BY GEORGE LANTHIER
Testing Amperages
This is taken from our WIRING & Fuel Burning Equipment Volume Two and will cover both AC Amperage ( Aac ) and DC Amperage ( Adc ). With amperage troubleshooting we find that we will have three meters that may enable us to determine the amperage within our circuits and the amperage quantity being used by our loads . The two main meters used are the V-O-M , Figure 1 , and the V-O-A , Figure 2 , from Victor that we have been using for almost thirty years with great success . The low range ammeter is not used much any more since it was normally used for setting thermometer anticipators which is no longer done with today ’ s electronic thermostats . In addition , today ’ s digital ammeters can quickly read these small amperages .
We will review some of the most common test procedures around gas and oil equipment . Proper use of the multimeter as an ammeter requires the following steps be followed . An example of an ammeter being used to determine the flow through our basic DC circuit , Figure 3 :
Turn all power to the circuit off before connecting the multimeter .
Break the circuit as required and place the multimeter in series with the circuit as shown in Figure 4 .
Select the correct amperage setting needed , microamps (µ A ), milliamps Figure 1
( mA ), or amps ( A ).
Make sure that the meter leads are in the proper meter lead terminals . When measuring microamps (µ A ) or milliamps ( mA ) the terminals used should be COM and mA and all other readings up to 20 amps should use COM and 10A .
Verify that the meter is set for either DC or AC amps as measured . The 81B issued in our schools is an auto-ranging
Figure 2
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38 JULY 2023 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www . fueloilnews . com