circ. pump wiring

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huffdawg

Minister of Fire
Oct 3, 2009
1,457
British Columbia Canada
When you take the cover off a circ. pump and remove the screws holding in the switch / contact assembly. . there is a ground symbol ,an N for neutral I assume, and a L , and I'm guessing that stands for line voltage .. or hot conductor.

Am I correct

Huff
 
yes you are.
 
Your question was answered above but what are you using for wire?


Maybe a pro can respond but I used armor coated wire initially but have found I like the electric tool cords better so I can just unplug the cord or plug it in to a outlet if I want to test the pump.

I still use a switched outlet so I can cut power with the switch or just un plug if I would need to swap pump.

gg
 
+1 and makes it easy to exercise the circs during the off season.
 
Right now i'm wiring the taco 007 to the EKO controller , is it best to use bx cable on that application ? I also wired in a switched recepticle beside my boiler. I will install line cords on the rest ,that seems like a smart thing to do .
As long as it isn,t contravening any electrical codes.

Thanx Huff
 
huffdawg said:
Right now i'm wiring the taco 007 to the EKO controller , is it best to use bx cable on that application ? I also wired in a switched recepticle beside my boiler. I will install line cords on the rest ,that seems like a smart thing to do .
As long as it isn,t contravening any electrical codes.

Thanx Huff

I had mine wired that way too. I just bought a bigger pump but rewired to use a switched outlet and a cord. I was able to plug it in to a different power source to move some water before I heated my boiler up. It was a good thing too because the impeller does not turn with power. The thing I don't like about using a cord is it could get inadvertently unplugged.

gg
 
huffdawg said:
I guess the controller doesnt care where the pump is getting the power from . I dont like how the eko is set up for using a strain relief anyways.

Huff

I think you may have misunderstood me.

Controller to switch
Switch to outlet

Or switch to pump if you don't want to use plug in cord


Just make sure the switch is always on when the boiler is running. I labeled switch.

gg
 
Switch could get flipped innocently and you might not notice. I have mine wired direct to controller now but my put a cord with plug on the circ then a short cord with female end and strain relief through tin work and tied into Eko controller. Figure I can wrap electrical tape around the plug to prevent unplugging by accident.
 
Another option is to wire a switch in parallel with the controller. With the switch "off," the controller does it all. With the switch "on," the circ is "on."
 
jebatty said:
Another option is to wire a switch in parallel with the controller. With the switch "off," the controller does it all. With the switch "on," the circ is "on."
Or use a three-way switch with the feed from the controller going to one position, an always hot feed going to the other position and the common going to the pump. The always hot feed should probably be from the same electrical circuit that the controller is on.

Edit:
If you ran 12/3 or 14/3 (only for 15A circuits) cable from the controller to the three-way switch, you could carry the leg that's switched by the controller on either the black or red conductor and the always hot leg on the other hot conductor. Then you run 12/2 or 14/2 from the switch to the pump.
 
Pete Schiller said:
jebatty said:
Another option is to wire a switch in parallel with the controller. With the switch "off," the controller does it all. With the switch "on," the circ is "on."
Or use a three-way switch with the feed from the controller going to one position, an always hot feed going to the other position and the common going to the pump. The always hot feed should probably be from the same electrical circuit that the controller is on.

Edit:
If you ran 12/3 or 14/3 (only for 15A circuits) cable from the controller to the three-way switch, you could carry the leg that's switched by the controller on either the black or red conductor and the always hot leg on the other hot conductor. Then you run 12/2 or 14/2 from the switch to the pump.

Hi Pete,Is there anyway you could do a line diagram of that for me .so I get it right the first time.

Huff
 
Hi Huff,

I've got wires jumping over each other all over the place in the diagram, but hopefully this helps. If this is on a 15A circuit use 14/3 and 14/2 cable. If it's on a 20A circuit then you have to use 12/3 and 12/2 cable. This diagram assumes that you have an always hot connection inside your controller/switching relay that you can connect the red conductor of the 14/3 cable to. In my Taco switching relay I can put two wires under each of the screw terminals, which I assume is okay. Otherwise, you would need to wire nut together the hot conductor coming into the controller with the the red outgoing conductor of the 14/3 cable and a black pigtail wire that connects to your controller's hot input.

Don't try jamming all of those conductors, wire nuts and the switch into a small 4x2 electrical box. In the U.S., for 14 gauge wire the box must be at least 16 cubic inches, for 12 gauge wire it must be at least 18 cubic inches, according to the NEC.

On the Leviton 3-way switches that I have used, the common screw is black and the two other conductor screws are gold. The black screw terminal is identified as being the "common" on the back of the switch.

You could do the same thing with a 3-way switch, but instead of the always hot conductor being carried on the red wire (of a 14/3 cable) from within the controller, the always hot conductor is just carried on a separate 14/2 cable. In that case you would have three 14/2 cables entering the switch box. The black from the controller goes to one of the gold screws of the switch, the black from the always hot conductor goes to the other gold screw, the black from the "common" (black) screw goes to the hot on the circulator, all of the white neutral wires are wire nutted together and all of the bare ground wires are wire nutted together, with a pigtail grounding the electrical box itself if it is steel.

Pete
 

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Pete Schiller said:
Hi Huff,

I've got wires jumping over each other all over the place in the diagram, but hopefully this helps. If this is on a 15A circuit use 14/3 and 14/2 cable. If it's on a 20A circuit then you have to use 12/3 and 12/2 cable. This diagram assumes that you have an always hot connection inside your controller/switching relay that you can connect the red conductor of the 14/3 cable to. In my Taco switching relay I can put two wires under each of the screw terminals, which I assume is okay. Otherwise, you would need to wire nut together the hot conductor coming into the controller with the the red outgoing conductor of the 14/3 cable and a black pigtail wire that connects to your controller's hot input.

Don't try jamming all of those conductors, wire nuts and the switch into a small 4x2 electrical box. In the U.S., for 14 gauge wire the box must be at least 16 cubic inches, for 12 gauge wire it must be at least 18 cubic inches, according to the NEC.

On the Leviton 3-way switches that I have used, the common screw is black and the two other conductor screws are gold. The black screw terminal is identified as being the "common" on the back of the switch.

You could do the same thing with a 3-way switch, but instead of the always hot conductor being carried on the red wire (of a 14/3 cable) from within the controller, the always hot conductor is just carried on a separate 14/2 cable. In that case you would have three 14/2 cables entering the switch box. The black from the controller goes to one of the gold screws of the switch, the black from the always hot conductor goes to the other gold screw, the black from the "common" (black) screw goes to the hot on the circulator, all of the white neutral wires are wire nutted together and all of the bare ground wires are wire nutted together, with a pigtail grounding the electrical box itself if it is steel.

Pete

Thanx for the diagram Peter. I recently wired my own home and shop. But when it comes to switching anything more than a 2 way I like to use diagrams.
I have a roll of 14/3 left over.

Cheers Huff
 
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