|
He did say marginally
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 02:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 00:56 |
|
|
It's a conduit box and that's going to become a conduit & THHN cable run this weekend when I get to the conduit store. There is no hole in the siding, that romex is snaked all the way down the windowframe from a lamp base. For now, it's GFCI'd, has +1 to rain defense, and isn't on the stab-ins.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 02:35
|
|
|
Definitely an improvement, but keep on improving. My garage is in a similar half assed state.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 05:15
|
|
|
That reminds me: We have a 20 year old house and the GFCI protecting all the garage/outdoor receptacles occasionally trips (and keeps tripping) for a while after rain. I'm PRETTY sure it's because the 2 exterior receptacles have the old style flap covers (and I know 1 of them doesn't even have the foam in it anymore). What are the odds that replacing these with the modern outdoor receptacles will fix the issue? The other question is if this will work or not. I haven't cracked them open yet, but they're mounted to fiber cement siding, so I don't know if that will cause any fit/finish problems or not.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 13:50
|
|
|
I just had a new AC unit installed and my microwave makes a high pitched electronic buzzing sound whenever the AC unit runs (not the blower, specifically the outside AC unit). I've got the AC guy coming back out tomorrow to take a look at a separate duct issue, but wanted to know if anybody has experienced this before? It didn't happen with the old AC unit. New AC unit is a fancy variable unit. e: microwave is one of those panasonic inverter types that is recommended often in these forums. extravadanza fucked around with this message at 13:59 on May 9, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 13:54
|
|
|
Next time it happens pull the plug on the microwave and see if it stops. Then hold your finger lightly against the door and body panels until you find out which one is vibrating.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 14:26
|
|
|
DaveSauce posted:What are the odds that replacing these with the modern outdoor receptacles will fix the issue? I would try replacing just the GFCI outlet in the chain first. Older GFCI outlets were notoriously lovely and sensitive and they got worse with age/use. I recently have one do a click of death (more like machine gun sound effect) and let the smoke out, and the modern replacement has been fine. The outlets only last 10-20 years anyway.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 14:39
|
|
|
DaveSauce posted:That reminds me: If you do replace the covers, go ahead and replace the receptacles as well with some Weather Resistant (WR) ones as well.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 15:55
|
|
|
B-Nasty posted:I would try replacing just the GFCI outlet in the chain first. Older GFCI outlets were notoriously lovely and sensitive and they got worse with age/use. I recently have one do a click of death (more like machine gun sound effect) and let the smoke out, and the modern replacement has been fine. The outlets only last 10-20 years anyway. The GFCI was actually replaced about 3 years ago when we bought the place. Twice, I think... during the inspection the inspector couldn't get it to stay reset, and the sellers agreed to replace it. Then again during our final walk through we noticed it was tripped, and when we reset it it would trip again. Same exact symptoms as now... don't remember if there was rain/water involved at the time, though... We bitched about it and they got an electrician to replace it last minute and it worked (for like $130 lol). In hindsight, the GFCI was probably fine and it was probably tripping because of the same issue we're having now... frankly we complained because it was likely some issue other than the GFCI, but no way to prove it at the time.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 16:01
|
|
|
Yes, replace the covers with in use covers and the outlets with weather resistant ones.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 17:09
|
|
|
Homeowner asked me today while I was doing other things to look at an under cabinet light. It's a brand new LED light. Not on a dimmer. Hard wired, not plug. Wall switch is right below it. It also has a switch and as far as I can tell no dip-switches to adjust light intensity or color and of that. Light will turn on, stay on for a bit, kinda dim/pulse, brighten back up, then just shut off. Maybe turn back on, I'm told. I took it down and tested it elsewhere* and it pretty much did the same. Didn't have the time to fully investigate but I am going back. I'm 99% its just a bad fixture. But could there be something else I'm missing? There's a beverage right by it that is probably on the same circuit - is that drawing too much? (*spliced to a live hot & neutral, not a switch)
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 21:14
|
|
|
LEDs don't draw much power. If the same light is behaving identically when on two different circuits I'd blame the light, personally. Especially since there's a lot of cheap LEDs out there that don't last. Also, what the heck do you mean, a beverage on the circuit?
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 21:20
|
|
|
Ferrule posted:Light will turn on, stay on for a bit, kinda dim/pulse, brighten back up, then just shut off. Maybe turn back on, I'm told. Sounds like a cheap and broken LED to me. Beverage meaning a fridge of some sort I'm guessing.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 21:23
|
|
|
Ferrule posted:Homeowner asked me today while I was doing other things to look at an under cabinet light. The power supply built into the fixture is a janky piece of poo poo, pretty much everything being sold for commercial/industrial use that's not Phillips or Osram is just as bad. At work, we've got a few 48" hardwired modules that are on their 4'th warranty claim. Like I seriously wonder if the LED industry did a bulk buy of all those fake electrolytic caps that were everywhere 10-15 years ago shame on an IGA fucked around with this message at 21:30 on May 9, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 21:24
|
|
|
Yeah sorry - beverage fridge. I've heard (never seen) that sometimes a larger appliance on the same circuit can cause interruptions with LEDs. For the record I didn't install the fixture but I'm cleaning up someone else's mess again. I'd imagine they got the cheapest one possible. Thanks all. shame on an IGA posted:pretty much everything being sold for commercial/industrial use that's not Phillips or Osram is just as bad. I haven't had a problem yet with GE. Have you? Generally curious. Cause I'll switch to Phillips for customers if thats the case. Ferrule fucked around with this message at 21:29 on May 9, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 21:27
|
|
|
Ferrule posted:Yeah sorry - beverage fridge. No experience with GE but we put up a couple hundred... no, they're Lithonia industrial high-bay units over the last two years and they all still work and even more importantly to me, they are all exactly the same color. I'll look up the problematic ones when I get in tomorrow but they were from the first LED project we did under a mezzanine. Strip lights with an odd proprietary plug for interconnections that looks like IEC C5/C6 but with the center pin squared off. Those have been nothing but trouble. Another one we demoed was a direct screw-in replacement for LPS bulbs, that goddamn thing separated from its screw base and fell out of the ceiling after 2 months. Avoid.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2019 21:42
|
|
|
On the subject of industrial illumination, is there some formula or guidelines for how much light you should have per square foot and spacing fixtures etc? My building is mostly lit by skylights which is great light but it gets hot as hell and I'm thinking of covering/removing them and switching to high bay LED's or something-the ceiling is anywhere from 12'-22' high, and I need pretty good light for what I do, especially at machines/workbenches.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2019 00:03
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:Aim for 50-100 lumen per square foot with an 8' ceiling. The midrange on those numbers is pretty great. Go for 4000K or cooler. The 2-pack of 4' led Feit lights from Costco is pretty great for that. You can chain four off a single outlet, they do 3700 lumen per fixture, and they draw all of 0.3A each. I remember reading this one, not sure what you can do about 22' ceilings though.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2019 00:26
|
|
|
shame on an IGA posted:Like I seriously wonder if the LED industry did a bulk buy of all those fake electrolytic caps that were everywhere 10-15 years ago So based on this, what kind of useful life is the average residential ceiling light with integrated LEDs going to have, you think?
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2019 00:27
|
|
|
Got a strange one. I plugged a space heater in at work, and the power light briefly turned on, then faded out, and the unit never kicked on. Tried a different outlet, same thing. Plugged it into a nearby gfci that *might* be feeding those other two outlets, and it worked perfectly fine. It has definitely worked on those other outlets in recent history. The gfci never tripped, and the unit seemed to get at least some measure of power every time it was plugged in, just not enough to turn on??? Is that a thing? Can a gfci in some state of failure feed a diminished voltage to an outlet? I'll try to remember to bring my voltmeter in to work tomorrow if that will help diagnose the issue.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2019 00:57
|
|
|
Kaiser Schnitzel posted:On the subject of industrial illumination, is there some formula or guidelines for how much light you should have per square foot and spacing fixtures etc? My building is mostly lit by skylights which is great light but it gets hot as hell and I'm thinking of covering/removing them and switching to high bay LED's or something-the ceiling is anywhere from 12'-22' high, and I need pretty good light for what I do, especially at machines/workbenches. Might try an IR blocking film first? https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company...92716663&rt=rud
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2019 00:58
|
|
|
Kaiser Schnitzel posted:On the subject of industrial illumination, is there some formula or guidelines for how much light you should have per square foot and spacing fixtures etc? My building is mostly lit by skylights which is great light but it gets hot as hell and I'm thinking of covering/removing them and switching to high bay LED's or something-the ceiling is anywhere from 12'-22' high, and I need pretty good light for what I do, especially at machines/workbenches. Lumens isn't the appropriate unit for this because it measures the raw output of the light so you have to take into account distance and beam angle. OSHA minimums are 10 foot-candles (~100lux) for general warehouse and plant areas, 30 (~300lux) for offices. We shoot for 500lux overall and add task lighting to workbenches and machines to get the inspection areas around 2000. Perception of light is an exponential function, not linear, so four times as bright really isn't as much as you would expect. For example, the difference between direct sunlight on the ground, and your shadow standing in that sunlight, is about 30:1 shame on an IGA fucked around with this message at 01:16 on May 10, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 10, 2019 01:04
|
|
|
shame on an IGA posted:Lumens isn't the appropriate unit for this because it measures the raw output of the light so you have to take into account distance and beam angle. OSHA minimums are 10 foot-candles (~100lux) for general warehouse and plant areas, 30 (~300lux) for offices. We shoot for 500lux overall and add task lighting to workbenches and machines to get the inspection areas around 2000. Perception of light is an exponential function, not linear, so four times as bright really isn't as much as you would expect. http://www.visual-3d.com/tools/interior/default.aspx?id Presumably more, lower powered fixtures spaced closer together will yield fewer shadows than just a few very bright fixtures more widely spaced?
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2019 01:31
|
|
|
Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Presumably more, lower powered fixtures spaced closer together will yield fewer shadows than just a few very bright fixtures more widely spaced? Yeah, of course. That's just basic geometry. I really hate working in places with few bright sources that make shadows, so I'm always all about putting in more lower lumen fixtures so you can actually get light everywhere rather than just working off of a calculate that "we have x lumens on the floor, good enough!" when that all comes from something as bright as the sun in the center of the shop.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2019 03:13
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Yeah, of course. That's just basic geometry. My home office has two of the standard LED "boob lights" centered on each half of the room. For the first three years I lived here I was constantly dealing with shadows on everything I was doing unless I sat in the middle of the floor, then I finally got a set of track lights and put them up over my desk a year or so ago. I feel so dumb for waiting this long, and I will never again neglect the importance of proper distribution of light.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2019 15:18
|
|
|
DaveSauce posted:Didn't know about the putty, thanks! It's a skin irritant so please use thick disposable gloves and go to town. It adheres to cut drywall better than drywall compound and the paper backing, but once you get it in there it's far superior. If you're going more than half an hour between uses, toss it in a ziploc gallon bag so it doesn't dry out. It doesn't seem necessary on day 1 or 2, but if you need to store it and reuse it, it really makes a difference. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:On the subject of industrial illumination, is there some formula or guidelines for how much light you should have per square foot and spacing fixtures etc? My building is mostly lit by skylights which is great light but it gets hot as hell and I'm thinking of covering/removing them and switching to high bay LED's or something-the ceiling is anywhere from 12'-22' high, and I need pretty good light for what I do, especially at machines/workbenches. GWBBQ fucked around with this message at 03:05 on May 12, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 12, 2019 03:00
|
|
|
Can I use one of those round old work boxes outdoors? When I look at the specs they look like they're only listed for indoor use in drywall or similar. Ive got a front porch that is beneath a dormer on the 2nd floor, and want to put a box in the ceiling of the porch to mount a security camera.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2019 21:08
|
|
|
No. Get a box rated for outdoors. They have them in round, with the covers that allow you to mount the security lights to them. You need that type of material, powder coating, gasket, etc. Even under a ceiling, there is blowing rain and condensation and all that.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 01:38
|
|
|
Are there some that are recessed? Rather than surface mount
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 02:15
|
|
|
BIGFOOT EROTICA posted:Are there some that are recessed? Rather than surface mount If the box is recessed and flush with the finished outside surface you don't need a weatherproof box.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 13:25
|
|
|
I replaced some GFCI outlets in a bathroom about a week ago, and a couple of them are tripping with no load. I'm sure I hooked them up exactly like the old ones. I checked the connections, all seem solid, as do the pigtails in the boxes. I can’t see any wire nicks. I’m as sure as I can be that nothing is on the circuit but the bathroom outlets and two overhead lights (turned off all the other 120V circuits in the house and tried every outlet and light, even the outside and garage ones). They’ve tripped twice in the last week, seems to take at least a couple of days after reset. Had a fan plugged into one one day and it ran for hours with no problem. We’ve had no rain this week. For years we’ve always had something plugged in, even if it was just a Sonicare charger. No-load tripping is a new one to me. What’s my next step? Also, is this a safety thing I need to address right now this afternoon, or can I take a few more days to troubleshoot it? I assume it’s no immediate danger, but what do I know?
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 15:26
|
|
|
Blackbeer posted:If the box is recessed and flush with the finished outside surface you don't need a weatherproof box. But you'll need a weatherproof cover.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 17:44
|
|
|
Blackbeer posted:If the box is recessed and flush with the finished outside surface you don't need a weatherproof box. Ferrule posted:But you'll need a weatherproof cover. Sweet, thanks guys.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 20:34
|
|
|
WithoutTheFezOn posted:Also, is this a safety thing I need to address right now this afternoon, or can I take a few more days to troubleshoot it? I assume it’s no immediate danger, but what do I know?
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2019 23:22
|
|
|
WithoutTheFezOn posted:I replaced some GFCI outlets in a bathroom about a week ago, and a couple of them are tripping with no load. I'm sure I hooked them up exactly like the old ones. I checked the connections, all seem solid, as do the pigtails in the boxes. I can’t see any wire nicks. I’m as sure as I can be that nothing is on the circuit but the bathroom outlets and two overhead lights (turned off all the other 120V circuits in the house and tried every outlet and light, even the outside and garage ones). They’ve tripped twice in the last week, seems to take at least a couple of days after reset. Had a fan plugged into one one day and it ran for hours with no problem. We’ve had no rain this week. For years we’ve always had something plugged in, even if it was just a Sonicare charger. Is anything on their load terminals?
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 00:23
|
|
|
Just the other outlets. Cable comes from the panel into a box, and splits, one to each opposite wall. One wall goes (split to wall switch), then to outlet A, whose load goes to outlet B. Other wall is just outlet C, load goes to outlet D. So outlets A and C have wires connected to load, which go to line on outlets B and D. That’s the entire circuit. All outlets have tripped at at least one point this last week.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 01:40
|
|
|
WithoutTheFezOn posted:Just the other outlets. Do you have a multimeter?
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 05:32
|
|
|
I do, yes.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 14:44
|
|
|
WithoutTheFezOn posted:I do, yes. You may have a neutral-ground short. Neutral and ground are only allowed to be joined in one place: in your main panel. Neutral is the main return path and ground is the emergency return path and is only supposed to be used during shorts. If they touch anywhere else, it can offload some of that return power. Well, GFCIs work by measuring outgoing power against returning power. If there's another path for electricity to return, then the GFCI will notice and trip. Turn off the power. Take the neutral off of the load terminal. Set your multimeter to continuity mode. Test for continuity between the neutral wire you just removed and ground. Is there a circuit? Also, what do you have plugged into outlets that are protected by the GFCIs? Some older appliances with big motors can cause problems with GFCIs and trip them with false positives when their motors start up: fridges, freezers, washers, vacuums etc. The cut off is around the year 2005.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 18:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 00:56 |
|
|
I’ll check, thanks. As for what’s plugged in, nothing big as it’s just a bathroom. Toothbrush charger, beard trimmer charger. No hair dryers even. As a side note, after them tripping twice last Thursday, I plugged my toothbrush charger back in Friday morning, and it’s been fine so far.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 22:39
|
|