rubber soles, dont do it in your garage in
> bare
> feet.
> Eric
>
Second that...some dont have a clue how many MILIamps it takes to kill a
person.
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