morham
Member
- Location
- Washington
Because of the primitive nature of Costa Rican electrician?s wiring (use a ?mother line? down the center of the house and splice off that for all circuits) we decided to wire our own house. We used Rex Cauldwell?s book, Wiring a House, to proceed.
Our system begins at the street meter box where 240 comes onto the property through #6 Aluminum wiring (the standard for the electric co here). It is grounded at this site and has a porcelain knife switch for shut off to the service line. From here on all of our wiring is North American copper wire.
We then buried #4 in PVC electrical tubing and brought 3 wires ( 2 hots and a ground) to our work shop; a distance of about 70 feet.. Here we established another porcelain knife switch (100amp 250v) for the incoming line.
Here the line is split. One set of #6 wires (2 hots and a ground) goes underground in PVC electrical tubing to the house and its breaker box ( distance 30ft). Another set of wires goes from the same knife switch to the shop breaker box. Neither breaker box has an internal main switch.
The house has a Siemans 200AMP 24 space breaker box which is grounded at the house. The shop has a Cutler Hammer 200AMP 6 space breaker box that is not grounded at that point.
The house breaker box is wired as follows:
black(hot) to the breaker
white & copper to neutral/ground bus
Tie bar is in place connecting neutral bar and bus bar
Neutral and ground are grounded outside with a ground rod
panel bond is in place.
I can send a picture if it would help.
The wiring to the house is new this year. In years past our normal kilowatt usage has run about 200 kilowatts per month. This is running several machines on 220 lines from the shop (planers, table saws etc). Since the new wiring in the house and the addition of an electric stove and dryer we are now averaging about 800 kilowatts a month.
The questions I have for the experts are:
1)is our house breaker box wired correctly
2) Because there is a ground at the street does the indoor load center need to be grounded as well.
3) All of the high kilowatt usage is from the 220 lines (when the dryer is running it takes 1.5 sec for a revolution of the meter disc) Why?
4) Is the house load center considered a sub-panel even though it does NOT pass through the panel in the shop?
If any of you kind people have any information it would be greatly appreciated here, and as there are NO qualified electricians in the area I am throwing myself at your mercy. Please keep it simple!
Our system begins at the street meter box where 240 comes onto the property through #6 Aluminum wiring (the standard for the electric co here). It is grounded at this site and has a porcelain knife switch for shut off to the service line. From here on all of our wiring is North American copper wire.
We then buried #4 in PVC electrical tubing and brought 3 wires ( 2 hots and a ground) to our work shop; a distance of about 70 feet.. Here we established another porcelain knife switch (100amp 250v) for the incoming line.
Here the line is split. One set of #6 wires (2 hots and a ground) goes underground in PVC electrical tubing to the house and its breaker box ( distance 30ft). Another set of wires goes from the same knife switch to the shop breaker box. Neither breaker box has an internal main switch.
The house has a Siemans 200AMP 24 space breaker box which is grounded at the house. The shop has a Cutler Hammer 200AMP 6 space breaker box that is not grounded at that point.
The house breaker box is wired as follows:
black(hot) to the breaker
white & copper to neutral/ground bus
Tie bar is in place connecting neutral bar and bus bar
Neutral and ground are grounded outside with a ground rod
panel bond is in place.
I can send a picture if it would help.
The wiring to the house is new this year. In years past our normal kilowatt usage has run about 200 kilowatts per month. This is running several machines on 220 lines from the shop (planers, table saws etc). Since the new wiring in the house and the addition of an electric stove and dryer we are now averaging about 800 kilowatts a month.
The questions I have for the experts are:
1)is our house breaker box wired correctly
2) Because there is a ground at the street does the indoor load center need to be grounded as well.
3) All of the high kilowatt usage is from the 220 lines (when the dryer is running it takes 1.5 sec for a revolution of the meter disc) Why?
4) Is the house load center considered a sub-panel even though it does NOT pass through the panel in the shop?
If any of you kind people have any information it would be greatly appreciated here, and as there are NO qualified electricians in the area I am throwing myself at your mercy. Please keep it simple!