I remember when they automated the lighting circuits at my job when I worked hardware retail... was really nice.... the lights would come on 10 minutes before we opened, and 1/3 of the lights would go off 5 minutes before we closed.... really nice setup! those contactors really were nice to have around...
Motor controls and industrial automation is probably the most interesting part of working as an electrician. A great video topic would be working as an industrial electrician doing troubleshooting of motor controls and automated process controls.
Love 💘You channel...I used contractor for my Christmas Lights circuits. I used 1 switch to control 3 different 20amp circuits for lights.. Keep up the good work & see you in your next video..
Contactors are functionally just like relays but have more robust make/break and arc control features for higher energy loads. The separate low energy (voltage and/or current) control circuit permits less robust, and therefore less expensive, switches and sensors to be used to control the high energy circuits. This also permits the high energy circuits to be optimized for power delivery without undo bulky and expensive cabling to operating stations.
Another great video! I love Shorts! You’ve really progressed a whole helluva lot as a content creator, dude. Videos are more succinct and informative lately. You use graphics and text to enhance your lecture. Good teaching practices all around. Please apply this to a new emt-bending video. I would so appreciate a not-45 minute video with graphics and close ups of the markings on the bender while bending. Thanks for everything. You rock.
The control circuit, could also be one of the line side circuit tapped before it gets to the contactor- run to time clock, and back to the coils--but usually a cotrol circuit is designated
Electrically they are pretty much a big relay, Mechanically they usually have two points of contact per circuit vs relays with a pivoting contact, this helps prevent the contacts from becoming welded (usually)
Very great channel you have there bud to get good info for us 👍 Maybe a video From this 4 brands QO - Eaton - Siemens And General electric of what u know are 100% trustworthy irrelevant the price or in what other you place them from 1 to 4 and why? And I saw panels on ur videos 100 - 125 -200 with many breakers 40 30 60 15 20 added together passing the main breaker of 125 200 100 is that important or irrelevant the main breaker number?
Can the contacts controlling the circuits be fed from the same phase. I know coil and contact circuits are each their own circuit but can those circuit be the same phase?
Asked our Allen Bradley salesman years ago who makes a quality long lasting IEC contactor. He said they all have a relative short live compared to a starter. So whenever you have the space replace garbage IEC cintactors with starters. We used to remove overload block on starters to save space when swapping out an IEC contactor. Stay away from all GE contactors & starters. GE startets inside of MCC buckets always make the bucket 30 degrees hotter due to high temperature of ge garbage coils. If you have a motor that turns on & off several times a minute best pratice is to use the next size contactor gor a long life.
Great video. Still learning a lot from your videos. Just slightly confused, let's say I have a battery and inverter :D. If the battery provides more current than it is suppose to, I want to break that circuit, I would use a closed contactor? Once the circuit is broken, I require a separate device to turn it back on, or would the contactor do that automatically after a set time period? Or am I thinking of a totally different device for this scenario? I have a dc circuit breaker set up in event of catastrophic faliure. Sometimes there are minor surges. Let's say, the max capacity is 10 A, i get a breaker that trips everything at 15A. I want a device, when the current is between 11A and 14A, it should turn off and turn back on when the current supplied is back down to 10A or less. I know for AC current there are these automatic circuit breakers that look at under/over voltage, under/over current, phase out of sync. I am looking for a similar device for DC current, I can't seem to find it online, nor can I find a name for it. My electrical knowledge = zero :D. Just learning things as I go along researching things.
There are automatic resetting circuit breakers for that small load in DC. Look for an ATC type self reset 10A breaker. But there is no way to stop a battery from supplying "too much" amperage, as a battery always wants to give everything it has all at once. The load, the inverter, is what limits the power draw, and the inverter bases this on the load put on it. The smarts to limit power draw need to be in the inverter itself or on load side to the inverter. The circuit breaker bwteeen the inverter and the battery is just a fail safe to keep fires from happening. Also, 12v 10A to the battery is very tiny, 120v 1A assuming 100% efficiency. I am guessing the 10A is on the 120v output side?
@@JasonW. thank you. I am trying to ensure I don't set the house on fire with this DIY project. Taking extra precautions, even though they may be unessary. The cells are 280Ah, lifepo4 cells. 48V, series configuration, 3.2v nominal voltage per cell. 16 cells will make up the battery. Gives about 12 hours backup at 1,000watt draw per hour. Wires going from the inverter to the house distribution box has circuit breakers (AC). BMS to cell for balancing = has glass fuse wires of 2A~3A. A BMS usually does 1A, most are 0.5A. Inverter to battery setup = Inverter>>Shunt>>BMS>>Battery The inverter will control the main input, max current and cut off voltage. BMS will be a fail-safe to cut off voltage in case for some reason the inverter has not cut off the supply. I want circuit breakers or something similar to cut off power in case of voltage or amp strikes. Possibly reconnect as well. This will provide a third layer of fail safe. There is a main dc circuit breaker for the battery to inverter, but the rating for tripping is beyong the max load. I want an automatic reconnecting one that is close to the max so as to protect devices in the whole setup. Does that make sense? Still trying to figure it out in my head.
@@asderven Considering what you just posted, you do know some about electrical. Check out marine hardware sites for boat electrical. That is where I bought parts for my DC side of my inverter. I run 3 banks of 2x 12v 100Ah batteries for 24v to the inverter. I have a 100A breaker between all 12v pairs, and also a 175A breaker at the input to the inverter. My chargers are 100% independent of the inverter, and balances by each 12v battery has its own charge line. My inverter smooths starts by soft start (slow rolling voltage to 120v in about 1.5 seconds). I then have circuit breakers from there controlling power output.
@@JasonW. great sounding set up. I am in Pakistan, sadly most of the recommendations I find online are not applicable in an easy way. The automotive part you mentioned is not carried by the local electrical stores around me (even the big ones). The car repair shops are like we will buy it for you, and you can buy it from us, I am like, no thank you. The car parts shop are very far from home about 2~3 hours drive, not doing that in Covid especially with lockdowns. Local store owners speak their own language, have their own jargon for things which makes sense to them (just like how pharmacists can read doctor's handwriting). I usually find what I want after talking things over and describing the details. Don't have the easy marine site information or online websites that I can browse, except aliexpress. Aliexpress has a 3 month shipping wait time. Trying to source a local shop that is a single stop and caters to most of what I want, so far little luck, everyone carries a specific thing, but not all. The person who carries connectors and terminals will not have heat shrink. Neither of those two will carry crimping tools. Lots of running around, but with time I am getting better. All that I know about electrical is from reading. Haven't made any setups yet, so still clueless on the practical side. Doing things with your own hands is the quickest way to learn and understand things. To me it sounds like I just need a normal circuit breaker, in case of massive failure events to cut the power off. I'll add an extra switch on the battery side, that will cut off the battery for me, when I want to change wiring or install new parts to the system. I'll keep on reading online forums for lithium batteries, watch youtube videos to find best practices. I often find that people on online forum use a cheaper solution, rather than a slightly more expensive but headache free solution. I prefer to set up solar system and forget about them. That is how they are supposed to work (once all the settings are done properly).
I'm looking to setup lighting contactors & timer switch relays for a project. I'm trying to connect 10 - 240v outlets. 20 Lights will pull 4.2amps each @ 240v. Any recommendations on contactor brands or configuration? Any help much appreciated.
if you have a solid state relay the contacts will open the circuit when there is no light from the primary side of the relay light hitting the semiconductor.
What do you mean by three circuits on the contact and one circuit on the coil? I thought if three circuits coming from the pane!, then you have three circuits going out from the coil/control? Thanks in advance man
Remember the source (typically low voltage) that supplies current to the coil is different from the source (typically high voltage) that supplies current to the load. In essence you can have three live conductors coming from a high voltage panel to the contactor that will supply current to the three separate loads when it closes. But to actually operate the contactor, there will be one separate coil circuit wired to a switch coming from a low voltage panel. The coil is just there to open and close the contacts but does not physically interface with the load. I hope this explanation helps.
The coil circuit is a switch leg so it's a controlling circuit and is only energized when switch or switches are activated, be they pneumatic, modular or mechanical...
Contactors: A new, useless division of the government that bothers you at all hours of the day and night to make sure you're "quarantining yourself" after coming back from a trip to the USA.
DUDE, I COULD TEACH YOU MORE IF YOU LET ME. MOST CONTACTORS I WORKED WITH ARE 3 PHASE. AND MOST SINGLE PHASE CONTACTORS ARE USED FOR LIGHTING PARKS, BALL FIELDS, ETC.
I remember when they automated the lighting circuits at my job when I worked hardware retail... was really nice.... the lights would come on 10 minutes before we opened, and 1/3 of the lights would go off 5 minutes before we closed.... really nice setup! those contactors really were nice to have around...
Motor controls and industrial automation is probably the most interesting part of working as an electrician.
A great video topic would be working as an industrial electrician doing troubleshooting of motor controls and automated process controls.
💯💯 no one really got videos out on that topic
Love 💘You channel...I used contractor for my Christmas Lights circuits. I used 1 switch to control 3 different 20amp circuits for lights.. Keep up the good work & see you in your next video..
Contactors are functionally just like relays but have more robust make/break and arc control features for higher energy loads. The separate low energy (voltage and/or current) control circuit permits less robust, and therefore less expensive, switches and sensors to be used to control the high energy circuits. This also permits the high energy circuits to be optimized for power delivery without undo bulky and expensive cabling to operating stations.
Another great video! I love Shorts! You’ve really progressed a whole helluva lot as a content creator, dude. Videos are more succinct and informative lately. You use graphics and text to enhance your lecture. Good teaching practices all around. Please apply this to a new emt-bending video. I would so appreciate a not-45 minute video with graphics and close ups of the markings on the bender while bending. Thanks for everything. You rock.
Second!
Dude I have learned SO MUCH from watching your videos, thanks.
The control circuit, could also be one of the line side circuit tapped before it gets to the contactor- run to time clock, and back to the coils--but usually a cotrol circuit is designated
From a sparky.... nice work on this video!
per usual, great instruction and teaching brother
Great vid !! Explained very well
Excellent video as always
super video man!!! excellent. fantastic
Just to add you can also add overloads to the contacts to make “starters” for controlling motors and such.
Dig these short vids👍🏻
Electrically they are pretty much a big relay, Mechanically they usually have two points of contact per circuit vs relays with a pivoting contact, this helps prevent the contacts from becoming welded (usually)
Life saver brother thank you!!!!!!!
This depresses the life out of as I know nothing ever though I thought I did
Awesome job thank you so much
Very great channel you have there bud to get good info for us 👍
Maybe a video From this 4 brands QO - Eaton - Siemens And General electric of what u know are 100% trustworthy irrelevant the price or in what other you place them from 1 to 4 and why?
And I saw panels on ur videos 100 - 125 -200 with many breakers 40 30 60 15 20 added together passing the main breaker of 125 200 100 is that important or irrelevant the main breaker number?
Amazing content! Could we possibly get transformer information delta or Y configuration
He already made a video on that just go look through his videos on his page
Can the contacts controlling the circuits be fed from the same phase. I know coil and contact circuits are each their own circuit but can those circuit be the same phase?
Asked our Allen Bradley salesman years ago who makes a quality long lasting IEC contactor. He said they all have a relative short live compared to a starter. So whenever you have the space replace garbage IEC cintactors with starters. We used to remove overload block on starters to save space when swapping out an IEC contactor. Stay away from all GE contactors & starters. GE startets inside of MCC buckets always make the bucket 30 degrees hotter due to high temperature of ge garbage coils. If you have a motor that turns on & off several times a minute best pratice is to use the next size contactor gor a long life.
Great Info. Thanks
Great video. Still learning a lot from your videos. Just slightly confused, let's say I have a battery and inverter :D. If the battery provides more current than it is suppose to, I want to break that circuit, I would use a closed contactor? Once the circuit is broken, I require a separate device to turn it back on, or would the contactor do that automatically after a set time period? Or am I thinking of a totally different device for this scenario?
I have a dc circuit breaker set up in event of catastrophic faliure. Sometimes there are minor surges. Let's say, the max capacity is 10 A, i get a breaker that trips everything at 15A. I want a device, when the current is between 11A and 14A, it should turn off and turn back on when the current supplied is back down to 10A or less. I know for AC current there are these automatic circuit breakers that look at under/over voltage, under/over current, phase out of sync. I am looking for a similar device for DC current, I can't seem to find it online, nor can I find a name for it.
My electrical knowledge = zero :D. Just learning things as I go along researching things.
There are automatic resetting circuit breakers for that small load in DC. Look for an ATC type self reset 10A breaker.
But there is no way to stop a battery from supplying "too much" amperage, as a battery always wants to give everything it has all at once. The load, the inverter, is what limits the power draw, and the inverter bases this on the load put on it.
The smarts to limit power draw need to be in the inverter itself or on load side to the inverter. The circuit breaker bwteeen the inverter and the battery is just a fail safe to keep fires from happening.
Also, 12v 10A to the battery is very tiny, 120v 1A assuming 100% efficiency. I am guessing the 10A is on the 120v output side?
@@JasonW. thank you. I am trying to ensure I don't set the house on fire with this DIY project. Taking extra precautions, even though they may be unessary. The cells are 280Ah, lifepo4 cells. 48V, series configuration, 3.2v nominal voltage per cell. 16 cells will make up the battery. Gives about 12 hours backup at 1,000watt draw per hour.
Wires going from the inverter to the house distribution box has circuit breakers (AC). BMS to cell for balancing = has glass fuse wires of 2A~3A. A BMS usually does 1A, most are 0.5A.
Inverter to battery setup = Inverter>>Shunt>>BMS>>Battery
The inverter will control the main input, max current and cut off voltage. BMS will be a fail-safe to cut off voltage in case for some reason the inverter has not cut off the supply.
I want circuit breakers or something similar to cut off power in case of voltage or amp strikes. Possibly reconnect as well. This will provide a third layer of fail safe. There is a main dc circuit breaker for the battery to inverter, but the rating for tripping is beyong the max load. I want an automatic reconnecting one that is close to the max so as to protect devices in the whole setup.
Does that make sense? Still trying to figure it out in my head.
@@asderven Considering what you just posted, you do know some about electrical.
Check out marine hardware sites for boat electrical. That is where I bought parts for my DC side of my inverter.
I run 3 banks of 2x 12v 100Ah batteries for 24v to the inverter. I have a 100A breaker between all 12v pairs, and also a 175A breaker at the input to the inverter.
My chargers are 100% independent of the inverter, and balances by each 12v battery has its own charge line.
My inverter smooths starts by soft start (slow rolling voltage to 120v in about 1.5 seconds). I then have circuit breakers from there controlling power output.
@@JasonW. great sounding set up. I am in Pakistan, sadly most of the recommendations I find online are not applicable in an easy way. The automotive part you mentioned is not carried by the local electrical stores around me (even the big ones). The car repair shops are like we will buy it for you, and you can buy it from us, I am like, no thank you. The car parts shop are very far from home about 2~3 hours drive, not doing that in Covid especially with lockdowns.
Local store owners speak their own language, have their own jargon for things which makes sense to them (just like how pharmacists can read doctor's handwriting). I usually find what I want after talking things over and describing the details. Don't have the easy marine site information or online websites that I can browse, except aliexpress. Aliexpress has a 3 month shipping wait time. Trying to source a local shop that is a single stop and caters to most of what I want, so far little luck, everyone carries a specific thing, but not all. The person who carries connectors and terminals will not have heat shrink. Neither of those two will carry crimping tools. Lots of running around, but with time I am getting better.
All that I know about electrical is from reading. Haven't made any setups yet, so still clueless on the practical side. Doing things with your own hands is the quickest way to learn and understand things.
To me it sounds like I just need a normal circuit breaker, in case of massive failure events to cut the power off. I'll add an extra switch on the battery side, that will cut off the battery for me, when I want to change wiring or install new parts to the system. I'll keep on reading online forums for lithium batteries, watch youtube videos to find best practices. I often find that people on online forum use a cheaper solution, rather than a slightly more expensive but headache free solution. I prefer to set up solar system and forget about them. That is how they are supposed to work (once all the settings are done properly).
I'm looking to setup lighting contactors & timer switch relays for a project. I'm trying to connect 10 - 240v outlets. 20 Lights will pull 4.2amps each @ 240v. Any recommendations on contactor brands or configuration? Any help much appreciated.
What happens if I apply a higher voltage than what the coil is rated for? Eg.(220v to a 120v rated coil?)
Good stuff 👍🏻
Great Job thx a bunch.
In what instances would you need to choose between installing a normally closed or normally open contact?
Enjoy your videos on electrical.
how to test the coil in normally open which close and engages power its on Welder a Square D 3 pole switch SQ D Class 8910
There is a spring to disconnect the contactor when relay coil is not energized...
if you have a solid state relay the contacts will open the circuit when there is no light from the primary side of the relay light hitting the semiconductor.
Fuckin love the vids !
Contactors are also good for use in 3 phase systems, like a 3 phase relay.
Why do we use purple in Houston but others use orange
What do you mean by three circuits on the contact and one circuit on the coil? I thought if three circuits coming from the pane!, then you have three circuits going out from the coil/control? Thanks in advance man
Remember the source (typically low voltage) that supplies current to the coil is different from the source (typically high voltage) that supplies current to the load.
In essence you can have three live conductors coming from a high voltage panel to the contactor that will supply current to the three separate loads when it closes. But to actually operate the contactor, there will be one separate coil circuit wired to a switch coming from a low voltage panel. The coil is just there to open and close the contacts but does not physically interface with the load.
I hope this explanation helps.
The coil circuit is a switch leg so it's a controlling circuit and is only energized when switch or switches are activated, be they pneumatic, modular or mechanical...
Thank you both. That makes sense
Contactors: A new, useless division of the government that bothers you at all hours of the day and night to make sure you're "quarantining yourself" after coming back from a trip to the USA.
The only contactors i know is on an AC, and its not iron!
😕
Replace "Contactors" with "Contractors" 😂😂😂
DUDE, I COULD TEACH YOU MORE IF YOU LET ME. MOST CONTACTORS I WORKED WITH ARE 3 PHASE. AND MOST SINGLE PHASE CONTACTORS ARE USED FOR LIGHTING PARKS, BALL FIELDS, ETC.