"DaveM" wrote in message
...
"Steve W." wrote in message
...
vey wrote:
Steve W. wrote:
Looking for a way to activate a small lamp to show when a remote
mounted water pump is running. I know I have seen the method before but
my dusty brain cannot seem to find it. The pump is a 120volt unit
mounted in a remote pump house out of visual range or I would wire a
light across the pressure switch. I was thinking of something like an
inductive coil around the hot lead feeding a circuit that would power
the light. No problem working on the panel end. Ideas?



Maybe I am stupid, but couldn't you just wire a 120 lamp cord and bulb
in parallel with the pump? You would do this at the switch. When the
pressure switch closed, then the pump and the bulb would come on.

Or you could wire in after the controller box, if you have one.

But make sure that this really is a 120 pump. Most are 240 and then you
would wire one hot to one side of the bulb and neutral to the other side
of the bulb.


Not stupid and I could do that BUT The pump itself is almost 200 feet
away down over a bank in a pump house. I am hoping to be able to connect
something inside the house on the feed to the pump to tell me when it is
operating, rather than burying a lot more wire.

If I had a transformer here that could handle the 15 amps I would hook
one side of it into the hot side of the feed and use it to power a light
since current/voltage would only be flowing when the pump was on but that
would be a good sized transformer. I think my current course of action
will be to wrap a section of the hot side through a toroidal core with a
larger section of magnet wire and see what I get voltage wise. Kind of a
crossbreed current transformer.
--
Steve W.


Don't know what your budget for this contraption is, but I think what
you're
looking for is a current-operated switch, such as these:
http://www.dynacononline.com/ct805.htm

http://web3.automationdirect.com/adc...ith_Time_Delay

Find more manufacturers, distributors and prices by Googling for "current
operated switch".

An alternative would be a Smart Strip power strip
http://catalog.bitsltd.us/power_strips/. This is a power strip that has a
number of outlets, just like the cheap "surge suppressor" strips, the
difference being that there is one outlet that is used to control all the
other outlets. When the device that is plugged into the control outlet is
on (drawing current), the other outlets are switched on. These are
usually used to control computer systems, home theater systems, etc, where
a number of devices need to be turned on at the same time. I have one of
these strips in my home and two more in my shop. Great devices.
You could run the pump through the smart switch, and then plug a small
lamp or other device into one of the controlled outlets for a visual or
audible indication that the pump is drawing current.

Cheers!!!
--
Dave M

Good steer on the links Dave. That's exactly the piece of kit I was telling
him to look for back up the top.

Arfa