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grover posted:Yeah, you can't put a 20A breaker on a #14 circuit. #14 = 15A max, #12=20A max. It's OK to use a 15A breaker on #12 wire, though kinda pointless. If you swap the breakers, and you're fine from that standpoint. Thanks for the quick answer, I think we'll just swap the breakers around. I just worry about blowing 15amps, but there's not going to be any heavy equipment on the lines, so hopefully that won't be an issue.
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Sep 16, 2009 01:44
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I want to wire 2 outlets in my garage on the ceiling for garage door openers. These will be surface mounted in metal flex. I want to run these back to a switch box that is currently located between the garage doors. This switch is a three way that controls the existing lights in the garage. The other three way switch is by the cellar door, maybe 20 feet away. If I replace the three way switch at the cellar door with a two way, and then remove the other three way (between the garage doors), I should be able to just make this switch box a junction box and wire my outlets from there. Is this the easiest way to do this? I would just disregard the red cable, and connect the white and black to my new two way at the cellar door. I obviously don't care about losing the switch between the garage doors. Anything else to consider?
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Sep 18, 2009 18:43
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bgack posted:I want to wire 2 outlets in my garage on the ceiling for garage door openers. These will be surface mounted in metal flex. I want to run these back to a switch box that is currently located between the garage doors. This switch is a three way that controls the existing lights in the garage. The other three way switch is by the cellar door, maybe 20 feet away. Have you identified which switch has the hot line from the panel, and which is going to the light? And verified that it's straight-through wiring, and not a switch loop? If you can find the incoming always-hot line, I'd recommend just splicing off that with a red wire nut, and leave your light switches the way they are. Run the flex to whichever box has the always-hot line.
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Sep 18, 2009 21:22
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The hot line and wire to the lights are at the cellar entrance switch. The garage switch is just a loop. The only wiring connection from the switch at the garage door goes back to the cellar door switch. The cellar door switch box then runs back to the panel. Your advice makes sense, and would probably be just as easy. thanks
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Sep 18, 2009 23:23
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bgack posted:The hot line and wire to the lights are at the cellar entrance switch. The garage switch is just a loop. The only wiring connection from the switch at the garage door goes back to the cellar door switch. The cellar door switch box then runs back to the panel. Your advice makes sense, and would probably be just as easy. thanks
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Sep 18, 2009 23:29
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 orange is the outlets and wire I want to add on the ceiling, red are the two existing double switch boxes. Two heavy black lines are the garage doors. Actually both boxes are 4x4 with 2 switches. The one at the cellar door is absolutely full (other switch controls light inside cellar). The box between garage doors is also double, the other switch controls an outside light. If I run it back to the cellar door switch I'd have to tap in before it gets to the box. Does the NEC count garage doors as an entrance or is the entrance to the cellar the actual light? grover posted:Good luck! When did you plan on starting this? I've actually already put the outlets and conduit up, but wanted to make sure what I am doing is kosher before connecting.
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Sep 18, 2009 23:33
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I'm getting back into welding and decided to go with a 240v setup instead of a 120v so I have a wider range of useability. I've got a 240v 50A outlet in my garage but the welder says it will pull 30A at max rating. Is it okay to use this outlet/breaker setup for my welder? I know that if the welder screws up and tries pulling say 40A that the circut is fine but of course not providing the saftey factor of blowing from an over pull. Should I change out the breakers and recepticle to 30A ones just to be safe? Thanks For reference it looks like this (it's abotu 2.5in across) and the breakers are marked 50A 
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Sep 21, 2009 00:42
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Tindjin posted:I'm getting back into welding and decided to go with a 240v setup instead of a 120v so I have a wider range of useability. According to code, if you have a 50A cord and cord cap assembly (plug) and you plug it into that 50A receptacle, you're golden. It may mean upgrading the cord to your welder. Realistically, most people would put a 50A plug on their welder and be just happy to weld away forever, but know that if your welder starts to die, the breaker won't blow until the welder is pulling nearly twice its rated current. Replacing the breaker and receptacle with a 30A would also be fine.
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Sep 21, 2009 06:52
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I have an old house which has no exterior receptacles. I've finally decided that I'm tired of snaking an extension cord through an open door or window and am going to install some. A question about the box, though. I bought a couple very similar to this: which I understand are intended to be installed on the outside of the wall rather than flush, which is ok. My question though, is do I need to have some kind of fitting for the opening I use to maintain water-tightness? Just having a hole in my wall with romex sticking out directly into the box seems very wrong to me. Alternatively, if I wanted to go with a flush installation, can I just use a regular old work box with an exterior faceplate?
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Sep 22, 2009 22:17
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stubblyhead posted:I have an old house which has no exterior receptacles. I've finally decided that I'm tired of snaking an extension cord through an open door or window and am going to install some. A question about the box, though. I bought a couple very similar to this: You can use that. See the hole in the back of it? If you put a small hole in the wall, you can snake your wires through it into the back of the box. Mount your box to the wall but be sure to seal around it with some caulking or similar substance. You will need to use a gfci receptacle on it and make sure that you put a waterproof cover onto it after you have it mounted.
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Sep 22, 2009 23:20
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The holes in the box are all threaded, and accept various watertight and non-watertight couplings. You need the watertight fittings to maintain watertight integrity. Also, you can't use normal romex (NM-B) cable outside because it's not waterproof, and would have to use UF instead (just like romex but waterproof). A regular old box with an exterior faceplate is fine, too. Depends on your finish as to whether you'd be able to seal it properly. Both methods are common and fine. And to reiterate, all exterior receptacles must be GFCI protected.
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Sep 23, 2009 00:05
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grover posted:The holes in the box are all threaded, and accept various watertight and non-watertight couplings. You need the watertight fittings to maintain watertight integrity. Also, you can't use normal romex (NM-B) cable outside because it's not waterproof, and would have to use UF instead (just like romex but waterproof). I can't use NM-B even if it's in a watertight box? The receptacle will be mounted directly on the house, not on an outbuilding or deck or something. I was under the impression that NM would be fine in this application.
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Sep 23, 2009 00:08
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All exterior conduit and boxes are considered to be damp locations. If it's flush-mount, you can use NM, but you need THWN or UF for exterior. Your inspector might be lenient with you, though; it wouldn't hurt to call and ask if you already have the NM.
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Sep 23, 2009 00:26
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I have a major problem with fluorescent lights. The building I live in and manage is 2 years old and has had issues with the lights from day one. * What there is * We have 45 ceiling-mounted 2x18W rapid-start T8 fluorescent lights in the hallways, controlled by 14 motion sensors. We also have 65 ceiling-mounted 1x58W pre-heated T26 fluorescent lights in the garage, half controlled by one motion sensor, half manually. The motion sensors are rated for 1 kW each. They keep the lights on for around 1 minute. The nominal circuit voltage is 220V and around 230-232V when measured. * What is wrong * All the fixtures eat bulbs like crazy! After replacing some, half will only be glowing at the ends in a month. In 90% of the two-light fixtures, only one bulb is lit. The other only glows dimly. Smacking the light fixture with moderate force occasionally re-activates a bulb for a short while. The manually-operated garage fixtures have not developed any issues so far (of course, they are very rarely used, too - I bet they don't even have 100 cycles). * What has been done * Replacing bulbs is a short-term fix - they'll die fast. Two of the two-bulb fixtures were replaced fully. One died in a few months, like all others, but one kept working perfectly. It has been six months since the replacement and this one light is the only light currently working in the building. * Why I hate it * Why does one new fixture die and one live?!?! If they both had worked, it would very strongly indicate a flaw in the ballast... but one died just like the others! Argh! Any ideas? I've had some electricians over but all they have said is "Yeah, you've got a problem. Your lights don't work. Why don't you buy new ones from me - here's an estimate for the new lights!"
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Sep 25, 2009 09:12
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What kind of motion sensors are you using? I've found some to be incompatible with fluorescent lights and kill bulbs rather quickly. Also, what ballasts?
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Sep 25, 2009 11:58
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Has anyone ever made a foot switch type of switch for things like entertainment systems to stop the little vampire drains? I've been looking around for such a product, and I'm not sure if I won't have to DIY because I can't find much besides the x-mas light type plugs that can only handle about 5 amps.
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Sep 25, 2009 19:18
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The motion sensors are Steinel IS 3360. The ballasts are Alter PC-J220 L1 (digital type) and the ballasts for the two replaced 2-bulb fixtures are VS ELXc 236.208 (electronic type).
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Sep 25, 2009 20:08
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EssOEss posted:The motion sensors are Steinel IS 3360. The ballasts are Alter PC-J220 L1 (digital type) and the ballasts for the two replaced 2-bulb fixtures are VS ELXc 236.208 (electronic type). To verify, are you using 230V 50Hz? I don't know anything reliability-wise about the specific ballasts you're using, but from what you've posted, I suspect defective ballasts as the root cause. Which *should* be the manufacturer's problem to fix, not yours. Have you contacted your supplier to see if other bad ballasts have been returned?
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Sep 27, 2009 19:22
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I am nowhere near 600W anywhere - most sensors only have 3 fixtures on them, so 2x18x3=108W per sensor. Some have four fixtures but no more. The garage has a ton on one sensor (36, to be exact, so 36x58=2088W, which could be a problem but the garage is not really my top priority at the moment - I'm more concerned about the hallway lights, really. Yes, I'm using 230V 50Hz. The supplier declared bankruptcy a while ago and has not been helpful in any way or form since then. The fact that one new light fixture, with a new ballast, has also failed seems to somewhat oppose the theory that the ballasts are to blame. Of course, the other replaced light fixture with a new ballast still works... this is the source of my dilemma - I don't have any conclusive data. I'd rather not wait a few months to experiment and see if more new ballasts fail - it's getting pretty dark outside and people are complaining about the lack of light. Hmm... I suppose I could just swap the ballast in a small number of lights - enough to give some usable light in the building and get rid of the complaints, yet few enough not to cost too much if the new ballasts go wonky, as well. I've asked around with some local property managers and they say it's pretty common for fluorescent lights to fail if they're switched on and off often by motion sensors. However, I've not been able to find any reliable source that would confirm this. Obviously, switching on-off often will increase wear but to only a few months of lifetime? That sounds dubious to me. I'd rather not operate entirely based on hearsay - does anyone know if the frequent and short on-off cycles could be expected to cause such fast failure?
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Sep 28, 2009 22:36
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Once upon a time, the alternator in my car died. I replaced it, it died about a month later. I replaced it under warranty, it died about a month later. I replaced it under warranty, it died about a month later. I replaced it under warranty, it died about three months later. I replaced it under warranty, and this one lasted just to the end of the warranty period and died, too. Only THEN did I go somewhere else and got an alternator that wasn't a piece of poo poo, and it lasted for years without issue. Moral of the story: most often if everything is failing, an outside force is at work. But on the other hand... poo poo parts are poo poo parts, no matter how many of them fail. I'd replace a few more with a new brand and see how they hold up. If that fixes it, suck it up and replace them all.
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Sep 28, 2009 23:23
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I have an old-school round thermostat that I'm contemplating replacing with a programmable one. It has two wires, but they're both brown, not red and white like they're supposed to be. What's a safe way to figure out what's hot & what's ground? Neither side of the thermostat or the holes or wires seem to be marked. I know what breaker it's on, but I figure if I shut off power to it I won't be able to tell. Edit: I think I got it, someone just snipped an extension cord and wired it to the heater. I should probably just put in new wires with proper colors. EE: although  furnace has: W J 4 G X YOld thermostat is wired to W & 4. bort fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Oct 2, 2009 |
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Oct 2, 2009 20:17
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bort posted:I have an old-school round thermostat that I'm contemplating replacing with a programmable one. It has two wires, but they're both brown, not red and white like they're supposed to be.
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Oct 2, 2009 20:27
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I figured it out. What I did was to examine the wiring closely and found that the previous thermostat installer had used some molded branding on the insulation to distinguish the 4/Rh wire. I'm pretty sure it is a clipped length of extension cord... I put red tape on both ends of it in case I ever have to do it again and labelled the furnace properly. Presumably, I could wire in a fan wire to the furnace, but I don't know why I'd want to run the fan without the heat in a 1970s gas forced air system.
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Oct 3, 2009 05:22
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bort posted:I figured it out. What I did was to examine the wiring closely and found that the previous thermostat installer had used some molded branding on the insulation to distinguish the 4/Rh wire. I'm pretty sure it is a clipped length of extension cord... I put red tape on both ends of it in case I ever have to do it again and labelled the furnace properly. Presumably, I could wire in a fan wire to the furnace, but I don't know why I'd want to run the fan without the heat in a 1970s gas forced air system. You'd be surprised how much having the air moving in the dead of summer helps keep things at least a little cooler feeling if you don't have AC.
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Oct 3, 2009 15:02
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How easy is it to replace a light switch with an electrical socket? I've googled around, but am having trouble understanding if it's always possible.
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Oct 6, 2009 05:08
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Bong Goblin posted:How easy is it to replace a light switch with an electrical socket? I've googled around, but am having trouble understanding if it's always possible. If the circuit leading to the light passes through the switch, and you have both the hot and neutral in the box, then yeah, it's not difficult to do. If the circuit leading to the light doesn't pass through the box, and the switch is just connected to an extension of the hot (black) for the light, then no, you can't. Having said that, what situation are you in where you want an electrical socket where a switch is? And also, are you planning on leaving the light powered at all times, then? Plus, just about anyone's code is going to have a problem with you doing this (not that outlets aren't put on lighting circuits, especially in old houses, but still, generally not a good practice). While you CAN do it, it's probably not a good idea.
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Oct 6, 2009 15:39
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stealie72 posted:Depends how it's been wired. If you have a hot coming in, and a switched hot going out, you can install a receptacle. You have options; one of which is to install a switch/receptacle combo which should allow you to meet code with a light switch *and* have a receptacle. Another option is to leave the switch alone but splice off the wires, and fish it down the wall to a new receptacle box. So long as you're staying within a single wall cavity, this isn't too hard to do.
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Oct 7, 2009 02:50
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Hey guys, I'm upgrading the wiring in the house I bought and have a few questions. The house is from the 1930s, has no grounded outlets, but did have a circuit breaker installed some time ago. It has an unfinished basement and an attic, so I figured I could just run wiring up a wall to the attic and then down into the 2nd floor walls. questions: 1) Any advice on books that will walk me through what I need to make sure everything is to code? 2) Is it a problem running wiring to the attic through a wall that shares water lines and the main plumbing stack? 3) Should I put a sub-panel in the attic? 4) Good place to buy materials? Any online retailer that would give me better prices than lowes?
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Oct 10, 2009 00:42
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dyne posted:questions: I found the Black and Decker Complete Guide to Home Wiring very helpful in that quest, and also I checked The NEC Pocket Guide to Electrical Installations out from the library if I needed some more specific case help. Since you seem to be doing a larger project maybe an electricians/wholesale store would be the way to go, or just use economy of scale and buy the big spool of 14awg.
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Oct 10, 2009 12:08
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My new house has an existing electrical wire that controls the lights on the outside of the garage, over the driveway, via a switch in the house. This wire runs underground through an buried pipe, along side a couple of other wires I have since disconnected. My plan is to use the old electrical wire as a lead to snake the new updated romex through the pipe using the old electrical tape method. Here's my problem. Once I get the electrical through, I'd also like to run a Cat5 (I have UTP) and a coaxial cable through the pipe. I know full well that running data cable parallel with a power cable is just asking for interference trouble. Does anyone here have any experience with it? Could I buy some STP Cat5 and run it alongside in hopes that the shielding is enough to ward off interference. How about the coax? is it shielded enough normally?
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Oct 16, 2009 18:28
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Dragyn posted:My new house has an existing electrical wire that controls the lights on the outside of the garage, over the driveway, via a switch in the house. This wire runs underground through an buried pipe, along side a couple of other wires I have since disconnected. It's illegal to pull cat5 in the same conduit as THWN. UF and romex are considered to be their own raceways, so I *think* you can pull in Cat5 and UF through a single conduit legally, but normally, it's illegal to run comm and power cables through a common raceway. It may be damaged when the conduit floods, though. Using the old cable to pull in new cable is a good method, BTW. Alternately, you can use the old cable to pull in a snake, and then use the snake to pull in the new cable. grover fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Oct 16, 2009 |
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Oct 16, 2009 18:44
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dyne posted:Hey guys, I'm upgrading the wiring in the house I bought and have a few questions. The house is from the 1930s, has no grounded outlets, but did have a circuit breaker installed some time ago. It has an unfinished basement and an attic, so I figured I could just run wiring up a wall to the attic and then down into the 2nd floor walls. For the volumes you're looking at, Lowes and Home Depot are just fine. Do yourself a favor, and install all #12, don't bother with #14, even where you think you're only going to use #14. Alternately, you can legally replace your ungrounded outlets with GFCI outlets- only the first on the string must be a GFCI, and then you can legally replace all outlets fed from that GFCI with 3-prong outlets (all must be marked GFCI PROTECTED and UNGROUNDED). This will protect from electric shock and is the only legal way to plug 3-prong devices into an ungrounded outlet, but still won't provide a ground, so your computer case will be floating, etc. grover fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Oct 16, 2009 |
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Oct 16, 2009 18:50
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grover posted:You can't run NM-B (romex) through underground conduit; anything underground is considered to be "wet" and you can safely assume it will will with water (even if ostensibly watertight and with both ends above ground) and plan accordingly. You can use UF (essentially waterproof romex), but UF and romex aren't designed to be pulled through conduit and you might have quite a struggle on your hands. Individial THWN wires or something else along that line is what professional electricians usually use inside conduit. They also make direct burial CAT5...
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Oct 17, 2009 00:03
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kid sinister posted:They also make direct burial CAT5...
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Oct 18, 2009 19:33
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dorquemada posted:Is that to tell the backhoes where to dig? I thought that's what burial co-ax was for.
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Oct 18, 2009 20:10
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I've decided to use direct burial power, coax wrapped in a rubber insulating tube and standard cat5 UTP in rubber tubing. I tried a few of the runs last night. Got disconnected because there's a bend in the path. getting light and strong nylon rope to run through as a pull medium tonight to try again.
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Oct 19, 2009 21:33
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Dragyn posted:I've decided to use direct burial power, coax wrapped in a rubber insulating tube and standard cat5 UTP in rubber tubing. If you still have trouble, pick up some of this: http://ideal.datacomtools.com/idealcatalog/wire-lubricant.htm and squirt it into the hole before you start yanking too hard and breaking it.
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Oct 20, 2009 00:26
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grover posted:You can't put a sub-panel in the attic, though, there are strict requirements for accessibility that I doubt your attic meets. You can put connection boxes up there, though. You can fish lines through a wet well, it's not a problem. You should be supporting the cables at some point, though; you don't want them just dangling 2 stories. Running from the basement to the attic and fishing down is very likely the best way to do this without tearing up walls. Thanks for the advice. You're right, I can't put a sub-panel in the attic because I have one of those fold down stairway entrances to it. I've also heard about the GFCI thing, but half the outlets in the house don't work as-is and we need to add a bunch anyways  . At what interval should the wire from the basement to attic be supported? I can punch as many holes in the wall as I want but I'd like to keep it to a minimum I have 3 bedrooms, hallway and a bathroom upstairs that will be rewired - how many circuits should I divide those into? And do I need to run a separate 12/2 cable for each circuit?
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Oct 20, 2009 00:53
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Dragyn posted:I've decided to use direct burial power, coax wrapped in a rubber insulating tube and standard cat5 UTP in rubber tubing. What about plain old fish tape for pulling cable?
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Oct 20, 2009 01:57
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Messadiah posted:If you still have trouble, pick up some of this: http://ideal.datacomtools.com/idealcatalog/wire-lubricant.htm and squirt it into the hole before you start yanking too hard and breaking it. You know, I can't find this stuff anywhere, and I live 5 minutes from both Home Depot and Lowes. I've got everything but the direct burial through now. I've got the DB up to the bend in the pipe where I need to get it up from about a 110 degree angle. Terrible design. ninja edit: It's not done because my hands now hurt too much and my meager 140 pounds can't pull the last turn out.
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Oct 20, 2009 04:11
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