"Charlie" wrote in message
...
On Mar 12, 3:43 pm, "Ryan Weihl" wrote:
Charlie wrote:
Hello All, now that my girlfriend and I are homeowners, we're starting
to run into some mysteries/problems.

So we've been in the house for a little over 2 weeks now, mostly been
painting/cleaning etc. Up until about 3 days ago, ALL our heaters were
working perfectly, however, now 4 of them have stopped working
altogether.

The information:

The 4 heaters are all listed on the same circuit on the breaker panel
- well its two switches on the panel, connected by a small metal
piece, such that they flip on and off together. Both switches say 20
on them (im assuming this stands for 20amps).

2 of these heaters are on the first floor, 2 are on the second floor:

2 of the heaters are standardbaseboardheater types, one is longer
than the other (largest on main, smaller in half bath on second
floor).

1 of the heaters is a ConvectAir (on 2nd floor) - appears newer than
the others (side note: I originally discovered the problem because I
noticed the red power light on this heater had gone off)

The last heater is something I've never seen before. Its called a
"Chromalux" , its basically a heating coil with a fan to blow the air
around (this is in our bathroom - first floor). This looks old and I
would like to replace it with a newer heater, but for now I would just
like to get some heat in there again.

The Questions:

so question #1: I pried off the front of the twobaseboardheaters,
and under CSA Approved stamp it lists it as 277volts and 17amps. I
thought heaters only used 110 or 220volts?

question #2: I used a multimeter on both thebaseboardheaters and the
chromalux, where the voltage fluctuated between 109 and 112ish.
Because I was seeing a voltage, does this mean that the breaker in the
panel is functioning okay? I thought it a little odd that all 4 of
these heaters which stopped working were located on the same circuit
but the breaker did not appear to have tripped.

question 3: all though the twobaseboardheaters have a voltage going
to them, there is no power light on the convectair heater, what do you
suppose that means?

I know I'll eventually call an electrician if this can't be figured
out, but I wouldn't mind getting my hands a little dirty first, I'm
enjoying learning about all the odds and ends of being a homeowner.

question #4: assuming worst case scenario that all 4 have to be
replaced, what should I budget for?

thanks for all your input in advance,

cheers,

- Charlie

try flipping the dual breaker OFF - wait a minute - and then ON.
one could have tripped and the other is still set. this happens
sometimes when the link between the handles is worn out.

--

How do I go about checking the breaker itself with my multimeter? I
assume I have to unscrew the cover to get at the wires underneath?

Yes, you do and if your not comfortable working in a live panel, DON'T