by Windowfarms
IMPORTANT: Electrical Safety Update
1:04 am in Uncategorized by Windowfarms
IMPORTANT ELECTRICAL SAFETY UPDATE TO ALL WINDOWFARMS INSTRUCTIONS
1. The cords for you pump, all lights, and any other electrical equipment near your windowfarm should make a “U-shape” dip before before coming back up to the outlet to ensure that water will never reach the wall plug under any circumstances. In this configuration, if a water droplet lands on the cord, gravity will drag it down the bottom of the dip and it will go to the floor instead of going into the electrical socket . This is called a drip-loop (Click the link for more information).
2. Water containers should never be located directly above a wall plug.
Please check your windowfarm to make sure you have your cords oriented to comply with this! Thanks! – Britta
Another method of protection would be to have a “gfi” outlet installed.
Electrical Safety is paramount, and though I like may of you good people just became actively interested due to the NPR publicity, please take note of the following: Always pay attention to the usage of “polarized plugs”…they are configured so that the neutral is the fat blade that plugs into a wall socket and also the neutral wire is always identified by a stripe of some type on it. If you do any daisy-chaining of circuits, make certain that all of your plug ins have either polarized plugs or, barring that, all the wires with a stripe are inserted into the fat part of the receptacles. If you have access to a voltmeter, select a range higher than your local utility voltage, and be certain as well that you are selected to AC Volts and not DC Volts; you can connect one lead to a ground point on your receptacle…usually the captive screw of the cover plate or if a three prong outlet, the single round fat one..and thence check your system completely to detect any spurious voltages that may be present to ensure the neutral side is grounded as well as the hot side not available to hurt you or present a possible fire hazard. I am happy to answer further any questions in these regards. If only one person is spared a zap I feel these efforts worthwhile. Any and all electrical questions cheerfully, promptly and accurately answered.
As an addendum or as an aside; I would encourage the usage of a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupting ( G.F.C.I. ) type outlet. If you are confident of your abilities to install one, make sure to disconnect all power whilst doing so. These devices are usually available for less than (US)$10 and it is permissible in all jurisdictions to install one in a two wire circuit ( one lacking an independent grounded bare copper or green wire ) by affixing the sticker that comes in the package that states this circuit is not grounded. The instructions that come with these units are comprehensive but failure to de-energize the circuit is the most common source of difficulties. If you feel the least bit spooky, either contact me or a preferably licensed electrician. Be Safe.
Also, all electrical devices in contact with water can be connected via a ground fault interrupting plug. Usually available at any hardware store. They will cut out in 1/10000th of a second, and save you in the event of a short. Can buy them here: http://www.healthyhomemall.com/gfci-electrical-protectors.asp
Thank you to all of you for contributing these improvements!!
Second the GFI, very useful =)
GFI is only good to prevent you getting electrocuted, the drip loop protects the outlet and circuit from corrosion and potential fire from shorting.
Retired Electrical Engineer, so I fully support the GFCI outlet here and every where else!
Good Idea! I will incorporate this into my design! GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) also a good idea THANKS!!
I try to think of the drip-loop as a first-line preventative means of stopping a system failure. If you have a leak, and the water drop drips down safely to the end of the drip loop, you have a system that is still operational. If you fail to use a drip-loop, but you have a GFCI, it will cut out the circuit – again safe – but now you have a system that is completely shut down until you press the Reset button.
Using a GFCI is a tried-and-true way of reducing the risk of electrocution and fire caused by any type of short in the system, but the common-sense drip-loop should be employed in addition. Plus, as mentioned, design your system to keep water as far away from the electrics as possible, and certainly don’t have a water container directly over the plug or pump.
Finding this information made me smile today. Always good to see people keeping an eye out for the safety of others!
A quick question with, I am sure, no quick answer.
I am building a top reservior system.
A 23 watt water pump, on a timer, gets the water to the top of the resevoir, and gravity feeds it down. Simple!
But what if a pipe were to disconnect, leak, or water to leave the system unexpectedly?
I would then have the pump still working with NO WATER.
An obvious fire and electrcal hazard!!
Does anyone know of a way to make the system detect, then shut down, in such an event.
As I am building this in my work place I don’t want to come in 7 days a week to check on it.
I have no clue as how to solve this one.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And I wil try my best to return the favour.
Cheers!
@ciaran
First of all, I would advise making a full post about this. Go to the gray dropdown bar at the top of the page My Posts > New Post. Putting it on the comments here will not get you as much traffic and input as the front page will. I would also use the tags and categories on the right side when you make a post.
I do not have a great answer for you myself but others might if you make a post, they are more likely to see it.
This is one of the limitations of the v1 design and one of the reasons why we moved away from it. AVoiding pump burn out with the delicate relationship between pump on time and reservoir fill level is an age old problem. People have been wrestling with a similar issue in aquarium keeping when you have what is called a sump, an external tank. There are many solutions, but they start to get expensive, and most of them are not designed to work inside a 4-6″ diameter tube.
For the v1 system with the reservoirs, we precisely calculated the water for a filled condition in the bottom reservoir. We set the reservoir size minimum to be the amount that would not drain in less than 1 minute with the recommended pump’s GPH settings. However, evaporation can cause the drain time to vary, as can accidents, like you mention. Over time, I just ended up losing too many expensive water pumps to exactly this kind of problem. That said, if you are a fan on v1 as many are, go for it!!
Here are some ideas:
You could try using a float valve hooked up to a kill switch on an A/C power controller. Just keep in mind that controlling an outlet hooked up to your wall’s A/C (as opposed to a battery operated DC pump) is much more risky (don’t zap yourself!!), complex, and costly.
A float valve basically detects how high the water level is. They are used in aquariums, in (back on my family’s ranch) water troughs for horses and cattle, and the back of your toilet. They come in many forms. You need a float valve that can connect to the pump’s power supply line. If you could find one, you would need to make sure you could mount it in the reservoir and it would still work, so it probably needs to be really small.
If you figure this out, will you please take pictures along the way and come back and post your results? I’m sure a lot of v1ers would love to see your technique.
-Britta