getting enough power from a normal house electrical system!

[dropt]

ok.

I contacted a place local that sells old hardware, they have some PDUs. some are 20a max and some are 30a.

some have L6-20 and some have L6-30.

this is my plan right now:

wire two L6-30 220v outlets from the existing wires running into the furnace.
buy two L6-30 PDUs with 30a max from this place, they want $30 a piece

if I want to go back to using the furnace at some point it'll be just a simple deal to remove the two util boxes and put the wires back into the furnace.

this place wants $30 per PDU and said they'll give me a bunch of shielded power cables with it

Sounds good enough to me.

[spiceminer15]

I bought one l6 30 plug tonight, the store only had one and its a plug no wall mount boxes. It'll work fine. Probably going to pick up psus and cables tomorrow.


thx for the help I'll post when I get it finished

[cloverme]

So, I'm impressed by your wiring skills and lack of healthy fear for electrocuting yourself to the next plane of existence.  

That being said, make sure you get a fire detector in there somewhere. There was a rash of miners in the early days who burned through the electrical wiring while trying to get inventive.  

[spiceminer15]

So, I'm impressed by your wiring skills and lack of healthy fear for electrocuting yourself to the next plane of existence.  

That being said, make sure you get a fire detector in there somewhere. There was a rash of miners in the early days who burned through the electrical wiring while trying to get inventive.  

lol i didnt wire that box or anything else in this house except the dryer 220 but i did that right 

the previous owner of this house thought he was tim taylor lol

[MelodyRowell]

so i have 19 ant s1 running normal 180ghash and one bw... ive got 5 per circuit and two switches and three box fans.

the circuits are all 20amp/2400w

all of the circuits should be running under 2000w, a little buffer before trippage.... my main house plug circuit is 120amps....

i have a 110 electric furnace it is on two 50amp circuits. i use a wood stove for heat, but will use miners for heat this winter...

my question is how to get two heavy gauge wires down to a strip of 110 plugs, im obviously not a electrician... is this what pdus are for?? it there something i can buy at a normal hardware store to step it down into a row of plugs???

i have 5 more s1s i need power for lol...

Get a electrician, you don't wanna DIY power stuff unless you know well. Don't burn down your house please..

[Trillium]

Old wiring, old PDUs, high amps and an OP who isn't really an electrician but wishes he was. What could possibly go wrong.

I agree with the others: OP should get a qualified electrician to do this work.

[spiceminer15]

so i survived...

[MrTeal]

so i survived...

That is (technically) wired wrong. You have the neutral going to the ground terminal on that plug. Functionally it won't make a difference, but just be aware that what you have there technically isn't up to code (not that the whole setup is anyway) and it might cause issues with insurance if it burns your house down.

[spiceminer15]

i can change it, the instructions said to put the ground wire on the that place. red = hot, blk = hot, white = grd

on the furnace the white wire was on the ground panel...

i appreciate the help though if its wrong... so dont stop helpin

[spiceminer15]

i guess its weird the white wire was on the ground panel in the furnace

[spiceminer15]

should i switch the blk and white wire?

btw i havent turned the circuit back on yet

[spiceminer15]

afaik i did it right for 220v three wire

[MrTeal]

i guess its weird the white wire was on the ground panel in the furnace

It's fine. I might actually be wrong on this, and I apologize. Ground and neutral are different and should be treated as such, but I am not sure there's anything in the code preventing using a white wire (as opposed to bare, green or green/yellow) as the ground. Technically it should be connected to the grounding bar in the panel instead of the neutral bar, but if it's on the ground anyway you're probably fine.

[spiceminer15]

on my main breaker box, there is no neutral and ground bars, they are combined, maybe because it is old???

there are white and bare wires on the same panel

[spiceminer15]

afaik on main breaker panels the neutral and ground always combined even if they are on different bars... its only sub panels that should have separate neutral and ground panels

[MrTeal]

afaik on main breaker panels the neutral and ground always combined even if they are on different bars... its only sub panels that should have separate neutral and ground panels

At the panel they are, although on newer ones you have separate neutral and ground bus bars. The idea behind splitting the neutral and ground is that the neutral is a current carrying conductor, so if you have a longish run of cable (say 100ft) and you're loading a cable close to is rated voltage you can actually have a few volts drop across the neutral, and thus the chassis can be a few volts above ground. It also provides a secondary safety system is your neutral (or ground) gets damaged but your hot does not, in which case metal might become live.

Separating them is relatively new in homes though, so if yours is older you might not have any separate earth ground. In any case, since you don't actually use the neutral as a current carrying conductor, it's not really applicable to you. I'm honestly not sure what an inspector would ask you to do though, so just be careful.

[Unacceptable]

afaik on main breaker panels the neutral and ground always combined even if they are on different bars... its only sub panels that should have separate neutral and ground panels

At the panel they are, although on newer ones you have separate neutral and ground bus bars. The idea behind splitting the neutral and ground is that the neutral is a current carrying conductor, so if you have a longish run of cable (say 100ft) and you're loading a cable close to is rated voltage you can actually have a few volts drop across the neutral, and thus the chassis can be a few volts above ground. It also provides a secondary safety system is your neutral (or ground) gets damaged but your hot does not, in which case metal might become live.

Separating them is relatively new in homes though, so if yours is older you might not have any separate earth ground. In any case, since you don't actually use the neutral as a current carrying conductor, it's not really applicable to you. I'm honestly not sure what an inspector would ask you to do though, so just be careful.

Most A/C & hot water heaters don't use a neutral,just 2 110 legs & a ground,why Not sure............  

So if the white is on ground in the panel,you did good.I went back to your panel pics too,but the white wire was out of sight.

As for ovens & dryers,most newer units come with 4 wires,where white is neutral & a ground is included.

What's strange is a lot of older homes used white as a ground with only 3 wires for 220 volt appliances,but there is sometimes a ground bar that the 110 volt circuits use............  

Use a clamp amp meter to check draw on your circuits (measure the red & then the black wire),you can even measure your large input cables to be sure your not exceeding your line in max,think you said it was 120 amps.

Just be VERY careful,touching anything in the panel,it can be extremely dangerous.

[spiceminer15]

Cool thanks for the reply.

yes the white wires are off the picture but they are hooked up to the neutral/ground panel in the main breaker box

[spiceminer15]

From what I read newer appliances use 4 wire because they have some stuff inside that uses 110

[wh00per]

At the panel they are, although on newer ones you have separate neutral and ground bus bars. The idea behind splitting the neutral and ground is that the neutral is a current carrying conductor, so if you have a longish run of cable (say 100ft) and you're loading a cable close to is rated voltage you can actually have a few volts drop across the neutral, and thus the chassis can be a few volts above ground. It also provides a secondary safety system is your neutral (or ground) gets damaged but your hot does not, in which case metal might become live.

Separating them is relatively new in homes though, so if yours is older you might not have any separate earth ground. In any case, since you don't actually use the neutral as a current carrying conductor, it's not really applicable to you. I'm honestly not sure what an inspector would ask you to do though, so just be careful.

This is what I have at home, and even the ground/neutral bars are different (house built in 1997), they are very well connected by a shunt there ..

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=521520.msg8182756#msg8182756