Install The Brands You TRUST
your precious life on the line and all the soap boxing by me isn ’ t going to change a nonbeliever . Now , back to the equipment .
Today ’ s equipment
contains more solid-state components , microprocessors , resistors , diodes , rectifiers and capacitors than you can shake a stick at , all of it requiring proper grounding . It ’ s not just primary controls either ; it ’ s electronic ignitors , system controls and thermostats , too . A lot of the problems that you are running into are due to grounding . A few years ago , I worked with a gentleman by the name of Bill Werner . Bill is a genuine expert on electricity and when we talk about grounding , he gets excited . “ Grounding is called out in every code and must be done properly for public and personal safety , and then everyone is amazed the stuff works right too ,” Bill said . “ If you work on equipment , you must check your ground .” In the middle 1960s , UL
Figure 3 demanded that OEMs provide for proper grounding and those little green screws showed up , Figure 1 . When a piece of equipment is designed and tested , proper grounding is on the job . When warranties go back and the control you took off as not working now works in the factory , again those OEM test benches are set up to the book . One thing I notice a lot , too , is that in conversations guys admit that they “ took off the new stuff , put on ole reliable and it worked great .” There are two problems with that statement : ole reliable won ’ t perform as well as the new one , and it also isn ’ t as sensitive to grounding . There ’ s just less or no solid-state around .
Proper grounding is very easily verified , but do you know how ? Well , here ’ s my most favorite way . First of all , take a common light-bulb holder , Figure 2 , one of my all-time favorite pieces of test gear . Take it and put it across a known circuit , it should light . Then , put it between your hot or power ( L1 ) line and your neutral ( L2 ) line , it should light again . Now , put it between hot and ground , again
Figure 2
Figure 4 it should light and that proves your ground , Figure 3 . Finally , put it between ground and neutral and it should not light . If it does , you have a short circuit somewhere between neutral and ground and that must be
Figure 5 fixed right away . You can also buy one of these testers in a mini version for under $ 5.00 , Figure 4 , but please don ’ t use one of those stupid light up screwdrivers .
You younger guys might like these old school tools so try this . This is known as an electronic circuit analyzer , Figure 5 . It ’ s less than $ 15.00 and it will show you ( and beep ) line voltage , neutral and ground and even has a flashlight built in , freaking awesome . When these first came out as volt pens they were , in my opinion , as useless as those stupid screwdrivers , but time and technology marches on .
Thanks for reading this and see ya !
George Lanthier is the owner and Lead Instructor of Firedragon Academy . His website and contact information can be found at www . FiredragonEnt . com . l FON
Install The Brands You TRUST
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