Hello all,
I have recently built a relay box that is controlled by a digital timer. I followed a post on here about building one and I am pretty confident I did everything correctly. I built this out of my concern for safety and my distrust for cheap digital timers, even the "heavy duty" ones.
This was built to handle 30 amps (except the power cord, which is rated for 15). This is WAY overkill for my lighting, which is only a T5 fixture that draws just under 2 amps @ 120 V.
I have already tested the relay and it appears to work just fine, however there is something weird about it and its power draw. My question is this: Does the relay itself consume a small amount of power when it is engaged?
When I hook up my Kill-A-Watt Meter to the power cable going to the wall outlet, it shows 0 Watts when the relay is disengaged, and 8 watts when the relay is engaged. I immediately thought this was because of the digital timer's own power draw. However, when I hooked up the Kill-A-Watt meter to the digital timer to measure the current actually going through the timer, it shows 0 watts all the time, doesn't matter if the relay is engaged or not.
I tried a different digital timer and had the same result, 8 watt power draw when the relay is engaged. So the power draw HAS to be coming from somewhere else besides the timer. But where? Is this normal for a relay to draw power even though nothing is plugged into it?
Anyone that is knowledgable, please look at my pictures here and tell me if you see anything wrong. I know I used a wrong color wire for the Nuetral(-) from the control cable, should be white but it is red. All Nuetrals(-) join together at the power cable's Nuetral(-) wire. I greatly appreciate any help or adivce given!
I have recently built a relay box that is controlled by a digital timer. I followed a post on here about building one and I am pretty confident I did everything correctly. I built this out of my concern for safety and my distrust for cheap digital timers, even the "heavy duty" ones.
This was built to handle 30 amps (except the power cord, which is rated for 15). This is WAY overkill for my lighting, which is only a T5 fixture that draws just under 2 amps @ 120 V.
I have already tested the relay and it appears to work just fine, however there is something weird about it and its power draw. My question is this: Does the relay itself consume a small amount of power when it is engaged?
When I hook up my Kill-A-Watt Meter to the power cable going to the wall outlet, it shows 0 Watts when the relay is disengaged, and 8 watts when the relay is engaged. I immediately thought this was because of the digital timer's own power draw. However, when I hooked up the Kill-A-Watt meter to the digital timer to measure the current actually going through the timer, it shows 0 watts all the time, doesn't matter if the relay is engaged or not.
I tried a different digital timer and had the same result, 8 watt power draw when the relay is engaged. So the power draw HAS to be coming from somewhere else besides the timer. But where? Is this normal for a relay to draw power even though nothing is plugged into it?
Anyone that is knowledgable, please look at my pictures here and tell me if you see anything wrong. I know I used a wrong color wire for the Nuetral(-) from the control cable, should be white but it is red. All Nuetrals(-) join together at the power cable's Nuetral(-) wire. I greatly appreciate any help or adivce given!
