help! electric problem

[coconaut]

Ya the ohms meter will end up looking like the wall outlet.

 

[gaiusmarius]

thanks manitu, i'll keep that in mind if i have to change the whole wire.


Hi DarkLance i think the copper wire is 1.5mm, that's what they sell in the store anyway and it looks the same as whats in there now. thanks about the volt meter tip, i bought a cheapo current meter, but it only tells you if there is 120, 220, 240, 380 or 420 so i guess i need the more complex volt meter. will organize one.


hehe madpenguin any electrician worth his salt will surely know to do that. i will make sure though no worries


lol coconaut i can do without more melted equipment that's for sure

 

[gaiusmarius]

greetings again, i need one last tip and that's how do i use the volt meter to find out if the wire is still good? this meter has quite a few settings, have no idea where i set it to? then what exactly do i touch with the two electrodes. thanks

is it the 2000k or the 200k or 20k or 2000?

here's a pic of the meter

 

[gaiusmarius]

[/QUOTE]

how important is it which red wire is on the right and which red one is on the left? do i have to take note which old wire was in which exact hole? apart from the different colors?

thanks in advance for your time.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=15986&pictureid=330924

 

[Danks2005]

doesn't matter, both points are the same electrically.

In the US, i beleive they are taking a single phase of a 3 phase system, transform the single phase voltage down to 240v, and center tap the secondary side of the transformer to ground. This is usually brought into the house as the steel guy line, along with 2 hot wires with 240v between them. Then at the meter, you would ground the system to ground rods, and originate(bond) you neutral(grounded conductor) at that point. The neutral will carry the unbalanced load between L1 and L2. You will not bond a neutral at any other point(keep neutral seperate from ground at sub panels). Residential electrical is pretty easy stuff, but can kill you, make sure you fully grasp what you are trying to do before doing it, and never work on an energized circuit, make sure your voltmeter still works on a known live circuit before and after testing the deenergized circuit.

 

[Kalicokitty]

The longer I've grown, the more electrical problems I've run into, last year I decided to throughly educate myself on the matter, best thing I could have done, I'm no expert, but at least I now have a basic understanding of what I'm doing, and what the code for it is.

 

[toohighmf]

so is your timer working now?

 

[Avenger]

They were suggesting you test the resistance of the wire. Which is going to be difficult with it installed in the wall.

You would want to put one meter lead on one end of the length of wire being tested and the other meter lead on the other end of the length of wire being tested.

Should be low to no resistance, if the wire is good. Set the meter on the highest Ohm scale.

 

[gaiusmarius]

howdy everyone,

the timer never stopped working it was the outlet in the wall that broke.

thanks Avenger

that makes sense, bummer though as it means i'd have to remove the wire from the wall. i guess it will all depend how bad the melted wire is damaged. i have been hoping for my electrician mate to get back, but i am starting to feel uncomfortable with the whole setup running on a cable roll extension.

thanks for all the help and advice everyone.

 

[manitu]

Since this wire most likely was burned by a bad connection , and not overload , I don't think you need to change the wire.
What you should do is to check for signs of heat, on every wall outlet on the same fuse.
If you want to check the wire , just connect a loose wire to the wire in the wall , and run it on the floor , bavck to the last outlet . Then measure the total resistance in both wires.

.manitu

 

[gaiusmarius]

greetz all

fixed the problem, thanks to all your help.
in the end all i had to do; remove the fuses, use the current checker to make sure everything was dead. unscrewed the old outlet from the wall then cut the wires from the melted part back about 5 cm and install the new version of exactly the same outlet. now even the one on the opposite side of that wall is working again.

thanks again for all the help ill try k+ you all if i haven't already.