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Help me understand, please (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/electricians@lemmy.ca

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Why is A2 of the switch in the middle (E321) connected to L3 instead of neutral? Shouldn't it be neutral???

I think the switch is supposed to switch depending on whether there is 230V across A1 and A2. And the timer on the far right (E124) is supposed to accomplish this, the moment it receives "the signal" from my energy provider over mains electricity.

EDIT: Maybe A2 is not connected to L3. But it's NOT neutral either. There is:

0V between A2 and L3.

230V between A2 and neutral.

400V between A2 and L1.

400V between A2 and L2.

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[–] Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

That box on the far right L12401 is just a fuse holder not a timer. It's just there to provide protection for the contactor coil. As far as the contactor goes it is hard to tell what is going on just from the pic. It looks like A1 is tied to neutral with the white wires and A2 looks like it is linked to the fuse on the right through the orange wire. If that is the case then that should provide your 240V coil power if the fuse isn't blown. If you get 230V between A2 and neutral then that should be right. Check your voltage between A1 and neutral to see if that is tied to neutral.

I can't find any info on that specific contactor in english but if I had to guess I'd say that it just reads the ripple control from the power company internally. If it's acting up then it could have missed the ripple control signal when it was sent or it could just be failing. Does it work if you switch it out of auto mode?

[–] dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Oh it being a fuse makes sense, although the way it is wired makes even less sense, then. The middle device (the 'contacter'?) is not used by any load at the moment. But I wanted to start using it again.

Bottom view:

Don't mind the loose wire. It's french wiring. It's not even connected at other end.

Global view:

Global view

I have two boilers that are now both connected to the same switch (and this is time dependent somehow). This switch is shown left. The black wires are from boiler 1, and the blue and beige wires are from boiler 2. The orange pair are neither input nor the load, so they must be 'commanding' the switch operation.

I want to start using the middle contacter for boiler 2 so that each boiler has its own switch.

The bottom of the fuse (so far right) is connected to A1 of contacter (so thing in middle) (via gray cable) as well as to A2 of switch (far left in global pic) (via orange cable).

I'm not sure whether to call it a switch or contacter again.

There is 230V between A1 and neutral (at the moment. This may change, depending on the time of day.)

[–] sudoku@programming.dev 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That floating circuit breaker really ties the whole setup together lol. Do yourself a favour and clean this mess up before trying to reuse this old disused crap again.

[–] dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But frankly it's more beautiful this way

[–] sudoku@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago

The charred remains of your burned down house will look really cute lol

[–] sudoku@programming.dev 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I believe the contactor is just a contactor, and the actual power company signal comes from a separate device. Though everything is french, as it seems this setup is used for cheap water heating in France.

[–] Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

I guess the part that is throwing me is the switch. I'm not seeing any other signal wires going to it though (other than the A1 and A2 coil wires) so whatever logic it is doing for that "auto" setting must all be done internally. That switch is what made me think that maybe it reads ripple control signals because I know that is done in a lot of areas for using electricity off peak hours. But if it does read ripple control then it looks way different than any other ripple control switch I have ever seen because you're right, it does just look like a normal contactor other than that switch. I guess maybe it could also just have a built in timer like an old school freezer defrost timer module.

[–] dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yes this may be correct. There are two thin black wires besides the three phases and neutral coming from the main box below.

One of these black wires is connected to A2 of the contacter in the middle, of which I initially thought was just connected to neutral.

[–] sudoku@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago

The L124 on the right is a fuse holder, open it up, there should be a replaceable fuse inside.