Any cheap heat meters ?

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Jim W in Tampa

Jim W in Tampa

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Tampa Florida
Having small problem with my own residential service. Triped 200 main twice in last 2 weeks. Both times were Saturday nights with heavy loads but far under 200 maybe not even 100 amps. Breaker (SQ D) was hot to touch. Tightened wires and they did need it. POCO dropping line in afternoon to check there lugs. Would like to own a low end meter to help in future . Any suggestions and rough price.
 
Your hand is your cheapest meter ! You said the amperage was low ? You also said you tightened the lug connections. Being an electrician -- narrow it down. Have you checked the bus connections on the breaker? Or have you monitored the voltage over a period of time? You also could have heat being generated inside the breaker itself ??? Cheaper to buy a new breaker.....
 
I've had a couple SQD 200A mains trip like this due to bad connection where it bolts to the bus bar. I've snapped the stud off of 2 of them, so you might want to replace all the guts, or have them ready just in case.
 
It is an old service, perhaps 20 years. The nuts on main breaker needed tightened and so did every thing else on load side of breaker. Problem might be fixed but cost nothing to have poco drop the lines to safely check everything. The old Jim would have tightened line side live but learned to much here. Was problem back in May when a tree fell on line so might have damage i did not see at time. Really can't afford outages when i have almost 90 people at a party. EMG. lights kicked in fine and ups kept the DJ system running. Will get another test this Saturday. Been colder here this year than its ever been.Even had that white stuff , forgot what it's called . S something. Any more hot breakers and i will buy the meter.
 
lostinspace said:
I've had a couple SQD 200A mains trip like this due to bad connection where it bolts to the bus bar. I've snapped the stud off of 2 of them, so you might want to replace all the guts, or have them ready just in case.
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I did tighten them and was worried they might snap. Not sure what they can take so went easy. Would replace service but too much paper work for permit that i rather not go thru unless needed. Buss bar looks great. ShouldA put in a FPE
 
At least it's not a Zinsco. :D The main breaker may still be bad, those SQD mains get real hot to the touch on the bottom, usually just on one phase when they're going bad. Both studs I broke were while trying to loosen the nuts to replace the breaker. The tripping will become more frequent if its the breaker or that connection is bad.
 
lostinspace said:
At least it's not a Zinsco. :D The main breaker may still be bad, those SQD mains get real hot to the touch on the bottom, usually just on one phase when they're going bad. Both studs I broke were while trying to loosen the nuts to replace the breaker. The tripping will become more frequent if its the breaker or that connection is bad.
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Any more problems with it and will change it out. Might see if electric supply at end of my street has one in morning. Be better off changing it. Probably $100 really no big deal
 
Believe problem is fixed. POCO man came by and we tightened some more connections. Did find a bad connection on a splice in there drop. We went the extra mile and put his load box on my service and seems like we are ok. Was a slight imbalance of 5 volts from neutral to line 1 and line 2. I put a load on my breaker of about 175 amps for few minutes and breaker stayed cool. That did drop voltage to 209 from a no load voltage of 243. Not a normal load and from transformer to my meter is about 300 feet on #2 alum. Time will tell if it is fixed.
 
cowboyjwc said:
Good job Jim. I think that HF (the tool store no one likes to talk about) has thermal guns, again I think.
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Saving the dollars and using the cheaper method of hand on breaker. I had no idea how many loose connections i had. Am looking into a gas heater for the room with pool table and hot tub. It is basically a screened in room and hard to heat. Makes an unneeded 11kw load to heat 500 sq feet. POCO guy did point out a major problem they have because of heat pumps. When it gets in mid 30's they cut out and kick in electric heat strips. I have far too many sq feet of house to be heating by electric strips on 200 amp service.
 
Jim W in Tampa said:
Saving the dollars and using the cheaper method of hand on breaker. I had no idea how many loose connections i had. Am looking into a gas heater for the room with pool table and hot tub. It is basically a screened in room and hard to heat. Makes an unneeded 11kw load to heat 500 sq feet. POCO guy did point out a major problem they have because of heat pumps. When it gets in mid 30's they cut out and kick in electric heat strips. I have far too many sq feet of house to be heating by electric strips on 200 amp service.
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I don't know about there, but we only heat with gas here, far, far cheaper than electric heat. Also a lot of gas ovens and cook tops.
 
I've got a fluke 63 IR

I've got a fluke 63 IR

Jim it's money well spent. I now include a quick panel survey just to be sure nothing's acting up with my clients panels.
 
iwire said:
I have a 275 gallon tank of fuel oil to heat my home, I bet that would be odd in FL. :cool:
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We have friends from NH that just spent the last 6 weeks here. Kept his place at 55 while gone and went thru 1,000 gallons of fuel oil at $2.13 a gallon plus electric. Don't think i could afford living there. Just got off phone with my AC contractor and we will likely go to propayne to heat this one area of 500 sq ft..Simply is not air tight enough. It is cheaper than changing my service to 300 amps. Only need it on Saturday nights for about 6 hours when we get into the 30's and that is not often.Cost of electric is not the problem for that few hours. Heating 3600 sq feet along with a hot tub ,water heater, food warmers etc is just too much of a load for the service i have. With any luck my breaker will hold now that we fixed connections.
 
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