|
Do you have to downrate romex inside conduit, or is the exterior stuff already assuming it? Also, what's up with all these shows I see where people spray foam on top of romex. I'm pretty sure that wire buried in foam can't exactly shed heat...
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2013 16:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 10:37 |
|
|
willkill4food posted:I ended up getting a 1/2" flexible exterior plastic conduit and some 14 gauge exterior romex. I figured the exterior romex wasn't required but it was only a couple dollars more than the regular romex. Romex isn't allowed outdoors, in conduit or not. I'm pretty sure you bought UF cable. Have fun fishing that cable down your conduit. I recommended individual wires for a reason. I got more questions: 1. Did you get an outdoor extension box for your existing outlet? 2. Is a GFCI in that box currently? 3. Is this deck covered? 4. If not, what kind of weatherproof cover is on your existing outlet, the flat flip-up kind or an enclosed in-use type?
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2013 22:08
|
|
|
Yeah, individual wires are way easier to run in conduit. That being said, I'll run UF underground (following proper burial depth + cover guidelines) and then stuff it into a couple feet of PVC conduit (not the flexible stuff, I dunno, that looks crummy IMO) to a junction box aboveground where the wiring goes inside the building. That way you don't have to do much other than stuff the cable through like 2-4 feet of conduit and into a box.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 01:28
|
|
|
Be careful when attempting to install UF by putting it in the conduit before you install the conduit. Sure, you avoid having to pull it through, but PVC cement will damage UF insulation.
grover fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Mar 21, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 01:40
|
|
|
quote:That being said, I'll run UF underground (following proper burial depth + cover guidelines) and then stuff it into a couple feet of PVC conduit (not the flexible stuff, I dunno, that looks crummy IMO) to a junction box aboveground where the wiring goes inside the building. That way you don't have to do much other than stuff the cable through like 2-4 feet of conduit and into a box. I'm staying really close to the existing outlet so I don't think it makes sense to bury it. I'm more or less going 1' horizontal and like 4' vertical. kid sinister posted:Romex isn't allowed outdoors, in conduit or not. I'm pretty sure you bought UF cable. Have fun fishing that cable down your conduit. I recommended individual wires for a reason. Yeah UF cable, I probably sounded pretty stupid calling it outdoor romex. Hopefully it wont be too bad to fish since I'm only running 6' of conduit. If it is I will go with individual wires instead. The existing outlet is the flip up cover kind. And it's fed from a GFCI in the bathroom. It has a nice 1/2" outlet on the side that I am gonna attach the conduit to. I did get a 2 gang exterior box and clear plastic cover for the outlet and dimmer that's being added. Though now that I'm checking google it seems like it's against code to hook a dimmer up to an outlet (which makes some sense). If that's true then I'm all out of ideas since I'm pretty sure hard wiring these string lights to the dimmer is against code too. Though there are these things, but they don't look like they are made to be used outside. http://www.amazon.com/Lutron-MRF2-3...tro+lamp+dimmer Hashtag Banterzone fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Mar 21, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 02:56
|
|
|
First electrical project out of the way: I finally got around to disabling the light switch that controlled half my living room. It was a back-stab switch  (and it took me way longer than it should have to remember the proper term) and in the process of removing it I managed to rip out part of the stabbing apparatus. It also had three wires for some reason, two on the top half of the switch & one on the bottom. One was from whatever else is on the circuit, one went to the half of my living room the switch controlled, but I have no idea where the third cable went. My best guess is that they wired the switch to the outlets, then decided they wanted the circuit to continue on into the kitchen for some reason & just piggybacked on the always-hot side of the switch rather than running a new circuit. Said circuit not only includes the outlets in the kitchen, but also the electric pilot light for the gas stove as my wife not-so-conveniently found out.I twisted together the three blacks, the three whites & the three grounds and connected them with three wire nuts. First time with wire nuts so naturally I twisted the wires the wrong way and had to re-do it. Turned breaker back on, everything came to life, no sparks, no fire. Carefully pushed wires back into wall, re-installed now-useless switch to cover the hole. Despite the simplicity of the project, I'm overly paranoid that I'm going to burn the house down anyway and mildly confident that I've violated at least one code in the process.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 03:20
|
|
|
You could replace the switch with a blank plate if it offends you.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 03:23
|
|
|
oldskool posted:First electrical project out of the way: I finally got around to disabling the light switch that controlled half my living room. That was a 3-way switch, probably. You may have another switch controlling the same set of stuff lurking somewhere.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 03:35
|
|
|
kastein posted:That was a 3-way switch, probably. You may have another switch controlling the same set of stuff lurking somewhere. It's probably as he said. The hot continued on to somewhere else. Doubling hots in backstabs is a way better way to burn down your house than any mangled wire nut contraption.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 08:12
|
|
|
willkill4food posted:I'm staying really close to the existing outlet so I don't think it makes sense to bury it. I'm more or less going 1' horizontal and like 4' vertical. Put an unswitched, non-dimmed outlet outdoors, wired to code. Get some lumber and build a freestanding (with the emphasis on freestanding, it can not be anchored to the structure in any way) panel on which to mount your dimmer and outlet, using the fittings you purchased. Wire that dimmer and outlet with a suitable wet location-rated power cord and edison plug. Plug it in to the wall like you would any other portable dimmer. Since it is not a permanent installation, it's code-legal. The downside is that your dimmer is almost certainly not UL-listed for that use, so god forbid your house burns down and the fire inspector sees that. corgski fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Mar 23, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2013 02:19
|
|
|
willkill4food posted:The existing outlet is the flip up cover kind. And it's fed from a GFCI in the bathroom. It has a nice 1/2" outlet on the side that I am gonna attach the conduit to. If you want to bring that existing box up to code, then you would have to put a weather resistant outlet in that box with a "GFCI protected" sticker on it. I asked about the roof situation for that deck because that too has changed in recent years. If there's no roof overhead, then that box needs an in-use box. Those are either like the plastic dome like you linked to, or they have a flat lid with an accordion-style pop out section. If the porch is covered, then you can use the old flip up type or an in-use type.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2013 18:21
|
|
|
Any advice for finding a good electrician? In short, I want to have some work done, and while I could do it myself, I want it to get done in a timely fashion (which won't happen if I do it) and this one I think is more critical that everything be correctly permitted and all that crap. I googled up a few names, but I don't know anyone in the area that could contribute anecdotal reviews or anything. Also, would it be reasonable to ask him to inspect some minor work I've done and make sure any needed paperwork is in order for that? For a reasonable fee, of course. I just added a couple circuits in my garage and I figure if I'm going to pay to have him install some other stuff, I might as well have him make sure everything is in order while he's here.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2013 18:49
|
|
|
The hands down best way to find a good electrician is to call you local inspectors and ask them who they would recommend. Call as many inspectors as you want, and if some names overlap chances are they are good. Inspectors are 99% of the time real picky, which works to everyone's advantage.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2013 00:49
|
|
|
Ah, excellent idea, thanks. I was really happy with the inspector that did our house, I'll start there.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2013 00:51
|
|
|
grover posted:Be careful when attempting to install UF by putting it in the conduit before you install the conduit. Sure, you avoid having to pull it through, but PVC cement will damage UF insulation. Can you just throw some strong fishing line in the conduit before installation? Then you just tape/attach one end of the line to your UF, and pull it through.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2013 07:12
|
|
|
particle409 posted:Can you just throw some strong fishing line in the conduit before installation? Then you just tape/attach one end of the line to your UF, and pull it through. Like this, but smaller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMA9ybAtpzo Other tips: http://electrical.about.com/b/2011/08/22/how-do-i-pull-wire-through-conduit.htm grover fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Mar 31, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2013 14:56
|
|
|
particle409 posted:Can you just throw some strong fishing line in the conduit before installation? Then you just tape/attach one end of the line to your UF, and pull it through. In addition to what grover said, they also make dedicated pull string for conduit. Basically it's just a higher tensile plastic twine. Usually it's only used for future-proofing low voltage runs, i.e. pulling a second data line. Also, most people don't realize that if you think ahead, it can be replaced. For example, instead of using an existing pull string to pull just a single new CAT6 run, you can use the old pull string to pull a new cable and a replacement pull string.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2013 17:26
|
|
|
If it's just a bunch of 14 gauge wires and a pretty straight run, you can just tape up the ends of the wires then push them through. Or get fish tape. http://www.lowes.ca/wire-fish-tape_15302.html
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2013 21:08
|
|
|
I posted a while back about an AFCI tripping in my new house. Well it's still happening and seems to be completely random. It won't happen for a week or two then trips, or a few days between, the other day it happened twice within a few hours, etc.. The only pattern seems to be it happens at night or in the morning. Could the AFCI be bad or too sensitive? I assume the first step is to swap it out for a different one and see if it continues? The home is under warranty, so I'm going to call my contractor.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 16:19
|
|
|
bathhouse posted:I posted a while back about an AFCI tripping in my new house. Well it's still happening and seems to be completely random. It won't happen for a week or two then trips, or a few days between, the other day it happened twice within a few hours, etc.. The only pattern seems to be it happens at night or in the morning. They can be bad and too sensitive, but there can also be a wiring fault, especially in new houses. If it's all under warranty, calling your contractor is the best bet. Don't tell him you think the AFCI is bad, tell him you think there's a wiring problem because the AFCI is doing its job and tripping out when there's arcing inside the walls.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2013 16:53
|
|
|
babyeatingpsychopath posted:They can be bad and too sensitive, but there can also be a wiring fault, especially in new houses. If it's all under warranty, calling your contractor is the best bet. Probably the first place to check would be wiring at the breaker and outlets or the items being powered by the AFCI. Also I agree that you should pursue it as a "there's something wrong in the wiring" before blaming the AFCI.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 02:26
|
|
|
Is it possible for household electricity to 'oscillate' for a lack of a better word, in other words for the current to drop every 2-3 seconds? If so, what might cause that? I'm having a weird problem with a table saw where every 2-3 seconds a certain blade vibrates. That blade is full kerf, thicker than my other blades and takes a tiny bit more power to push. It occurred to me that my saw vibrates a little when I shut the power off. If it were losing voltage every 2-3 seconds allowing the speed to drop it might cause the blade to vibrate. The saw runs on a hefty extension cord.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 04:16
|
|
|
have you checked the connections at the receptacle you're using, any others on the circuit, or at the panel? a loose wire that's arcing can cause variations in voltage. a breaker that's going bad also can.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 05:24
|
|
|
wormil posted:Is it possible for household electricity to 'oscillate' for a lack of a better word, in other words for the current to drop every 2-3 seconds? If so, what might cause that? Probably just out of balance. Harmonic motion as it passes through its resonant frequencies spinning down causes the vibration. One of those resonant frequencies is probably pretty close to the running speed of the saw. It's unlikely it's your house power causing this.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 13:01
|
|
|
wormil posted:Is it possible for household electricity to 'oscillate' for a lack of a better word, in other words for the current to drop every 2-3 seconds? If so, what might cause that? The voltage at your outlet (for the US) is ideally at about 120 volts or so. That voltage can move around during the day anywhere from 110V to 130V. Causes are the loading from customers around you who are pulling from the same upstream source. You can also get surges, sags, transients, and harmonics from a lot of different sources. If you have a factory miles away that closes in capacitor banks or starts up an arc furnace or large motor, you can probably detect that if you had a power quality analyzer connected up at your house. Generally those go unnoticed. There's a phenomena called "flicker" which is... well... where you can see lights flickering, which can be both from sags and surges. Worst case you get actual damage from really nasty transients. It's uncommon but possible. I've troubleshot industrial systems where surges caused things like computers and instrumentation to crash, the solution was to install a commercial double-conversion UPS. There was another case where surges were interfering with unexpectedly sensitive equipment, and I installed a small line reactor (inductor) to filter out the transients, and that worked well. Simple example these guys at Dranetz gave was where this person's satellite receiver kept getting fried due to electrical transients. So the satellite people told the homeowner he needed to talk to the power company. The power company hooked up a recorder and saw nasty spikes and transients, and ultimately they discovered the man's wife had a vacuum cleaner that had a really bad motor in it, and when she ran it the recorder lit up like a Christmas tree. They replaced her vacuum cleaner (it was cheaper than installing additional filters on the line for thousands of dollars) and the problem went away. I agree that it's the harmonics. Can you remove the blade and put it back in place? I'm wondering if a slight adjustment might make the problem go away. Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 13:33 on Apr 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 13:27
|
|
|
Gotta be an out of balance issue on the blade and/or arbor: you mentioned that it vibrates as it spins down when you shut the power off. That particular vibration CAN'T be caused by intermittent low voltage because once you flip the switch, there's NO voltage.
Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Apr 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 13:42
|
|
|
Alright, good info. The power thing just occurred to me last night. Really I'm just stumped since it only happens under load and then is cyclical. Harmonics was my first guess but I don't know how to test that. I don't think my other blades are doing it, the rip blade is the only one that's obvious.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 17:13
|
|
|
wormil posted:Alright, good info. The power thing just occurred to me last night. Really I'm just stumped since it only happens under load and then is cyclical. Harmonics was my first guess but I don't know how to test that. I don't think my other blades are doing it, the rip blade is the only one that's obvious. At load, the motor isn't spinning at full speed. So say your unloaded motor spins at 3000 RPM. Your blade has a harmonic resonance at 725RPM. It will also harmonically vibrate at 1450 and 2900 RPM. 2900 RPM is about the maximum (give or take) that your motor can spin that big, heavy rip blade as it goes through wood, so you get wobbles there, and as it spins down, you get another set around 1450, and another at 725.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 20:57
|
|
|
Induction motor, right? So at 60Hz and a two-pole motor that's 3600RPM, four poles that's 1800RPM. The slip (since this isn't a synchronous motor) will bring it well under that "maximum" (zero slip) speed. 3000RPM would be about 15% slip, that seems kinda' high for full load. Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Apr 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 21:06
|
|
|
Three-Phase posted:Induction motor, right? So at 60Hz and a two-pole motor that's 3600RPM, four poles that's 1800RPM. The slip (since this isn't a synchronous motor) will bring it well under that "maximum" (zero slip) speed. Those were hypothetical "make the math easy" numbers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 22:05
|
|
|
I put on a link belt and its like a new saw, overall much quieter and nearly vibration free. But it didn't completely fix the blade vibration however instead of happening 3X in 48" it only happened once in 12' of cutting so I'm on the right track.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 23:09
|
|
|
Link belts are the poo poo, hands down.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2013 23:10
|
|
|
So I have this Rotary Phase Converter, and I understand how to wire it: I then got this combo fused disconnect/magnetic starter box on ebay at a great price, and acquired the proper fuses and thermal overload devices:   The starter has a 120 volt coil and there is a transformer in the box to deal with this (located under the small 3 fuse block). Details of the starter are: Class: 8536 Type: SC03 Form: BS Series: B D151304/198 I even found this document that details wiring these things. I was not able to locate a wiring diagram for my specific 8536 starter. I did find this circuit diagram which seems to match my situation the best for the control circuit. (This was found on page 11 of the above linked document)  The question here is this. The "M" N.O. contacts I've located on the unit as well as the coil contacts (the circle labelled "M".) What I can't seem to find is the "OL" N.C. contacts... Are they wired internally in series with the coil, is it not applicable to my situation, or am I missing something?
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2013 15:18
|
|
|
If you look at the starter/disconnect with the green fuses in the vertical direction, the OL contacts should be just below, behind and to the left of the red reset button on the starter.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2013 18:04
|
|
|
Thanks! It turned out to be on the bottom of the starter, but ya led me in the right direction. Found out the transformer with 220 input is only giving me 65 volts out. So, I wired the control circuit up to test using a 120v power cord, bypassing the transformer. Control circuit works beautifully. Measured the resistance between the motor contacts while the starter was engaged (Don't have a motor hooked up yet)... L1=0.2 ohms, good. L2=0.2 ohms, great. L3=3.5 megaohms? WTF? ... Guess I gotta take it apart and inspect/clean the contacts, or is that normal?
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2013 06:14
|
|
|
Opened up the starter this morning to inspect the contents. The contacts looked like hell but cleaned up on a wire wheel without a problem. Put it back together, turned on the coil and the resistances read perfect now. I have no reason to believe it won't work when I wire the phase converter into it now. So the question now is, do these contacts have some special coating that I just removed with the wire wheel and should be replaced? Or, is a wire wheel cleaning fine for the next ten years?
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2013 14:36
|
|
|
AbsentMindedWelder posted:So the question now is, do these contacts have some special coating that I just removed with the wire wheel and should be replaced? Or, is a wire wheel cleaning fine for the next ten years? Yes, they're usually coated in silver or copper bronze. We usually clean them with green scrubbies. That said, daily use will keep them reasonably clean.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2013 16:50
|
|
|
I think the condenser on my air conditioner blew a capacitor (at least that's what the internet says). It makes a loud buzzing sound like I'm running a guy through the electric chair (I would assume) and nothing seems to be happening. If I hand start the fan, it gradually comes up to full speed and cold air blows out of my vents but the sound remains. Does this sound like a bad capacitor and more importantly, is the buzzing sound the already broken capacitor making noise or is it the sound of my compressor eating itself? UPDATE: Turns out the buzzing was a loose screw holding the cover plate on. With the cover off it sounds like a normal air conditioner. Cat Hatter fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Apr 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2013 20:59
|
|
|
I'm looking for the help of some EE or similar expert. I found an old lab weight in the garbage, a Mettler Toledo PE 3600 DeltaRange to be exact:  It's a really solid piece of equipment, from the good old days. It doesn't work though, and so far the failure is at its transformer. The weight gets 220V in (fuse is OK), and it goes through this beauty of a transformer: Top:  The black cover and two black wires that comes from the bottom and onto the PCB are 220V in. The small black wire that jumps two terminals can be changed to match various input voltages, and here it's set to 220/240V. Back:  I've measured voltage across the black and green wire you see in the second picture, and it reads 220V. However, there's not a trace of power on the output terminals (wires covered in a grey sleeve). I believe the two capacitors are okay since I get 220V on the wires that go into the core, right? I guess the transformer is irrepairably hosed? I'm having a hell of a time finding a similar one. Is it very rare for a transformer to have four outputs (28V, 9V, 2 x 2.3V)? Is there anything I can do to match these voltages if I buy a transformer with like 2 x 12V outputs or something? Pilsner fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Apr 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2013 21:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 10:37 |
|
|
You've got everything on the primary right, as far as I can tell. If I had to guess, since you have 2x blue, 2x green, 2x brown, and an orange wire, you SHOULD see 2.3 volts from each brown wire to the orange wire (i.e. I suspect the 2x2.3 is a center tapped 4.6 volt winding.) You should see 9.5 volts on either the green pair or the blue pair, and 28 volts on the other one. You shouldn't see any significant / stable voltage between windings, but you might. With the transformer off, ohm out each secondary winding - when you see resistance between two wires, it means that's one of the windings. The three wires that all show resistance to each other are almost certain to be the "2 x 2.3 volt" winding.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2013 22:20
|
|