Doorbell Transformer Sharing Circuit

Ive realized that the doorbell transformer is on the same circuit my sump pump and water softener are on? Sump Pump is 20A circuit and the transformers 18g aluminum wire is connected to 12g copper?

The transformer is 16VAC, the sump is 1/2 HP and I amnot sure how much the softener is but I bet its minimal.

Is that a bad situation?

Its in an ideal location and I dont want to move it if its not a concern.

 

The transformer only draws a few watts at 120vac. Not even a half an amp so it can be connected just about anywhere without causing an overload condition.

Also.... the wire on a transformer is plated copper. That's why it's silver colored.

 

There are plated copper?

My husband said the ends were 'tinned' but we cut the ends off and respliced it and it was aluminum colored. Is that the plated copper your refering too or the tinned end?

 

Actually the winding is enameled covered copper and the connection wiring is stranded silver plated copper or steel.

 

And its ok that this 18g stranded is joined with 12g on a 20a?

p.s.- How much power generally do water softener use?

Ours have a mechanical dial, not digital.

Im thinking that would be all that is using AC and a valve is opened mechanically thru the timer... thats a guess.

So 1/2 hp sump, softener and doorbell transformer all working at once shouldnt trip a 20A breaker?

 

No.... not even close. The 1/2 hp sump is probably under 10amps and the softener maybe another amp or two at the most.

 

The connection wires are probably tin plated copper so they can be attached to either copper or aluminum house wiring.

 

Thanks. I would like to add a second outlet to this circuit so I can plug the pump into one and the softener the other..... is that kosher?

 

Technically since it's a basement you should be using a GFI receptacle but yes you can add a second receptacle to that circuit.

 

Do you think a mechanical timer water softener will cause nuissance tripping of a gfci?

Does interupting the power during a water softerner regeneration cause water to overflow somehow?

The sump pump is currently not on a gfci and my husband does not want to bring it up to code compliant gfci and we are unsure about softener.

 

It shouldn't unless there is a ground fault in the equipment.

I think to get an answer to that question you would have to read the manual on the softener.

The NEC requires all unfinished basement receptacles to be GFCI protected, that would include the softener. Sump pump receptacles, whether basement is finished or not, are required to be GFCI protected. I share his concern with the GFCI device for the sump pump, but that is what the code says. I don't always agree with everything in the code. I see no problem with the softener being on a GFCI device.

 

In regards to the softener... we contacted the place that installed the softerner many years ago and they "recomended" that we change that outlet to a standard outlet.... that if power cuts out during a cycle (whether its a tripped gfci or power outage) then the softener would be stuck in a regeneration cycle.... possibly overflowing the brine tank.

We are running a cycle right now and all seems OK but is this a valid concern?

Does anyone have experience with water softeners and know what occurs if power is interupted during a cycle?

p.s. the manual doesnt mention and it much older than the gfci requirement anyway.

 

Know nothing about water softeners but if you put a normally closed solenoid valve on the water input and connected to the load side of the GFCI it couldn't flood.