MASTER ELECTRICIAN DAD TEACHES APPRENTICE SON ABOUT CONTACTORS AND COMMERCIAL ELECTRICIAN TIPS!

I'm teaching my son. I might as well teach you. This is a contactor. There are two parts of a contactor. There's the contacts themselves and there's a coil. Okay. Now, this is an older style, more fancier lighting control contacttor from Square D. This is a 12pole contactor. 12 pole contactor from Square D. Now, Chris, where you at? >> Now, going on everybody. It's Garrett Electrician family on YouTube and uh Hendy the Sparky. You've seen Hendy the Sparky? >> Yep. >> This is more of a contactor you're probably used to seeing. This one's actually even more. This is by Schneider Electric. This is Square D. Schneider Electric. You're probably used to seeing these. This is a contactor. And this is a contactor. This contactor is a lighting contactor. This contactor is designed to turn on or off 12 circuits, single pole circuits at one time. >> Never seen that. >> Now, Chris, I'm going to ask you a question. >> Yeah. >> What are the two parts of a contactor and how do they operate? >> The two parts of the conttor are the these two main terminals right here and that's called the uh open closed. That's where the hot and the neutral go. >> And that's called the >> contacttor. Hot and neutral. >> The coil. >> The coil. >> See, I'm telling you guys, that's one of the reasons why I went live and we're doing this video cuz I was shocked at how both my kids didn't know what a contactor was. So, I invite you to stick around. I'm going to show you real quick. We're not going to be here live because long because it's Saturday now. So, Chris >> Mhm. >> if I were to energize this coil. Yeah. >> What would happen >> if you energize the coil? It's going to close. It's going to It's Oh, it's going to release a electromagnetic frequency. Magnetic frequency. >> Okay. You You mean a magnetic field? >> Magnetic field. >> Okay. I I'll have to take that. >> But basically, I was looking for it'll change state. In other words, when you energize this coil, it'll actually expel it'll push away. This is a steel uh part right here. Okay, this is steel right here. So, it's magnetic, right? And when the coil energizes, that coil is forcing this steel up. Okay, and when it does that, it closes these contacts. And we can demonstrate that real quick on the voltmeter, but we don't need to do that now. Let's try and even energize this. So, what we're going to do is we're going to put in a a temporary cord. >> We're going to uh get the coil. >> We're going to energize this coil. >> Okay. >> Now, how am I going to energize this coil? What's the first thing I want to do? >> You're going to want to put the the the hot and the neutral right here. >> Okay, guys. He's correct. He's correct. But what we we want to be clear is the first thing we want to do is we want to determine what the coil voltage is. A contactor is such a prevailing part of what we work on every day. It is how we control motors, how we control machinery. Contacttors are very powerful in what we use. The first thing we want to do is determine what is the coil voltage. There are some contacttors that have a 480 volt coil voltage. Some are 120, some are 208, some are 24 volt, some are 12 volt. So we first thing we want to do is determine what is the coil voltage. So Chris tell me what the coil voltage is. >> 120 volts. >> 120 volts. So basically we need to put 120 volts across this coil to do what? to turn it on >> to energize >> to energize it. >> Right. Let's do that right now with this cord. >> Okay. >> Let's make a temporary suicide cord. Now, daddy's right here with you. [clears throat] And I'll hold your hand, but let's talk about how we're going to strip this. Can you strip that cable for me? Can you strip this SJ cord? This hard usage cord. Let's see if my son can strip this cord. What do you mainly use? Do you use a stripper or >> Forget it. I'll do it. Back away. >> Use a razor knife. >> It doesn't matter. I can use anything. Whatever I have right in front of me. Give me something. I'll pick anything. What do you want me to use? >> I'm going to use the Kipics. How's that? >> Okay. >> So, what I'm going to do is look, I'm just going to take it and I'm going to score the jacket here >> and I'm just going to strip it back. >> I'll keep scoring it. >> Yeah. >> Till I can get it to bite through. >> Okay. Right. >> Yep. >> So, we don't need the ground. So, we're just going to snip it off. And now we're going to strip it. Now, Chris, I want you to attach this wire >> anywhere you think. Okay. We got neutral and we got hot. Neutral and hot. Go ahead, Chris. Attach that. I want you to attach that to the coil. Oh, I like this client. Now, while he's doing that, what he should be looking for is the terminals labeled A1 and A2. Contacttors all have the coil designated as the letter A1 and A2. >> This is going >> wrong. >> Does it go like that? >> You don't put it on that side. Put it on the other side. >> This guy. >> No, no, no, no, no. I meant on the other side of the >> Where's it go, >> guys? There's another lesson, right? I thought it would go right there. >> You want to go on this side of the screw. >> Okay. Even though there's a flange here, >> when you put a wire behind a screw, you want to tighten it and the wire pull into the connection. Okay. Do it again. Put it on there. Now, let's say that we want a customer wanted us to install uh one light switch at the entrance of a warehouse so that when the manager comes in, they want to turn one switch on and the whole facility goes on and then when they leave, they want one switch to turn the entire facility off. Which contactor would you use and how would you wire it? And that's what we're going to show you right now. You guys like these? I'm more of a fan of this. You got it wired. I'm more of a fan of this. Oh, my son says he's got it wired. Let me see what you did. Back away. >> How's that? >> That's awful, bro. How >> I mean, I get it. It's just temporary, but look how much you have sticking out here. >> Oh, am I supposed to wrap it? >> No, but I mean, you should have trimmed it a little bit, right? >> Okay. So now let me ask you if we were to plug this in right now. >> What would happen? >> It would start energized. It just get energized. >> Do you have the guts to plug it in? >> Yeah. >> Go ahead. Let's see you plug it in. Let's move this out of the way. Okay. Is it going to ring? Is it going to like do a chime or something? >> I don't know. Let's do a countdown. >> Countdown, guys. Let's do a countdown. >> Five. We have 179 people listen watching. >> Let's do a countdown. >> Guys, this might We don't know what's going to happen, but I'm about to plug this in. >> No, I know what's going to happen. >> Five, four. >> Well, you got to put the plug in. >> What? The plug in. >> You How you going to count down and reach in and get get it ready and then >> Five 4 3 two one Whoa. That's it. It's closed. Now unplug it, Chris. Okay. >> Okay. >> So, what we would do is we would take our circuits from our panel. We would have, let's say, a sub panel that had 12 lighting circuits in it. We would run a conduit over to a box that would enclose this. We would run all 12 circuits into the L1 side. And there's 12 of them. Could any does anybody know why that there would be 12 and not 10 or an 11 or 13? Why would it be 12 >> 12 terminals? >> Why would there be 12 terminals on a contactor? >> You're asking me. >> I'm asking you. >> Three phase >> threephase panels. That's why contacttors normally come in single pole, two pole, three pole, 6 9 12 15 because of that brown, orange, yellow, brown, orange, yellow, brown, orange, yellow. >> Wait, that it's 120 volts. So it would be it would be red, right? It would be black, red, blue. Not necessarily because it's 120. Uh no because lighting commercial lighting will be 277 volts. This coil is 120. Why do you think this coil is 120 volts? >> Because of uh lighting and outlets are 120. >> Because of the time clock and the photo cell. So keep in mind that what controls this is a time clock and a photo cell and a light switch. Right? Let's say you had one of these for exterior lighting. Why not put the line voltage into the a photo cell and then the power to the photo cell? That way if it gets dark, it's stormy. It's 2:00 p.m. but it gets dark, boom, you got lighting. And then you also have a backup time clock where it automatically gets set. And then you have an override switch. >> Ah, >> okay. So, there'll always be three ways to control this for lighting. >> I didn't know that. >> You could also put an occupancy sensor, but anyway, I don't want to get off the point. >> How are you going to get 120 volts? >> Show the people where the coil is on this. Wait, you just asked me a question. >> Yeah. How are you going to get 120 volts? You're saying this is 277, brown, orange, yellow. But >> ask the chat. >> Chat, how do you This is 120 volts. How am I going to get 120 volts from brown, orange, yellow, 277, 480 volt? This is 120 volts. This goes in a commercial building. Yeah, but you're saying brown, orange, yellow. >> Are you really asking that question? >> You can't put brown, orange, yellow wires on this. You have to put You would have to put uh 128 cuz it's 120. Just because we follow color coding doesn't mean that it's required by code. >> Okay. They don't have brown, orange, yellow in in the UK. >> You could use any color wire you want. >> Okay. >> But as long as that neutral is identified. >> Okay. >> Now, that was a really low level question you asked. How would I go from brown, orange, yellow? You're thinking 480 volt. >> How do I go from 480 volt? >> Oh, transformer. Yeah, transformer. >> Control wiring, pal. This is just one part of the of a control wiring. >> We also need push buttons, stop and start, emergency, and we'll go over that. We'll talk about that how you can safely control motors, lighting, anything that you need. You can do it remotely. You can do things now with your phone. But when you need to control power, you must use a contactor. >> So, learn something. We're going to be done. >> That was a good lesson. >> Let's assume now you're working on an air conditioning. We're working on an air conditioning and a customer says it's not running. What's the first thing we're going to do? >> Check the conttor. >> We're going to check to see if the contactor is on. And how are we going to check that? >> Take the take the cover off of the HVAC unit. >> Well, the first thing we want to do is go to the thermostat. We want to check the thermostat. We want to see if there's voltage at our thermostat, right? We want to make sure there's voltage at our disconnect outside. But if this thing starts to go bad, it starts to chatter. A lot of times you'll hear these chatter when they start to fail. But we want to always check the coil voltage. So if I were to ask you to take my voltmeter here, >> Yeah. >> and test my coil voltage. >> Yep. >> If you can put these in the right spot, we'll be done for tonight. We'll be done for tonight. Class will be over if he can do this. Show me how you would test the voltage on this contactor's coil. >> Coil. Okay. I'm going to put one on A1 and one in A2. A1 and A2. Yeah. [applause] [cheering] Guys, we're done for tonight. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed learning about contactors. Uh, it's the next level up from the vanilla ice cream of the electrical business. Follow for more electrician family. Join us on YouTube on Electrician Family. It's a brand new channel. Uh it's called Electrician Family. Shows a little behind the scenes, some fun stuff, and some other stuff. But thank you so much, guys, for hanging out tonight. >> See you guys. Peace.