Geyser Timer , contractor 2 X geysers

[Jan001]

Hi All; Im a nuwbie and looking forward to learn and help out where I can but as it is I would like to start with a uncertain problem.
I am hooking up a geyser timer witch is going to control two geysers so what I did was this, My main power goes to my timers top live, 1 and Neutral, 2 from there the timers load goes to the contactors A1 Live and A2 neutral. Then the load from the contactor T1, T2 goes to the geyser. Now my question is do I put a jumper cable between some ware to L1,L2,L3 to power them up or is this whole setup wrong and some thing is going to pop. Attach is a sketch and many thanks in advance.

 

[telectrix]

i would use L1-T1 for 1 geyser and L2-T2 for the other. just then link L1-L2. also run the N's through L3-T3.( assuming each pole of the contactor will take the load.) the L3-T3 needs to take the load current of both geysers.

 

[Marvo]

Hi Jan, welcome to the forum boet.

Where will your timer be located? (maybe in the DB or maybe at the geyser?)

Are the two geysers supplied on the same circuit from the DB? Maybe you can attach a photo of your DB but make sure it's a small file size.

How far away from each other are the geysers?

 

[Richard Burns]

With that arrangement your whole load power is going through the timer and the contactor is redundant, until you burn out the timer! You need to supply the contactor poles (after a suitable protective device) directly from your supply.
Do as Tel says use individual poles for the different loads.

 

[telectrix]

oops, missed that bit. as richard says, only feed the contactor coil through the timer, not the load as well.

 

[Jan001]

Hi all, thanks for the feed back yes the timer and contactor is fitted in the db. I did the installation on Saturday morning at a friends house end every thing was fine till this morning….they woke up with no hot water.OOops
What I did was I first fitted the timer wired it and tested it no problem there then I pulled n wire from my timers load to the contactors A1 and a neutral from the neutral bar to A2 I then put a jumper from A1 to L1 and then put a bride from L1 to L2 and my one geyser is connected to T1 and the other one to T2. It worked fine for two days Richard what you are saying makes sense now im a bit lost I will go have a look this afternoon and test for the out put power on my timer do you’s think I popped the timer by the way I wired the whole setup?

 

[Sintra]

As previously said you only supply the contactor coil from the time switch not the load.

 

[Jan001]

so what you's are saying is i should pull a live in to my contractor A1 and a neutral A2 and then connect the load that comes from my timer to L1 and bridge it to L2 not quite sure here

 

[telectrix]

you feed A1 from the timer but feed your L1 and L2 direct from the MCB.

- - - Updated - - -

you've probably burnt the timer out.

 

[Jan001]

Thanks a lot gotcha I've put to much on the timer not much experience on contractors

 

[telectrix]

just consider the contactor as a switch. activated when the timer supplies the coil. the basic idea is that the timer or any other control device does not have to carry the load current.

 

[Jan001]

Yeah i though i got it right because i sat in my garage and i hooked it up in front of a earth leakage in case of a fault and i hooked up a light to the contactor and all worked fine the two geysers obviously overloaded the switch.

Is it correct if i say now, timers load goes to A1, A2 and timers neutral to neutral bar on db , L1 /L2 are bridge live comes from main C/B and T1 /T2 goes to geysers

 

[telectrix]

from MCB L to timer in and L1&L2 on contactor.

N to timer, A2 and N on geysers.

Timer Lout to A1.

T1 is L to geyser 1 : T2 is L to geyser 2.

if you want, you could use separate MCBs, one for each geyser. one MCB feeds L1, and the other feeds L2. no link, L1-L2.

 

[Richard Burns]

This diagram shows one way of doing it using a separate MCB for timer and another for both geysers.

 

[telectrix]

quick on the draw there, richard. what prog . do you use?