Your Resident Electrician for all your electrical questions!

[Joe G]

Thanks for the reply’s. I’m only gonna hook it up if a storm comes our way.
I won’t put it in the sump.

 

[James Mikell]

How would one go about isolating a single outlet from a room and put that one outlet on its own breaker?

 

[Mark Bianco]

Jim,
Lets clarify things a bit, what most people consider an outlet is actually a duplex and has 2 outlets in one receptacle. Do you want to split the receptacle or is your intent to have that one duplex run off a new circuit?
This will make a difference how the wiring is done.

 

[James Mikell]

I want to have the duplex on its own circuit

 

[Brew12]

I want to have the duplex on its own circuit

Assuming you have a 3 wire cable coming in and a 3 wire cable going out, you would want to disconnect both from the outlet and use a wire nut to secure the 2 blacks together, the 2 whites together, and the 2 greens together. Then you will need to pull a new cable from your breaker box to the outlet you want separated.

 

[James Mikell]

Thank you.

 

[domination2580]

Ok electrical masters! Question, say I want to have a heater used on a trip, I have a 12v 8 ah battery for like fish finder... how would I go about doing so? I know I'd need to invert it, but is there a special inverter?

 

[Mark Bianco]

Without knowing what you are referring to as far as "heater" I am assuming a 12ovac heater. But you need to know what the wattage / amperage the heater is to be able to correctly size the inverter. An inverter is what you are looking for just as an example not a recommendation for your application I listed one below.

https://www.sears.com/aleko-wa600w1...=Bidlessnow&prdNo=10&blockNo=10&blockType=G10

HTH
Mark

 

[Paul B]

I don't understand that question but I think you want a tank heater to run off a fish finder battery if the power goes out. It is a simple circuit with a relay but almost any heater but the smallest would drain a fish finder battery pretty quickly and IMO wouldn't be worth the trouble.

A heater would run off the DC but you would have to use an inverter to convert it to AC so you could boost the 12 volt DC fish finder battery to 110 volts then run that through a relay.

 

[alton]

12v dc would need to be changed to 120, so move the decimal point on the 8 ah to .8 ah, 100 watt heater divided by 120v equals .83 amps. You would also need to take into account your invertor would use some power and some other things your setup would last less than an hour. Now an animal like this and you are good to go https://www.batteriesplus.com/battery/marine-and-boat/deep-cycle/bci-group-65/sli65agmdpm
Like Paul B said your 8 ah battery would be useless

 

[domination2580]

What about an air bubbler?

 

[Mark Bianco]

"What about an air bubbler?"

It would work, but how about this?
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/silent-air-pump-with-battery-powered-back-up-sab11.html
Or this?
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/silent-air-battery-powdered-air-pump-sab10.html

Cant be beat for a road trip...

 

[domination2580]

"What about an air bubbler?"

It would work, but how about this?
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/silent-air-pump-with-battery-powered-back-up-sab11.html
Or this?
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/silent-air-battery-powdered-air-pump-sab10.html

Cant be beat for a road trip...

Any good small inverters? Just to turn the 12v into 120v

 

[ReefSharkBuilder]

I'm currently working on an optical sensor ATO. I am having an issue with it turning on the pump. I think that the Mosfat I am using could be the issue. I get power to pin one of the mosfet(the black module on the right of the breadboard diagram. But I don't get any on pin two.

The big circle is an optical sensor. If there are questions about this see the YouTube video I am following. ()

Please help. This integral to my pico tank setup

 

[RamsReef]

Your probably using the wrong type of mosfet (P channel, you need N). According to how this guy has done it you should have 12 volts on the drain all the time, then when you fire the gate from the optical sensor current will flow.

Your gate should have 0 volts on it when the sensor is in the water, 5v out of water.

Overview,
Out of water.
Pump point of sale (+12v)
Pump Neg(+0v)
Fet Drain(2) (+0V)
Fet Gate (1) (+5V)
Fet Source(3) (0V)


In water.
Pump point of sale (+12v)
Pump Neg(+12v)
Fet Drain(2) (+12V)
Fet Gate (1) (0V)
Fet Source(3) (0V)


My recommendation would be to use a small micro controller instead (arduino or the like)
Hook the optical sensor up to that and use a relay.

That way you can do things like max run time, contact debounce, alarm, etc.

This setup a very good way to flood your house / wreck your tank.

 

[ReefSharkBuilder]

Your probably using the wrong type of mosfet (P channel, you need N). According to how this guy has done it you should have 12 volts on the drain all the time, then when you fire the gate from the optical sensor current will flow.

Your gate should have 0 volts on it when the sensor is in the water, 5v out of water.

Overview,
Out of water.
Pump point of sale (+12v)
Pump Neg(+0v)
Fet Drain(2) (+0V)
Fet Gate (1) (+5V)
Fet Source(3) (0V)


In water.
Pump point of sale (+12v)
Pump Neg(+12v)
Fet Drain(2) (+12V)
Fet Gate (1) (0V)
Fet Source(3) (0V)


My recommendation would be to use a small micro controller instead (arduino or the like)
Hook the optical sensor up to that and use a relay.

That way you can do things like max run time, contact debounce, alarm, etc.

This setup a very good way to flood your house / wreck your tank.

Ok what would the setup look like for this? I have a mega I could use, I probably have a relay laying around somewhere as well.

I also was wondering why you think that this would be an issue. I know that there isn't much controllability to it, but I want to understand from your point of view please

 

[RamsReef]

Ok what would the setup look like for this? I have a mega I could use, I probably have a relay laying around somewhere as well.

I also was wondering why you think that this would be an issue. I know that there isn't much controllability to it, but I want to understand from your point of view please

I gave you expected voltages, if you do not have these you probably found your problem.

The arduino setup can be found by searching for it in your favorite search engine.

 

[Tft12]

I'm having a problem adding a GFCI receptacle to a circuit. I'm new to this type of work so please bear with reading the step-by-step (pictures included). I determined that the outlet I wanted to setup as GFCI was on circuit "SP#19". Circuit SP#19 has three receptacles and a few basement lights (don't confuse these lights with the circuit named "DeskLights", these are separate lights). I turned SP#19 off and then tested the hot wires of my targeted receptacle with a pen-style voltage tester. Though flipping breaker SP#19 killed all appliances on each receptacle of the circuit, the voltage tester was giving a weak but definite signal that the hot wires of my target receptacle were still hot. I went back to the panel and noticed that SP#19 is linked to the breaker called "DeskLights". I turned off the breaker "DeskLights" and rechecked the hot wires at my target receptacle on SP#19 with the voltage tester. Now I couldn't get any reading from the voltage tester, as expected. As you can see in the pictures, there is a single 3-wire (red, black, white, ground) Romex in the base of the panel with red going to SP#19 and black going to "DeskLights", so it looks like this is the reason that I get a weak signal with the voltage tester unless I turn breaker DeskLights off too.

At my outlet, after determining which hot wire was line and which was load I turned both breakers off (DeskLights and SP#19) and then I installed the GFCI receptacle. I turned both breakers back on and then plugged in my outlet tester. No lights on the outlet tester turned on. I checked the outlet with my pen-style voltage tester and it gave a clear indication of being hot. I tried to trip the test of the GFCI but it wouldn't work. I tried resetting the GFCI but that didn't do anything. All downstream receptacles were dead according to the appliances that were plugged into them. I didn't check the downstream receptacles with a voltage tester.

I took the GFCI out and replaced it with a standard receptacle. All of circuit SP#19 is working again (all receptacles and basement lights), but I don't have GFCI protection.

 

[Tft12]

Made a tiny bit of progress. I've found that this type of circuit is called an MWBC (Multi Wire Branch Circuit). In the electrical sub-panel image in my first post, one breaker is boxed in purple, the other breaker is boxed in blue, and their common Romex cable is circled in green. Still haven't figured out how/if I can install a GFCI receptacle on circuit SP#19.

SP#22 and SP#23 form another MWBC.

 

[Tft12]

One more step - there is no problem using a GFCI receptacle on an MWBC...so why isn't it working?