Installation Questions

[janderson13]

1) I noticed the manual for the CT installation has the following:

"The CT leads are routed in such a way that they are not
against live terminals and that there is no danger of the
leads being pinched or damaged when the panel cover is
re-installed."

My understanding of the above is that the wires from the CTs should not touch breaker or bus terminals (metal crews, metal connectors, etc. - probably to help prevent the CT leads from being damaged by a sharp edge cutting the insulation, etc.). But, it is ok if the CT leads touch "hot" wires from other breakers (of course these "hot" wires have their red or black insulation in tact). I just want to verify that if the CT leads touch other "hot" wires that monitoring accuracy will not be affected.

2) Can I utilize one CT to monitor more than 1 circuit? Say I have two circuits close to one another (or the wires are close to one another at a given point). Can I disconnec each wire from their respective breaker, run it through the CT, then connect it back to the respective breaker. This would seem to be the same as utilizing two CTs? If this is possible, do the circuits need to to be on the same phase?

Hopefully my terminology is somewhat correct

Any help greatly appreciated

Jeff

[ben]

1) I noticed the manual for the CT installation has the following:

"The CT leads are routed in such a way that they are not
against live terminals and that there is no danger of the
leads being pinched or damaged when the panel cover is
re-installed."

My understanding of the above is that the wires from the CTs should not touch breaker or bus terminals (metal crews, metal connectors, etc. - probably to help prevent the CT leads from being damaged by a sharp edge cutting the insulation, etc.). But, it is ok if the CT leads touch "hot" wires from other breakers (of course these "hot" wires have their red or black insulation in tact). I just want to verify that if the CT leads touch other "hot" wires that monitoring accuracy will not be affected.

Shouldn't be a problem if it's only touching the insulation on the wires.

2) Can I utilize one CT to monitor more than 1 circuit? Say I have two circuits close to one another (or the wires are close to one another at a given point). Can I disconnec each wire from their respective breaker, run it through the CT, then connect it back to the respective breaker. This would seem to be the same as utilizing two CTs? If this is possible, do the circuits need to to be on the same phase?

You can do this with 120V loads, but I would not suggest doing so with 240V loads. If you want to do so with 240V loads, you'll have to make sure that the wires combined within a CT are on the same phase.

That being said, I don't think it would be possible to fit 2 CT leads through our Micro 40s. You might be able to do so with the Micro 80s, but it'd be a tight fit.

[pjeski]

Wouldn't the two (or more) wires going through a single CT need to be on the same phase, and in the same same direction, regardless of the voltage?

[ben]

Yea, I got mixed up.

[janderson13]

thanks for the info I had already wired this and it was working fine. I'm using micro 80s and I have two 12 guage wiring passing through it. I might be able to get a third. This is nice for situations where the number of breakers for a channel would exceed 5 (because I think 5 is the max).

One suggestion that I might mention to others to keep the CTs in the correct direction for phase:

1) Take the 1st breaker and choose a direction - I choose to have the wire leads closest to breaker as shown in the manual on page 10.
2) The next breaker down would have the CT wires away from the breaker.
3) the third breaker down would have the CT wire leads closest to the breaker again.
4) If you stick with this method the CTs will always be in the correct direction when using mutliple CTs for a channel.

The above might seem obvious to some and is even somewhat referenced in the manual on page 10, but the manual appears to be speaking to a specific channel and not the panel as a whole? I'm suggesting you do it for the panel as a whole. If you don't have a plan and you just chose a direction for each CT depending on the channel, then if you later decide to move CTs to different channels you will have to try to figure out what "direction" the CT was in and whether that is compatible with your new configuration. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the great product!

[ben]

thanks for the info I had already wired this and it was working fine. I'm using micro 80s and I have two 12 guage wiring passing through it. I might be able to get a third. This is nice for situations where the number of breakers for a channel would exceed 5 (because I think 5 is the max).

One suggestion that I might mention to others to keep the CTs in the correct direction for phase:

1) Take the 1st breaker and choose a direction - I choose to have the wire leads closest to breaker as shown in the manual on page 10.
2) The next breaker down would have the CT wires away from the breaker.
3) the third breaker down would have the CT wire leads closest to the breaker again.
4) If you stick with this method the CTs will always be in the correct direction when using mutliple CTs for a channel.

The above might seem obvious to some and is even somewhat referenced in the manual on page 10, but the manual appears to be speaking to a specific channel and not the panel as a whole? I'm suggesting you do it for the panel as a whole. If you don't have a plan and you just chose a direction for each CT depending on the channel, then if you later decide to move CTs to different channels you will have to try to figure out what "direction" the CT was in and whether that is compatible with your new configuration. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the great product!

You'll want to make sure you don't exceed the amperage of the CT when feeding multiple wires through the CT.