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babyeatingpsychopath posted:120V stings a bit but it's not gonna kill you, I mean hey, 120V doesn't kill more than maybe half a dozen electricians a year, what are the odds you'll be one of them! Ambrose Burnside posted:He's willing to go to the effort to pound a stake into the ground and run a dedicated ground line to his computer, except everything is 100% paved over for hundreds of metres around. The rebar inside of concrete can be a pretty great grounding electrode.
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Dec 9, 2015 00:41
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The only circuit they shut off was by energizing a light switch I warned them was likely shorted, and tripped the circuit.  e: they also left a ladder and 60' of EMT in my living room. Granted, my house looks like a construction zone at the moment so deciding if that was my or their ladder was probably a little hard. minivanmegafun fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Dec 9, 2015 |
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Dec 9, 2015 01:07
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So breakers keep flipping. Nothing out of the ordinary is plugged in or drawing inordinate amounts of power. It was just kind of annoying but now the breaker for the furnace is flipping frequently which is not so good when it's below 32 out. Is there anything I can check? I called the property management company (we rent) so that is in motion with an indeterminate timeframe. We also have rats in the walls and can hear them chewing stuff. Could that be a culprate? edit: if it matters the breakers are AFCI. Also more background, we moved in in August. We are the first occupants since it was renovated and there have been plenty of issues, but the breakers tripping is new in the last few weeks. The Slack Lagoon fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Dec 9, 2015 |
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Dec 9, 2015 03:02
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If you're in a large enough city you might want to tip off their landlord responsibilities enforcement department that your heat is out, that usually gets landlords moving quickly. Rats I guess are a thing, but I've never had them do that in Chicago. Then again conduit and BX is everywhere in Chicago, so animal damage to power lines is pretty rare.
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Dec 9, 2015 03:08
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Zhentar posted:The rebar inside of concrete can be a pretty great grounding electrode. That reminds me: when I got the slab poured for my workshop, I included a 25' line of (IIRC) 6ga copper wire to use as a ground. Then I accidentally snapped off the part of the wire that extended out of the slab. Is that in any way recoverable or am I stuck with installing a grounding stake instead?
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Dec 9, 2015 03:18
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minivanmegafun posted:Is electricians doing work with circuits live just a thing? I've got a couple guys working here, they didn't shut anything off, and talking to a few friends they've confirmed that their electricians never shut anything off either. One time my boss drilled and tapped a live commercial switchgear busing. I'm not saying I recommend working live but some of us are just insane and stupid. (It's really not that dangerous with 120v and household stuff, especially if you know what you're doing and exercise caution. Live work is very common. That switchgear though, ugh. Could have easily killed him but the customer was extremely happy to save the cost of a shutdown. I sure wouldn't ever do it in a million years.) TooMuchAbstraction posted:That reminds me: when I got the slab poured for my workshop, I included a 25' line of (IIRC) 6ga copper wire to use as a ground. Then I accidentally snapped off the part of the wire that extended out of the slab. Is that in any way recoverable or am I stuck with installing a grounding stake instead? Chip out the concrete until you can get at enough of the wire to use it? Kind of a mess but that's all I can think of. Mimesweeper fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Dec 9, 2015 |
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Dec 9, 2015 04:23
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magic mountain posted:
This is sadly the correct answer (most likely). It all comes down to your inspector though. In my parts, new construction _always_ needs a Ufer ground; cannot sub for a ground rod
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Dec 9, 2015 06:00
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dwoloz posted:This is sadly the correct answer (most likely). It all comes down to your inspector though. In my parts, new construction _always_ needs a Ufer ground; cannot sub for a ground rod The foundation inspector recommended it, but the way he described it, it was basically as an easier/better option vs. installing a grounding round. He certainly didn't make it sound mandatory. This is just for an outbuilding though (albeit one that will have its own subpanel), so the rules may be different for stuff like houses.
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Dec 9, 2015 06:05
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Ambrose Burnside posted:I've got a friend living in the Philippines who's trying to ground his computer and can't figure out how. To start, absolutely nothing is grounded there. Wiring is always ungrounded, electrical sockets with ground slots are totally unavailable, and it's largely moot because electronics he buys in-country usually come with the ground plugs cut off by the retailers. He wants to jerry-rig his own grounding, but the plumbing is plastic so that's out, and he's not sure which, if any, structural parts of the building actually run clear into the earth. He's willing to go to the effort to pound a stake into the ground and run a dedicated ground line to his computer, except everything is 100% paved over for hundreds of metres around. Drill a hole with a hammer drill and pound in a ground rod? kid sinister fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Dec 9, 2015 |
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Dec 9, 2015 06:14
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kid sinister posted:Drill a hole with a hammer drill and pound in a ground rod? Don't even need that for tarmac. A ground rod should go through fine. I've put a lot of similarly sized rods (pickets) into a lot of tarmac as stabilization points for vehicle rescue work with little more than a 5 lb sledge.
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Dec 9, 2015 16:09
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I still remember the ugliest grounding rod when I was house hunting., the house had a foot long piece of bent rebar sticking out of the wall next to the panel about halfway up the wall, it easily could have impaled someone in the dark. Luckily I cant see the ground rod in my current house, I guess it's just well hidden. I hope it's in place somewhere. 
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Dec 9, 2015 21:17
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Crotch Fruit posted:I hope it's in place somewhere. The can be completely buried if you use an appropriate fastener kit to hook up the bonding wire. It's entirely possible you have one or more <somewhere> slightly below the surface near your service entrance.
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Dec 10, 2015 00:36
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Motronic posted:The can be completely buried if you use an appropriate fastener kit to hook up the bonding wire. It's entirely possible you have one or more <somewhere> slightly below the surface near your service entrance. Well, it wasn't always buried. That fastening did have to be exposed at installation until the inspector could verify it. Afterward, a homeowner or just plain erosion filled in the hole.
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Dec 10, 2015 00:56
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I think I'm picking up sarcasm there......but there are legit direct burial clamps that are designed and allowed under......at least the code I was dealing with to be buried.
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Dec 10, 2015 02:02
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Motronic posted:I think I'm picking up sarcasm there...... No there isn't. Well, maybe, after you needed help with plumbing. It isn't every day DIY's golden god gets tarnished. Seriously though, keep doing what you're doing. DIY needs your brain.
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Dec 10, 2015 02:42
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Motronic posted:......but there are legit direct burial clamps that are designed and allowed under......at least the code I was dealing with to be buried. around here we call them "acorns" or "teardrops" and yeah..they're definitely direct burial rated. when i do panel or service upgrades (around here UFer grounds are required for new construction), and pound ground rods, i always bury the wire but leave the ends where the clamps are exposed with a clump of dirt next to them so that after the inspector signs them off the homeowner can cover them back up. it's pretty rare to need them exposed for anything in the future, in my experience. as far as live work goes...i tend to work live in really basic service calls and certain trouble shooting situations. a lot of times changing out a bad switch live is about 15 minutes faster than running back and forth up 3 flights of stairs trying to guess which circuit it might be on a 60 year old shittily labeled panel. i've been doing residential for a long time and feel comfortable in my abilities and in my judgement to know when a situation is too sketchy to try and do live. i've been helping on a lot of commercial jobs lately, though, and it's definitely not as prevalent. the curmudgeonly rear end old dude i'm working with just straight up does not do it, which i can respect.
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Dec 10, 2015 05:28
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Massasoit posted:So breakers keep flipping. Nothing out of the ordinary is plugged in or drawing inordinate amounts of power. I think I may have found the issue. I had a HomePlug AV plugged into a power strip with a surge protector. I moved it to be plugged directly into the wall and it looks like the breakers have stopped tripping. I might try putting out back on the strip and see if I can get it to trip again.
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Dec 10, 2015 15:02
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Massasoit posted:I think I may have found the issue. I had a HomePlug AV plugged into a power strip with a surge protector. I moved it to be plugged directly into the wall and it looks like the breakers have stopped tripping. I might try putting out back on the strip and see if I can get it to trip again. For what it's worth I've seen a lot of chatter about powerline networking not playing well with AFI breakers. I'm not certain what the details are, though. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1766215 e: Look at #3 here http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/basics/lanwan-basics/32769-how-to-troubleshoot-your-powerline-network
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Dec 11, 2015 01:49
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magic mountain posted:I made some spaghetti today. Couldn't get in there Sunday due to, uh, some jerkwad who cut into the lockbox and robbed the place. Some people. Thankfully for some reason they didn't grab all that shiny, expensive new wire.   (no, that's not my handwriting)
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Dec 11, 2015 02:53
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Hubis posted:For what it's worth I've seen a lot of chatter about powerline networking not playing well with AFI breakers. I'm not certain what the details are, though. Thanks for this. Iirc the breakers are eatons. I tried putting the HomePlug back on the power strip and one of the breakers tripped after not too long so I'm going to guess that is the issue. Haven't had anything trip while it's plugged directly into the wall
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Dec 11, 2015 14:40
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magic mountain posted:Couldn't get in there Sunday due to, uh, some jerkwad who cut into the lockbox and robbed the place. Some people. Thankfully for some reason they didn't grab all that shiny, expensive new wire. I fuckin I fuckin love a new install. Everything's so fresh and clean, the conductors aren't all gummed up and bullshit and annoying to work with. If you're lucky, the boxes still have that fresh paint smell.
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Dec 12, 2015 00:03
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Quick question, I want to run a new circuit to install a wall mounted heater in my upstairs bathroom. In trying to figure out the best spot to fish 12-2 romex from the basement to the attic (so I can drop it down over the bathroom), I hit upon the idea of using a vestigial chimney that's been sealed off and capped below the roof. There's no fireplaces or anything on it, it's just a brick lined cavity at this point. Are there any concerns or red flags in fishing wire up an old chimney?
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Dec 12, 2015 23:41
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What would make the potential between hot and ground ~75V?
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Dec 12, 2015 23:57
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OSU_Matthew posted:Quick question, I want to run a new circuit to install a wall mounted heater in my upstairs bathroom. In trying to figure out the best spot to fish 12-2 romex from the basement to the attic (so I can drop it down over the bathroom), I hit upon the idea of using a vestigial chimney that's been sealed off and capped below the roof. There's no fireplaces or anything on it, it's just a brick lined cavity at this point. None that I can think of off the top of my head. I don't think it's allowed to dangle more than 50', though. Make sure you've got a clamp/staple within 18" of the exit from your newly-christened "electrical riser."
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Dec 13, 2015 00:01
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minivanmegafun posted:What would make the potential between hot and ground ~75V? A bad connection from either or both. Can you be more specific about what's going on and where you are seeing this? Also what voltage/phase (or country and residential/commercial) you're talking about?
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Dec 13, 2015 00:31
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minivanmegafun posted:What would make the potential between hot and ground ~75V? I had that happen once with a loose shared neutral on a 3 phase system.
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Dec 13, 2015 00:34
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kid sinister posted:I had that happen once with a loose shared neutral on a 3 phase system. I just saw 161V where it should have been 120 from a loose neutral a couple days ago. It's probably a loose neutral.
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Dec 13, 2015 01:06
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I'm going to tape this inside of my currently unlabeled panel, any suggestions? I have the address and date at the top. It's printed on a laser printer so dampness won't cause it to run.  We had a dishwasher installed and I became curious if there were any hilarious caveats to running it (toaster+microwave+electric kettle+refrigerator startup+dishwasher+coffee machine would = sadness.) Draws 1150watts when the heating element is on, 10-30watts otherwise, 1kwh per "normal" cycle so says my kill-a-watt.
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Dec 13, 2015 02:00
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:None that I can think of off the top of my head. I don't think it's allowed to dangle more than 50', though. Make sure you've got a clamp/staple within 18" of the exit from your newly-christened "electrical riser." Thanks! Google provided conflicting answers, so I just wanted to check here to make sure I didn't need any special bushings or something to protect the cable. Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Dec 13, 2015 |
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Dec 13, 2015 03:01
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H110Hawk posted:I'm going to tape this inside of my currently unlabeled panel, any suggestions? Yep! Cover that missing knockout.
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Dec 13, 2015 03:48
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Motronic posted:A bad connection from either or both. US, residential, 120V. This is an old (>130 years) house using the sheath of greenfield for grounding, most everywhere else is depending on self-grounding outlets to hit the grounded box. I've just got two outlets in one room (that's on the same circuits as other rooms) that's doing this. It's reading 120 between hot/neutral.
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Dec 13, 2015 05:27
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The house that I've purchased has been prewired for Comcast cable, however there are no jacks in the basement for the cable which is where I would like to put the cable modem. I'm comfortable fishing wire through walls, however I've never had to try and figure out where the incoming cable line is into a house so that I can find the first split and reroute that into the basement instead of wherever it is now. What's the best way of going about this?
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Dec 13, 2015 15:07
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Steampunk Hitler posted:The house that I've purchased has been prewired for Comcast cable, however there are no jacks in the basement for the cable which is where I would like to put the cable modem. I'm comfortable fishing wire through walls, however I've never had to try and figure out where the incoming cable line is into a house so that I can find the first split and reroute that into the basement instead of wherever it is now. What's the best way of going about this? Figure out if you have the same number of cable outlets inside as cables outside at the demarc (plus the one from the cable company). If so, great! They'll be tied together with a splitter. Run another one from where you want to go our out to this demarc. In fact, even if this isn't the case just add another one. It's the best way to go. If you can't do that you'll need to use a fox and hound or other method to ID one that you can cut and split near the location you want the cable modem. minivanmegafun posted:US, residential, 120V. This is an old (>130 years) house using the sheath of greenfield for grounding, most everywhere else is depending on self-grounding outlets to hit the grounded box. I've just got two outlets in one room (that's on the same circuits as other rooms) that's doing this. It's reading 120 between hot/neutral. Chase down the bad ground/run a new ground. Sounds like a nightmare of an electrical system, so I don't know that I can tell you much more without actually seeing it. If this same thing is happening at all "grounded" outlets in the house look for the ground/neutral bond as a potential problem (it SHOULD be in the breaker box, meter box, or weather head). Motronic fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Dec 13, 2015 |
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Dec 13, 2015 16:28
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Motronic posted:Figure out if you have the same number of cable outlets inside as cables outside at the demarc (plus the one from the cable company). If so, great! They'll be tied together with a splitter. Run another one from where you want to go our out to this demarc. This will be the grey box marked Comcast on the side of the house right?
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Dec 13, 2015 17:30
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Steampunk Hitler posted:This will be the grey box marked Comcast on the side of the house right? Yep. And it will have only coaxial cable and (hopefully) one ground wire in it. And probably a splitter/traps.
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Dec 13, 2015 18:23
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Steampunk Hitler posted:The house that I've purchased has been prewired for Comcast cable, however there are no jacks in the basement for the cable which is where I would like to put the cable modem. I'm comfortable fishing wire through walls, however I've never had to try and figure out where the incoming cable line is into a house so that I can find the first split and reroute that into the basement instead of wherever it is now. What's the best way of going about this? I had to do the same thing in my house, except there were at least four different direct tv/time Warner coax installations to sift through and rip out. I swear to god, there's more loving coax in my house than insulation  Look around the outside of your house and see if you can find the incoming cable service from the utility poles and see where that pokes through. There's a good chance the incoming service cable is tucked away up in the joists in your basement, and you can trace that to the first splitter and go from there. If your installers were anywhere near as lazy as the ones for my house, they'll have ran the cable inside and outside wherever they wanted to add a room. Unrelated question, but is it normal for newer ceiling fans to have a slight delay turning on the light from a switch? I just installed one on a switch earlier today, and there's a slight but noticeable delay in the light coming on when I flip the switch, though it's instantaneous from the pull chain. I don't think I left any loose connections, and Google suggests there might be a wattage limiter in there causing the delay, but I don't see anything definitive on the topic? It's a Hunter Allendale fan, if that makes any difference
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Dec 13, 2015 18:46
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OSU_Matthew posted:Unrelated question, but is it normal for newer ceiling fans to have a slight delay turning on the light from a switch? That depends more on the switch than anything else. Is it wired to a standard light switch or do you have one of those fancy combo switches with a dimmer and speed control? If so, is it a couple of analog pots or lots of electronics with a remote control, lights and/or beeps at you?
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Dec 13, 2015 19:02
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kid sinister posted:Yep! Cover that missing knockout. Fine, dad.  You're of course correct, it's been on my list since we bought the place, it winds up being out of site out of mind. I took a high resolution picture of the panel. I don't know which model panel this is, or how important it would be to finding the correct parts. Googling seems to indicate fillers are typically for a list of models like: " Zinsco- Q,QB,QB24,R38,RC38". I will run by Lowes and try to buy one. Is installation as easy as taking off the cover, popping it into said cover, replacing cover? 
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Dec 13, 2015 20:39
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Motronic posted:Yep. And it will have only coaxial cable and (hopefully) one ground wire in it. And probably a splitter/traps. Thanks a lot! After cracking open the box I discovered it currently has a 3 way splitter with two mystery cables leading to ??? and a third cable leading to an 8 way splitter with cables leading to ???. I think my next step is to purchase a 2 way splitter, drop that as the first splitter in the box, run one of those to the cable modem and the other one to either the current 8 way splitter (and just disconnect some cabling and leave dead jacks) or get a larger splitter (alternatively, get a smaller splitter and just leave unconnected runs since we have cable jacks in all of the rooms, but we only have 3 televisions. Going to go purchase a locator tool like http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-VDV-Coaxial-Explorer-Plus-Tester-VDV512-058/202520424 to attempt to figure out which cable goes where. Since the demarc box is on the outside of the house, and there is a straight shot from it to the inside where I plan to run all of my ethernet cables, I think I'm going to just pull the runs back inside the house, and do my splitting there in the basement.
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Dec 13, 2015 21:05
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H110Hawk posted:Fine, dad. I was gonna suggest filling it in with a whole home surge arrestor but now I can't stop laughing  If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure the guy that put the electric in my house was drunk  e: Motronic posted:That depends more on the switch than anything else. Is it wired to a standard light switch or do you have one of those fancy combo switches with a dimmer and speed control? If so, is it a couple of analog pots or lots of electronics with a remote control, lights and/or beeps at you? Since then I've swapped another CAFCI/GFCI breaker into my panel, only to discover that it immediately keeps tripping. Did the test function and discovered that it's an open ground/shared neutral tripping the gfci protection, so I just swapped the old breaker back in. Unfortunately this is happening on the two circuits I most want AFCI protection on, the bedroom and living room, so I don't even know where to go from here  e2: Just finished installing another ceiling fan on a completely separate circuit, and it's doing the same thing with the switch, so I'm 99% certain it must be some capacitors or a regulator in the fan unit causing the delay in the lights coming on. Still doesn't solve the ground fault issue on the other circuits, but at least I can rule out a loose connection Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Dec 14, 2015 |
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Dec 13, 2015 21:08
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