Remember my video I installed a heater: https://youtu.be/yGAJDhl11ZE
I went back and made some necessary changes thanks to your comments!
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By: Mehdi Sadaghdar

Hi, if you remember, i installed a patio heater a while back and now i'm back at my fuse panel, and i have to open it up again. Maybe i just should keep it open see. There are a few benefits to make a video around your diy project. One is that if i have any knowledge i'll share it with you and we can have a conversation around it, second is the juicy youtube money and third, is that you guys get to review my work and tell me what i did wrong and fourth, i can Make a follow-up video about it and make even more juicy youtube money and, of course, the most important part is sharing knowledge and the sense of community.

No, but really thanks to you guys for pointing out my shortcomings, i think it's important to make this video and show you what updates i have to make on my system and make it better. So, let's open it up again. First things: first turn off the breaker. Now, first things: first, some of you told me that i talk about saving the planet and being efficient, and then i put a patio heater that hits outside.

Well, that's true, but we installed it due to necessity. We thought we are living during a pandemic and if we had to meet somebody, we rather meet them outside in the patio and having a heater. There would help our guests not freeze, and it is an efficient electric heater without any gas emissions. Does heating outside contribute to global warming? I don't think so and also maybe in the future.

I install some solar panels and then i'm sure that it's clean. Second, you guys say my heater doesn't use more than 17 amps. So why use a 30 amp breaker here? I should change it to 20 amps. That is a good idea in general.

If you know you're not going to consume more than some amount of currents, then why not put a proper breaker for that current? Only the reason i designed for 30 amps in general was that i was worried. I may have to change my heater later to something higher power to create more heat, but i don't think i'll change it. It's good enough, but in general i think it's okay to leave it at 30 amp. Since all my wiring is 30 amps.

Some of you say: hey the wires inside the heater are not designed for 30 amps and they may melt and burn. What does that even mean? It's not like the 30 amp breaker will force more current into the heater. The only reason there would be more current going into the heater is that there is already a failure inside the heater and in that case well there is more problems than just melting wires. It's like saying your lamp is 100 watts and only draws one amp.

So why put it on a 15 amp breaker? We should change the breaker to one amp, so if there is a shot inside the heater that draws exactly 30 amps of current and the breaker doesn't pop, it means that there is a lot of extra heat generated in the box of the heater, which will eventually Fuse the short open or will even make it more short and the breaker will pop it is in general manufacturers, responsibility to make sure all the sparks and fires are contained within their product and doesn't cause a house fire. But i guess we can't really trust manufacturers with everything. Can we so in any case, because i'm not going to draw any more current than 20 amps, i'm gon na put 20 amp breaker in north america. When we put breakers on 240 volts, we use two janked breakers like this, that disconnects both live wires at the same time, but unfortunately, for me, apparently due to pandemic, the janked version is not immediately available.
So i bought two separate 20 amp breakers. It performs exactly the same just that if there is a short only one of the breakers will pop and the other one will stay connected. So if you want to work on the problem, one of the live wires is connected, and that could be dangerous. But if you look here, there is a hole in the breakers that you can pass some rod through them and connect them both together, so that if one pops, the other one pops too wrong in good old days, you could have shoved the nail in the hole Between the two levers, so they would turn on and off together.

If the breaker popped, the lever would move all the way back and you had to manually push it on again. You could have even held on to the lever to keep it on and let the high current pass through some people even put wires in there to chip it on and set things on fire. That's why we can't have good things nowadays, breakers. Don't allow that see if i push the lever like this and manually pop the breaker see.

This is already disconnected and moves half the way back, and i can't turn it on like this anymore. I have to reset it by pushing it all the way back and forth again and because it moves back halfway, ganging it with the nail doesn't help either in double breakers. There is a mechanical link between the two breakers. You see here.

I've removed the link between the two levers and a sticker here, so we can see the mechanism in there. If i try to turn it see both breakers pop and i can't reset one side either. I have to reset both sides together and then turn it on safety. So i can't use my single 20 amp breakers and have to use my dual 30 amp breaker.

I checked the code. It's fine to use 30 amp or less breaker on 10 gauge wire independent to the load, but before i put the breaker back on there's another issue, you guys brought up see when i open the hole here beside the fuse panel. I drilled into the wooden stud here and you see that around this wire, the stud and the plastic are exposed, and you guys told me that if there are any sparks for any reason in the fuse panel, it could jump to that piece of wood and set Things on fire, although i don't think that was a real concern here, because you can see the wood here is exposed to in any case wherever they pass the wires through the fuse panel holes. They put this plastic thing inside the hole which, in my opinion, is not to prevent the sparks to jump to the wood.
It's to prevent the sharp edges of the box to cut their wire jackets, just to be a good boy. I bought this plastic thing anyway and i'm gon na see if i can shove it around the wire, but before that there is something even more important which is called anti-short bushings see you guys kept commenting about this, but didn't say what it does or where it Goes so i was confused as hell until i did some research and realized that those anti-shorts are to protect the wire against itself see if this steel jacket is squished at the edges, where it's cut it can cut through the jackets of all the inside wires and Short them together - and this is where typically, the steel jacket is squished see this wire holder. You tighten the screw and it squeezes the wire jacket so that the wire doesn't move and the sharp edges of the jacket here can cut through the jackets of the inner wires and short them. So this anti-short thingy goes around the wires and inside the steel jacket.

Like this to make sure the sharp edges of the jacket won't cut the wires - and this was the most important thing in my opinion - everything else was not that immediate, but this could cause immediate danger, although if the jacket had shorted my wires, the breaker would pop. After 20 seconds of 60 amps, so i have to put those anti shorts on each end of the jackets one here and one inside here, one from here to the switch there and one from the swish to the heater on the other side. So, like i need six of these auntie shorts and this pack has 35 of them, so at the end of the video i'll, give away 29 auntie shorts worth 10 each no anyway, now that we know what changes we have to make, let's do it, sorry for The boring video, i thought this was important to make one auntie short here. There we go and here's this plastic thing.

It's not that critical, but whatever not bad. It looks like a joke for my type of wire. I have to use this type of connector. I used everywhere else that goes on outside of the box, so i can't use this either.

Now we connect our wires back to the breaker, make sure the breaker is off and then plug it in there we go now. We turn it on. Okay, nothing blew up. Let's go test the heater all right, the heater turns on now.

We turn the breaker off and go put anti shorts at the end of every jacket. Another jacket here, another one around here. One more thing you mentioned was that this outlet is not to the code, because it's rated for 50 amp appliances i put on a 30 amp system, but, like i mentioned, this is only for my own diabolical testing, and i just wanted all the power lines to Be available, there is a clause in the code that specifically mentions that i won't have to follow code if my installation is for personal, diabolical testing. I'm joking follow code anyway.

This outlet here is what i provisioned for future electric car charging. So i was thinking i can move this 50 amp outlet there where it belongs, and i bought a 30 amp outlet that i can put here and then i'll meet the code. There you go, i hope, you're happy. You know it would have been much more efficient if you had told me all these details before i installed the whole thing there we go and the other one right here nice now i have to put the whole thing back, and it's all done.
Thanks for staying to the end and pressing the like button.

14 thoughts on “30 Amp DIY Wiring Updates for 4000W Heater”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars oddjobbob says:

    I guess if your electric heater gets its watts from some magical source then there would be no global warming outcome. But as you have made clear in other videos there is no free luck, and you can’t get something for nothing. Your source electricity comes from hydro (required a lot of Portland cement to make the concrete), nuclear (required lots of Portland cement, and will require more when it comes to storing the waste), or oil-fired generators (the global warming connection is pretty clear). So, yes, your electric heater, even outdoors contributes to climate change. Should have used natural gas.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars TheGodOfAllThatWas says:

    I actually really liked this video. Made positive changes based on criticism, still managed to be fun without being spiteful. A good balance and shows even with Millions of subs you are actually listening to your viewers, and still managing to be an awesome person. Good on you @ElectroBOOM!

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jonas Jørgensen says:

    Watching this makes me glad I’m an electrician in Denmark where everything is not made of metal, being conductive and annoying to work with

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gacha Angle says:

    Don't freak out on a heater out side if u do u suck really the world is already screwed up so instead of freaking out on a youtuber why not go and try to fix other things

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars my1little2pony says:

    30 amp breaker is the correct breaker for the device you can only load a breaker to 80% of its raiting. Source is im a journeyman electrician in canada.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Vincenzo Marra says:

    A breaker's purpose is to protect the wiring inside of the walls. That's it. It doesn't protect idiots from causing a fire using 16 gauge extension cords on a 30 amp breaker

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars HighVoltageMadness2300 says:

    Our house has terrible wiring fire risk. The gfci outlet stopped working. The reason was someone before us had replaced the outlet and they had spliced aluminium wiring to copper wiring with wire nuts. The plastic wire nut connections had started melting over the years, there was even evidence it had caught fire at some point. finaly the connection gave up causing the outlet failure. I just redid it using a receptacle designed for aluminium wiring and no issues.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Luke Skywalker says:

    Love those metal boxes and open contacts in your installation – you would go to jail for trying to purchase these in germany ;-P
    Nice vid, always enjoy

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Steve Jones says:

    That metal clad wiring is nothing like what is used in the UK. Here it would be armoured cable with special glands which is much more work to install.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dylan says:

    Wait, arent you and electrical engineer. Shouldn't you have known all this stuff already. If I'm wrong please do tell.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Paradox Edge says:

    Man, whoever buys your house after you either have to move or you pass away are going to be dealing with a lot of weird electrical installations that can be dangerous to them. 😛

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SancheZ says:

    North American electrics are so barbaric and complicated. I’m glad that I’m working and living in Germany as an electrician 😅

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Noah Reeverts says:

    its easy for someone that lives in a warm climate to shame people for heating their patio. Come visit Minnesota. In the winter it rarely gets above 10°F, and occasionally down to -30°F for days at a time.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Lukas Sprehn says:

    All extra electricity contributes very minimally but increasingly to global warming. Come on, BOOM, you already know that electrical power comes from, among other things, the burning of trash, fueling generators.

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