My house has a partially finished attic that is heated by a 60" electric strip
heater. The attic was finished by the previous owner and we almost never use
it, except for storage. We have never needed to use the heater, which was
always a good thing, as it buzzed very loudly and emitted quite a bit of
ozone. I have kept the circuit breaker turned off, just because I never
really trusted the damn thing. However, we are going to have a full house
over Xmas and will need to use the attic and keep it warm. So, 4 years after
moving into the house, I finally have to try to fix it.
I decided to see if the ozone (I am assuming that is what it is) went away if
the heater was left on for a little while. While the smoke alarm went off a
couple of minutes after we turned it on, the smell went away and alarm didn't
come back on. So, one problem down. The buzzing was a different story. It
buzzes whenever the heater cycles on, stops when the thermostat turns it off.
I pulled the covers looking for obvious causes, thought I found a couple, but
fixing them did nothing. The buzzing is coming from the heating element,
which has aluminum fins on it and nothing seems to stop it. My first question
is if anyone has any idea why a heating element would buzz and what to do
about it, but I discovered something even more puzzling when I was working on
it.
The heater is controlled by a 20 Amp 220v circuit breaker. I always just
assumed it was a 220v heater (there is another one in the house that was
installed about the same time). But, when I had the covers off I noticed that
the labels indicate it is a 22 Amp, 120 volt heater. I checked the fuse box
and the voltage at the unit and it is definitely wired for 220; both the white
and black wires were hot. Thinking that too much power might somehow cause
the buzzing I replaced the 220 breaker with a 120 one and re-routed the white
wire to the neutral buss. Heater still buzzes.
I can just replace the damn thing, but this is driving me crazy. I am always
hesitant to "correct" a professional's mistake. Is there some reason why an
electrician would have wired a 120 volt heater to 220 volts? Any ideas about
the buzzing? As always, any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Jim
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2008
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