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More specifically, a recessed outlet and HDMI plate that would fit into that. Unless I'm dense, they all seem to be standalone fixtures where the connection is made on the back of the plate, without the use of a junction box at all.
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Feb 5, 2018 14:08
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:No concerns. If you were running a motor, then that 5% is bad for the motor core windings. Since it's a charger, there's just a rectifier in there and it doesn't care about the voltage drop at all. I'm not really concerned about the 5% voltage drop affecting the charger, I'm more concerned with the 30 watts of heat inside the walls. On that note, I took a close look at the outdoor outlet that my 20 amp circuit passes through on the way to the garage. The outlet itself is in rough shape (rusted). The wiring does not pass through the outlet (thank god), it's spliced directly and the outlet is on a pigtail. The hot and neutral are 'helpfully' soldered together, so I assume there's good contact inside there. The ground wires are just twisted and are pretty green though. The wires are BARELY long enough that I could possibly cut the solder and re-terminate them, though it would be a gigantic pain in the rear end. The ground concerns me since it's not soldered and there's presumably heavy oxidation even in between the wires. Any tips on how I could clean up & re-connect the grounds? Some kind of de-oxidizing spray? And how to protect the wiring in this box in the future. I've heard of some kind of electrical 'grease'? The box is in the wood behind the metal siding, so there's essentially a 1/4" gap and the outlet & wiring is exposed to the space behind the siding. I could fill that with expansion foam I suppose.
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Feb 5, 2018 15:17
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Slugworth posted:More specifically, a recessed outlet and HDMI plate that would fit into that. Unless I'm dense, they all seem to be standalone fixtures where the connection is made on the back of the plate, without the use of a junction box at all. I think the easy solution is going to be two separate boxes one for the power then one for the hdmi. It’ll be behind the tv anyway
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Feb 5, 2018 17:58
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Slugworth posted:More specifically, a recessed outlet and HDMI plate that would fit into that. Unless I'm dense, they all seem to be standalone fixtures where the connection is made on the back of the plate, without the use of a junction box at all. Sounds like a job for Arlington. http://www.aifittings.com/catalog/specialty-boxes/recessed-steel-tv-box/TVBS505 Check out their catalog. They have lots of special recessed boxes for power, low voltage and combinations thereof. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Feb 5, 2018 |
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Feb 5, 2018 19:05
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Rescue Toaster posted:I'm not really concerned about the 5% voltage drop affecting the charger, I'm more concerned with the 30 watts of heat inside the walls. If you have doubts about the connection in the exterior receptacle, I'd pull it loose and redo it. Is this receptacle in an exterior rated box and/or have an exterior cover? At the amount of effort you're putting into worrying about wiring that sounds fine for level 1 charging... Is there any reason you're not interested in running a bigger circuit and going level 2?
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Feb 5, 2018 20:25
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My washer and dryer are on a split receptacle with two breakers and a shared neutral. What is the best way to GFCI this? Larger box and two outlets? GFCI breakers? No action needed? There's no sink in the laundry room, but there is technically water, and I just feel like if there's a way to make it safer then I should. MS Paint Diagram: 
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Feb 5, 2018 20:37
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angryrobots posted:If you have doubts about the connection in the exterior receptacle, I'd pull it loose and redo it. Is this receptacle in an exterior rated box and/or have an exterior cover? Yeah the outlet itself is very rusty/corroded & the exposed bits of the pigtails are corroded. It LOOKS like the actual neutral & hot splices in the back (that carry the 12ga in from breaker & out to garage) are alright. They are soldered for some reason. The grounds are all twisted together with a little collar crimp, but they've all turned quite green, so that may not be the best situation. It has one of those covers, but the whole thing is exposed to the space behind the siding, so I'm sure plenty of moisture can get in there. I absolutely would like to run 240 for L2, the problem for now is the house is a slab between the basement where the panel is and the garage. So I'd have to run conduit outside from near the breaker panel, up to under the eave, and along the back of the house to the garage. Alternately, I could go straight up through 2 floors next to the old chimney (now unused), across the 2nd floor attic, down 4-5 feet through the exterior wall of one of the 2nd floor bedrooms (not sure how to do that) and out into the 'attic' of the garage and then over to the back wall. This would easily be a 100+ foot run. In both cases, I'll probably have an electrician do it because I don't want to deal with the blown in insulation in the attic, nor the codes involved in outdoor (wet rating) conduit I think. I could easily see either one costing $1000+. I do intend to do it, just wanted to wait until I save up a little money. My commute is very short so I can get by with L1 charging until the next real winter (though this one won't seem to quit). I just don't want to burn the house down. I know of more than one house fire started by L1 charging on a circuit that was not up for the continuous load.
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Feb 5, 2018 21:48
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Yeah that is annoying with a 2 story house, and single story garage opposite the panel, on a slab. Just spitballing here... Is there a route outside from the area of the panel to anywhere on the garage that you could trench and run underground?
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Feb 5, 2018 23:42
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angryrobots posted:Yeah that is annoying with a 2 story house, and single story garage opposite the panel, on a slab. Just spitballing here... Is there a route outside from the area of the panel to anywhere on the garage that you could trench and run underground? That's a pretty good idea, and if I end up having to do it myself is probably my only real option. It'd have to go way back out 12-15 feet into the yard in an arc to get around a poured concrete patio that is of course in the way. (The house appears to be designed in every way to make it difficult.) Rescue Toaster fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Feb 6, 2018 |
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Feb 6, 2018 01:44
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So I need a weird (combination of?) connector. We're making a lamp out of black pipe and fittings.. basically this. So at the bottom I've got a cut off extension cord coming out. I'm trying to find a fitting that will fit into a 1" tee, and provide strain relief and a way of connecting the ground (those instructions don't mention it, but I think that guy's an idiot for not grounding a lamp made entirely of metal). Any suggestions?
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Feb 6, 2018 02:46
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Phanatic posted:It’s some of the worst soldering I’ve ever seen. It looks more like crimped tinfoil than proper solder joins. A one-armed monkey with FAS can solder better than that. That's better work than more than one industrial power supply I've autopsied. Rescue Toaster, if you dig go ahead and run huge conduit so you have the option of building a subpanel out there someday. It's always easier to overbuild for the future once you've got a shovel involved anyway. shame on an IGA fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Feb 6, 2018 |
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Feb 6, 2018 02:56
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FogHelmut posted:My washer and dryer are on a split receptacle with two breakers and a shared neutral. What is the best way to GFCI this? Larger box and two outlets? GFCI breakers? No action needed? There's no sink in the laundry room, but there is technically water, and I just feel like if there's a way to make it safer then I should. Gas dryer? GFCI tandem breakers are available, but honestly, a single circuit in this instance should be plenty considering the load. As for requirement, GFCIs are only required for laundry circuits when there's utility sink nearby or the W&D are in an unfinished basement.
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Feb 6, 2018 04:46
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kid sinister posted:Gas dryer? It's gas. Why would they run it this way? Also, should the two breaker handles be tied together since there's a shared neutral? Because they aren't.
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Feb 6, 2018 05:01
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FogHelmut posted:It's gas. Why would they run it this way? Also, should the two breaker handles be tied together since there's a shared neutral? Because they aren't. Yes they should, but that wasn't always the case in the past. I have no idea why they would run it that way. What gauge are the wires? I say move them both to one circuit, put a GFCI outlet in that box, then disconnect the other wire, cap it at both ends and mark its breaker label "spare".
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Feb 6, 2018 18:09
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kid sinister posted:Yes they should, but that wasn't always the case in the past. I have no idea why they would run it that way. What gauge are the wires? 12 gauge, its on 20 amp breakers.
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Feb 6, 2018 19:00
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devicenull posted:So I need a weird (combination of?) connector. We're making a lamp out of black pipe and fittings.. basically this. edit: you could also use grounded lamp sockets
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Feb 19, 2018 00:02
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devicenull posted:So I need a weird (combination of?) connector. We're making a lamp out of black pipe and fittings.. basically this. Dang, I missed this one. It sounds like something that would be right up my alley with its combination of electric and plumbing parts. The good news is that they share a lot in common with their thread sizes. They make strain reliefs in the ascetic that I think you're going for, including in 1". Check the diameter that the relief supports. If you need a smaller one to fit your cable, then use a bushing to be able to still screw them together. I can even think of a grounding method that would match your aesthetic. They make a 3/4" version too. Again use bushings to make it fit.
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Feb 19, 2018 05:36
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I need to replace a couple of circuit breakers that are getting a bit hot. Since I'm replacing them, should I upgrade the circuits to AFCI? (Note: they are the dryer and the furnace circuits, so the load on them is... not the normal outlet load.) Also, I need to upgrade some outlets to GFCI. Should I do that with receptacles or try for a GFCI breaker? Or an AFCI/GFCI breaker? Am I going to kill myself switching out breakers? (That's a rhetorical question; the answer is 'maybe'.)
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Feb 21, 2018 05:10
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CaladSigilon posted:I need to replace a couple of circuit breakers that are getting a bit hot. Since I'm replacing them, should I upgrade the circuits to AFCI? (Note: they are the dryer and the furnace circuits, so the load on them is... not the normal outlet load.) Why are the breakers getting hot? If the circuit is overloaded or constantly close to maximum capacity you should move some of that to other circuits if possible, otherwise you might be looking at upgrading the wire size, and that's usually a massive pain in the rear end. Depending on how the outlets are routed you could get away with one GFCI on the first one in the chain and stick the rest on the load side. If the circuit branches all over the place all weirdly but they're on the same circuit a GFCI breaker would be the way to go, if they're on different circuits just put a GFCI outlet in every place you need it. As for working in a panel, if you have a main breaker you can shut off and just avoid the main feeders and main lugs it's fairly simple, but if you have to work it live it's trickier. As long as you're aware of what parts of the panel are dangerous and take care it's quite possible but if you don't feel 110% confident with that get an electrician out there. Some money is nothing compared to getting hurt or dying. If you do decide to try it yourself get a non-contact voltage tester, familiarize yourself with how panels are built and the breakers attach and be sure you're aware of everywhere the danger lies before you touch anything. Good gloves and thick-soled rubber boots or a rubber mat are also good, as well as someone nearby with a wooden broomstick to knock you away and/or call for medical help if things go wrong. If any of that sounds daunting or scary, definitely call an electrician. Honestly after re-reading your post and writing all of that, I feel like having an electrician out would be the sanest option. You don't want to be that guy who knows just enough to be dangerous. Mimesweeper fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Feb 21, 2018 |
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Feb 21, 2018 05:14
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CaladSigilon posted:I need to replace a couple of circuit breakers that are getting a bit hot. Since I'm replacing them, should I upgrade the circuits to AFCI? (Note: they are the dryer and the furnace circuits, so the load on them is... not the normal outlet load.) Dryer doesn't need to be on a AFCI. Furnace shouldn't need to be on AFCI, depending on what else is on that circuit. Which outlets do you need to upgrade to GFCI? The GFCI outlets are usually the best option, considering the amount of stuff that can trip them with false positives. The nice thing about GFCI outlets is that when they trip, they only trip themselves and everything attached to their load terminals. If nothing is attached to those load terminals, then only that outlet will lose power in the event of a false positive. You won't need to walk across the house to reset a GFCI, or your fridge won't stop cooling if the countertop outlets trip, depending on the order the cable is ran along a branch.
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Feb 21, 2018 05:27
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If your furnace or gas range has spark ignition, would it trip an AFCI? What about an arc welder?
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Feb 21, 2018 16:25
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Mimesweeper posted:Why are the breakers getting hot? If the circuit is overloaded or constantly close to maximum capacity you should move some of that to other circuits if possible, otherwise you might be looking at upgrading the wire size, and that's usually a massive pain in the rear end. Not sure. It's something that the house inspector noticed when he was looking through the panel with an FLIR. It's about 10C over the rest of the circuits. He said it could be just some carbon in the internal contacts, or that one of the wires wasn't screwed down well enough, but he kind of went 
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Feb 21, 2018 16:56
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CaladSigilon posted:Not sure. It's something that the house inspector noticed when he was looking through the panel with an FLIR. It's about 10C over the rest of the circuits. Swapping a new breaker on if it's not otherwise overloaded is a reasonable second step after just double checking it's installed properly. Is this a modern panel or something that says "Federal Pacific" or "Zinsco" on it? If the latter replace the panel, not the breaker. 
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Feb 21, 2018 18:28
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H110Hawk posted:Swapping a new breaker on if it's not otherwise overloaded is a reasonable second step after just double checking it's installed properly. Is this a modern panel or something that says "Federal Pacific" or "Zinsco" on it? If the latter replace the panel, not the breaker. It doesn't say Federal Pacific, or it'd be too late for the whole "not burning the house down" part
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Feb 21, 2018 18:31
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Guy Axlerod posted:If your furnace or gas range has spark ignition, would it trip an AFCI? What about an arc welder? Probably not. Most AFCIs are breakers and breakers are better about avoiding false positive trips. Besides, it's mostly big motors that fool them: compressors (fridges and freezers), power tools, etc. I'd be more worried about the furnace blower tripping it than the ignition. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Feb 21, 2018 |
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Feb 21, 2018 21:29
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H110Hawk posted:Swapping a new breaker on if it's not otherwise overloaded is a reasonable second step after just double checking it's installed properly. Is this a modern panel or something that says "Federal Pacific" or "Zinsco" on it? If the latter replace the panel, not the breaker. Aw, what's wrong with Zinsco? They're wonderful if you need to do some welding and don't have a welder :v
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Feb 21, 2018 22:00
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I'm looking at putting some heating mats under a floating floor (don't worry, they're specifically designed for that, etc.) and I have the option for both 120V and 240V. Of course the 240V mat uses half the amperage, but the total wattage is still the same, so as far as energy usage (and cost to operate) goes, there's no difference, right? They'll both add the same kWh to my electric bill, yeah?
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Feb 26, 2018 06:29
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Bad Munki posted:I'm looking at putting some heating mats under a floating floor (don't worry, they're specifically designed for that, etc.) and I have the option for both 120V and 240V. Of course the 240V mat uses half the amperage, but the total wattage is still the same, so as far as energy usage (and cost to operate) goes, there's no difference, right? They'll both add the same kWh to my electric bill, yeah? Yep, that's correct.
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Feb 26, 2018 06:38
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Cool, thanks. Thought so, just wasn't sure if I was missing something obvious.
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Feb 26, 2018 06:41
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Bad Munki posted:Cool, thanks. Thought so, just wasn't sure if I was missing something obvious. Well, actually... You're right about wattage being the same. However, if you're going to do it 120V, the lower the voltage, the higher the amperage, the thicker wire you will need, the more expensive it will be to install. So yeah, same operating costs overall, but lower voltage will have higher install costs, so higher total cost of ownership.
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Feb 26, 2018 06:50
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Correct, and at the same time, the 240V pads cost about 20% less. The only downside is that my breaker panel is full up because the previous owners ran a brand new 15A circuit for every. god. drat. thing. It's just 15A,15A,15A,15A,15A forever. Do we really need separate 15A circuits for the bar, the bar lights, the bar beer fridge, the hallway outside the bar, the room adjoining the hallway outside the bar...you get the idea. And they didn't use any tandem breakers, either, so it's an awful waste of space, and 50% of those circuits aren't even in use. A 20A breaker for a treadmill I don't have or want. I need to reorganize this thing anyhow, so it's a perfectly good excuse. Comedy option: they used so many 15A breakers and apparently so obstinately didn't know about tandems that they felt compelled to sneak in a double tap on one, which we discovered during inspection. Come onnnnnnn, consolidate, you assholes. Anyhow, yeah, 240V is an easy win for this.
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Feb 26, 2018 07:12
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Bad Munki posted:Correct, and at the same time, the 240V pads cost about 20% less. The only downside is that my breaker panel is full up because the previous owners ran a brand new 15A circuit for every. god. drat. thing. It's just 15A,15A,15A,15A,15A forever. Do we really need separate 15A circuits for the bar, the bar lights, the bar beer fridge, the hallway outside the bar, the room adjoining the hallway outside the bar...you get the idea. And they didn't use any tandem breakers, either, so it's an awful waste of space, and 50% of those circuits aren't even in use. A 20A breaker for a treadmill I don't have or want. I need to reorganize this thing anyhow, so it's a perfectly good excuse. Post a picture of the label on the inside of your panel door. You can probably consolidate with tandem breakers. The picture will tell us which slots can accept them.
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Feb 26, 2018 08:34
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Posted this initially in the fix it fast thread:kimcicle posted:During dinner tonight a bunch of outlets in my kitchen and some in my living room went dead. There are two outlets in the group of dead outlets that are GFCI. Neither will click when pushing in the reset / test buttons. One of the GFCI outlets has a green indicator light that's not lit up, the other has no such indicator. While fiddling around, I realized I'm not sure exactly which GFCI outlet is the one highest up the stream, or if any outlets come before the outlets that are out... So I'm kinda just shooting in the dark now. edit: Pulled both GFCI outlets from the wall, poked around with a voltage tester, both show no current. Not sure what to do now... kimcicle fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Feb 27, 2018 |
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Feb 27, 2018 07:46
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kimcicle posted:Posted this initially in the fix it fast thread: If you are getting no hits with your non-contact voltage pen (and you verified it works on a functional outlet) then it's upstream of the outlets you pulled. You will need to test them all. If you have one that works but turns off with the breaker for this string then start there. If none of them show voltage then you're up to the breaker or the wire from the breaker to the first outlet.
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Feb 27, 2018 16:18
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kimcicle posted:Posted this initially in the fix it fast thread: Did you flip the breaker off, then on? When they trip, they don't move all the way to "off". If it's dark or you didn't look too close, it's possible to mistake it as still being on.
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Feb 28, 2018 00:45
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I figured out what was going on; there was a GFCI that was never resetting. Once I replaced it, the other GFCI reset correctly and all the outlets started working again. However, it makes me wonder; do I really need that second GFCI outlet? If all the outlets are protected by the main GFCI outlet, why have the second GFCI?
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Feb 28, 2018 04:20
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kimcicle posted:I figured out what was going on; there was a GFCI that was never resetting. Once I replaced it, the other GFCI reset correctly and all the outlets started working again. If it's all daisy chained off the first one, then no, there's no reason to have the second one. The first one would provide protection for everything else down the line.
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Feb 28, 2018 05:53
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kimcicle posted:I figured out what was going on; there was a GFCI that was never resetting. Once I replaced it, the other GFCI reset correctly and all the outlets started working again. Nope. The only advantage of having multiple GFCIs is that it's a shorter walk to reset it when it trips. Even then, you'd have to swap around 2 wires on the back of the first one in order for their breakers to function independently of each other. Hold on, there's more to it than that. There are some other situations where you need GFCI protection, but you don't want further stuff down the branch to be on that GFCI's breaker. For example, if that GFCI trips, you don't want the lights to also go off. It really depends on the order of how the wire is ran from box to box on that circuit. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Feb 28, 2018 |
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Feb 28, 2018 19:11
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Hello. I'm trying to fix a bad kitchen flow and my current best candidate layout has problems transferring power while maintaining access to the kitchen. The current layout (and work flow) is thus:  I'd like to swap the wash and prep stations, or perhaps combine them into a single run along the bottom (left hand side becomes prep, right hand side becomes clean). The single run sorts out plumbing OK as it would run to the right, but the only source of power is the wall on the left. If I have an uninterrupted counter all the way to the wall I'd be able to run power, but would cut off access to the kitchen without going round one way or the other. Is it feasible to have a bar-style flap in the counter which also transfers power when down? Is there a safe way to do that? Any other ideas?
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Mar 10, 2018 15:40
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Go under the floor. I've got a kitchen island with three sets of receptacles on it, along with a disposal and dishwasher, and that's the only way any wiring is getting to it.
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Mar 10, 2018 16:26
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