It works!

I am not finished but last night I just could not wait anymore so I striped some insulation off the wires and hooked it up to each panel and fliped the breaker. My lights inside and out side came on in the detached garage! I assume that this is a good sign that everything is ok with my wire pull?

One thing I notices is I had identified each wire on one end but not the other. This may sound stupid, but I attached a 12 volt 2 amp car battery charger on one end and went to the other unlabeled end with a volt meter. I found each wire but my meter only said about 8 volts. Also, on the other wires that were not connected to my charger my volt meter fluctuated between 0 and .01 volts. Is that normal?

I first tried testign with a lan tester or whatever it is called. You put a sendor on one end and take a proble and touch the wire on the other end. The problem with this is all the wires made it beep. If the ones not attached to the transmitter. What would cause that?

Reply to
stryped
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The 8 volts...remember our dear old friend called "voltage drop"? Well it's much worse for DC voltage like your battery charger puts out. With the lan tester you should've ground the wires not being test. What you got was crosstalk between the wires. The sender is sending out a radio transmission down the wire, making it possible for that signal to jump over to the other wires. By grounding the wires not being tested you would've put their potentials at zero.

I trust you tested for the correct power configuration at the new panel before turning on the main breaker in the new panel?

Reply to
Rich.

What do you mean by power configuration? With the battery charger, I identified neutral and two hots. (Ground was obviousl, smaller diameter.) Once I labeled each end with colored tape (white red black) I installed white on netral and red, black on the two hots of the main breaker at each end.

By the way, does it matter which one (white or red) goes on which screw of the main breaker? I dotn think so.

Reply to
stryped

I meant did you check for 220 volts across the two wires going to your main breaker, and then 120 volts from each of the main wires to the neutral and then ground?

I assume you meant ask if the black and red don't matter on the main breaker? The black and red can be swapped, but the red and white cannot.

Reply to
Rich.
.

Yea, I meant black and red.

How exactly do I check that with a voltmeter? You mean but both black adn red voltmeter probes one on one feeder to the main breaker and the other one to the other feeder on the main breaker in the attached garage? Then one probe from one wire to the main breaker the other probe to the neutral lug in the panel?

Can all voltmeters measure 220? I have a cheapie digital made by popular mecahnics. It has diagrams on it, it is a little hard to select the right one but I can probably find it.

Is what I said in terms of how to check it correct? WOuldnt the lights not have come on if this was incorrect?

Reply to
stryped

One meter lead to the black and the other meter lead to the red at the new panel in the unattached garage, and the meter should read 220 volts. Then one meter lead to black and white, then black and ground, then red and white, then red and ground, the meter should read 120 volts for each of these readings. Lastly, as an option you could check white to ground. There should be no volts between these two wires.

I've never seen a multimeter that didn't go up to at least 250 volts. But make sure your's can and that it is set for that much voltage. Having a meter blow up in your face is not a welcome experience.

Yes the lights can still work if the panel is wired wrong. For example, if you were to switch either the black or red with the white, you'd get 120 volts at every other breaker and 220 volts at every other breaker in between.

Reply to
Rich.

The way I would have "rung out" the wires would have been to connect two of them together on one end. On the other end, I would have took a resistance reading between all wires. Only the 2 that are connected would show continuty (0 ohms)between each other.

RE

Reply to
Ryan Evans

I haven't seen one that wouldn't, but any meter worth owning will say the max voltage right on it. You can get a perfectly usable, safe DMM for well under 50 bucks these days, so if there is any doubt, get one you know will work. This stuff can kill you, it only takes one mistake.

This is AC so it doesn't matter which way around the black and red probes go. You should see roughly 120V between black and white, and the same between red and white, and 240V between black and red. 0V between white and ground.

Reply to
James Sweet
.

Did the check last night:

Black and red to main breaker =3D 240 volts

black and red individually to both neutral then ground =3D 120 volts

Reply to
stryped

Perfect...you got it right! :)

Reply to
Rich.

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