Modular house - intercoms won't work from front to back.

Hi people. I just joined the forums here. I'm a former electronics R&D technician of 27 years - ASEET ( Associate in Science in Electronics Engineering Technology, from 1969 ), who hasn't worked in that field since the mid-90's when most of it went overseas.

We bought this UBC ( universal building codes ) modular house about 10 years ago and the "builder" installed it on a foundation on the lot we bought. He said he would do it in 6 months and took 18, while we paid a construction loan, ripped us off for tens of thousands of dollars in the process, AND did his own plumbing and electrical, apparently paying licensed people for their signatures for city inspection purposes. ( we hope he rots in hell )

The house came from the factory in two halves that were joined together on the foundation - the front and back halves. He hooked up the AC to everything.

Anyway, since moving in, the AC has been weird between the front and back halves. A doorbell that had the transformer plugged in, in the laundry room in the back, wouldn't work right because the front door was in the front half.

And we've tried using some Westinghouse power line intercoms but they only work if plugged into the respective half where the other one is, not across the halves.

So this is kind of a mystery, but I'm suspecting that he may have run a common ground and fed each half with a separate phase of AC from a 120VAC transformer ( from the power line transformer out on the pole? ).

I just don't know how to deal with this, without great expense.


We really want our intercoms to work, especially since our area has had some bank robbers that the police have been doing a manhunt for, and they've been doing home invasions, and my sister's room is at the opposite end of this 80 foot long house, from mine.

Any ideas on how we can solve this quickly and inexpensively?

My first thought would be to put a large enough high voltage non-polarized capacitor between the hot lines of each half of the house, but the house has insulation in the crawl space down there and plastic sheeting over it, and I'm 68 years old and not good at crawling around in such an environment.

Thanks.

 

Tha, this was 10 years ago when the house was built, so we cant do anything. The "builder" lost his license in this city, after doing our house but he had everything in his wife's name, so we couldn't sue him.

Yes, I agree that it's probably wired that way, but it would cost a fortune to alter it now.

I did verify that both intercoms work, by plugging them both in on the same side of the house.

I just need an inexpensive solution to this, that doesn't require modifying wiring at this point.

 

Yes.

 

We have 4 of these Westinghouse intercoms here, from trying this a few years ago. Just had forgotten about it, but we need to be able to talk the length of the house, in case of emergencies, a break-in or whatever.

 

Not sure what you mean. Like running the entire house on one phase? That's interesting - I'll check that out with an electrician. Thanks.

10 years is WAY past the statute of limitations, but thanks.

 

Didn't know that. Well the whole house would need to be on the same phase, to use these intercoms anywhere in the house.

 

Ahah! Yes! Sounds exactly like the high voltage non-polarized cap that I was thinking of!

WHI-2C
...

heh, look at what I just found!: http://www.ebay.com/itm/X10-Phase-C...208413?hash=item2547d939dd:g:F94AAMXQhpdRvhWP

According to the calculator at http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-RC.htm

.015 uf at 60 Khz is 176 ohms reactive impedance, but at 60 Hz it's 176k.

Oh wait, this is even better. The manual at http://phone.manualsonline.com/manuals/mfg/westinghouse/whi2c.html

says they operate above 200 Khz. So... .015uf at 60 Hz is 177k but at 200 Khz is 53 ohms. Nice!

 

I found these in my old lab but don't recall why a non polar cap like that has a VDC rating. Can it be used for AC?