We have a bedroom in attic that we seldom use. But with holiday houseguests
it is getting use. But, the electric baseboard heater is not working.

We have fuse panels. This particular room's heating is not identified, but
perhaps it shares a circuit with another heater? Anyway, I removed all fuses
and checked each one. No bad fuses.

The heater is controlled by a wall thermostat - It has white and black wires
coming to it - The thermostat breaks the white wire only, the black wire
really just passes through. I checked voltages - nothing across the white &
black on either side of the thermostat. But from either black or white to
ground (the box), I get 110v. Just is case, I changed out the thermostat for
a spare, but no change.

At heater, it is the same - no voltage between the incoming wires, but 110v
to ground from either side.

Questions:
- If I see 110v to ground from black & white, why don't I see 220V across
these conductors?
- If I see the 110v to ground, does that mean that I do have power to the
heater?

Any suggestions as to how to further troubleshoot this problem?

Graham
Ontario, Canada

"Gm1234" wrote in message


Questions:
- If I see 110v to ground from black & white, why don't I see 220V across
these conductors?
- If I see the 110v to ground, does that mean that I do have power to the
heater?

Each wire should be 110 to ground, 220 if you contact both of them. The
thermostat is breaking just one wire. If it is the stat, you can get heat
by twisting the two wires together.

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote

Each wire should be 110 to ground, 220 if you contact both of them. The
thermostat is breaking just one wire. If it is the stat, you can get heat
by twisting the two wires together.


This is what I would have thought, but the puzzle is that I get the 110v to
ground, but not 220v across the hot conductors. Changing thermostats made no
difference, so unlikely a thermostat problem.

Graham

Gm1234 wrote:
"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote

Each wire should be 110 to ground, 220 if you contact both of them. The
thermostat is breaking just one wire. If it is the stat, you can get heat
by twisting the two wires together.


This is what I would have thought, but the puzzle is that I get the 110v to
ground, but not 220v across the hot conductors. ...

That indicates both "hot" wires are connected to the same phase
somewhere -- either at the fuse box or at some other junction box,
somebody made a wiring mistake and got both of them on the same side.

"dpb" wrote in message
oups.com...

Gm1234 wrote:
"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote

Each wire should be 110 to ground, 220 if you contact both of them.
The
thermostat is breaking just one wire. If it is the stat, you can get
heat
by twisting the two wires together.


This is what I would have thought, but the puzzle is that I get the 110v
to
ground, but not 220v across the hot conductors. ...

That indicates both "hot" wires are connected to the same phase
somewhere -- either at the fuse box or at some other junction box,
somebody made a wiring mistake and got both of them on the same side.

It indicates one leg is open. The 120 is passing thru the element.

Al

Big Al wrote:
"dpb" wrote in message
oups.com...
,,,
This is what I would have thought, but the puzzle is that I get the 110v
to
ground, but not 220v across the hot conductors. ...

That indicates both "hot" wires are connected to the same phase
somewhere -- either at the fuse box or at some other junction box,
somebody made a wiring mistake and got both of them on the same side.

It indicates one leg is open. The 120 is passing thru the element.

Depends on where he's measuring, but possible, yes. Thought OP
indicated directly across feeds, but if not...

Assuming the heater is 240 volt, it appears that either you do have one bad
fuse in the circuit, or the two feed wires were inadvertently wired to the
same leg in your panel. Find the origin of this circuit in the panel and
determine that you have 240 volts on the load side of the two fuses that
feed the circuit



"Gm1234" wrote in message
...
We have a bedroom in attic that we seldom use. But with holiday
houseguests
it is getting use. But, the electric baseboard heater is not working.

We have fuse panels. This particular room's heating is not identified, but
perhaps it shares a circuit with another heater? Anyway, I removed all
fuses
and checked each one. No bad fuses.

The heater is controlled by a wall thermostat - It has white and black
wires
coming to it - The thermostat breaks the white wire only, the black wire
really just passes through. I checked voltages - nothing across the white
&
black on either side of the thermostat. But from either black or white to
ground (the box), I get 110v. Just is case, I changed out the thermostat
for
a spare, but no change.

At heater, it is the same - no voltage between the incoming wires, but
110v
to ground from either side.

Questions:
- If I see 110v to ground from black & white, why don't I see 220V across
these conductors?
- If I see the 110v to ground, does that mean that I do have power to the
heater?

Any suggestions as to how to further troubleshoot this problem?

Graham
Ontario, Canada

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 16:27:43 -0500, "Gm1234"
wrote:

We have a bedroom in attic that we seldom use. But with holiday houseguests
it is getting use. But, the electric baseboard heater is not working.

Is this a permanent 220v installation, or a baseboard style space
heater?

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 16:27:43 -0500, "Gm1234"
wrote:

We have a bedroom in attic that we seldom use. But with holiday houseguests
it is getting use. But, the electric baseboard heater is not working.

BTW, has it ever worked? How long have you lived there?

"mm" wrote
We have a bedroom in attic that we seldom use. But with holiday
houseguests
it is getting use. But, the electric baseboard heater is not working.

BTW, has it ever worked? How long have you lived there?

Good Question! and the answer is YES it has always worked in the past, but
we had not checked it this winter until now.

This should answer most of the suggestions (I appreciate them!) - We have
lived here for 30+ years - The panel has not been modified during that time
nor the bedroom's wiring.

I understand how the voltages would be as measured if somehow both hots were
being fed from same phase - But at a loss to know how this could be.

We did have some bathroom rewiring done this past summer, but it should not
affect this area. But you never know!

Graham

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 20:56:19 -0500, "Gm1234"
wrote:


"mm" wrote
We have a bedroom in attic that we seldom use. But with holiday
houseguests
it is getting use. But, the electric baseboard heater is not working.

BTW, has it ever worked? How long have you lived there?

Good Question! and the answer is YES it has always worked in the past, but
we had not checked it this winter until now.

Hard to believe it used to be connected to the right phase, and it
moved during the summer.

This should answer most of the suggestions (I appreciate them!) - We have
lived here for 30+ years - The panel has not been modified during that time
nor the bedroom's wiring.

I understand how the voltages would be as measured if somehow both hots were
being fed from same phase - But at a loss to know how this could be.

We did have some bathroom rewiring done this past summer, but it should not
affect this area. But you never know!

That is undoubtedly the reason. How, I have no idea.

You didn't answer my previous post. Is it permanent heating or space
heating? More importantly, do you know that it is 220, or might it be
110?

If it were 110 and the heat is on, but the white is broken some place
between the thermostat and the fusebox, then you would get 110 at both
the whiite and black between ground, but 0 between white and black.

Although white is usually neutral and at ground potential, when the
white wire is broken, the 110 potential will flow from the black
through the appliance to the portion of white closer to the appliance.
It's all at the same voltage when there is no current flow.

Come to think of it, this would all be true with 220 also. In 220
only 110 comes from each conductor. Maybe the fuse or breaker, or
wire, for white or black, is blown, tripped, or broken. That would
account for your symptoms.

Graham