Electric baseboard heater

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Fred B

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
Does anyone know typical resistance per linear ft on an electric baseboard heater? Need to meter line for short and would like to not have to disconnect baseboard from line. No other info, going on call for breaker tripping. Seems from HO report other loads also an line, if so, I think that would be violation or cause.
 
Fred B said:
Does anyone know typical resistance per linear ft on an electric baseboard heater? Need to meter line for short and would like to not have to disconnect baseboard from line. No other info, going on call for breaker tripping. Seems from HO report other loads also an line, if so, I think that would be violation or cause.
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It may be there are too many heaters on the circuit. 250 watts / foot is a standard baseboard config. 8' is 2000 watts normally
 
I'm curious as to the short.
I installed some baseboard heaters which had a dial thermostat, and got them connected into a dead short because the color scheme and diagram orientation made it look like it needed to be connected differently. I was really scratching my head, and really had to look at that diagram several times to figure it out
 
James L said:
I'm curious as to the short.
I installed some baseboard heaters which had a dial thermostat, and got them connected into a dead short because the color scheme and diagram orientation made it look like it needed to be connected differently. I was really scratching my head, and really had to look at that diagram several times to figure it out
Click to expand...
I did that twice in one week, connected the tstat wrong and made a dead short. The second time I was so pissed 😠. Made an assumption about what seemed most logical without looking at the destructions....
 
electrofelon said:
I did that twice in one week, connected the tstat wrong and made a dead short. The second time I was so pissed 😠. Made an assumption about what seemed most logical without looking at the destructions....
Click to expand...
On mine, it was 240v w/inline stat
Black and red wire on each side.
I assumed b+r line, b+r load
In fact, it was b+b line, r+r load 🤬
To top it off, the diagram was oriented 90 degrees off, so it looked like I had it wired correctly, even though the color scheme showed it right.

I was just about at my wit's end
 
Thanks for the input, now I'll tell you what I found.
Arrive on site and heater breaker was not tripped. Check on all connection points, with power off metered terminals to ground found no continuity, found some non relevant loose wire nut connections (corrected). After checking for other issues directly with heaters and finding none HO indicated again that it sparked when she turned off heater and heard popping. She indicated she had it turned up high to take chill off. The only noise production was from thermal expansion of metal parts, and found some buildup of animal fir on fins. Made some adjustment to brackets and cover. Further interviewed HO on specific occurence turns out heater breaker was not breaker tripped it was another single pole that was tripped. Upon pressing for more details it turn out the light that was plugged in next to the heater had gone out at the same time as the sparking.
She has a light that had no receptacle near it. Found out she had plugged the light into an extension cord that ran across the heater, checked cord and it had melted through shorted out onto heater making sparks and eventually tripping the SP 15A.
Repaired cord and advised that she not run cord over or immediately adjacent to the heater.
One more time a HO leaves out important details and wants to find a fault with equipment and not tell you about the stupid thing they did that contributed to what happened. This time no one injured and no property damage, other than the poor light cord.
 
Fred B said:
Thanks for the input, now I'll tell you what I found.
Arrive on site and heater breaker was not tripped. Check on all connection points, with power off metered terminals to ground found no continuity, found some non relevant loose wire nut connections (corrected). After checking for other issues directly with heaters and finding none HO indicated again that it sparked when she turned off heater and heard popping. She indicated she had it turned up high to take chill off. The only noise production was from thermal expansion of metal parts, and found some buildup of animal fir on fins. Made some adjustment to brackets and cover. Further interviewed HO on specific occurence turns out heater breaker was not breaker tripped it was another single pole that was tripped. Upon pressing for more details it turn out the light that was plugged in next to the heater had gone out at the same time as the sparking.
She has a light that had no receptacle near it. Found out she had plugged the light into an extension cord that ran across the heater, checked cord and it had melted through shorted out onto heater making sparks and eventually tripping the SP 15A.
Repaired cord and advised that she not run cord over or immediately adjacent to the heater.
One more time a HO leaves out important details and wants to find a fault with equipment and not tell you about the stupid thing they did that contributed to what happened. This time no one injured and no property damage, other than the poor light cord.
Click to expand...
Good detective work!
 
Fred B said:
Thanks for the input, now I'll tell you what I found.
Arrive on site and heater breaker was not tripped. Check on all connection points, with power off metered terminals to ground found no continuity, found some non relevant loose wire nut connections (corrected). After checking for other issues directly with heaters and finding none HO indicated again that it sparked when she turned off heater and heard popping. She indicated she had it turned up high to take chill off. The only noise production was from thermal expansion of metal parts, and found some buildup of animal fir on fins. Made some adjustment to brackets and cover. Further interviewed HO on specific occurence turns out heater breaker was not breaker tripped it was another single pole that was tripped. Upon pressing for more details it turn out the light that was plugged in next to the heater had gone out at the same time as the sparking.
She has a light that had no receptacle near it. Found out she had plugged the light into an extension cord that ran across the heater, checked cord and it had melted through shorted out onto heater making sparks and eventually tripping the SP 15A.
Repaired cord and advised that she not run cord over or immediately adjacent to the heater.
One more time a HO leaves out important details and wants to find a fault with equipment and not tell you about the stupid thing they did that contributed to what happened. This time no one injured and no property damage, other than the poor light cord.
Click to expand...

 
Fred B said:
Thanks for the input, now I'll tell you what I found.
Arrive on site and heater breaker was not tripped. Check on all connection points, with power off metered terminals to ground found no continuity, found some non relevant loose wire nut connections (corrected). After checking for other issues directly with heaters and finding none HO indicated again that it sparked when she turned off heater and heard popping. She indicated she had it turned up high to take chill off. The only noise production was from thermal expansion of metal parts, and found some buildup of animal fir on fins. Made some adjustment to brackets and cover. Further interviewed HO on specific occurence turns out heater breaker was not breaker tripped it was another single pole that was tripped. Upon pressing for more details it turn out the light that was plugged in next to the heater had gone out at the same time as the sparking.
She has a light that had no receptacle near it. Found out she had plugged the light into an extension cord that ran across the heater, checked cord and it had melted through shorted out onto heater making sparks and eventually tripping the SP 15A.
Repaired cord and advised that she not run cord over or immediately adjacent to the heater.
One more time a HO leaves out important details and wants to find a fault with equipment and not tell you about the stupid thing they did that contributed to what happened. This time no one injured and no property damage, other than the poor light cord.
Click to expand...

I'd offer to install an outlet were the light is to properly correct the problem.
 
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