I'm an apprentice out of local 46 in seattle. I take pictures of electrical work here and there. I have a question regarding the two starter switches. Each are individually piped on the load and line side to two exaust fans in a parking garage. However, there is a nipple between the two fusable overload protection devices. Any ideas about what this nipple is for. Why are the two starter switches connected together. Any suggestions would be a great help. _thanks--Andrew.

Andrew,

A difficult Answer here. Do you know if there are any wires in the nipple? I see things all the time that seem to have no logical explanation, you might have to find the installer to figure it out. But there could be some common control wirimg. (?)

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 05-24-2002).]

If there are no wires in it, it could have been used for addtional support ....just " a stab in the dark"

Control wiring going back to the same place, and piped along with the power from one switch?

Yes, I also have a picture with the starter switches open and I can see that all three phases on the load side of the fuse feed into block (factory wired). The other end of the block goes to feed the fan. while some low voltage colors go through the nipple into the other starter switch. I cant figure out why these two starter switches would need to control. Maybe they both must be on at the same time. So if one stops, so does the other. Well, I very much appreciate your suggestions. Thank you for your replys!-Erik

Uhhmm, haven't you attacked them with your screwdriver yet? ;-) ;-) ;-)

I'd guess remote starting or remote status somewhere in the facility.

Don't know for sure, but it might have something to do with fire alarm shut downs.
Roger

Is the garage enclosed or open ? Is it possible that one fan is a fresh air supply and one is an exhaust? If so, there could be some sort of interlock to ensure that one is operating before the other starts.

I was thinking it could be that the fans are on different circuits but use a common control power source.

Bill