Preventing small Well pump house frome freezing

[turnkey4099]

We do not have a crawl space or a basement. Where else would we put the tank? The well still has to be covered by something, or at least that is what everyone/most people do here abouts. I sure do not want the tank in my living space which is my only other option besides a well house. Space is expensive and in short supply in the house and I sure do not want to hear the tank operate. So we have to have a well house.

Everyone I know that does not have a crawlspace, or basement, has a well house.

Later,
Dan

Good points. There is no one condition that is always "true". the point of my post was, however, why a well house when one DOES have room in a heated area? A tank and controls only takes up a few square feet of space. Were my house a one level, no basement/crawl - it would be impossible as the house is less than 1200 square ft. I could fit one in a closet but it would mean total war to get the space back from my wife

Harry K

 

[Midniteoyl]

In this instance it was 12-3 with ground. But I will admit to cheating before with the groud being used as the neutral to split off a 110 plug, not ideal but it works.
I always look at it that the white and ground go back under the same busbar in the breaker box

That is true, but is not proper as now you have a voltage on your ground wire the whole way. Sub boxes are not suppose to have the ground and neutral tied at all..

 

[Midniteoyl]

We do not have a crawl space or a basement. Where else would we put the tank? The well still has to be covered by something, or at least that is what everyone/most people do here abouts. I sure do not want the tank in my living space which is my only other option besides a well house. Space is expensive and in short supply in the house and I sure do not want to hear the tank operate. So we have to have a well house.

Everyone I know that does not have a crawlspace, or basement, has a well house.

Later,
Dan

Have a garage?

 

[grsthegreat]

In this instance it was 12-3 with ground. But I will admit to cheating before with the groud being used as the neutral to split off a 110 plug, not ideal but it works.
I always look at it that the white and ground go back under the same busbar in the breaker box

this point is where it always gets confusing. In the past, all ranges, dryers, etc used a 2 wire with ground feed and derived any 120 voltages it needed with the ground. It worked ok for many ... many years.

Then some dummies with the NEC passed a law forbidding its use. The only reason everyone talks about is like the following possible explanation...


If your equipment is grounded using a separate ground wire, and the neutral wire breaks, the appliance may not function, but no one will be hurt.
If, on the other hand, you use the ground wire as the neutral, and it breaks, IF THE APPLIANCE HAS A METAL CHASSIS AND/OR CASING CONNECTED TO THE GROUND WIRE IT WILL BECOME LIVE! Anyone touching it could be killed!

this was their thinking. Did this ever happen?? who knows.

The NEC passes lots of useless laws...... 1,000's of them every 3 years.

As an electrical contractor i have to follow the rules. I cant, and dont use a ground wire to carry a neutral load. Sure it works, but can (possibly) be deadly.

Running a red light can also work, but could be deadly.

 

[Midniteoyl]

this point is where it always gets confusing. In the past, all ranges, dryers, etc used a 2 wire with ground feed and derived any 120 voltages it needed with the ground. It worked ok for many ... many years.

Then some dummies with the NEC passed a law forbidding its use. The only reason everyone talks about is like the following possible explanation...


If your equipment is grounded using a separate ground wire, and the neutral wire breaks, the appliance may not function, but no one will be hurt.
If, on the other hand, you use the ground wire as the neutral, and it breaks, IF THE APPLIANCE HAS A METAL CHASSIS AND/OR CASING CONNECTED TO THE GROUND WIRE IT WILL BECOME LIVE! Anyone touching it could be killed!

this was their thinking. Did this ever happen?? who knows.

The NEC passes lots of useless laws...... 1,000's of them every 3 years.

As an electrical contractor i have to follow the rules. I cant, and dont use a ground wire to carry a neutral load. Sure it works, but can (possibly) be deadly.

Running a red light can also work, but could be deadly.

In an old house I leaned against a electric stove and got the 'tingles' when it was operating.. Bad wiring inside. Same with my brothers electric dryer once.

I had a guy once with weird computer problem. The computer was in the basement of a new-to-him house. When I went there, I opened the case to unplug some peripherals, and when I went to plug it back in I leaned on the PSU of the open case and took a nasty shock! Turns out the previous owner wired the basement himself and used a ground as neutral.. Whole basement had to be rewired.

Another time I was adding some lights to my own basement and took a shock from a supposedly turned of circuit through the neutral. In this case, the idiot had back fed through the neutral and had the ground disconnected.

These were 120v circuits, but shows how a proper ground/neutral system is vital.

 

[buickanddeere]

In this instance it was 12-3 with ground. But I will admit to cheating before with the groud being used as the neutral to split off a 110 plug, not ideal but it works.
I always look at it that the white and ground go back under the same busbar in the breaker box

Not supposed to go to the same bus bar in some electrical panels. Neutrals should their own insulated bus bar isolated from the ground bus bar.

 

[Soundguy]

there may even be situations where it is ok by code to do this.

240v 3 prong devices like welders that run a 120v fan etc...

this point is where it always gets confusing. In the past, all ranges, dryers, etc used a 2 wire with ground feed and derived any 120 voltages it needed with the ground. It worked ok for many ... many years.

Then some dummies with the NEC passed a law forbidding its use. The only reason everyone talks about is like the following possible explanation...


If your equipment is grounded using a separate ground wire, and the neutral wire breaks, the appliance may not function, but no one will be hurt.
If, on the other hand, you use the ground wire as the neutral, and it breaks, IF THE APPLIANCE HAS A METAL CHASSIS AND/OR CASING CONNECTED TO THE GROUND WIRE IT WILL BECOME LIVE! Anyone touching it could be killed!

this was their thinking. Did this ever happen?? who knows.

The NEC passes lots of useless laws...... 1,000's of them every 3 years.

As an electrical contractor i have to follow the rules. I cant, and dont use a ground wire to carry a neutral load. Sure it works, but can (possibly) be deadly.

Running a red light can also work, but could be deadly.

 

[grsthegreat]

there may even be situations where it is ok by code to do this. 240v 3 prong devices like welders that run a 120v fan etc...

thats true enough, most welders are 3 wire. Not sure if their fans are 120 or 240 though

 

[Soundguy]

i heard old lincolns were.

heck.. remember when ranges and dryers were all 3 prong... and have them lil lamps in them to see when the door opens. i know them were 120v bulbs. ( yeah i'm talking them old appliances.. sunrise yellow, avacodo green.. )

 

[Midniteoyl]

Dryers are 240v, BUT, are 120v internally.. one leg feeds the coils, the other the motor, lights, timers, etc.. Same with most stoves. Internal splitting of 240v in appliances is legal, but should follow UL and CSA guidelines for safety.