Shocking Question

[fpweeks]

I built a control panel for my fermentors and glycol chiller. It consists of three love temp controllers, one a single channel and the other two dual channel.

The single channel love controller is used to turn on the AC unit to chill the glycol.

The dual channel controller are for two separate conical fermentors. The cold channel is wired to one half of a duplex outlet which i plug my glycol circulation pump into.

The hot channel is wired to the other half of the duplex outlet, to power flex watt which is wrapped around the conical fermentor.

So its all wired, and everything operates properly. I have checked continuity with a continuity tester and everything checks out. All the controllers are programmed and work as expected.

Here's where its gets interesting.

I was cleaning my conicals the other day in prep for their first use, and honestly a test run to see how low i could get the temp in them....and i got a shock from touching the stainless. The control panel at this point was plugged in, and the flex-watt was also plugged in. However the main power switch was off, and the power switch which turns on/off the love controller was off.

Theoretically there should be no power to the flex-watt, as there are two separate switches in the off position. For a sanity check i plugged the flex-watt into my ranco.....no shock.

I again checked everything for continuity thinking i had a short somewhere....but it all seems to check out. When i check voltage, i seem to have a small voltage leaking through the main switch.....is this my problem? Is this normal? My multimeter shows like 3-5 Volts....

I'm by no means an electrician, but i have enough knowledge and experience to be dangerous....i did successfully wire up a Kal Klone panel....

Looking for my suggestions as to what to troubleshoot next?!

 

[fpweeks]

Heres a couple of pics......

 

[Brumateur]

May be it was s static?

Most likely your 3-5V is not a leakage but just inducted on high impendanse floating voltmeter inputs.

 

[ingchr1]

Maybe its coming from the neutral.

 

[fpweeks]

Thats what i thought.....but by checking continuity shouldn't it rule that out?

 

[fpweeks]

@ ingchr1 whereabout's in OC are you from? Im right across the river from Port Jervis.....

 

[processhead]

Is your conical grounded?
As a rule, if it has any power devices connected to it, a metal vessel should be grounded. It sounds like you have some leakage current energizing the conical despite your panel being off.

Ideally you will locate and correct the source of the leakage, but until that happens your have a potential safety issue on your hands.

Apologies for not being more familiar with the specifics about the equipment you mentioned. My comments on grounding are based on general best-practices for electrical equipment.

 

[ingchr1]

@ ingchr1 whereabout's in OC are you from? Im right across the river from Port Jervis.....

Salisbury Mills

 

[mattd2]

May be it was s static?

Most likely your 3-5V is not a leakage but just inducted on high impendanse floating voltmeter inputs.

I would guess static too if there was no continuity.
I did have the thought of induced current in the conical from the heat wrap, but then remembered it was turned off - I wonder if it will be an issue though?

 

[ChuckO]

Are you in an older building? I used to live in an old house that had been "re-wired" by more than one person. Neutral bonding to ground was corroded and some outlets were wired backwards. This led me to a deep freeze that would shock you when touching the handle. The neutral side of the plug was actually on the powered line and had a leakage to the frame of the freezer. You might have a similar condition.

 

[fpweeks]

@chucko That sounds like it could be the problem. How would i go about checking that? Check Continuity between the ground an dthe outlet?

Its not Static Electricity.....trust me.

 

[MSPEROS]

I would start with one of these to check your outlets. Then start isolating items from your system until you find the one that is energizing your conicals. I would also bound to ground anything metal in your system

 

[fpweeks]

Do you think voltage leaking through the main switch is my problem? It's small......like 3-5 volts.

I'm getting one if those outlet checkers but I'm pretty sure the problem is in my control box because when I plug the flex watt into my ranco I don't get shocked.



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