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single or double pole switch for 240V baseboard heater

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single or double pole switch for 240V baseboard heater deans@wdeans.com 09-10-2006
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Posted by deans@wdeans.com on September 10, 2006, 3:40 am
Greetings,

Part A:
I have 240V baseboard heaters with the termostat inside the heater. I
want to put wall switches in the same place as the light switches so
that I can turn off the heaters when I leave the room without getting
down on the ground to adjust the thermostat. I know that a single pole
switch will work but I wanted to know if there was any reason the code
required a double pole switch? Thanks!

Part B:
The baseboard heaters are 2000W. If I put 2 of them on the same 20A
circuit I am at 83% of the rated breaker capacity (I am using standard
Siemens breakers). Do I really need to put each one on its own
breaker?

Thank you for your time,
William


Posted by RBM on September 10, 2006, 7:16 am
You can't exceed 80%, so you could use 30 amp wire. A wall thermostat or
switch needs to disconnect both hot legs


> Greetings,
>
> Part A:
> I have 240V baseboard heaters with the termostat inside the heater. I
> want to put wall switches in the same place as the light switches so
> that I can turn off the heaters when I leave the room without getting
> down on the ground to adjust the thermostat. I know that a single pole
> switch will work but I wanted to know if there was any reason the code
> required a double pole switch? Thanks!
>
> Part B:
> The baseboard heaters are 2000W. If I put 2 of them on the same 20A
> circuit I am at 83% of the rated breaker capacity (I am using standard
> Siemens breakers). Do I really need to put each one on its own
> breaker?
>
> Thank you for your time,
> William
>



Posted by deans@wdeans.com on September 10, 2006, 10:41 am


>
> > Greetings,
> >
> > Part A:
> > I have 240V baseboard heaters with the termostat inside the heater. I
> > want to put wall switches in the same place as the light switches so
> > that I can turn off the heaters when I leave the room without getting
> > down on the ground to adjust the thermostat. I know that a single pole
> > switch will work but I wanted to know if there was any reason the code
> > required a double pole switch? Thanks!
> >
> > Part B:
> > The baseboard heaters are 2000W. If I put 2 of them on the same 20A
> > circuit I am at 83% of the rated breaker capacity (I am using standard
> > Siemens breakers). Do I really need to put each one on its own
> > breaker?
> >
> > Thank you for your time,
> > William
> >

RBM (remove this) wrote:
> You can't exceed 80%, so you could use 30 amp wire. A wall thermostat or
> switch needs to disconnect both hot legs

Greetings,

You cannot exceed 80% of the wire rating or of the breaker rating? I
thought it was of the breaker rating? And my real question is: are
baseboard heaters considered intermittent loads?

Thanks,
William


Posted by Edwin Pawlowski on September 10, 2006, 12:02 pm

>> > The baseboard heaters are 2000W. If I put 2 of them on the same 20A
>> > circuit I am at 83% of the rated breaker capacity (I am using standard
>> > Siemens breakers). Do I really need to put each one on its own
>> > breaker?

Yes, 83 % is too high.


>
> You cannot exceed 80% of the wire rating or of the breaker rating? I
> thought it was of the breaker rating?


If the wire is properly matched, it works out to both.

And my real question is: are
> baseboard heaters considered intermittent loads?

What is intermittent about a heating element that maybe on from a few
minutes to hours at a time?

I'm glad I'm not your tenant. You seem to want to cheap out on this and
potentially cause a serious safety situation. Use the right double pole
switch, use the right wiring.



Posted by peter on September 10, 2006, 10:16 am

> Greetings,
>
> Part A:
> I have 240V baseboard heaters with the termostat inside the heater. I
> want to put wall switches in the same place as the light switches so
> that I can turn off the heaters when I leave the room without getting
> down on the ground to adjust the thermostat. I know that a single pole
> switch will work but I wanted to know if there was any reason the code
> required a double pole switch? Thanks!

120V circuit has a neutral and a hot; if you stand in a bath tub and touch
the two wires one by one, you will get shocked by the hot, and not by the
neutral

240V circuit has no neutral; it has two hots (each one is 120V relative to
ground). If you touch the two wires one by one, you get shocked twice.

If you switch off only one hot, then the heater wiring is still carrying
120V. This is potentially dangerous.



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