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GD_American posted:Or it is load-bearing. Load-bearing drywall?
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Dec 7, 2013 18:15
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GD_American posted:Or it is load-bearing. 
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Dec 7, 2013 22:34
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kastein posted:Drywall work is easy and cheap. Open the wall, deal with the wiring, close the wall. Unless there is tile or texturing involved. I don't think there's a finished wall in this house that's not textured.
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Dec 7, 2013 22:44
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GD_American posted:Or it is load-bearing. I don't deal in load bearing drywall, only load bearing air and load bearing powderpost boring beetle excrement 
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Dec 8, 2013 17:05
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Cat Hatter posted:Last year the lights on my pre-lit Christmas tree started flickering and I ended up having to cut off one of the bulb sockets and solder the wires together. Assuming that I'm not crap at soldering, how dangerous is this? Should I get an AFCI for that room as a precaution? I cannot speak to code or safety, but get one of those as seen on tv light fixer guns. That bulb socket was likely failing to shunt.
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Dec 8, 2013 18:35
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I'm crossposting this from the Crappy Construction thread:kid sinister posted:Here was my favorite wiring splice job from Hanoi, Vietnam. It was low enough to easily reach. Note the tomb marker store across the street. Convenient!
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Dec 8, 2013 19:19
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XmasGiftFromWife posted:I cannot speak to code or safety, but get one of those as seen on tv light fixer guns. That bulb socket was likely failing to shunt. That socket is long gone, somehow the contacts were bent so I cut it off and replaced it with two wires soldered together. I'm mostly concerned because I've only ever soldered low voltage stuff and I'm not sure if it's safe/legal to solder household voltage wiring.
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Dec 8, 2013 21:36
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Cat Hatter posted:That socket is long gone, somehow the contacts were bent so I cut it off and replaced it with two wires soldered together. I'm mostly concerned because I've only ever soldered low voltage stuff and I'm not sure if it's safe/legal to solder household voltage wiring. It's not safe or legal to do it for house wiring.....as in wall cable. That should be wire nutted or similar and in a box. As far as dealing with what's little more than an extension cord......there is no "code" to fall back on. The only people who would have any say about that is your insurance company. But if you soldered it properly and then taped or otherwise insulated it properly I really wouldn't worry about it.
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Dec 8, 2013 21:42
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Outdoor flood light fixture came with stranded wiring. I had the worst time getting a connection to romex with just a wire nut. I soldered, wirenutted, and even taped on the wirenut. Unsafe?
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Dec 8, 2013 21:54
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Motronic posted:It's not safe or legal to do it for house wiring.....as in wall cable. That should be wire nutted or similar and in a box. As far as dealing with what's little more than an extension cord......there is no "code" to fall back on. The only people who would have any say about that is your insurance company.
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Dec 8, 2013 21:58
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eddiewalker posted:Outdoor flood light fixture came with stranded wiring. I had the worst time getting a connection to romex with just a wire nut. It could be, it could be fine. Based on most CURRENT codes you need to use wire nuts or other mechanical attachment devices ACCORDING TO THEIR LISTING. None of them list "solder" as being acceptable under them. But old school codes? Most of them said solder was acceptable AFTER good mechanical and electrical connection. So, properly soldered=safe but not to code, most likely. grover posted:Most local codes require all appliances, cords, etc., to be UL listed for the purpose used. Soldering a socket would presumably violate that UL listing. That's a gigantic technicality. Of course, it's exactly the kind of thing an insurance company would use.
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Dec 8, 2013 22:04
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Assuming there was anything left that would show in an investigation after the fact. That size wire would probably be history, and arcing would melt either a socket terminal or the solder joint to nothing anyways. I would be more concerned about the fact that you reduced the number of bulbs sharing the supply voltage but it probably isn't an issue. If you soldered it well and bulb voltages don't change more than 5-10% by taking a bulb out of the loop, run it. (Not legal advise)
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Dec 8, 2013 22:09
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I'll probably put an AFCI on that circuit anyway just to be safe. I shouldn't have any problems having a GFCI outlet on an AFCI circuit, right?
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Dec 9, 2013 01:45
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Cat Hatter posted:I'll probably put an AFCI on that circuit anyway just to be safe. I shouldn't have any problems having a GFCI outlet on an AFCI circuit, right? You should be okay. I got that same "GFCI on AFCI" on one circuit in my home, an interior lighting circuit that also feeds the back door outlet. Using power tools can be a pain when it comes down to tracking down nuisance trips. "Did it trip at the outlet, or back at the panel?"
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Dec 9, 2013 08:08
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I'm looking for the cleanest way, visually, to install track lighting. This seems common and I understand how to install it: http://www.lumens.com/end-feed-connector-and-outlet-box-cover-by-juno-uu443996.html But I saw this type of connector and am curious if this would allow me to not have the mess of a box and cover in my ceiling that the previous requires: http://www.lumens.com/end-feed-connector-by-juno-uu426501.html (Drywall on the ceiling is completely removed, so I'm not trying to minimize drywall repair work.)
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Dec 9, 2013 19:03
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rekamso posted:I'm looking for the cleanest way, visually, to install track lighting. Yes, you want the second type. You can put a box above/near it in the ceiling and feed it from there with a short piece of MC. Realistically, that's not even needed since it's all above the drywall, but it's not a bad idea just incase something goes screwy and the tracks get pulled down.
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Dec 9, 2013 19:18
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I have an upright freezer in my garage on a GFCI plug that seems to be tripping lately. When it trips it turns off all my outdoor outlets including the christmas lights. I've read that having appliances on a GFCI plug is unwise, can I just put a standard plug here instead? Nothing else connects to it besides this freezer. If not, how can I track down why this thing keeps tripping?
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Dec 10, 2013 07:02
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FCKGW posted:I have an upright freezer in my garage on a GFCI plug that seems to be tripping lately. When it trips it turns off all my outdoor outlets including the christmas lights. I would start by plugging it into a different (preferably GFCI) outlet for a few days to isolate the problem. It could be that your Christmas lights got wet enough to trip the GFCI and you might end up changing out the outlet for nothing. GFCIs aren't required for freezers and most people don't like throwing out their perishables because the outlet tripped for no reason. On the other hand, I remember a high school physics teacher telling us once about how he used to get a static-like shock from his fridge and decided one day to use a wire to ground the casing to a water pipe behind it. He squeezed between the fridge and a cabinet and as soon as he touched the copper pipe he started getting badly shocked through his belly that was pressed against the fridge and couldn't open his hand to let go of the pipe. As his saliva took on a metallic taste he passed out and luckily woke up lying on the floor. He was making a different point, but personally I prefer to have overly sensitive safety devices than non at all. I'm sure I'll change my tune the first time my fridge vomits melted ice cream all over my wood floor though.
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Dec 10, 2013 08:49
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It could be that that gfci outlet is protecting the exterior outlets and swapping it would remove that protection, so instead of "changing out the outlet for nothing," you could find you actually changed the outlet for something: a nice big fire.
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Dec 10, 2013 14:41
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Bad Munki posted:It could be that that gfci outlet is protecting the exterior outlets and swapping it would remove that protection, so instead of "changing out the outlet for nothing," you could find you actually changed the outlet for something: a nice big fire. Or worse, a crispy family member.
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Dec 10, 2013 15:47
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Why not both!
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Dec 10, 2013 17:26
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What's an acceptable voltage drop on a fully loaded circuit? This room is on a 15 amp breaker, I assume wired with 14 gauge romex. High end PC + 2 monitors + AV receiver currently powered on, so probably 3-4 amps. Just switched on a 1200 watt space heater, and my UPS switched to battery for a bit (no, it's not plugged into the UPS). UPS monitoring software shows 122 volts with the heater off, 114 with the heater on (dropping to about 100 for a moment when the heater is first switched on). Obviously, I'm a little concerned about an 8 volt drop but my feet are a lot warmer.
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Dec 11, 2013 09:24
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FCKGW posted:I have an upright freezer in my garage on a GFCI plug that seems to be tripping lately. When it trips it turns off all my outdoor outlets including the christmas lights. That said, garages are actually a terrible place for a freezer, though; they're not designed to work with the wild temperature swings. some texas redneck posted:What's an acceptable voltage drop on a fully loaded circuit?
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Dec 11, 2013 11:57
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I have a light switch that I absolutely can not figure out what it controls. I've checked all the outlets, I've checked that it's not in a 2- or 3-way with another switch for any of the lights, I even checked lights and outlets outside on the patio. The house was built in 2007 and we're the second owners so there's not a high likelihood of too much tomfoolery with the wiring. Heck, I've probably done more with the wiring than the previous owners did. If you were tasked with figuring out what the hell the intent of this switch was, how would you go about doing so? I'm wondering if maybe someone intended for it to control half of a couple outlets but forgot to break off the bridge on the outlet in question, that's my best guess so far.
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Dec 11, 2013 16:19
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Bad Munki posted:I have a light switch that I absolutely can not figure out what it controls. I've checked all the outlets, I've checked that it's not in a 2- or 3-way with another switch for any of the lights, I even checked lights and outlets outside on the patio. The house was built in 2007 and we're the second owners so there's not a high likelihood of too much tomfoolery with the wiring. Heck, I've probably done more with the wiring than the previous owners did. Jesus Christ the post is coming from inside my house  Every single thing you said describes a switch in my kitchen. Down to the loving year the house was built. Which we're the second owners of.
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Dec 11, 2013 16:23
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Okay, go to your kitchen. Is the garbage disposal turning on and off right now? Here, see if you can control this lamp I plugged in.
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Dec 11, 2013 16:28
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I'd bet  that it was intended to be powering half of a split receptacle and the installers forgot to break the tab off of the receptacle. Pull the faceplates of your receptacles in the room and I bet you'll see a double-fed receptacle somewhere.
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Dec 11, 2013 19:35
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Bad Munki posted:Okay, go to your kitchen. Is the garbage disposal turning on and off right now? No disposal, tried every light and outlet in that half of the house. Best guess is it was for some pendant lighting over the bar that they ended up never putting in, since a friend of mine has an identical layout house with them (although their switch is on a different wall). Weird thing is it's hot. We'll probably end up just taking it loose and terminating the ends and see what that changes. If nothing, then I'm gonna steal that switch for some LEDs I'm planning on running under the cabinet.
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Dec 11, 2013 19:41
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GD_American posted:No disposal Well yeah, not now, I got bored and stopped flipping the switch at my end. Let me know next time you want to send something down the drain, I'll turn it on for you.
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Dec 11, 2013 19:45
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The mystery switch in my house included a sticky note from the previous owner explaining that it was for a ceiling fan that they never installed.
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Dec 11, 2013 20:51
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I never even met the people I bought this house from so I didn't get to ask. I tracked them down on the county assessor site just because I was curious what they moved in to, but I think contacting them via that info over a mystery light switch might seem a little...weird.
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Dec 11, 2013 20:56
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I just popped open every outlet in the room and none of them are double-wired in any discernible way. I also opened the box with the switch itself, and it is, in fact, wired up. I think I need to find a way to just follow the wire and see where it goes. I think there might be some gear for toning out wires at the makerspace, would that work here?
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Dec 11, 2013 22:22
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Zhentar posted:The mystery switch in my house included a sticky note from the previous owner explaining that it was for a ceiling fan that they never installed. This seems the most likely candidate. Some builders use a second box and switch for fan control instead of the single gang double switch. Mystery switch folks: is there an extra wire in the ceiling box of the room with the switch?
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Dec 11, 2013 22:32
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There's some track lighting at one end, but that's way off to the side and there wouldn't be space down here for a fan anyhow, on account of the ceiling profile due to the air return. It's plausible they ran a wire to the middle of the ceiling so a light COULD be installed, but there is zero evidence of that without removing sheetrock, which is why I was hoping to track the wire with a toner or something similar.
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Dec 11, 2013 22:36
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Bad Munki posted:There's some track lighting at one end, but that's way off to the side and there wouldn't be space down here for a fan anyhow, on account of the ceiling profile due to the air return. It's plausible they ran a wire to the middle of the ceiling so a light COULD be installed, but there is zero evidence of that without removing sheetrock, which is why I was hoping to track the wire with a toner or something similar. Energized cable can only terminate inside boxes. You can't run a cable still able to be powered via a switch to the middle of a ceiling and bury it behind drywall. Tell you what, pull the cover off the switches for that ceiling light and the mystery switch, then pull the switches out of the box. Is there a red wire attached to the mystery switch? Does that red wire run into the same cable sheath as the black wire for the other switch?
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Dec 11, 2013 23:26
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kid sinister posted:Energized cable can only terminate inside boxes. You can't run a cable still able to be powered via a switch to the middle of a ceiling and bury it behind drywall. Well... you can, but you shouldn't. Is that track lighting two circuit by any chance?
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Dec 11, 2013 23:57
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You can buy non-contact voltage sensors. I have two, a Fluke & an Ideal although I have no idea the models, they're at work and I'm off the rest of the week. Oddly enough, the Ideal works better than the Fluke. Anyway, you might be able to use one of those to trace the wire from the box.
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Dec 12, 2013 01:36
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ncumbered_by_idgits posted:Oddly enough, the Ideal works better than the Fluke. Well of course it does, it's ideal. If the other one were better, it'd probably just be a fluke.
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Dec 12, 2013 01:50
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Bad Munki posted:Well of course it does, it's ideal. If the other one were better, it'd probably just be a fluke. Explain Fluke pricing. (don't forget the  when replying)
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Dec 12, 2013 02:00
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I am reasonably positive such jokes will never get old.
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Dec 12, 2013 02:01
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