Patio heater with two-pole switch

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JoeNorm

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5000w patio heater on a 30 amp, 240v breaker has two heating elements(each element rated at half nameplate of heater). Manufacture provided a dual toggle switch and shows L2 going straight to one side of both heating elements while L1 gets pigtailed and landed on inputs of each switch. Instructions then say to refer to tap rules and suggest coming off the load side of the switches with #12 to each heating element.

Do the tap rules allow this? I thought any tap conductor was supposed to land on an OCPD?
 
They are only opening/closing one side of each element with the switches, the other side remains hot on the elements. That's a common way used on many 240V items such as thermostats, heaters, etc. Not really a tap rule, so I think they are saying each element is only 2500W and the #12 would suffice. However, you would think they would have jumped the elements in manufacturing and only left a wire to connect to from the switch. Since the wiring would be field installed, you would have to use a #10 because of the 30A breaker.
It most likely would work fine with the #12 but code wise it should be #10. This could have been avoided if the mfg had built it and had it listed as a mfg unit. That's the way range/stove whips are, they use smaller conductors on their wiring than is required for the circuits they are on.
 
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JoeNorm said:
5000w patio heater on a 30 amp, 240v breaker has two heating elements(each element rated at half nameplate of heater). Manufacture provided a dual toggle switch and shows L2 going straight to one side of both heating elements while L1 gets pigtailed and landed on inputs of each switch. Instructions then say to refer to tap rules and suggest coming off the load side of the switches with #12 to each heating element.

Do the tap rules allow this? I thought any tap conductor was supposed to land on an OCPD?
Click to expand...
Your title says "2 pole switch" but in your description you say "each switch" as thought there are 2 separate switches 🤔

Are you saying the instructions show a pigtail on one hot, feeding both input terminals on the switch, then separate wire from each output terminal to each tube?
 
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James L said:
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Your title says "2 pole switch" but in your description you say "each switch" as thought there are 2 separate switches 🤔

Are you saying the instructions show a pigtail on one hot, feeding both input terminals on the switch, then separate wire from each output terminal to each tube?
Click to expand...
That's the way I read it.
I figured he used the wrong terminology when he said "dual toggle switch". I took it as two separate single pole switches. That way only one element could be used if wanted, like a low setting.
 
There are two switches. One for each element. And on second thought you are correct they are not 2-pole
 
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