Low Voltage Electrical Basics

Bryan and Kaleb cover the basics of low-voltage electrical applications. They focus on the practical stuff, not just the theory that confuses techs. Many techs have a hard time with low-voltage electrical concepts and components because it's not easy to visualize what happens; we only see wiring diagrams, not metaphors that help us understand what's going on. The low-voltage control circuit starts with the transformer. The transformer has a primary side (where the high voltage comes in) and a secondary side (where the lower voltage comes out). The secondary is only connected to the primary via electromagnetism; it helps to think of the secondary as an independent electrical circuit. Color coding is a simple concept, but it has changed over the years and can confuse techs. You can only truly understand the wires by doing a complete visual inspection and tracing the wiring. (Though generally, blue will be common/C, and red will be hot/R.) We also typically use yellow for Y1, but Y is a confusing concept. Y ISN'T the compressor or cooling! Y pulls in the contactor coil; it is really the high-stage contactor. Y2 is a higher staging, and Y1 is a lower staging. On heat pumps, the white wire is usually for heating, and the orange wire is usually for the reversing valve. G is for the indoor fan and often has a green wire. Kaleb and Bryan also discuss: Tapping transformers W and O calls on heat pumps G calls DH on 24v controls Communicating controls Float switch configurations and issues Breaking Y or R with the float switch Wire routing: air handler and condenser Preventing conductor corrosion NASA or lineman splice Stranded shielded wire vs. solid wire Learn more about Refrigeration Technologies HERE. If you have an iPhone, subscribe to the podcast HERE, and if you have an Android phone, subscribe HERE.