120V through a 240V Heater

[A/A Fuel GTX]

I just received a trouble call from a client that states the baseboard heater in her residence is only putting out marginal heat even with the thermostat set at 90 degrees. It has always been this way according to her. Aside from the heater being bad, my first inclination is that the heater was wired at 120v instead of 240v. That would produce a reduced amount of heat.....correct? I'll find out for sure later today but I thought I'd throw my theory out for suggestions.

 

[frenchelectrican]

one quickest way to check the baseboard heater is read the ohm number then it will tell you the wattage.

typically with any electric heating device if you reduce the voltage to half of what it oringally rated IE. 240 volt heater run on 120 v circuit the wattage will drop down to 1/4 wattage so like this a 2000 watt heater @ 240v [ rated from factory ] run at 120 v will result 500 watt worth of heat.

but if possible if you have multi baseboard heaters one of them conked out due the thermal limit switch kicked them out [ some are one time used so if kicked out will not reset it have to replace the thermal limit fuse or therosat. just give you a head up with it.]

how long the baseboard heater it is?
[ most manufacter is pretty much standard on the size wise ]

Merci, Marc

just a afterthougth to add to edit here.

it possible some breakers i know some can happend when they landed in wrong slot as well.

 

[infinity]

I would go with your first inclination that the heater is rated for 240 volt operation and is connected to a 120 volt source. This would explain why it is still working but at a very low output. Let us know what you find.

 

[mikeames]

I agree to check the voltage..One question I would have though is if its wired for 240 and its getting warm how can it get 120 If one leg is out then would the whole heater not be out???

As a kid I had a little "fort" or tree house. It got cold in the winter an my dad had an extra 4 foot 240 volt baseboard that I took and used in my fort. Then I knew it was 240 but I was a kid so I just wired it to an extension cord and plugged it in. The cord was 100+ feet of 14AWG HA !!!! The heater did get warm and made a bit of a difference but not much (just plywood walls). I then tried to figure out "as a kid" why it did not trip the breaker. I figured it out a few months after.

I learned a lot doing stuff like that.

 

[A/A Fuel GTX]

Sure enough....it's amazing how great a 240v baseboard heater works when it's connected to a 240v source. The residence is about 15 years old and I'm guessing that the heater had 120v applied since day 1.