How to Test for Resistance? What is Continuity?
Most electricians know how to use our meters to troubleshoot power issues by finding voltage and amperage. But what about using them to find Ohms or Continuity? And what are those values good for? In todays episode of Electrician U, Dustin explains how to use your meter to get these values and what those values could be used for in the field. 🤘⚡️EU Learning System⚡️🤘 For Individuals --- https://electricianu.com/learning-sys... For Businesses --- https://electricianu.com/learning-sys... -Video courses on every side of the electrical trade (theory, code, safety, wiring, install, troubleshooting, leadership, and more) -Practice exams for 2017, 2020, 2023 code -YouTube videos categorized and searchable -Audio lessons -Forum -Business version has admin portal and ability to assign learning to technicians and monitor progress -Any business size from 2 techs to 2,000! 🎓💡CONTINUING EDUCATION💡🎓 Sign up here --- https://electricianu.com/continuing-e... -State Approved -Video Based ✍📝PRACTICE EXAMS📝✍ Get them here --- https://www.electricianu.com/electric... -2017, 2020, and 2023 NEC versions -Online Residential Wireman Exam -Online Journeyman Exam -Online Master Exam -300 Question Online Code Cannon (not license specific, all code) -Take as many times as you want -All of the above come with printable PDFs 🎤🎧PODCAST🎧🎤 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7ldCwdx... Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 📱👍SOCIALS👍📱 TikTok - / electricianu Instagram - / electrician_u Facebook - / theelectricianu Reddit - / electricianu Rumble - https://rumble.com/c/ElectricianU Discord - / discord 🎧🎹Music, Editing, and Videography by Drake Descant and Rob LeBlanc🎹🎧 #electrician #electrical #electricity First, be aware that different meters will produce different value ranges. Most electricians in the field don’t carry our DMM (digital multi meters) with us everywhere. They are rather large and susceptible to damage, so are usually kept in the truck. Instead, we probably will have our Ampere Meter with us. An amp meter may read in thousandths of ohms whereas a DMM may read exactly what the ohms are. Something to keep in mind. Also, when using your DMM, make sure you are following the instructions for your particular meter and plug the leads in the correct ports on the meter. And finally, when using your DMM OR Amp Meter, do not check for continuity on an energized circuit. Most meters are fused to protect themselves, but checking for continuity or Ohms on an energized circuit will certainly blow that fuse. Some meters will have the continuity and resistance setting at the same place on the dial. Some are different settings. For continuity, look for the little speaker symbol. For ohms specifically, look for the Ohms symbol (or the Greek letter for Omega) which looks sort of like an inverted horseshoe. To check for either continuity or Ohms on either meter, simply turn the dial to the setting you want and place one lead on one end of the wire (or whatever you are testing) and one on the other. If your meter howls at you, it is sensing that a complete loop has been made. If the meter is on Ohms vs Continuity the meter should display the amount of ohms worth of resistance. But what are those values good for out in the field? Well, you could use the continuity setting to see if a fuse or filament type lamp (not a CFL) is good. Put one lead on each end and if there is continuity, then the fuse is viable. Or maybe you need to run wire to a piece of heating equipment that isn’t labeled as to its amperage. You could test across the heating element to see how much resistance it holds. Then using Ohms law, you can figure out how many amps it will draw and then you can base your wire size upon that. So, for instance if you had a 240 piece of equipment with a heating element of 5.77 ohms, by applying Ohms Law (Amps=Voltage Divided by Resistance) you will see that the equipment will draw 41.6 amps (plus any other items within the equipment like a blower motor).
