New house (well, really old house but new to me), regular US 240/120v setup, and tomorrow getting a new panel install (long story but it starts with who puts in a panel without a master breaker)…
In the past I did the orbit box with an outlet built in, and conduit attached to the panel. It has a nice (legal) separator for low vs high voltage connections, works great. At the time I had two of them as two iotawatt’s, and so I put a reference voltage transformer in each on separate legs.
In the new house one iotawatt (the other is on a subpanel), but I still want two voltage reference transformers. Yes I know the voltage is rarely different enough to matter – unless one day it isn’t. Really old power infrastructure in the area, seems useful to notice if there’s a spread.
Anyone have a suggestion for a good box like that which has room for two separate outlets? The reference transformers are so large that even if I modified the Orbit to hold a second, they (plus the USB and iotawatt and wire plugs) will not all fit.
My other alternative is put the reference on the other subpanel iotawatt (and of course it has one). Which is where I may end up, but a slightly larger Orbit like box would be nice. Standard enclosures I’ve seen lack the separator, and trying to glue something in is ugly (and I don’t have a 3D printer).
Not sure I understand what you are doing, but why not just put a duplex receptacle next to the orbit box and lead the low voltage wires into the IoTaWatt.
Also, if there is a significant, or even measurable voltage difference between your main panel and your sub-panel, you should consider upsizing the connection between the two.
So… why do I want it inside? Because OCD is a a mild disorder, I have CDO where all the letters also have to be in order. I like things neat and hidden.
On the only subpanel on which I have a monitor now, they ran a 70A circuit but have a dryer, dishwasher, washing machine, microwave, garbage disposal, and the regular kitchen outlets. So far I have not tripped the breaker, but I do worry, and I don’t know (yet) whether I have a voltage drop large enough want to change, so it’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem. It’s actually a bit worse – I’m no good at eyeball wire sizing, they put a 70a breaker at one end and 100a at the other, so I actually don’t know if the wire matches either. It’s on my list to figure out. The visible wires are not labeled. And about 1/2 the house was wired with #14 wire on 20A breakers, and one large section with #14 wire on a 30a breaker, so … the guy that did the work should have his Klein’s taken away.
I did some searching for other boxes without any luck, but I discovered something that I guess is obvious but I did not know existed – a singleton outlet. Which I could install in the opposite orientation. So I now have it fitting. Not a lot of room to spare, but it will fit and I can close the top. In case anyone is ever looking for something like this.
That said, given the situation that you describe, I have to advise that you consult an electrician with your concerns. IoTaWatt is not the tool to resolve those issues.
They are due here in the morning to replace the main panel, so it’s on the list.
That’s why i am trying to get the box ready to go for that iotawatt.
Another panel isn’t grounded (there’s a ground wire, but I checked it back to the ground on the meter and it’s not connected). That’s on the list.
I’ve fixed all the breakers, just demoting them. I’ve also reversed dozens of outlets (the guy couldn’t tell black from white apparently).
I found I think six or seven 220v circuits in panels that apparently go nowhere (they have been off for 6 months without anything not working). Plus 3 or 4 110v circuits. Four panels had exactly one label – it said “Tanning bed” but when traced it went to the air handler.
Sorry, I should have elaborated on iotawatt being the tool – There are two criteria for sizing a circuit - the NEC rules, and the reality. You should have the larger of those.
It’s easy to find out if the subpanel is sized adequately per NEC. I suspect it is, as it is not that hard to trip a breaker with “correct” sizing if you turn everything on at once.
What I do not know and iotawatt will tell me easily is how close I come in normal use over a month or so of that size. If I’m hovering regularly right near tripping, I may want to upgrade even if I’m of legal size and haven’t tripped yet.
Now the “is it really the right size wire”… I need to find a label somewhere, or a gauge to compare. I actually asked the electrician and got a “I think it looks right, hard to tell”. Sigh. I’m hoping his boss will be here tomorrow and might have a better answer.
Brand new Panel, the iotawatt is in, and worked fine immediately.
The Orbit with two reference transformers is tight but fit fine, though it ended upside down due to where the conduit fit best. Well, “Orbit” and upside down is not inappropriate.
The circuit with unknown wire size was #4 (electrician couldn’t tell either until he stripped off the cord assembly) so it’s the right size for the 70A breaker. Maybe moot with proper wire but I felt better seeing negligible voltage drop. Attached is an example. (Orange is from main, Blue from the subpanel, so no significant change in difference at around 20A – I’ll need to look when I get near 50 or so which it does when a lot of kitchen stuff is on). I do need to synchronize the main and subpanel voltage, with no load I should calibrate them to equal just for visual appeal though 0.5v is darn close for uncalibrated.
Hardest part was keeping straight left and right legs throughout so I could pin to the right reference voltage – and of course it’s almost totally pointless as they are effectively identical. But curiosity is strong.
Now I have lots of data to play with. If only I could remember what I used to know about influxdb query language. Apparently my brain’s housekeeping purged it to make room for other stuff.
