240V lighting deficiency

well i installed this same setup maybe 10 years ago and i thought i remembered how to.

ive ran 10/2 wire from a double pole 30 amp breaker into my t103 timer. the 2 incoming hots(white and black) go to the line side or terminals 1 and 3. The outgoing white and black, to my 1000 watt ballast are connected to the load side or terminals 2 and 4. both grounds go to the ground screw and terminal A or neutral is empty. no light? Do I have this Wrong?

I tried 2 different ballast and got nothing, so i switched one to 120v and the ballast works fine.
I put my voltage tester in the timer and i am getting power on all the terminals, but the ballast not firing.
Anyone, anything appreciated.

post a pic of the timer and wireing and wireing diagram. post a pic of the ballast and wireing and maybe i can help.

smoke and coke said:

post a pic of the timer and wireing and wireing diagram. post a pic of the ballast and wireing and maybe i can help.

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This is the Intermatic T103 Timer


Do I have this all wrong, any idea? thanks

yes it looks like it is wired correctly. that is a double pole single throw with a 240 volt clock motor. mine looks the same other than i have a 120 volt clock motor.

have you tried to use the light at 240 volt without the timer? does the light work?

I always toss a meter on hook ups before plugging anything.

(Glad I did when hooking up a laser to a 480 grounded leg delta. That puppy wouldn't have run for squat)

Test across the 240 lines and each to ground. THen same for the load side.

BigBudBalls said:

I always toss a meter on hook ups before plugging anything.

(Glad I did when hooking up a laser to a 480 grounded leg delta. That puppy wouldn't have run for squat)

Test across the 240 lines and each to ground. THen same for the load side.

Click to expand...

when i test to ground and each line it reads 120v, the same for the load side with the timer on. should i be getting a 240 reading? if so, how?

the light works at 120v on a different circuit, can i safely wire the light 240, straight to the breaker.

seems i should be getting a 240 reading when i test my black and white wires coming off the breaker,No? but i get nothing. So maybe this is a bad breaker?

dothedamnthing said:

when i test to ground and each line it reads 120v, the same for the load side with the timer on. should i be getting a 240 reading? if so, how?

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No, each to ground reading 120 is good. But each leg to each other should read 240. If it reads 0, then the 2 120 legs are from the same phase (sorry to piss off the electricians, but 240 from 2 120 legs is NOT *truly* single phase. Its just called single.)

dothedamnthing said:

seems i should be getting a 240 reading when i test my black and white wires coming off the breaker,No? but i get nothing. So maybe this is a bad breaker?

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If at the breaker the white to ground reads 120 and the black to ground reads 120 but black to white read nothing, you are only getting one phase of the the 240. (basically just reading the white to the white)

BigBudBalls said:

No, each to ground reading 120 is good. But each leg to each other should read 240. If it reads 0, then the 2 120 legs are from the same phase (sorry to piss off the electricians, but 240 from 2 120 legs is NOT *truly* single phase. Its just called single.)

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alright now im pissed. there is no such thing as 2 phase. lol
bid bud knows what he is talking about.

you checked your breaker. ok you should have a large set of wires conected either to the main breaker or the main set of lugs that feed the panel. check the power on those wires. probly a black and red wire or a black and a black with a red stripe. between those wires you should have either 208, 220, or 240 volt depending on what the power company is giving you.
if you dont have that voltage then you will see zero volts. same phase.

now do you have anything in your house that runs on 240 volt?

I hate to barge in here, but I have a question about the whole 2 phase/ 1 phase yada yada...

First I hate when electricians argue that and that ground and nuetral are the same. If you look in 90 % of the household fuse boxes the grounds are ties right tothe neutral.

Question.


Do they make affordable 240V digital timers? 120V are everywhere. Lake of a timer had me run a 120 line and not 240 for my lights. I would love to save the juice.


Thanks for your time.

StreetRider said:

I hate to barge in here, but I have a question about the whole 2 phase/ 1 phase yada yada...

First I hate when electricians argue that and that ground and nuetral are the same. If you look in 90 % of the household fuse boxes the grounds are ties right tothe neutral.

Question.


Do they make affordable 240V digital timers? 120V are everywhere. Lake of a timer had me run a 120 line and not 240 for my lights. I would love to save the juice.


Thanks for your time.

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Neutral is not ground. Yes its is tied to ground at the incoming panel. So it has the same potential. But where neutral differs from ground is that neutral is the mid point between the top and bottom peak and comes from the power co. You can have a floating ground. Where on the top 1/2 of the sine could be +150V to ground and -90V on the bottom half of the sine wave. ( 150 - (-90) = 120 ) This is why the power company sends you a neutral.

Some of the lasers I work on have a power conditioner that has provisions for the 3 hots, ground, and neutral. Don't think I have ever hooked up the neutral.

In theory you can run nothing but the hot wire to a room, toss in a grounding rod and things should work. (not something I recommend)

As for the 240V timers, no clue. For me, I'd just toss on some leftover parts from a job (but to buy them is not cheap)

BigBudBalls said:

If at the breaker the white to ground reads 120 and the black to ground reads 120 but black to white read nothing, you are only getting one phase of the the 240. (basically just reading the white to the white)

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hey thanks for all the help. turns out the breaker was in the box wrong. the previous owner had the breaker on only one side, instead of straddling the bars. All is well now thanks again.