Electric Baseboard heater problem

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If there are any electricians out there please put your thinking caps on.

I wired some 4 foot electric baseboard heaters, Dimplex model, with 14/2 wire

Formula for maximum load per circuit;

240 x 15 Amp = 3600 x 0.8 = 2880 watts

Is this right?

Regardless, none of the circuits are loaded near to max, each one only has the 4 footer, which equals 1000 watts. This is not my problem.

My problem is that though I have power on the 14/2, 120 volts on the white, 120 volts on the black, at the heater, it fails to warm up/get hot. I ran it thru a thermostat and I had power at the stat and at the baseboard heater. I made sure the stat was turned on, cold basement and I could hear the click, still no heat.

I wired the baseboard in directly to the DP breaker, power at the baseboard, still no heat. What's up? I changed to 2 different 4 footers and the same deal.

The literature says it can take 2 to 10 minutes to heat. I've done baseboards a number of times and they get hot fast. Why not this time? Why no heat at all, ... I've left them for 30 minutes or so.

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I'm not an electician, but is there some sort of reset button/switch on the baseboards that has to be pushed before it engages the first time?

It would make sense that there would be some sort of ground fault protection that has to be reset.

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I found a website that may be helpful to you. Someone there asked a very similar question.

http://www.selfhelpforums.com/showthread.php?s=f0b2e0627acd56dbefd163b92fe3695f&t=532

Here's another:

http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/electrical-lighting/baseboard-heater-problems-help-44869.html

And another:

http://www.fixitclub.com/Heating_Cooling/Electric_Heater.shtml

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@Butrflynet,

Thanks a bundle, BFN.

I had already checked the first site, and found it was not my problem. Baseboard heaters do have an over limit switch, but these have never been run, they were brand spanking new.

There's no ground fault involved, the breakers are normal 15 AMP double pole.

And I've tried wiring them direct, ie. without a stat and I have power on both legs at the heater but still no go.

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I am a fully qualified licensed Journeyman Electrician and have been for about 30 years. I now teach the four year Electrical Apprenticeship Program full-time at the premier local technical institution.

Assuming you have everything wired correctly and fully to Code (and I make no claims that you have in any way done so) meter out the source and the load then report the readings.

If you do not understand all of the above you should not be doing any of the install.

Given that you cannot find out what you did wrong and given that it's such a simple install with such an obvious troubleshooting protocol you clearly lack the knowledge, and are putting yourself and your possessions at definitive risk.

Don't be stupid, hire a fully qualified licensed Journeyman Electrician. If you want to mess with things you don't know enough about, try plumbing!

1 Reply

@Chumly,

Good morning, Chumly. Yes, I have wired the circuit correctly and I'm sure it's not completely to Code because it's temporary heat.

14-2 wire, 15Amp double pole breaker, white wire to one side of the circuit breaker and black to the other, bare wire to the ground buss bar. I do not have a volt meter but I do have a tester and I have power on both legs/wires at the heater. When I joined the two wires in the heater, one to black and one to white, bare ground to ground screw, the units fail to heat up.

I just did another baseboard heater a week ago and it worked fine and some others a few weeks before that. They all worked fine.

As I mentioned, I've tried it on a number of new baseboards and still no heat.

1 Reply

@JTT,

The problem was, and this has me puzzled too, with the breakers. Though they all were DP 15 AMP breakers, two of the four would not run the baseboard heaters, though they ran circ saws, drills, battery chargers, lights, etc.

When I switched them around, the baseboards operated perfectly.

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@JTT,

This is easier than you think. The problem was the breaker. Some panels alternate the breaker connection to the panels load bars every slot, others alternate in banks of 4 or more. To have alternating 240 you need to be feeding the baseboard from both load panel bars, not have the DP 15 breaker fed by two slots going to the same load panel bar. When you switched breakers around you moved the DP onto two slots that fed to the two different load panel bars. Thats why it began to work.

JTT this may have been temporary wiring, but clearly you dont understand enough about how the AC works to troubleshoot basic electrical panel hookup issues. You easily could have seriously hurt yourself or been killed. I suggest you let an electrician do the hookup at the panel and inspect your wiring for basic safety in the future.

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@mwyoungca,

Quote:

This is easier than you think.

Now it is. I larned this soon after I posted, which was some time ago - old thread. But thanks for taking the time, Mw.

I just finished rewiring a 100 year old farmhouse and I'm still alive. Smile

The inspector only had a few issues for the punchlist.

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Electric Baseboard heater problem

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