Re: Water heater eating X-10 signal

["Jeff Volp" <JeffVolp@xxxxxxx>]

I don't believe there is any commercially available filter that can handle
30 amps.  The largest is the big XPF, which is rated for 20 amps.  It would
take 4 of them to filter both hot leads running to the water heater.

A heavy electrical load across the two phases normally helps X10 signal
distribution, so there must be something more here than just the heater
element.  There may be some sort of surge protection shunting the X10 signal
to ground.  Perhaps your signals were marginal before adding the heater.

It might be a good idea to invest in a X10 signal level meter, such as the
ESM1, to find out what is really going on.  Since filtering a high current
load is not very practical, the only suggestion I have if it is the water
heater is to increase your signal strength beyond what your active phase
coupler can do.

Jeff

<graftonfot@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1176757871.575204.16020@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Hello,
>
> I've had a modest X-10 system running in our house for a few years.
> It took me a while to get it working reliably enough to get the WAF to
> a level where my wife wasn't cursing "HAL" every other day.
>
> Part of that effort involved installing an active phase coupler in our
> mains panel.  Everything was working pretty well, until we recently
> added an electric water heater to the panel.
>
> The water heater is wired to a double pole 30 amp breaker in the panel
> via about 60' of 10/2 w/ground (no neutral connection on the heater,
> just the two hots).  After I installed it I noticed that our X-10
> controlled outside lights weren't coming on in the evenings.  After a
> little troubleshooting I discovered that if I switched off the breaker
> for the heater, the X-10 system went back to normal.  Switching the
> breaker on makes the problem reappear.
>
> I'm guessing that the connection to heater and/or the heater itself is
> "sinking" the X-10 signal.
>
> Is there a wired, in-line filter available that I can fit in after the
> breaker to block the X-10 signal from the heater and its wiring?  Is
> that the correct approach in this case?
>
> Thanks.