Blower turn on automatically with heat. Did I do it right?

So, I have a us stove 2000 stove. I bought a sensor off eBay. Here's the link.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=190638618838

The way it says to install it, it says to put it in line with the black hot wire. I have it inline with the black hot ac wire. I'm attaching a pic. There are two things that make me nervous with the install. One, if a kid reaches behind the stove and touches the switch, they'll probably get electrocuted. Two, I had to drill a hole through the side of the blower casing. I ran the wires through that hole. I'm thinking over time the heat and vibbrations are going to cause the wire to wear thin and then short against the wood stove. I wrapped the wire that goes through the hole with electrical tape to help insulate it more. Wonder what people's thoughts are on this too.

I guess I'm thinking about how I'd wire a DC switch vs an AC switch. On a DC circuit with something similar, I'd do it the safe way and switch the ground wire so if something shorted, it wouldn't electrocute someone.

I'm just getting into AC electrical in the last year or so. I ran electric to my barn. I wired a sub panel. I've slowly been adding more circuits, outlets, etc. I know from wiring that the right way to switch an AC circuit is to switch the hot wire. I don't know even if switching the neutral wire would do anything seeing in a one panel house, it is perfectly acceptable by code to have the neutral and ground wires bonded. So, if I'm switching the neutral wire with the heat sensor but the neutral and ground wires in the motor are bonded or contact eachother, the switch wouldn't do anything, and that's maybe why the instructions say to switch the hot wire.

But I don't know even if the heat switch works yet. It's been about 80 in our house all day today and I haven't lit the fire since morning. It's too hot to get it going to just see if the switch works. I'm sure the temp will drop in the next few days or so.

Attached a pic.

BroBart- gimme some idea of what you're talking about. I have my 30NC up and running and am gaining confindence every day- but the only thing that I wish I had was some kind of thermo-sensitive circuit to kick the fan on if the stove-top temp gets too high.
I have the AC-16 blower that came with the 30, and I only use it when my temp gets above 700. Sure would be nice to have a fail-safe...

Always switch the hot wire! You don't want the motor to be standing live.If you are worried about rub through on the wires, put a grommet in the hole.

You don't ground an ac hot, ground and neutral are usually bonded together somewhere in the system, Grounding hot would cause a voltage differential of some type, and A: create a potentally dangerous situation, and B: trip the breaker/fuse/etc.

A Medium voltage DC system (120v)would have different grounding requirements than low voltage DC. Needless to say, you wouldn't want to work with 120vdc for a whole list of reasosns.

That's exactly what I'm looking for. My setup isn't working. Where I put the sensor, it's not kicking the blower on. It's been burning for a few hours. Everywhere on the stove is hot except the spot where I put the sensor, which was next to the blower. I think this gizmo would be a lot safer. Just wish it was a little cheaper. But seeing I'm having to switch the hot wire and draping a hot electrical wire around my hot stove, probably the $60 is worth not getting someone electrocuted or killed.

I got this idea from BB when I installed my 30 two seasons ago. My stove is installed with close clearances so I also bought this:

http://www.northlineexpress.com/dial-a-temp-rheostat-4008.html


I leave the blower on the back of the Englander 30 on high. The blower power cord plugs into the SS1 stove stat's power cord. The power cord for the stove stat plugs into the above dial-a-temp rheostat which plugs into the wall. It can be a little messy but some black tie-wraps cleaned things up just fine.

This allows me to change the fan speed without reaching around the 800F stove and it will turn on/off all by itself because of the SS1 stove stat. The only tricky thing is figuring out where to install the stove stat so that it gets hot enough quick enough. I installed it on the side of the stove closer to the front. It is about 6" from the front of the stove and 6" up from the bottom of the stove. Works great.

That SS1 Stove Stat looks like the ticket. Thanks guys.
Just one question- I read on Woodeze that it's to be used on a double-wall stove- so where would I affix it on my 30NC? Around back on the heat shield? If I do, then any idea what kind of stove-top temp I'd reach before the SS1 kicks the fan on?

I have an Englander 30.

I think I'll give it a try.

Ok, since I already purchased a sensor that automatically turns on the stove when it's hot and turns it off when it's cold, I decided to reverse engineer the SS1 stove stat. Here are pics... Basically I took two extension cords I wasn't using and cut them up. Figured a heavy duty extension cord's quality was better than just loose 12 gauge wire. I have one wire go from the wall to the outlet box. The ground and neutral wire goes directly to the outlet. The hot wire goes into the box into a wire nut that the second white extension cord I used the white wire to go to the heat sensor switch, then the black wire to go back from the sensor to the box that screws into the hot side of the plug.

Then the side with the sensor, I used an enclosure that's for a male outlet... just the casing.

I haven't figured out how to attach the sensor to the stove yet. I can't attach it to the heat shield, at least the bottom. I bought some magnets trying to use that to stick the sensor to it, but the magnet seems to repel the sensor. I might just use some light bare wire and wrap it around the stove chimney and somehow rig it to hold the sensor against the stove. Still makes me nervous that inside the side where the sensor is, it is a hot 120 v wire. I think I still need to engineer that part of it to be a little more safe so people can't stick their fingers in there. Any ideas how to change it to be safer?

I think I'm going to take my contraption to Radio Shack and see what kind of enclosures could change on the sensor side to be a smaller metal enclosure that could safely hold the sensor with a live power wire in it.

Google Temperture snap disc and you'll find lots of stuff designed for the job...

The safer way to do that is to use a DC to AC relay switch. Then you run DC through your snap switch (temp sensor) such that it engages at temp, then when engaged it will trip the relay to allow your AC to flow. Once the DC sensor cools it goes off and again trips the relay back down. This way you only have low voltage DC running to/from the stove - if that wire is compromised there is minimal to no risk of injury.