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Help understanding kiln & electrical requirements


killacarly

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Your house is 240V so I suggest you use that nameplate rating. Neil is correct in that finding the actual rating for the kiln you get will be most important. Hopefully you have an actual electrician that can help you with this as I have just returned from two separate favors where the wiring was not sized correctly for the distance. In one case the wiring was in excess of 100 feet away and in the second case the wiring was in a home within fifty feet. In the first case it was a design error where distance was not taken into account and in the second  case the wire was sized right at the margins and its length became a significant issue.

Finally not to scare you but I just finished a studio kiln that ended up having a defective molded plug. I was lucky to notice the issue and confirmed it with an infrared camera (not something folks commonly have for their use). The reason I bring this up is with a slightly defective plug we estimated that that simple amount of overheating just in the cord was extending common firings for up to three hours longer. Not a good use of electricity, especially if you are paying for it. Oh, when we changed the plug the hours were back to the expected automatic firing times.

Finally we have started a you tube channel at Madison Pottery and are sharing simple fixes, deigns, etc....  with the art community. I have accumulated a reasonable amount of kiln repair footage and will start uploading within the next month or so. Your issue is a reminder that this is a section folks will need.  From element repair to thermocouples to basic wiring, we should have some interesting stuff that may help you in the future.

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