this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025
28 points (100.0% liked)
Electricians
179 readers
1 users here now
For those in the Electrical trade
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That box on the far right L12401 is just a fuse holder not a timer. It's just there to provide protection for the contactor coil. As far as the contactor goes it is hard to tell what is going on just from the pic. It looks like A1 is tied to neutral with the white wires and A2 looks like it is linked to the fuse on the right through the orange wire. If that is the case then that should provide your 240V coil power if the fuse isn't blown. If you get 230V between A2 and neutral then that should be right. Check your voltage between A1 and neutral to see if that is tied to neutral.
I can't find any info on that specific contactor in english but if I had to guess I'd say that it just reads the ripple control from the power company internally. If it's acting up then it could have missed the ripple control signal when it was sent or it could just be failing. Does it work if you switch it out of auto mode?
Oh it being a fuse makes sense, although the way it is wired makes even less sense, then. The middle device (the 'contacter'?) is not used by any load at the moment. But I wanted to start using it again.
Bottom view:
Don't mind the loose wire. It's french wiring. It's not even connected at other end.
Global view:
I have two boilers that are now both connected to the same switch (and this is time dependent somehow). This switch is shown left. The black wires are from boiler 1, and the blue and beige wires are from boiler 2. The orange pair are neither input nor the load, so they must be 'commanding' the switch operation.
I want to start using the middle contacter for boiler 2 so that each boiler has its own switch.
The bottom of the fuse (so far right) is connected to A1 of contacter (so thing in middle) (via gray cable) as well as to A2 of switch (far left in global pic) (via orange cable).
I'm not sure whether to call it a switch or contacter again.
There is 230V between A1 and neutral (at the moment. This may change, depending on the time of day.)
That floating circuit breaker really ties the whole setup together lol. Do yourself a favour and clean this mess up before trying to reuse this old disused crap again.
But frankly it's more beautiful this way
The charred remains of your burned down house will look really cute lol