Re: Water heater eating X-10 signal

[graftonfot@xxxxxxxxx]

On Apr 16, 7:48 pm, nob...@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston) wrote:
> grafton...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >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.
>
> What happens if you disable your active coupler?
>
> http://davehouston.nethttp://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/roZetta/
> roZetta-subscr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

OK, this is weird - I replied to this thread last night, but I don't
see my reply in this thread today.

So I'll try again:

I have an active coupler (Leviton HCA02) connected to a 2-pole breaker
supplying a clothes dryer.  I wrote a short HomeSeer looping script to
repeatedly send X-10 control signals while I measured the signals with
my ESM-1.

Here are my results:

Coupler breaker OFF, Water heater breaker OFF:
     Phase A: 1.5 bars on the ESM-1
     Phase B: 0 bars on the ESM-1

Coupler breaker OFF, Water heater breaker ON:
     Phase A: 1.5 bars on the ESM-1
     Phase B: 0 bars on the ESM-1

Coupler breaker ON, Water heater breaker OFF:
     Phase A: 5 bars on the ESM-1
     Phase B: 4 bars on the ESM-1

Coupler breaker ON, Water heater breaker ON:
     Phase A: 5 bars on the ESM-1
     Phase B: 4 bars on the ESM-1

I can see the HCA02 is doing its job, repeating the Phase A: signal
and coupling it to Phase B.

But what puzzles me is that, in terms of signal strength displayed on
the ESM-1, there's no difference when the water heater breaker is open
vs. closed, in spite of the fact that closing that breaker definitely
causes loss of control of some of my X-10 devices (particularly, my
front yard lighting.)