WV Sparktition
Member
- Location
- Charleston, West Virginia
I have a customer who wanted easy heat mats in his driveway to melt snow. He bought the mats from a local distributer, and had them installed in the concrete driveway before i was there to wire. When i got there i had no wiring diagram, so i looked up the model number he had given me, and the mats were the wrong ones. They are SECCO mats, which are designed and listed for INDOOR heating of flooring, NOT for heating driveways because of the power they use...15 watt per sq. ft. Snow melter mats use 50 watts per sq. ft.
So the customer is angry at distributer because he sold him the wrong stuff. The distributer (a national code inspecter and electrician) came and Reccomended some changes in how i wired the circuits.
I have 6 mats, 2 circuits. The mats were rated 15 wats per sq. ft. = 675 watts per mat.
(18" x 30' long. )
My calculations were 3 amps per mat, so i put 3 mats per circuit. total of 9 amps per ckt
At 240 volts
I have a run of 165 feet to the farthest run. so i ran both circuits in 12 ga. AWG THHN. in 2" conduit.
The distributer wants #8 awg thhn... saying i have a voltage drop issue because 3 mats work and 3 do not. My stipulation is that the farthest from the panel work. I have 242 volts that the end of the last circuit. The mats ohm out to be a complete and not broken. so were down to depth...the concrete finisher doesnt rememebr how deep they installed the mats, maximum depth per specs is 2 inches.
Homeowner wants distributer to pay him for the mats, becuase he sold him the wrong stuff. Distributer is saying i have a voltage drop issue and will not do anything until it was installed to his RECCOMENDATIONS, and concrete guy has no clue.
What can or should i do...I dont want this to go to court...i cant afford the costs
So the customer is angry at distributer because he sold him the wrong stuff. The distributer (a national code inspecter and electrician) came and Reccomended some changes in how i wired the circuits.
I have 6 mats, 2 circuits. The mats were rated 15 wats per sq. ft. = 675 watts per mat.
(18" x 30' long. )
My calculations were 3 amps per mat, so i put 3 mats per circuit. total of 9 amps per ckt
At 240 volts
I have a run of 165 feet to the farthest run. so i ran both circuits in 12 ga. AWG THHN. in 2" conduit.
The distributer wants #8 awg thhn... saying i have a voltage drop issue because 3 mats work and 3 do not. My stipulation is that the farthest from the panel work. I have 242 volts that the end of the last circuit. The mats ohm out to be a complete and not broken. so were down to depth...the concrete finisher doesnt rememebr how deep they installed the mats, maximum depth per specs is 2 inches.
Homeowner wants distributer to pay him for the mats, becuase he sold him the wrong stuff. Distributer is saying i have a voltage drop issue and will not do anything until it was installed to his RECCOMENDATIONS, and concrete guy has no clue.
What can or should i do...I dont want this to go to court...i cant afford the costs
