psci_kw on tue 15 jul 03
wiring.
----- Original Message -----
From: "June Perry"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 12:31 PM
Subject: Any electrical gurus on the list. Need help with electric kiln
wiring.
> Dear Clayarters,
>
> I had an electrician, who has since had his phone disconnected, so before
I
> have another one come in I thought I'd present the problem here and see if
> anyone could advise me how to deal with this with the next electrician!
> I told him to hook up my Skutt kiln using the requirements in the Skutt
> manual and told him to put it on it's own dedicated line. When I reviewed
it with
> him he told me that he did exactly what I asked; but since I'm totally in
the
> dark with electrical matters, there was no way for me to double check what
he
> did.
> The bisque firing went OK and then, during the first glaze firing the
kiln
> kept going off at the breaker. He had wired it to it's own tab/breaker in
the
> box; but when I came in the house I found that my husband had turned on
our
> dryer! By this time the kiln had already gone out about 4 times! Once we
figured
> the dryer might be suspect and shut and shut it off, the firing continued
> without a hitch.
> The dryer in the house is coming off another box in the garage, and the
kiln
> is wired into a separate control box in the studio, so I don't know why
the
> dryer would make the studio go off; but I'm no electrician. I guess that's
a
> course I need to sign up for! LOL
> Can anyone give me any input on how to deal with this and what to ask the
> electrician to check or do other than checking that the first electrician
used
> the correct size copper wire, right amps/voltage, etc.?
>
> Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions!
>
>
> Regards,
> June Perry
> http://www.angelfire.com/art2/shambhalapottery/index.html
>
>
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June:
What your electrician did was to wire the circuit for the kiln into the
circuit breaker for the dryer. The dryer is also 220volts. The different
"controlbox" in the other room, the studio, is on what is called a
"sub-panel". It draws it's power from the "main" panel (the one in the
house), but putting in a different panel means having a convenient source to
tap into for new circuits in a different building, and not having to run
wires all the way from the "main" panel. Does that sound reasonable?
The wiring scenario you describe is not an uncommon practice among some
electricians, who seem to follow the thought that since the dryer is not
used "all the time" (not as often as an electric stove) the chances for the
dryer and kiln being on at the same time are slim, it's okay to do, or
sometimes the electrician just goofs and doesn't realize that there is more
than one panel, or is just too damn lazy to run new wire, and tries to slide
by with it, or does it to save the customer (you) money.
As you found out, though, running both at once can happen. You have two
options:
Call an electrician and tell him you want the kiln circuit relocated to a
DEDICATED circuit. This usually means that a new wire will be run from
wherever the circuit breakers are (in the main panel, assuming there is room
to add another one) to the kiln. The kiln will then be connected to it's
very own circuit breaker, and nothing else will be on it to trip off.
Or, you can learn to do laundry at a different time than you're firing.
When I was young, my father (jack of all trades, master of a few) finally
aquiesed and installed an electric dryer for my mother. (Gee, it's 1965,
you've got five kids in the house, and it's the northeast where mom is
chipping ice off the clothes in November...think she was happy?)
The only circuit available was the one for the stove, so Dad wired it up,
and told her that she could choose between laundry and cooking...only one at
a time. She was so happy that she "let" him buy that AC arc welder he had
his eye on for years. Well, ALSO being 220, guess which circuit it got
wired into.
That all changed one Thanksgiving Day. Mom happily finishes a load of
clothes and shuts off the dryer by 6 AM, and puts the turkey in the oven.
Dad comes in from hunting at 11, and tries welding something or another.
We ate around 7:30 that night, once mom had figured out the REAL reason the
oven was off. (We had 6 guests for dinner at 1PM...oh well.)
It helps sometimes to think of electricity as plumbing, with the wire being
a pipe, and a plug being a faucet. The more faucets you put in a pipe, the
less water you are going to get out of each one (if any) if you turn them
all on :>)
Hope that helps,
Wayne in Key West
June Perry on wed 16 jul 03
wiring.
Wayne, that helps a lot. After I posted the first request for help, I found
out that we have 3 electrical panels - garage, studio & house.
What you say makes sense and now I'll keep my fingers crossed that we have a
place on the main panel for a dedicated line to the kiln. There were at least
3, very heavy, thick electrical wires coming into my studio, which I assume
were 220 (the previous owner was a contractor and this was his workshop), so I'm
hoping that that means that I do have enough power from the street.
Your story about Thanksgiving reminded me of a similar occurrence. We had our
electricity go off for four hours one Thanksgiving, but fortunately, I had an
old gas stove; and then when we moved and I wanted a new gas stove (we had a
lot of power outages in Southern Oregon where we were living at the time), I
found that the new gas ranges have these electrical safety's on them and the
oven won't work if the electricity goes off. On some of them you can still
manually light the burners; but not the oven. It's one of those incidences of
unintended consequences! LOL
Warm regards,
June (wondering why the electrician still hasn't called!) :-(
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