Wiring LOR Board

[Guest guest]

I'm planning my 2006 setup for my soon to be purchased LOR boards and I've got a question on the wiring. I want to create a 'drop' wire. This Wire would basically have 4 male plugs on one end (channels 1 thru 4). I would run this around the front of the house and at various points along the path of the wire, I would mount sealed double gang boxes with 4 outlets (split) in each box. One outlet for each channel. I would be creating several of these boxes along a 100' run.

I was hoping to use a 12/3 and a 12/2 Romex UF wire (stranded possibly, if they have them). I would gang all the grounds together and pigtail them to each box. I would use 3 wires from one of the 12/3 (Red, Black, White) as the Hot for channels 1,2,3. I would use the Black Wire from the 12/2 cable for the Hot from Channel 4 and the White cable from the 12/2 as the NEUTRAL for all four channels. I do this so I can run 2 cables instead of 4 12/2 cables.

Here's my question... To me, that is the same as pigtailing all the Neutrals in the LOR box together. Is there a reason I should not do this? I would think if it was okay, you wouldn't need all those screw terminals for the neutrals. you could just put a neutral grounding bar in and a single connection on your boards.

By pigtailing the neutrals, do I eliminate my channel isolation for the current?



Thanks

Michael

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I don't think it a good idea to tie all the neutrals together. My concern is that neutrals are current carring conductors and should be insulated. Once the 1st one of these cables is plugged in the other 3 male plugs are now connected to power.

I realize neutrals are typically only a couple volts from ground potential ( depending on voltage drop ). However there are a number of conditions that can make a neutral hot.

If the neutral connection on the light o rama controller feeding these plugs breaks or has a bad connection, then the output neutral may be hot (backfeeding thru the load)

If the light o rama power plug is miswired or plugged into an outlet with hot and neutral reversed, your male plugs will be hot and present a hazard if one comes undone.

I would recommend pairing your outlets, using 14-3 or 12-3 wire, than using a 15 or 20 amp, 4 wire plug. These are often only available at home depot in the twist lock versions. If you mount double duplex boxes, you could tie all the ground together but I would keep the neutrals isolated so that once an input plug is undone, no other male plug is connected to any of the current carry conductors (including the neutral)

Charlie

[Guest guest]

I totally agree with Charlie. I double up some of my outlets using a 12-3 so that I can carry 2 20 amp circuits but I would never recomend doing 4. You would pretty much have the same setup that your talking about but just run 2 14-3. This way you have 2 neutrals. Also there is no chance that you could get the neutral mixed up with the one thats not a neutral of the same color. You should only need to run 14-3 also because the max that you would even be putting on each one is only 8 amps. 8 amps in deffinitly under the max for a 14-3 100' in length.

[Guest guest]

I agree that it could be a bit dangerous as a shock hazard. The neutral could be overloaded. Also if you have GFI outlets it will not work at all.

[Guest guest]

MichaelC wrote:

I was hoping to use a 12/3 and a 12/2 Romex UF wire (stranded possibly, if they have them). I would gang all the grounds together and pigtail them to each box. I would use 3 wires from one of the 12/3 (Red, Black, White) as the Hot for channels 1,2,3. I would use the Black Wire from the 12/2 cable for the Hot from Channel 4 and the White cable from the 12/2 as the NEUTRAL for all four channels. I do this so I can run 2 cables instead of 4 12/2 cables.

If this was done AFTER the LOR box I don't see a problem, with the following caveat: all shared neutral outlets would have to be on the same 8-channel bank of an LOR controller

Otherwise, isn't this the same thing that people do with SP2 cord? The neutral won't get overloaded since the fuse on the LOR board guarantees a max of 15 or 20A of power. And the GFCI would go upstream from the LOR board...

Am I missing something/ reading this wrong?

Note that you would NOT be able to use these outlets (wired this way) as standard outlets with the LOR boards were removed -- that wouldn't meet code.

It does scare me a little bit to have something that looks like a standard outlet actually being a controlled (via LOR) outlet. What happens when someone plugs a leaf-blower in someday?

-Tim

[Guest guest]

Tim: I'm creating this as a drop cable that I will only run during the holidays. It will ONLY be used for LOR (or maybe X10) items.



hmmm.. just thought of something. If I use X10, I probably need the separate neutrals. well at least 2 of them.

[Guest guest]

OK... I am getting confused:) Is this "Drop cable" used to supply power to controlllers OR is it used to distribute power from controllers to the lights?

[Guest guest]

Dan:

To distribute power from a controller to the lights. Basically a custom made extension cord. Instead of using SPT2 and Vampire plugs, I want to use Romex and duplex boxes.

Michael

[Guest guest]

I think he means to do the same thing as the extension cords with multiple outlets. Like two in the middle and one on the end.

[Guest guest]

MichaelC wrote:

Dan:

To distribute power from a controller to the lights. Basically a custom made extension cord. Instead of using SPT2 and Vampire plugs, I want to use Romex and duplex boxes.

Michael

Ok... I was confused... Two things to remember about making these cords:

1. Make sure that you keep your hots and neutrals straight on the plug end and the receptical end...

2. If you use a CTB16D/LOR1602W with two power cords them make sure that you do not mix sides... That is, plug your multi-cord into channels 1-8 or 9-16 but do not use channels 1,2,9,10 for example.