I have this heater, it has no cable as it was installed in the wall. Now I want to use it as a portable heater but I cannot find a place where I would connect the grounding?!?!!? Anyone has any idea what to do? How bad is it if I install a cable on the 2kW heater without grounding?
Thanks in advance!
2007-01-17 01:46:33 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Home & Garden ➔ Do It Yourself (DIY)
I'm assuming you are simply trying to add an appliance power cord to a baseboard heater? The ground wire can be attahed to the metel frame with a self tapping screw. Make sure the guage of the wire will carry the amp load (probably 30 amps, 10/3 or 10/2 wire) The outlet you plug it into will also have to be on a 30 amp breaker otherwise you will keep popping the breaker. Most house outlets are only good for 15 amps to 20 amps at best. It's probably not (OSHA) legal to convert one of these anyway but you could call the manufacturer. Good luck, don't catch anything on fire.
2007-01-17 03:03:37 · answer #1 · answered by pepsi_2_cola 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It depends, is the item double insulated if so no ground is necessary, but I suspect it isn't and you can ground on any metal structure of the fan.
To answer the question how bad, if anything goes wrong as it can and often does with heaters imagine grabbing a live wire and then touching ground, remember it only takes 0.05A to kill you.
I personally would buy a new purpose designed portable heater, I have seen too many fires and a great deal of very nasty injuries with people adapting electrical appliances.
2007-01-17 08:38:29 · answer #2 · answered by simodookit 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Run the grounding line along the power line and find some grounding gadget in the wall sockets. Grounding is a device so that your heater will not burn out when there would be some electrical malfunction into it. It will just transfer the load into the ground and save your heater.
2007-01-17 01:57:16 · answer #3 · answered by wacky_racer 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Get qualified electrician to look at it. Grounding is your safety. If there is a problem and there usually is sooner or later, the ground prevents really bad things from happening. Like fires...
2007-01-17 03:49:29 · answer #4 · answered by fire16 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Grounding a device will probably not save the devise in a short. It may save your life, but won't help the item.
Always use a ground. ALWAYS.
2007-01-17 02:11:14 · answer #5 · answered by Kurtis G 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
any metal part of the fan will be the ground
2007-01-17 04:04:28 · answer #6 · answered by aussie 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋