Electric heaters plug burned... question.

[xr4x4]

hi all,

we moved into a place that is heated by 3 plug in 2kw heaters.

i noticed that one of the sockets and the plug that one of them had been plugged into had burned, i notified the landlord and expressed my concerns. i asked for the heaters to have there own ring and wired into fcus.

anyway..

question is, i had a look inside the plug that had burned tonight and its the netural side and wire that has burned black, including the pin....

isnt that a bit odd? i thought it was the live that carried the load?

p.s they have been wired in a ring, with 2.5 t+e with a 32a mcb, 13a fcus, 7300kw total load.... has this been done right?

 

[Steve]

The live and neutral carry equal load. Remember the basic threory of circuits? Its a complete loop . . .

Anyway, people often pay less attention to tightening the neutral screw, as it is psychologically and subconsciously seen to be less important than the live.

This is why 9 times out of 10, the neutral gets it.

 

[electronicsuk]

question is, i had a look inside the plug that had burned tonight and its the netural side and wire that has burned black, including the pin....

isnt that a bit odd? i thought it was the live that carried the load?

If the live alone carried all the load, in what sense would there be a circuit? The current flows in a loop from live, through the heating element and back to neutral. The current in both L and N will be the same, except for the case of a broken appliance where current may flow down to earth.

The terminal was probably never tightened properly, although to fix would probably have required a new plug, socket, and the cable stripping back to bright copper.

p.s they have been wired in a ring, with 2.5 t+e with a 32a mcb, 13a fcus, 7300kw total load.... has this been done right?

This will work, but isn't good practice. It would have been far, far more sensible to wire each heater on its own dedicated radial circuit.

 

[RF Lighting]

The live and neutral pins carry exactly the same amount of current.

The burnt out pin will have been caused by a bad joint. This may have been a loose wire in the plug, a loose wire in the socket, or a worn contact in the socket meaning the pin was a bit loose.

The circuit sounds to be an ok setup.

Personally I'd cut of the wire as far as it has been affected by heat, pop a new plugtop on and swap the socket front.

Changing all the wiring about is not really needed.

 

[properleckie]

the burning is probably due to a loose connection in plug or socket.
if both are changed all should be well.
The current in the circuit is the same throughout, live & neutral carry the same load, voltage drops around the circuit not current.
Just like a central heating circuit the volume of water going into the flow pipe must be the same as comes back in the return (unless leaks) but the pressure will drop like voltage.

 

[xr4x4]

thanks guys, the plug looks OE wired, i.e it had those little metal clips on the wires.

i guess i was wrong to think once the leccy had been through the heater it was used... in a sense. again why i thought that switching was always done on the netural side due to less load.. guess i was wrong..!!

on the heating, i was just worried about the total load on the same socket ring as the rest of the place.

i figured the heating shoud have its own curcuit, the bloke they got in to do the work agreed..!!

 

[333rocky333]

why i thought that switching was always done on the netural side due to less load.. !

Only with the live also as double pole, should the neutral ever be swiched.