Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - Electric baseboards not working!
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collier85
02-05-07, 10:26 PM
I have wired up 4 electric baseboard heaters in parallel, but they don't heat up. I'm running them on a duel 50amp braker, the thermostat is a honeywell rlv430a, and all the baseboards are 1500watts. Can anyone give a suggestion?
Ed Imeduc
02-05-07, 10:53 PM
Have you checked out with a meter . Where you have power and where you dont????
collier85
02-06-07, 08:49 AM
Hmm.... I checked the volts, and its saying that its only getting 120.... How can I get the volts higher?
Ed Imeduc
02-06-07, 01:39 PM
Find the other leg its there. then you will have 220V
collier85
02-06-07, 07:35 PM
I did get it to show 240v when entering the baseboard heater, but it drops to 120v when headed the the next baseboard..... Any ideas?
Ed Imeduc
02-06-07, 08:55 PM
Still check it out. You dont have both legs going to the other heater then.
collier85
02-06-07, 11:51 PM
Both the black wire, and the white wire are hooked up to the double pole breaker. Could it be possible that its the type of breaker I'm using?
johnboy00
02-07-07, 10:01 AM
Please be aware that the RLV430A is only rated for 3600 watts!
You should immediately disconnect two of your baseboards. This will get you down to 3000w. See if it works then. My RLV430a gets quite warm running 2 1500 w baseboards. You run the risk of fire with 4.
If you can find an old Honeywell T498a1810, they are rated for 22 amps and should run 3 1500 W baseboards, but they are not programmable.
Good luck.
You should immediately disconnect two of your baseboards. This will get you down to 3000w. See if it works then. My RLV430a gets quite warm running 2 1500 w baseboards. You run the risk of fire with 4.
If you can find an old Honeywell T498a1810, they are rated for 22 amps and should run 3 1500 W baseboards, but they are not programmable.
Good luck.
collier85
02-07-07, 10:09 AM
Yeah, I did change it down to two, but the volts coming out of the first one dropped down to 120v for some reason. I'm still puzzeled by that...
johnboy00
02-07-07, 10:48 AM
Are you sure that you don't have them in series instead of parallel? You shouldn't have an in and out on each baseboard. The other side should just llop back to itself. This connection is provided so that you can bring the wires into either side of the baseboard.
To run in parallel, wires should go in and out of the same side. You should have 3 wires into each wire nut there. One from the thermostat, one to the current heater, and one which goes out to the next heater, unless you are running separate lines from the thermostat to each heaters.
To run in parallel, wires should go in and out of the same side. You should have 3 wires into each wire nut there. One from the thermostat, one to the current heater, and one which goes out to the next heater, unless you are running separate lines from the thermostat to each heaters.