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unable to regulate baseboards

hxl7

Jan 11, 2022
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I am so grateful to have found this forum. I live in a very remote area and it is nearly impossible currently to get an electrician to stop by. It's VERY cold here and we're getting "tons" of snow so it's not a good time to have heater issues! I would so sincerely appreciate and be deeply grateful for any help to understand what I am dealing with!
I have a large room heated with four 2000 watt baseboards, run by a low voltage thermostat, 2 breakers, and regulated by a White-Rogers relay #24A06G. The system has been in place since the late 1970's and has been fine until recently. Here is the problem:
When the breakers are turned on, all heaters begin heating normally. After a short while, one pair turns off and goes cold, while the other pair begins to run "full blast" and heat the room to 90 degrees. When this happens, the thermostat has no effect. The only way to bring the heat down is to shut off the breakers. That means that the process of turning on/off the breakers must be done a number of times every day in order to maintain heat in the room.
I have replaced the beakers, the thermostat twice, and the relay twice. I have checked all voltages with a multimeter and all appear normal. The exception is when the problem occurs, the wires at the relay connected to the cold heaters lose voltage and there is also no power at the two cold heaters. AND other times the same two heaters go cold BUT all wires in the relay have power and the wires at the heaters have power -- but no heat comes out of the heaters.
If that means the problem is in the relay, why would replacing the relay not fix the problem?
Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about electrical troubleshooting but am trying to learn what I need to know to find a solution. THANK YOU for any ideas! -Bill
 
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Bluejets

Oct 5, 2014
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Sounds like bad connections at the heaters or relay....somewhere in the heater circuit itself which tends to draw large current.
Four 2000w heaters at 220v is around 36Amp.
 

hxl7

Jan 11, 2022
4
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Jan 11, 2022
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Sounds like bad connections at the heaters or relay....somewhere in the heater circuit itself which tends to draw large current.
Four 2000w heaters at 220v is around 36Amp.
Thanks very much!
 

73's de Edd

Aug 21, 2015
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Particularly . . .check the wiring / connections of the "After a short while, one pair turns off and goes cold " . . . .as the fully running pair, are merely trying to make up for the inactivity of the non heating pair.
 

hxl7

Jan 11, 2022
4
Joined
Jan 11, 2022
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Particularly . . .check the wiring / connections of the "After a short while, one pair turns off and goes cold " . . . .as the fully running pair, are merely trying to make up for the inactivity of the non heating pair.
OK.

There is one other oddity:
When the breakers have been off for a while and then turned back on, SOMETIMES the heaters that "go cold" DO NOT turn on at all, while at other times, the heaters that "go cold" turn on and then go cold later as the room temperature goes up!!!

Thank you.
 

Bluejets

Oct 5, 2014
6,901
Joined
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OK.

There is one other oddity:
When the breakers have been off for a while and then turned back on, SOMETIMES the heaters that "go cold" DO NOT turn on at all, while at other times, the heaters that "go cold" turn on and then go cold later as the room temperature goes up!!!

Thank you.

See all suggestions above.
 
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