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SpartanIvy posted:I have this switch for my bathroom fan and it works great. Just hit the time increment you need or hold any button for a second to have it on indefinitely. That's the one I was just trying to dig up. I put one in each of my bathrooms including the powder room downstairs and it's just obvious enough that no guest has a problem understanding what it does (at least for the timed part).
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Feb 25, 2022 15:42
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Snowy posted:Hopefully this is the right place to ask- I’m looking for a light switch that has a countdown timer but isn’t covered in so many options that nobody uses it right. I just want it to turn off after 30 minutes or so, with the option to have it stay on if I need it to. https://www.leviton.com/en/products/ltb60-1lz Looks like I was beat. Press and hold for "always on" I believe.
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Feb 25, 2022 19:36
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I need a subpanel installed in my detached garage, only power out there currently is a single ungrounded 15 amp circuit that was run underground when it was built in the 50's. Right now running my compressor or using even a L1 EV charger is really pushing it. It's about 15 feet from the house and directly adjacent to the service entrance as well as the main panel in the basement. First quote came back at $5100 to install a 60 amp subpanel along with overhead wiring to get out there, as well as some minor rearranging in my main panel. He said that would be considerably cheaper than going underground again. (I don't really have a preference either way) I'm getting a couple more quotes, but wondering if this is gently caress you pricing or sounds about right. I'm just having them quote the subpanel install, I'm gonna take it from there and run conduit and receptacles through the garage to save a little money. opengl fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Feb 26, 2022 |
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Feb 26, 2022 20:50
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Doesn't sound like gently caress you pricing to me, but that could depend on what area you're in
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Feb 26, 2022 21:05
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Vim Fuego posted:Doesn't sound like gently caress you pricing to me, but that could depend on what area you're in Ah yeah should have mentioned as I know it can be location dependent. Philadelphia suburbs.
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Feb 26, 2022 21:09
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I've got a situation where I believe I have a neutral-ground bond in one of my branches somewhere in a box or maybe even somewhere in a wall, but I can't find it. I know I need to get an electrician on this sooner rather than later. However, in the near term it's only affecting a couple of outlets (and some lights, but that's harder for me to detect). Would it make the situation any safer to pull the ground wires out of the outlets in question and wire nut them in the box? In one case I'll be replacing a regular 3-prong outlet with a GFI to fix the fact that it's no longer (never was?) grounded.
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Feb 26, 2022 22:48
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Might be one of those situations where if they can tell you exactly where to dig and you handle the trench and backfill it might end up costing about the same.
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Feb 27, 2022 00:00
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opengl128 posted:I need a subpanel installed in my detached garage, only power out there currently is a single ungrounded 15 amp circuit that was run underground when it was built in the 50's. Right now running my compressor or using even a L1 EV charger is really pushing it. It's about 15 feet from the house and directly adjacent to the service entrance as well as the main panel in the basement. I got a 100A subpanel installed in my attached garage, plus a 50A generator inlet, with some circuit panel rearranging, and a 15A outdoor circuit. Now the subpanel is located on the other side of a concrete wall, so nothing complicated getting power to the panel, but that was only $1250 for all that.
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Feb 27, 2022 22:27
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Doesn't sound out of whack, maybe high side. Parts are expensive right now. If you want to go underground again call the guy up and ask how deep you would need to dig. If it's frozen where you are right now it's going to make underground much more expensive. You can have anyone open a trench for you, including yourself. Just make sure you locate your utilities first (call 811 or whatever it is near you) and if following the current live path kill the power in the main panel while digging. Note that if they say (whatever) 24" that's to the TOP of the conduit. So if it's 1" conduit then you need to be 25" down. I would aim for 26". Call the city and ask them how deep it has to go, they're the ones inspecting the work. The city can also confirm who to call before you dig.
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Feb 28, 2022 19:25
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quote:Higher voltage means you need less amperage to deliver the same amount of power. With less amperage, you can use thinner wiring, saving on resources. Which is why most of the world uses 220V. The US said “to hell with that, we’ll use all the copper we want “ and stuck w 110V I heard this from someone and it sounds plausible .. is it accurate?
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Mar 1, 2022 04:01
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BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:I heard this from someone and it sounds plausible .. is it accurate? Kind of. U.S. homes get two hundred and twenty volts. It just doesn’t come out of the familiar outlets. It’s used for major appliances like ovens, air conditioners, and clothes dryers. Lower voltage does have advantages. It has saved a substantial number of lives from electrocution, and this was especially true in decades past when electrical standards were worse. Major appliances use a disproportionate amount of power, so the U.S. gets most of the advantages of higher voltage in efficiency and most of the advantages of lower voltage in safety. It’s just awful when you want your kettle to boil.  Now, the fifty to sixty hertz difference, that‘s all downside for fifty hertz land. It makes the lights flicker worse and it makes transformers, motors, and electronic power supplies larger and more expensive. It literally only exists because some idiots wanted a rounder number. Platystemon fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Mar 1, 2022 |
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Mar 1, 2022 04:18
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BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:I heard this from someone and it sounds plausible .. is it accurate? Technically yes. P = VI (Power = Voltage * Current) So for the same amount of power, higher voltage means you use less current. This is partly why the big overhead transmission lines are up to hundreds of thousands of volts... lower current means smaller wire, or put another way you can transmit more power on the same wire by just increasing the voltage. But with that, you can easily see the problem just by looking up at power lines... Higher voltage requires more spacing/insulation because it's easier for it to arc from point to point. So while devices may require less copper, they have to be physically bigger (or use expensive insulation materials) to prevent accidental short circuits. So like every single other engineering problem ever, there are trade-offs you have to make. More importantly, while those are good reasons, IMO the main reason is simply inertia. These decisions were made decades ago, and now we're stuck with them (IIRC something about Edison's light bulbs set the voltage originally). Hindsight is 20/20, so it's easy to say we hosed up. But trying to convert to a different system today would be nearly impossible given all the devices and infrastructure out there. (edit: so that is to say that the US didn't just say "gently caress it let's use more copper," it's that the original distribution systems were designed using some original set of design requirements, and it stuck so everything was designed around that system). Platystemon posted:Now, the fifty to sixty hertz difference, that‘s all downside for fifty hertz land. It makes the lights flicker worse and it makes transformers, motors, and electronic power supplies larger and more expensive. It literally only exists because some idiots wanted a rounder number. just use 400 Hz like aircraft, problem solved. Alternatively, you could do 20 kHz like some industrial inductive power transfer systems I've worked with... DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Mar 1, 2022 |
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Mar 1, 2022 14:12
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If we could wave a magic wand and change how things are done, what do you think we would do in terms of transmission and home connections? This is all super interesting
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Mar 1, 2022 17:24
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if we were designing the power system from scratch in a world with power semiconductors? DC transmission and distribution converted to high frequency AC at the meter drop, and a standard for 24vdc outlets so all our phone chargers and tvs and routers and battery chargers and poo poo like that could just tap off one big whole-home DC power supply instead of having a million wall warts everywhere.
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Mar 1, 2022 18:25
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KKKLIP ART posted:If we could wave a magic wand and change how things are done, what do you think we would do in terms of transmission and home connections? This is all super interesting Ring Mains
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Mar 1, 2022 18:40
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KKKLIP ART posted:If we could wave a magic wand and change how things are done, what do you think we would do in terms of transmission and home connections? This is all super interesting PoE and low-voltage wiring to take over for lighting loads / things that don’t require high power motors. I’ve probably ranted about it before in this thread or the home automation thread.
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Mar 1, 2022 18:48
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movax posted:PoE and low-voltage wiring to take over for lighting loads / things that don’t require high power motors. I’ve probably ranted about it before in this thread or the home automation thread. Yeah, there really needs to be a standard for LED lighting that doesn't require voltage conversion at each bulb. Also, there is no reason to need to run 14 wire and a 15 amp breaker for lighting circuits anymore, but without a standard there aren't any good choices.
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Mar 1, 2022 19:04
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KKKLIP ART posted:If we could wave a magic wand and change how things are done, what do you think we would do in terms of transmission and home connections? This is all super interesting I think the US mostly got it right with voltage, frequency, and split-phase 240V with most circuits being 120V. The biggest bonehead move was to not ensure every house had at least 48kVA (200A @ 240v) available. There are tons of houses with puny 60A-100A supplies, and for areas that use buried cable, that's an expensive upgrade. Not to mention that the POCOs oversubscribe their transformers, with maybe a couple houses all sharing a 50kVA transformer. Not gonna be good when everyone has a 50A@240V car charger (or two), heat pumps, hot tubs, and all the high-draw stuff. Phasing out fossil fuels like NatGas isn't on the table for 60A households without a service upgrade. I mean, in fantasy land I want 3-phase for residential for more efficient motors and the ability to use industrial equipment.
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Mar 1, 2022 21:17
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B-Nasty posted:I think the US mostly got it right with voltage, frequency, and split-phase 240V with most circuits being 120V. The biggest bonehead move was to not ensure every house had at least 48kVA (200A @ 240v) available. There are tons of houses with puny 60A-100A supplies, and for areas that use buried cable, that's an expensive upgrade. Not to mention that the POCOs oversubscribe their transformers, with maybe a couple houses all sharing a 50kVA transformer. Not gonna be good when everyone has a 50A@240V car charger (or two), heat pumps, hot tubs, and all the high-draw stuff. Phasing out fossil fuels like NatGas isn't on the table for 60A households without a service upgrade. I know right, AND the 3PH line runs right down my street, what do I have to do to get a 480/277 drop
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Mar 1, 2022 22:09
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B-Nasty posted:I think the US mostly got it right with voltage, frequency, and split-phase 240V with most circuits being 120V. The biggest bonehead move was to not ensure every house had at least 48kVA (200A @ 240v) available. There are tons of houses with puny 60A-100A supplies, and for areas that use buried cable, that's an expensive upgrade. Not to mention that the POCOs oversubscribe their transformers, with maybe a couple houses all sharing a 50kVA transformer. Not gonna be good when everyone has a 50A@240V car charger (or two), heat pumps, hot tubs, and all the high-draw stuff. Phasing out fossil fuels like NatGas isn't on the table for 60A households without a service upgrade. I think not making some variety of accessible 240v outlet a normal thing in both kitchens and garages was another big mistake. Having a 14-50 in garages is becoming a thing these days thanks to EVs, but I would love to have a few 6-15s for things like electric heating appliances.
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Mar 1, 2022 22:21
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wolrah posted:Agreed about the small legacy services being a big problem. It blows my mind how small services were back in the 40's-90's when people had all incandescent lighting, fridges that took a ton of power, CRT TV's, that sort of thing. HVAC cooling was much less prevalent but was extremely common in the second half of that window. And yes, I think all car parking areas should have car charging per space in new construction, apartments included. Meter it in with the units meter through z-wave or ethernet. I don't think we'll get to the point of simultaneous Level 2 charging per space in a 100 space complex, but there are ways this could be cleverly engineered around through networked charging. I also have so little sympathy for the POCO needing to do a ton of system upgrades when california burns to the ground each year because they aren't doing the ones they said they were doing, and can't even find all their towers. This has been coming for a LONG time and they've had decades to get ahead of it at this point.
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Mar 1, 2022 22:43
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I just installed a new led light over my vanity, and when either of the other exhaust fans in the two bathrooms are shut off, the vanity light briefly shuts off and then turns back on. I've read this is common with some led fixtures, and has to do with inductive loads. A) Does this sound like the likely culprit? B) Would a higher quality light (this was from Lowes, one of their more expensive options, but you know, Lowes) not do this? C) Is there a fix that doesn't involve replacing the light, which my gf is quite fond of?
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Mar 4, 2022 00:57
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My coworker complained that his parent's house is full of two prong outlets and half of the outlets in his room no longer work, so he's been daisy chaining surge protectors into a UPS which is connected to a two prong outlet We tried to tell him this is bad, for various reasons, but it's probably fundamentally not going to change unless someone can go in and re-wire all the outlets to support ground (and I would hazard a guess to up the amperage the wire can handle a bit), but he's gonna be unwilling to hire an electrician since it's his parents place and they're unwilling too. Is there a way he could do it for cheap, safely?
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Mar 4, 2022 01:52
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The cheapest (preesumably, location dependen5) up to code thing would be to install gfcis with "no equipment ground" stickers. That presupposes the wires themselves are ok.Slugworth posted:I just installed a new led light over my vanity, and when either of the other exhaust fans in the two bathrooms are shut off, the vanity light briefly shuts off and then turns back on. I've read this is common with some led fixtures, and has to do with inductive loads. I have no idea but I'm curious about this one!
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Mar 4, 2022 02:03
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I mean, it's probably just one of the outlets in the chain broke and needs fixing and then they all work again. Depending on how it broke it could be actively dangerous right now or a complete non-issue to ignore. It could be trivial to fix or very hard. We can't help your friend by proxy but this daisy chain is dangerous in a different way.
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Mar 4, 2022 02:04
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H110Hawk posted:I mean, it's probably just one of the outlets in the chain broke and needs fixing and then they all work again. Depending on how it broke it could be actively dangerous right now or a complete non-issue to ignore. It could be trivial to fix or very hard. We can't help your friend by proxy but this daisy chain is dangerous in a different way. He was describing that whole levels of the house in different areas were wired together on the same circuit vertically instead of by room or major appliance, so my guess is the whole house needs to be re-wired and brought up to code.
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Mar 4, 2022 02:26
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Slugworth posted:I just installed a new led light over my vanity, and when either of the other exhaust fans in the two bathrooms are shut off, the vanity light briefly shuts off and then turns back on. I've read this is common with some led fixtures, and has to do with inductive loads. A) If its consistently reproducible then that sounds like the problem. B) A good LED driver should handle noise without turning off and back on. C) Depends on how much you are willing or able to trouble shoot. If the issue was the lights turning off when the fan is turned on, that is something that for sure could be solved with wiring or a cap. However, blinking when turned off is a bit harder to pin down. I would check to make sure all connections are tight and that the ground for all devices or junction boxes is good, especially the LED fixture’s connections. You could try new switches for the fans and/or LED if they are old. If the LED is on an electronic switch (motion, time, or WiFi) changing that to a normal switch might fix it. Running larger conductors to the LED fixture might fix it and moving the fans to another circuit could fix the issue.
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Mar 4, 2022 08:17
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Slugworth posted:I just installed a new led light over my vanity, and when either of the other exhaust fans in the two bathrooms are shut off, the vanity light briefly shuts off and then turns back on. I've read this is common with some led fixtures, and has to do with inductive loads. How brief is brief? I'm like an old man yelling at clouds, but I'm honestly getting pretty tired of LED lights. Perhaps I'm super-sensitive to brief flicker (my wife doesn't seem to notice), but almost all of the LED bulbs and fixtures I've tried have some degree of flicker. Large-draw appliances (AC, dryer) kicking on dips the voltage maybe 3-5 volts, and that is enough for most LEDs to noticeably blink. Some fixtures/bulbs just flicker regardless of steady voltage. Brand name bulbs don't seem to be any better. I'm convinced even decent LED bulb manufacturers have joined the race to the bottom, because they aren't going to convince anyone their bulb is worth $5 when Amazon has a pack of HappyLightStar brand 5 for $10.
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Mar 4, 2022 23:35
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B-Nasty posted:How brief is brief? It would be really nice if there was some sort of minimum specification for them, UAE style. But of course that would interfere with the free market so we can't have that. All they need is a capacitor that is ever so slightly larger + multiple emitters and the problems all vanish. On the other side of the spectrum you have people who think HUE bulbs are a good thing which should be encouraged and somehow are OK with all their lights turning on if the power sags at 2am until they boot up.
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Mar 4, 2022 23:56
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H110Hawk posted:On the other side of the spectrum you have people who think HUE bulbs are a good thing which should be encouraged and somehow are OK with all their lights turning on if the power sags at 2am until they boot up. Hue bulbs aren't about light quality, they are tech toys for renters.
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Mar 5, 2022 00:31
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B-Nasty posted:How brief is brief? Agreed that led lights seem to have introduced all sorts of small issues in a system that has always been pretty straightforward. Flip switch, light turns on/off. It's impressive that we've managed to get ourselves to a point where we can't make a working lightbulb. I know it's not quite that simple, but yeah. I'll still check all the connections on the circuit to be safe. Thanks all!
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Mar 5, 2022 01:24
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I installed a NEMA 14-50 outdoor plug in my back yard. I ran a bunch of high guage direct bury about 50 feet out. I have a chargepoint EVSE feeding 27 amps into my car. The breaker is rated for 50 amps. For the first time that I've noticed, there's a humming sound coming from my breaker box. I used my phone to stop the charge, the sound stopped. I opened the panel flipped off the breaker in question and checked the connections, they're good. No smoke or smells. I have a cheesy little optical thermometer that showed that breaker at 29c compared to the 27 of most of my other breakers. I buttoned it back up sat back down and started the charge again. After about ten minutes i got the hum again. Turning off the charger for now. Seems like it must be some sort of induction resonance. What do ya'll think?
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Mar 5, 2022 09:31
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LRADIKAL posted:I installed a NEMA 14-50 outdoor plug in my back yard. I ran a bunch of high guage direct bury about 50 feet out. I have a chargepoint EVSE feeding 27 amps into my car. The breaker is rated for 50 amps. For the first time that I've noticed, there's a humming sound coming from my breaker box. I used my phone to stop the charge, the sound stopped. I opened the panel flipped off the breaker in question and checked the connections, they're good. No smoke or smells. I have a cheesy little optical thermometer that showed that breaker at 29c compared to the 27 of most of my other breakers. I buttoned it back up sat back down and started the charge again. After about ten minutes i got the hum again. Turning off the charger for now. Seems like it must be some sort of induction resonance. What do ya'll think? A large number of electrons are "switching" direction sixty times a second and metal can move / deflect and you're just hearing that; EVSEs are high amperage, rather continuous loads (compared to ranges/dryers/etc) that will cause what you're hearing. Now, you didn't use the word buzzing in which case something is probably actually hosed. Good check with the thermometer to see if you had some connections spiking in temp, but IMO you have nothing to worry about.
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Mar 5, 2022 12:57
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With the added bonus of it being a quiet load otherwise. Every place I've been has at least one heat pump near the panel so even if the load from that was enough to cause a hum, you'd never hear it over the fan and compressor.
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Mar 5, 2022 14:39
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Another thing to try might be to just swap out the breaker and see if it fixes it. I had a 30A breaker that was older that started making a loud buzz with the inrush current on my heat pump. Swapping it out solved the issue.
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Mar 5, 2022 14:53
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I'm installing this water-sensing automatic shutoff unit for my new washer. I need add another receptacle in the area. I bought everything for a 20A GFCI circuit but then I noticed this in the instructions: Does this mean I need a 15A breaker? The washer calls for: 
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Mar 6, 2022 03:06
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It's fine to go into a 20a. UL listed and spec sheet says 20a. It can only power a 15a appliance as indicated in the spec and by the nema 5-15r on the front. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Mar 6, 2022 |
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Mar 6, 2022 03:39
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H110Hawk posted:It's fine to go into a 20a.
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Mar 6, 2022 03:59
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IOwnCalculus posted:With the added bonus of it being a quiet load otherwise. Every place I've been has at least one heat pump near the panel so even if the load from that was enough to cause a hum, you'd never hear it over the fan and compressor. It's a slow pulsing, there's some kind of crazy resonance, it was barely audible from the front of the panel, from my office on the other side of the wall it was pretty loud. I turned off my speakers and displays trying to find out where the noise was coming from. Thanks for the reassurance and advice, also thanks Movax for same. I only need to charge every couple weeks lately, so I can keep an eye on it when I need juice.
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Mar 6, 2022 04:52
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A friend has a panel with a pair of 20A breakers feeding a L14-20 240V outlet. The breakers are not joined with a mechanical bar/link to force them to move together. So right now it is possible for 1/2 of the L14-20 outlet to be off, but not the other half. This is bullshit, right? Should I install the metal bar so the two breakers move in tandem? (I'm going to plug my welder into this outlet, which is why I'm giving it the side eye.)
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Mar 8, 2022 08:08
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