Can you say loose neutral and a space heater downstream?

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Why is it always a neutral? In the picture the only slot left is the neutral one. The melt looks like it's from left to right! IE hot to neutral. Let's take for example that in fact this is a resistive load, most can and will take all the juice that can be supplied to it, even with it being monitored for demand. My question to you is did you test the circuit with a meggar or just cut back and tap off new leads? Did you test the draw of the space heater to make sure that it's within it's tolerances? If the equipment has a road map(schematic) you could see and figure out if there is an imbalance in the circuits of the equipment that needs to run home on the neutral.
 
A phrase that does not belong in many homes: "Just plugs into a regular outlet" :D
 
cadpoint said:
Why is it always a neutral? In the picture the only slot left is the neutral one. The melt looks like it's from left to right! IE hot to neutral. Let's take for example that in fact this is a resistive load, most can and will take all the juice that can be supplied to it, even with it being monitored for demand. My question to you is did you test the circuit with a meggar or just cut back and tap off new leads? Did you test the draw of the space heater to make sure that it's within it's tolerances? If the equipment has a road map(schematic) you could see and figure out if there is an imbalance in the circuits of the equipment that needs to run home on the neutral.
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The brass colored screw is on the right (neutral) side.

Maybe that's the cause of some of the conufusion.....or the failure itself???
 
masterinbama said:
One of the 2 screws on the neutral side was not even tightened.
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Seeing what is left, how could you even tell?



I will agree there was probably a "glowing connection" involved here, and would guess it was most likely on the ungrounded conductor portion, since there is more of the grounded conductor portion still intact.

To stir up another debate - would have an AFCI detected this and opened the circuit?
 
kwired said:
Seeing what is left, how could you even tell?



I will agree there was probably a "glowing connection" involved here, and would guess it was most likely on the ungrounded conductor portion, since there is more of the grounded conductor portion still intact.

To stir up another debate - would have an AFCI detected this and opened the circuit?
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Since we have no idea if an arc was even involved, we can't really have much of a debate about detecting it.
 
K8MHZ said:
Since we have no idea if an arc was even involved, we can't really have much of a debate about detecting it.
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We can debate whether or not more electrical related fires in dwellings are started by arcing or by "glowing connections":happyyes:

Or if a glowing connection fits in same category as arcing.

My experiences I have seen more evidence of sustained arcing causing more damage with 277/480 volts than I have at 120/240 or 120/208 volts, but that is just what I have noticed myself and not necessarily mean AFCI is not a good idea.

We also do not have people sleeping in buildings that have 277/480 systems as often, or in the case of hospitals, hotels, and other places where we do have people sleeping we often do have fire protection and notification systems, better construction standards for preventing spread of fire and combustion products, on duty staff, etc. that are generally not there in a dwelling.
 
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