Wiring incubator help

[eatmorechicken]

I'm not an electrician and I don't want to burn my house down. I took apart a blow dryer to get the fan I left the red wire plugged into the fan then I plugged into the outlet, then touched the other black wire onto the power source from the main cord and caused a big spark, tripped the breaker. what did I do wrong? should I attach the wires before I plug in or will that spark to. Do I need smaller wires, or wire through the relay that came with the blow dryer. Help

 

[midget_farms]

It sounds like you ran two hot wires together. That'll blow your fingers off if you are not carefull!

If you are using the relay method. Take a look at this.

Its about as simple as I could draw it.

In mine you need a 12 volt source for the house thermostat & computer fan. If your running a hair dryer as a fan just be careful. I don't know what the guts of a hair dryer look like. Maybe just cut the heat element? and leave the rest alone.

 

[aprophet]

most hair dryers are 1200-1500 watts you might need a relay for what you are doing what type t-stat are you using ?

 

[4-H chicken mom]

If you just need the fan, I would use a computer fan. Much less wattage needed, less risk.

 

[abritton77]

Could you upload a pic of what you have? There should only be 2 wires coming out of the fan and as long as you dont hook either of those to ground it will run. Sounds like you created a direct short by hooking neutral to hot. sounds like some other stuff in the blow dryer is still hooked up.

 

[eatmorechicken]

Quote:
Sorry no pic... I tried one more time with no luck... the light from the spark was real bright though. I'm still seeing spots. There was wires tangled all over before I took it apart, and never understood what they all did, so out of my frustration I threw the dang thing away. I will get a computer fan instead.

 

[midget_farms]

probably for the best. Large nuclear sparks & houses don't mix well!