Wiring

[Bill E]

Well I have ordered the ClearVue and getting to the point of setup. Well at least in my head. Garage is a mess. I have posted in the past and been helped so I'm back for more. Let me start by saying if I am unsure about anything I will pay money for a professional installation and it looks like I will be paying. Burning down my home due to bad installation seems to be a bad return on my money. But that does not negate my curiosity. I also like to know what is being done in an install by a professional.

I have purchased the Clearvue, Relay and remote. All from links on this website. I think I have a good picture as to what it takes to the get the motor wired. However why is there no neutral running from the panel to the motor? It looks like one is not needed but why? If my reading is correct, when the 110 is connected to the relay coil for the remote a neutral is connected but nothing from the panel to the motor.

Also when the x10 is connect to the relay coil there is not ground?

It seems to me I can follow the diagram but am missing out on some electrical knowledge as to how electricity is going to flow in this set up.


thanks for any insight.

Bill

[Jim O'Dell]

Bill, that's part of the difference between 110 and 220. 220 does not use a neutral. Now some 220 appliances do have a neutral running to them, but it's because something in them, timer for instance, runs on 110 and needs the neutral.
I'm not familiar with the X10 products in how they wire up. If it's low voltage, then there is a + and - wire to trigger the contactor. My guess is that it is 110 output, and the uinit can probably be grounded, but the ground wire does not run through the product, just like in home wiring, it basically runs beside the wiring and only grounds the items the wiring hooks up to. Does that make sense? Hope this helps. I'm not an electrician, but I've used common sense to wire my shop, detached building, and had it checked out by a master electrician, and all is well and working! If there is any part of the electricity thing you don't understand or aren't comfortable with, by all means hire a pro. You may have local rules that require that anyway. I live in the country and had no such rules. Jim.

[mattbell007]

Bill,

Jim has it right about the 220 Volt. Here's a little more detail that might be interesting, but you can ignore if you want to without missing anything important:

Normally, houses are supplied with 220 Volt electricity on two wires. The neutral wire is added at the circuit panel, and is at the same potential (voltage) as the ground wire, 0 Volts (but the neutral wire and the ground wire serve different purposes so they are not identical even when they have the same potential). The two wires that carry the 220 Volt electricity have 220 Volts of potential between them, but that is because one is -110 and the other is +110. If you pair the two wires together, you get 220 Volts of difference between the two. If you pair either of the wires with the neutral wire at 0 Volts, you only get 110 Volts (-110 to 0 or +110 to 0).

[Further trivia: both "220" wires have both +110 and -110 Volts on them, since the current is alternating, but they are in sync, so that whenever one is on the + side, the other is on the - side, and they cross the 0 point at the same time, going in opposite directions.]

The ground wire and the neutral wire are different even though they are both at 0 Volts because the ground wire never has current on it unless something is wrong, but the neutral wire does normally have current on it when it is in use, being one-half of a 110 Volt circuit.

Matt

[Bill E]

Thanks I now feel much better. I thought I was going nuts. I was looking at how my dryer was connected and now I understand why it has a neutral, its for timer.

Also thanks for the potential explanation. It makes a bit more sense to me now. The box that the relay will be put into should be grounded not the relay itself. Same idea as the motor, the casing in grounded.

Thanks again, still gonna look for a pro. Maybe one to check out if I did it right or one to just install. It all depends on how much time I will have this summer.

Bill

[Engineer]

Bill,

I am looking for a remote and relay for my cyclone. Where did you find a remote that will control a 5hp motor? What relay?

Thanks.

[Jim O'Dell]

Engineer, if you use the contactor that is triggered by 110 volts, then any 110 remote will work, as the contactor requires very little amperage to trigger it. Many people have used the cheap units made for Christmas tree lights with success with this set up. Let the contactor carry the amps for the motor. Jim.

[da Yooper]

I wish I would have checked out the forum before this morning. I just bought 50 ft of 10 3 w/ground. I should have bought 10 2 w/ground.

Rich

[PHW Chris]

Originally Posted by da Yooper

I wish I would have checked out the forum before this morning. I just bought 50 ft of 10 3 w/ground. I should have bought 10 2 w/ground.

Rich

Rich,

Go ahead and use the 10/3. If you ever elect to use the contactor/remote setup, you will need the neutral wire to feed the remote base unit relay/contactor circuit with 110. This is the way I pre-wired my shop so that I could feed 110 to the control circuit.

Best,
Chris