 |
Matronics Email Lists
Web Forum Interface to the Matronics Email Lists
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
racerjerry
Joined: 15 Dec 2009
Posts: 202
Location: Deer Park, NY
|
 Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:47 am Post subject: GFCI and PRE-HEATERS |
 |
|
With the cold weather, I see great interest in homemade 120 VAC powered pre-heat systems for our aircraft. A truly wonderful and very inexpensive device was developed quite some time ago that can easily save you life; the Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. Fuses and circuit breakers do absolutely NOTHING to protect you; they are sized to protect wiring and equipment. One tenth of one amp (0.1 amp) can quite easily kill a healthy adult (I am not kidding). If you are planning to drag extension cords through the snow, you definitely need GFCI protection.
Since they sense differential current, GFCI’s offer protection even when operating off of old style 2-wire (ungrounded) circuits. You can buy a plug-in GFCI for use at the airport or even better, make your own extension cord by mounting a normal GFCI into a steel electrical box along with a heavy 3-wire appliance cord and use it for ALL your power tools. This setup won’t protect if you are dumb enough to put your fingers across hot and neutral, but works extremely well if you touch something electrically hot and your body happens to be even slightly grounded (through dampness or touching grounded metal) or are using that old metal housing portable electric drill you found in the trash with frayed insulation and with the grounding prong clipped off.
Seriously, always power your 120 VAC tools through a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter protected circuit. Also, before you use that homemade pre-heat setup in the snow, please remember these four letters: GFCI. We are having too much fun. It could save your life.
Jerry King
| | - The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
jindoguy(at)gmail.com
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:17 am Post subject: GFCI and PRE-HEATERS |
|
|
Since a GCFI protects everything downstream of it, why would you not simply install one in place of the hangar receptacle and use a regular extension cord?
Rick Girard
On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 9:47 AM, racerjerry <gki(at)suffolk.lib.ny.us (gki(at)suffolk.lib.ny.us)> wrote:
[quote]--> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "racerjerry" <gki(at)suffolk.lib.ny.us (gki(at)suffolk.lib.ny.us)>
With the cold weather, I see great interest in homemade 120 VAC powered pre-heat systems for our aircraft. A truly wonderful and very inexpensive device was developed quite some time ago that can easily save you life; the Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. Fuses and circuit breakers do absolutely NOTHING to protect you; they are sized to protect wiring and equipment. One tenth of one amp (0.1 amp) can quite easily kill a healthy adult (I am not kidding). If you are planning to drag extension cords through the snow, you definitely need GFCI protection.
Since they sense differential current, GFCI’s offer protection even when operating off of old style 2-wire (ungrounded) circuits. You can buy a plug-in GFCI for use at the airport or even better, make your own extension cord by mounting a normal GFCI into a steel electrical box along with a heavy 3-wire appliance cord and use it for ALL your power tools. This setup won’t protect if you are dumb enough to put your fingers across hot and neutral, but works extremely well if you touch something electrically hot and your body happens to be even slightly grounded (through dampness or touching grounded metal) or are using that old metal housing portable electric drill you found in the trash with frayed insulation and with the grounding prong clipped off.
Seriously, always power your 120 VAC tools through a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter protected circuit. Also, before you use that homemade pre-heat setup in the snow, please remember these four letters: GFCI. We are having too much fun. It could save your life.
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=278441#278441
===========
="_blank">www.aeroelectric.com
ooks.com" target="_blank">www.buildersbooks.com
et="_blank">www.homebuilthelp.com
"_blank">www.howtocrimp.com
="_blank">http://www.matronics.com/contribution
le, List Admin.
===========
-List" target="_blank">http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List
===========
http://forums.matronics.com
===========
[b]
| | - The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
racerjerry
Joined: 15 Dec 2009
Posts: 202
Location: Deer Park, NY
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:52 am Post subject: Re: GFCI and PRE-HEATERS |
|
|
Quote: "Since a GCFI protects everything downstream of it, why would you not simply install one in place of the hangar receptacle and use a regular extension cord?
Rick Girard "
I strongly agree; replacement of the wall outlet with a standard GFCI is ABSOLUTELY THE PREFERRED METHOD! BUT, if you have to use someone else's facility, or are temporarily operating off of a power pole, a portable GFCI setup is a viable alternative. Also, use an inexpensive plug-in polarity checker to check for reversed wiring.
Jerry King
| | - The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
longg(at)pjm.com
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:24 am Post subject: GFCI and PRE-HEATERS |
|
|
Just a thought, but you may not own the hangar or have rights to change
stuff? You may be parked outside and dragging a 50ft extension from the
nearest plug while standing in melting snow?
--
| | - The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
icubob(at)gmail.com
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:25 am Post subject: GFCI and PRE-HEATERS |
|
|
i agree with the importance of a gfi. my experience with the gfi weatherproof receptacle for plugging my car block heaters in [20 below f is common here] was that they were always tripping. i removed them and put in gfi circuit breakers in my circuit breaker panel. reliability went way up. yes, they are installed correctly in my panel.
bob noffs
On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 11:16 AM, <longg(at)pjm.com (longg(at)pjm.com)> wrote:
[quote]--> AeroElectric-List message posted by: <longg(at)pjm.com (longg(at)pjm.com)>
Just a thought, but you may not own the hangar or have rights to change
stuff? You may be parked outside and dragging a 50ft extension from the
nearest plug while standing in melting snow?
--
| | - The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ed Anderson
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 475
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:52 pm Post subject: GFCI and PRE-HEATERS |
|
|
I wired my hangar a couple of years ago, running the wire through conduct. I decided to use a common neutral wire between the two 120 volt phases to reduce the size of the wire to be run through the conduct and to have two separate circuits.
Well, the wiring worked fine. However, I decided to install GFCI circuit breakers in the electric box to provide some protection. To make a long story short, I discovered that some GFCI circuit breakers will not work wired to a common neutral. I was attempting to use one plug on the socket to carry one 120 volt circuit and the other plug to carry the other 120 volt circuit and the common neutral. Just did not work and I finally found in very fine print on the carton that this particular GFCI simply would not work with my set up.
Ed
Ed Anderson
Rv-6A N494BW Rotary Powered
Matthews, NC
eanderson(at)carolina.rr.com
http://www.andersonee.com
http://www.dmack.net/mazda/index.html
http://www.flyrotary.com/
http://members.cox.net/rogersda/rotary/configs.htm#N494BW
http://www.rotaryaviation.com/Rotorhead%20Truth.htm[url=http://www.dmack.net/mazda/index.html][/url]
From: owner-aeroelectric-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-aeroelectric-list-server(at)matronics.com] On Behalf Of bob noffs
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 1:23 PM
To: aeroelectric-list(at)matronics.com
Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Re: GFCI and PRE-HEATERS
i agree with the importance of a gfi. my experience with the gfi weatherproof receptacle for plugging my car block heaters in [20 below f is common here] was that they were always tripping. i removed them and put in gfi circuit breakers in my circuit breaker panel. reliability went way up. yes, they are installed correctly in my panel.
bob noffs
On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 11:16 AM, <longg(at)pjm.com (longg(at)pjm.com)> wrote:
--> AeroElectric-List message posted by: <longg(at)pjm.com (longg(at)pjm.com)>
Just a thought, but you may not own the hangar or have rights to change
stuff? You may be parked outside and dragging a 50ft extension from the
nearest plug while standing in melting snow?
--
| | - The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List |
|
_________________
Ed Anderson
Rv-6A N494BW Rotary Powered
Matthews, NC
eanderson@carolina.rr.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
Get Email Distribution Too!
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
