|
SouthShoreSamurai posted:Why is that, out of curiosity? Is it that people can't be trusted to choose the proper gauge? I'm guessing the fact that the plug can be bumped and damaged/knocked loose and isn't secured with the strong electrical and mechanical connection like a wire nut + box clamp would provide. Even if your average cord plugged into the wall is fine 99.9% of the time, there's still a substantial difference in objective durability.
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2017 23:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 16:30 |
|
|
angryrobots posted:Was there any possibility of lightning? Slim. Lightning is rare and I don't remember hearing any thunder. I guess what I'm really worried about is if the lighting circuit is marginal somehow and is a gentle nudge away from tripping and/or starting a fire. I installed all the circuits myself, so there's definitely the possibility that I screwed up somehow. EDIT: lighting circuit, not lightning circuit. TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Dec 1, 2017 |
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2017 23:48
|
|
|
SouthShoreSamurai posted:Why is that, out of curiosity? Is it that people can't be trusted to choose the proper gauge? That and what Hubis said. The thing about structural wiring is that the structure is protecting it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2017 23:55
|
|
|
I have a great childhood memory of my dad running some power tool (maybe it was a circular saw) out in the driveway on one of those 50' extension cords wrapped around a spool. Well he was only like 10' from the outlet, so hey why bother unwrapping the rest and making a mess? I'm not sure if the cord was too small gauge or it was just heat build-up from being used coiled, but he definitely melted all the exterior insulation into one big stinky orange blob wrapped around the spool.
|
|
#
?
Dec 1, 2017 04:44
|
|
|
Something I came across the other day. A lot of electricians use noalox on meterbase conductor terminations here, but I've never seen it used in this way. Thoughts? 
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2017 00:20
|
|
|
angryrobots posted:Something I came across the other day. A lot of electricians use noalox on meterbase conductor terminations here, but I've never seen it used in this way. Yikes. edit: For those who haven't used anti-oxide, it stays greasy forever. Lubricating lugs feels like a bad idea. Maybe it's just a bead around the lug, which would just be silly. Blackbeer fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Dec 2, 2017 |
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2017 01:14
|
|
|
Blackbeer posted:Yikes. There's absolutely nothing wrong with lubricating threads, especially with an anticorrosion compound. The only problem is that if you're not careful it makes it really easy to strip them, because preload = applied load - friction, and lubing the threads obviously reduces the frictional component. Definitely questionable that he didn't put any on the conductors themselves, though.
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2017 01:41
|
|
|
angryrobots posted:Something I came across the other day. A lot of electricians use noalox on meterbase conductor terminations here, but I've never seen it used in this way. Yeah, that's a bit odd. I have seen people pull the lugs out entirely, shove the conductors in, then shoot a glob of noalox in. It gets squeezed out pretty much every direction, not JUST up the threads like that.
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2017 02:13
|
|
|
Phanatic posted:There's absolutely nothing wrong with lubricating threads, especially with an anticorrosion compound. The only problem is that if you're not careful it makes it really easy to strip them, because preload = applied load - friction, and lubing the threads obviously reduces the frictional component. I've never used anti-oxide as anti-seize, but I'm sure you're right that it'd be fine. Don't know why one would use anti-seize in a meter enclosure or anti-oxide on tin-plated aluminum.
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2017 02:45
|
|
|
Phanatic posted:There's absolutely nothing wrong with lubricating threads, especially with an anticorrosion compound. The only problem is that if you're not careful it makes it really easy to strip them, because preload = applied load - friction, and lubing the threads obviously reduces the frictional component. I would guess that if you asked the meterbase manufacturer, they would advise strongly against using any lubricant/anti-seize on the threads, because the specified torque is achieved without it. Anecdotally, I've been in literally thousands of meterbases, and only very rarely do they fail at the conductor termination (and when they do, it's because it was not torqued in almost every case). Failure is almost always at the female meter pin stab, where it is riveted/welded onto the bus. When we terminate underground services in a meterbase, we do not use any inhibitor, and in my opinion it isn't needed. So in my opinion, this thing I came across is completely idiotic.
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2017 17:40
|
|
|
I'm contemplating adding under-cabinet LED lighting to my kitchen, using the same lightswitch as is currently used for the ceiling lights. Seems like the simplest way to do this would be to open up the ceiling lights and add some romex going along the ceiling and down to the cabinets, then punch a hole in the wall and fish the romex out to hook it up to the LEDs. Two questions, though: 1) How should I handle the new hole in the wall; does it need a faceplate? 2) Any advice on finding permanently-wirable LED strips? Everything I've found so far has had an included plug to go into a standard wall outlet, but I don't really want to deal with installing a wall outlet for this project if I don't have to. Of course, if the wiring requires a box and a face plate, I guess I might as well...
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 18:25
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:1) How should I handle the new hole in the wall; does it need a faceplate? 1) It'll look ghetto if you don't, but hide it in the cabinetry and it'll look factory 2) Wherever you terminate the Romex has to be listed for it. 2a) At best, you're going to find an LED driver that has an integral cable clamp and outputs 12V or whatever to strips of your choice. 2b) At worst, you're going to get a box of some flavor that will fit your LED power supply, the two cable ends, and some wiring provisions (wire nuts, etc). 2c) Ugliest is to install an outlet in the back of your cabinet, plug in the wall-wart driver, punch a hole in the bottom of the cabinet, and run your LED strips from there. There are correct ways to do this, but none of them are pretty. 2d) If you have access to the ceiling, install the power supply up there. Nobody cares what it looks like up there, and as long as it's listed for the environment (heat/moisture ratings) it can live in the ceiling forever. Then you just run the low-voltage stuff down the wall. The good thing about this is that the LV stuff has no code requirement to it, so you can do all the stuff that people want to do with mains: flying splices, hidden splices in a wall, stuff wrapped around water pipes, run through plenum vents, not secured to anything except with blu-tak. babyeatingpsychopath fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Dec 3, 2017 |
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 18:48
|
|
|
babyeatingpsychopath posted:1) It'll look ghetto if you don't, but hide it in the cabinetry and it'll look factory Thanks for the advice. Sounds like you're implicitly recommending that I find a rated transformer, stick it in the ceiling (pigtailed onto the wires for the ceiling lights), then run 12V wires along the ceiling and down the wall, punch them through the wall, and plug the LEDs into that. Sounds plausible to me. Worst case I'd need to enlarge the box for the ceiling lights to fit the extra wires; I assume the transformer itself can just be screwed down to a joist or something?
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 20:31
|
|
|
Personally I think it would be easier to add a receptacle since you're fishing wire anyway, but maybe that's just me.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 20:46
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:Thanks for the advice. Sounds like you're implicitly recommending that I find a rated transformer, stick it in the ceiling (pigtailed onto the wires for the ceiling lights), then run 12V wires along the ceiling and down the wall, punch them through the wall, and plug the LEDs into that. Sounds plausible to me. Worst case I'd need to enlarge the box for the ceiling lights to fit the extra wires; I assume the transformer itself can just be screwed down to a joist or something? When my friend did his entire house with cove-mold LED lights, he had two transformers. We mounted them in the attic in 12x12 plastic boxes (the gray ones from Carlon(r)). Each box had a switch on it that cut mains power. Romex went in one entry with its own clamp, through the switch, then terminated on the transformer. 12V came out in a little harness in its own clamp, with each 12V run going to where it needed to. I think the strips ended up getting ESP8266s or something for control. However, he's an engineer and this system is WILDLY overbuilt. My original suggestion was to wire an outlet into a switched line from one of his lights, then take one of the plug-in transformers and plug it in, then just run 12V stuff willy-nilly throughout the house.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 20:55
|
|
|
angryrobots posted:Personally I think it would be easier to add a receptacle since you're fishing wire anyway, but maybe that's just me. Two things are stopping me from going with that solution: first, it feels weird to me to have a switched outlet in the kitchen on the lighting circuit, and second, there's tile all the way from the countertop to the underside of the cabinets, and I don't really want to deal with cutting installed tile. I guess though that I could put a receptacle above the cabinets, slap a wall wart on it, and run the 12V wire down through the cabinets. And that'd also make it easy to add indirect lighting around the top of the cabinets, which would probably look nicer than the fluorescent tubes I have going right now. That's definitely worth considering. babyeatingpsychopath: unfortunately, this is a first-floor room with no attic access, so putting in 12x12 boxes is probably not worth considering. I'd rather not have to do any drywall patching.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 21:46
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:Went into my workshop after a storm a few days ago, and the lights weren't working; the GFCI breaker for the lights had tripped (but the other circuits in the workshop were fine). I reset it and the lights worked again, and I haven't noticed any other issues with the circuits, but is there anything in particular I should look out for? Possible causes for the trip? There's a motion-activated light on that circuit, mounted on an exterior box, so I guess water could maybe get in that way, but it's close to the soffits and pretty thoroughly caulked down, so I don't see how water could get in except maybe as vapor. Is it a weather-resistant GFCI? If not, the humidity could have tripped it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 22:15
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:I guess though that I could put a receptacle above the cabinets, slap a wall wart on it, and run the 12V wire down through the cabinets. And that'd also make it easy to add indirect lighting around the top of the cabinets, which would probably look nicer than the fluorescent tubes I have going right now. That's definitely worth considering. This is a very good plan.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 22:24
|
|
|
socketwrencher posted:Is it a weather-resistant GFCI? If not, the humidity could have tripped it. It's this circuit breaker; I don't see a mentione of weather-resistance anywhere. On the other hand it is indoors (albeit in a non-insulated building), and inside the circuit panel to boot. What makes a GFCI device weather-resistant?
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 22:41
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:It's this circuit breaker; I don't see a mentione of weather-resistance anywhere. On the other hand it is indoors (albeit in a non-insulated building), and inside the circuit panel to boot. Ah my bad, read it as GFCI receptacle. Don't know what makes them weather-resistant, but I've found them to work where regular GFCIs trip in humid conditions (even inside outdoor structures or weather-proof boxes).
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 23:09
|
|
|
babyeatingpsychopath posted:This is a very good plan. Ya, I think it's good to have the 12v transformer accessible without going in the attic. Also - I just helped my FIL install in-cabinet LED lighting in the kitchen in his RV, and we used magnetic NO/NC switches to control the lights via opening the cabinet door.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2017 23:17
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:Two things are stopping me from going with that solution: first, it feels weird to me to have a switched outlet in the kitchen on the lighting circuit, and second, there's tile all the way from the countertop to the underside of the cabinets, and I don't really want to deal with cutting installed tile. 1) Run strip lights along the top of the cabinets and use a day/night switch (the ones used for outdoor Christmas lights)--at night you'll get a great night light glow in the kitchen. 2) Mount your under cabinet lights using something aluminum channels with diffusers (https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-PACK-1M-3-3ft-Aluminum-LED-Channel-for-LED-Strip-Lights-InstallationEasy-t/292087686670) and use a hue bridge or milights with a software bridge and use Alexa/Google Home to control your under counter lights. 3) Light your toe kicks. Really easy to do before you install cabinets, but doable after with construction adhesive after the fact. (You want to use the diffusers on toe kicks.) The path from the top of the cabinets to the toe kicks is often easiest behind the fridge. 4) And if you want to go pro--use micro switches and light your cabinets. If you don't have a pull out spice cabinet, a lighted spice cabinets is really nice. e:fb ^ I should refresh before posting 
HycoCam fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Dec 4, 2017 |
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2017 01:32
|
|
|
All this led light chat makes me want to finally do that in our way under lit kitchen. We have two hardwired lights in a cabinet to serve as the switched high voltage. Want to throw a 12v transformer up there then run the wires to under my cabinets. If any of you have a BOM to post from what you installed I would be forever grateful.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2017 01:40
|
|
|
I'm stumped. I bought a Lutron Maestro MS-OPS2 - this one and an LED light - this one for a closet. Everything worked well for a couple of days, and then the light would be super dim when it came on: I thought the light had burned out, so I bought a different dimmable LED fixture and hooked it up, but it did the same thing. I assumed that the switch had died, so I bought a new switch and installed it, but the same thing is happening. Does anybody have any ideas or things I can try? I can hear the switch click when I walk into the room, and the light turns on and off like it's supposed to, but it never gets any brighter than that photo.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2017 02:49
|
|
|
The Human Cow posted:I'm stumped. I bought a Lutron Maestro MS-OPS2 - this one and an LED light - this one for a closet. Everything worked well for a couple of days, and then the light would be super dim when it came on: Have you tried with an incandescent bulb? The Lutron stuff that has "no neutral required" is super picky with LED bulbs (at least the Caseta stuff is).
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2017 03:51
|
|
|
Screw-in LED bulb failure question: When I had CFL bulbs, I once had a “smokey failure” where there was a burned spot on the plastic and a small amount of smoke. It wasn’t dangerous or catastrophic but it was disconcerting. Has anyone ever seen this kind of failure on LED bulbs?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2017 14:23
|
|
|
Three-Phase posted:Screw-in LED bulb failure question: I know exactly what you mean with CLFs (where I see it lots) but I haven't seen quite the same thing in my LEDs at work. I've had the tiny fans in the base of some models I use fail and overheat the bulb. They smell like burnt electronics and when I've opened them up the little PCB has burned up components, but nothing visible from the outside. Very common in MR16 bulbs is to have the little lens fail over time due to heat. It becomes visibly warped and brown, but not smokey or anything. The emitter inside has always been fine in these cases.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2017 14:44
|
|
|
The Human Cow posted:I'm stumped. I bought a Lutron Maestro MS-OPS2 - this one and an LED light - this one for a closet. Everything worked well for a couple of days, and then the light would be super dim when it came on: If you have a(n appropriate) multimeter, you could set the fixture to full brightness and test the voltage in the socket. You might have a slightly loose (electrical) connection somewhere from when you did the installation. Or just check and redo all the wire nuts you did when you wired the switch in the first place.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2017 15:32
|
|
|
Three-Phase posted:Screw-in LED bulb failure question: Not really. LED bulbs usually have large heatsinks built in to make the LEDs last longer.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2017 18:37
|
|
|
Moey posted:Have you tried with an incandescent bulb? The Lutron stuff that has "no neutral required" is super picky with LED bulbs (at least the Caseta stuff is). Hubis posted:If you have a(n appropriate) multimeter, you could set the fixture to full brightness and test the voltage in the socket. You might have a slightly loose (electrical) connection somewhere from when you did the installation. Or just check and redo all the wire nuts you did when you wired the switch in the first place. There isn't a socket or bulb to switch, the LEDs are part of the fixture. I'll poke around with a multimeter tonight and see what I can find.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2017 19:07
|
|
|
A lot of screw in CFL failures happen because they intend for you to use the base to screw it in, but most people use the glass tube - like a regular incandescent bulb. The gasket then fails, letting atmosphere in and the magic smoke out.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2017 20:12
|
|
|
angryrobots posted:A lot of screw in CFL failures happen because they intend for you to use the base to screw it in, but most people use the glass tube - like a regular incandescent bulb. The gasket then fails, letting atmosphere in and the magic smoke out. They're also supposed to be installed with the spiral facing up, so the heat can dissipate. If they're contained in a fixture with the spiral down, they can overheat and cook. I had an LED A19 fail, it was in a pendant light, had been on for an hour or so, snap pop little wisp of smoke, and that was it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2017 23:09
|
|
|
Speaking of which, does anyone know of good LEDs that can be used in a cieling can with a full glass shade? Basically a no ventilation situation. They are 6" cans so at least not super tiny, but I'd like to get rid of the last of my CFLs, now that the ones in here have started to die.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 04:18
|
|
|
I have a question. I've moved into an apartment with a fuse box. One of the first things I did was to pull the fuses one by one and try out lights so as to label the circuits. (They weren't labeled.) In the process I realised that the second bedroom light and outlets aren't fused. How big of a problem / code violation is this? There is a breaker for the whole apartment, including that room (I checked when I was switching out the fixtures). Also I'm renting, so there are some complications around getting it fixed if it needs fixing.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 09:10
|
|
|
Lead out in cuffs posted:I have a question. I've moved into an apartment with a fuse box. One of the first things I did was to pull the fuses one by one and try out lights so as to label the circuits. (They weren't labeled.) In the process I realised that the second bedroom light and outlets aren't fused. What's the rating on the main breaker?
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 16:01
|
|
|
Is it possible the outlets in question were lazily wired in to a neighbor's panel? That is, does popping the main actually kill the outlets? I think that's what you're saying here, but wasn't 100% sure:Lead out in cuffs posted:There is a breaker for the whole apartment, including that room (I checked when I was switching out the fixtures).
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 16:49
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:Is it possible the outlets in question were lazily wired in to a neighbor's panel? That is, does popping the main actually kill the outlets? I think that's what you're saying here, but wasn't 100% sure: Yeah, I was confused by that too. Is that room on your main breaker or not?
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 18:38
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:Is it possible the outlets in question were lazily wired in to a neighbor's panel? That is, does popping the main actually kill the outlets? I think that's what you're saying here, but wasn't 100% sure: That had been one of my running theories. But yes, popping the main kills the outlets (and light fixture) in that room. (As an aside, most of the wiring seems to be kind of room by room, with outlets and light fixtures mixed together on most circuits. There's also one fuse on the panel that doesn't actually seem to do anything, so I suspect it's the one the second bedroom was supposed to be on.) Hubis posted:What's the rating on the main breaker? I'd have to go out to the electrical room to double check, but I'm pretty sure it's 150 amps.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 19:01
|
|
|
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that someone did something stupid with the wiring, but before raising an alarm it probably wouldn't hurt to do an idiot check. Pull all the fuses at once and see if that circuit still works. If it does, but turns off when you cut the main, then you have a potentially very dangerous condition if that circuit gets overloaded. Fortunately at that point if you can get your apartment maintenance to come by it's easy to demonstrate the problem.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2017 02:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 16:30 |
|
|
Somewhat wiring question, more just electricity... I have a lamp that a mouse got to. The cord is chewed. It was working fine, and I only noticed it was chewed because I saw a mouse run under the dresser and I looked under there. Some of the copper is showing, but the lamp was still working. It's been unplugged since I found it was chewed. Question: should I replace the whole cord to the lamp, or can I wrap it in electrical tape and be confident it won't cause my house to burn down?
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2017 04:33
|
|
