Thanks, I'll take a deeper look into what's coming into the box. The
ground wire is bare and the 115v tap has white and black wires which I
took for neutral and hot wires. The other wires are red running into
the switch and to the air handler motor. Perhaps there are two red
wires coming in and I just didn't notice? If I can't figure it out
easily now I'll get an electrician.
The A/C installation was a real mess. I had no idea the builder was
going bankrupt but his sub-contractors did. The first A/C guy abandoned
the project half way through the installation and I never knew why (at
the time). Another guy was hired to complete the job and when he left
everything was together and running. I never noticed the partially
assembled box until the builder's wife filed for divorce and he skipped
town. A sad end to 20 years of an excellent home building reputation.
I hope the girl friend was worth it. That's where all the money was going.
Chuck Norcutt
Moose wrote:
> Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>
>>Sometime after I moved into this house I noticed that the wiring of the
>>air conditioner's air handler unit in the basement had not been
>>completed properly. (probably due to a dispute with the builder who was
>>going bankrupt and likely paying off the local building inspectors)
>>
>>In any case, the air handler has a 230v line coming in inside a conduit
>>which runs into a junction box. The 230v stuff arrives at an on/off
>>switch whose outputs continue into the air handler to run the motor but
>>also divide off 115v into a single socket outlet to operate a small
>>condensate pump (since there is no floor drain).
>>
>
> My advice is neither professional or to be relied on to do any
> electrical work. It may, however be relied on to decide not to do it
> yourself, if it points in that direction.
>
> One crucial thing is not made clear in your description, and could
> indicate a serious danger!
>
> A 230v domestic circuit uses only three wires, one for each leg of the
> 230v and one ground. A 115v circuit also uses three wires, one hot, one
> neutral and one ground. SO, if 115v is tapped off a three wire 230v
> circuit, it can only be between one side of the 230v line and ground.
> USING GROUND IN PLACE OF NEUTRAL IS NEITHER LEGAL NOR SAFE!!!!
>
> SO - unless there are four wires coming in from the breaker box AND you
> can confirm which is ground and which is neutral, it is simply not safe
> and needs repair, not just tidying up into an enclosed box. Normally,
> wire colors would tell you what's going on, but where there is already a
> kludge, that's not reliable. Where they are coming from also needs to be
> confirmed.
>
> I don't know the code anymore, but I suspect you can only meet code in
> this situation with a separately fused hot wire in addition to the
> neutral wire for the 115v. The active components of the two circuits
> need to be separate, but the ground may be shared. Code or not, I
> wouldn't do it any other way. You don't want different currents going
> through the two legs and ganged breakers of a proper 230v line.
>
> Now it is clear why a builder under financial pressure might jury rig
> the unplanned 115v needed for the pump. Doing it right would mean
> pulling two more wires and adding a circuit breaker or tapping off
> another existing 115v circuit. The box was probably left
> uncovered/dangling because whoever did the tap intended to come back and
> finish the job, but never did because of the builder's problems. Or
> maybe the electrician is blameless and the builder did the kludge after
> inspection. And whoever did it left it dangling as a warning to whoever
> dealt with it later that it really was unfinished.
>
> Be careful, buddy!
>
> Moose
>
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