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It's OK, except for the fact that the potentiometer will be as much a heater as the heating element when set for half power. Use a TRIAC control instead, or a multi tap element. Plus 50K is too high of a value. It's value depends on the element resistance and how low in power you'd want to go heat wise.
If you measure 2.4 ohms for the heater then the leads of your multimeter are probably at least 0.4 ohms. Then the max power in the 2 ohm heater is 7200W which will cook you and burn down your home. The power will drop a little as the heater gets hot and starts to glow red hot.
Actually, a 15A breaker will disconnect when the power is more than 1800W.
A triac is the controlling electronic part in a light dimmer which can power a small heater but yours takes way too much power.
Shouldn't you have an isolation transformer to isolate yourself from the mains and step down the voltage to a safer level (48V or lower)? I wouldn't want to wrap myself in a high voltage wire and then go to sleep.
That is exactly what you do if you have ever slept under an electric blanket or heating pad. There is no isolation tranny; the heating element is connected to the 120V line through a bi-metal thermostat. It is ok unless you pee the bed![]()
If you pee the bed, it shouldn't be a problem, you'll receive a short shock before the RCD (GFCI in US) kicks in and saves you.
I suspect at most electric blankets are waterproofed to some extent anyway.
Agreed.My advice,
don't do it.
That's really didn't the insurance pay up?Nearly lost a son, daughter in law and two grandbuddies through an electric blanket. They lost everything, house, contents EVERYTHING. My son was severly burned, spent three weeks in hospital, they lost their two dogs in the blaze.
That's really bad. It's just typical Murphy's law that your house burns down when you can't afford the insurance.They were going through a real tough patch financially and had cancelled their household contents insurance. The structure was repaired as it is mandatory to pay for the house structure for as long as the house is bonded to the bank.
The actual resistance of the element is likly 2-3 times as high when the element gets to its operating temperature.