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[email protected] deans@wdeans.com is offline
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Default single or double pole switch for 240V baseboard heater


peter wrote:
" wrote in message
oups.com...
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.


Greetings,

I fail to understand why it is dangerous for the wire to be carrying
120V into the heater. So what? The (optional add-in) integrated
thermostat only breaks one pole. Are you saying it is dangerous?
Based on your posting alone it appears that if one is dangerous then
the other must be as well.

Please explain.

Thanks,
William