[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited 05-02-2004).]

No. Can't be. No way. NO way. NO WAY...

Randy,
Is this is in a mobile home?

Just how _thin_ is T-stat wire?

Is it about the same size as bell wire used for telephones? I'm amazed it hasn't overheated and melted.

Nice heavy-duty plug....too bad they couldn't have at least used heavy-duty cord if they were going to do that sort of stupidity....

Scott.... Yes it is

Sven.... Typical T-stat wire is 18-22AWG Solid.. typically 2 pair in a cable like this... I was amazed myself!, considering this stuff is only rated for 24V! & this was running ceiling fans in 2 other rooms!

-Randy

Don't you guys recognize a combination unit when you see one? That is a fan system plus surface mount radiant heating!

That really is incredible. I bet those fans turned at about one revolution per year on their highest setting....

-John

Guys, have you ever looked up the ampacity of 18ga wire???

20ga wire will _easily_ carry the current needed to run a fan. The voltage drop won't even be too bad if the length is less than a few 10s of feet.

When following the NEC (as well as good engineering practise), circuit conductors need to be sized to carry the load current, to have long useful life without failure, to survive expected faults, to remain safe even in fault conditions, etc. If you give up all of these various safety enhancements, you will still have a system that works.

If running 16A through 14ga wire resulted in instant fire, there would not be all that many hack electricians around, and we would never be able to have fun discussions about tap conductor rules.

-Jon

LOL

Yeah those darn 'safety enhancements' burn up my time and waste our natural resources.

Bob

Bob,
All those darn safety enhancements put food on my table & pay the bills! If people started figuring out how to do things the right way on their own, the service industry would'nt be half as lucrative! Not to mention we wouldn't have half as many photos to bicker about here! I guess the good thing is, that people call us to make things work again, we have a chance to make some difference, maybe talk a little sense into the DIYer, explain "why" things are supposed to be a certain way.... I do it almost daily! Thankfully, I've only been called a couple times for repairs after an actual fire.. & I've seen so many more things that made me wonder why they weren't ablaze already!

-Randy

I just installed such a fan yesterday.
The motor was rated at about 1.5 amps, plus a 60 watt bulb. So, we're looking at 2 amps total. Three such fans would be about 6 amps.
From an engineering standpoint ONLY, #18 wire ought to be able to handle about 7 amps. Therefore, I'm not surprised that this unit ran fine, or that there are no signs of overheating.
Of course, there are still the issues of insulation rating, mechanical protection, and short-circuit protection. The breaker is still let 20 amps go through the 7 amp wire- which would allow the wires to imitate toaster filaments.
Need to be fixed? Absolutely. End of the world? I don't think so.

In my mobile home I have two ceiling fans installed like this except they are wired with verrrrry long lamp cords, wrapped with chains. One stopped working and tripped a breaker. My parents think that since the A/C kicked on and my mother plugged in her 1800 watt blowdryer into a 15 amp circuit feeding half the house surged the fan and shorted it out. (I have this in another fourm. As soon as I remember the web URL.) Let's see, how does that story go?
Oh yeah! I was working on my traffic light, and had to move it. It's an aluminum model next to an outlet! (The outlet in this story.) I was moving the light, which bumped the 3 way gem tap in the duplex outlet. (The top half of the duplex didn't work, only 0.001 volts. Unswitched) I said, "Hmm. Why did the lamp go off? Ohh? Stupid outlet! Uhhhh..." I plugged the triplex in, and "CLICK, OFF!" My mother said, "What the he*l happened!?!" My dad is sleeping on the couch at the time. I said, "Who wants to bet the breaker tripped!?!" Next day me and my father replaced the dead duplex receptacle. That old fan is still hanging on the ceiling. One more thing, is wiring a ceiling fan to a cord legal? I don't know, but I don't think so...

The garage door outlet in my new(to me) house was wired that way, 18/2! To a recept screwed to the cieling, no box! Apparently worked for many years, as the cloth wire and rect. hasn't been available for 20+ years. Did look fairly heated though.

First item in the dumptser!

Theelectrikid, sounds like you have some work to be done around the homestead.....

Here's that link, spent 2 hours looking for it. (Actually, it took me thirty minutes. The other hour and a half went to reading the rest of the fourm's posts!! https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000650.html