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While you're at it, make a little circuit map of what turns off with each breaker as you go. Less guess-and-check in the future.
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Nov 3, 2021 15:55
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100% agree, in fact just draw your entire house and all outlets and lights in advance, and go figure out all breakers whole there. Put a number next to each outlet on your drawing where they went out / lost power. Saves a lot of future nonsense.
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Nov 3, 2021 16:02
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I think I (or a parent) has one of those little plugs. Good tip on the outlet drawing. But am I right about the outlet itself? I can do it myself and it is that easy?
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Nov 3, 2021 16:04
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HootTheOwl posted:I think I (or a parent) has one of those little plugs. Good tip on the outlet drawing. Replacing outlets and switches are the easiest electrical projects there are. The wires are already there, so yes, cut power, remove old, put in new. The only complication might be that the wires may connect in different spots so be sure to read the wiring instructions that come with the new units. Don't just assume that the terminal on the right hand side of the outlet is the same on the old and new.
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Nov 3, 2021 16:14
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falz posted:100% agree, in fact just draw your entire house and all outlets and lights in advance, and go figure out all breakers whole there. Put a number next to each outlet on your drawing where they went out / lost power. Saves a lot of future nonsense.  The electricians I used remapped everything with names, which was awesome and not expected on my part, but I'm gonna go back in and label every single breaker with the unique identifiers for every outlet and light fixture just so there's zero confusion.
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Nov 3, 2021 16:20
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One tip I learned from the You Tubes is gently scrape a utility knife behind the cover plate before you tear it off, or if you feel any resistance. This will avoid a large chunk of paint and potentially drywall paper from coming out with the plate and expanding your project scope.
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Nov 3, 2021 16:27
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Write the circuit breaker number on the backside of the outlet cover before you put it back on, then you don't even need to have a diagram with you next time.
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Nov 3, 2021 16:39
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Sirotan posted:Write the circuit breaker number on the backside of the outlet cover before you put it back on, then you don't even need to have a diagram with you next time. This is a good idea too, gonna do this next time I open one up. It depends on which way you're coming at it. I'd do both, personally. But I love documentation so
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Nov 3, 2021 16:55
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Sirotan posted:Write the circuit breaker number on the backside of the outlet cover before you put it back on, then you don't even need to have a diagram with you next time. Oh hell yes
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Nov 3, 2021 17:37
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I got a circuit tracer and its a fun tool, and not much more expensive than just an outlet tester. Klein Tools 80016 Circuit Breaker Finder Tool Kit with Accessories, 2-Piece Set, Includes Cat. No. ET310 and Cat. No. 69411 It makes beeps!
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Nov 3, 2021 18:04
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toplitzin posted:I got a circuit tracer and its a fun tool, and not much more expensive than just an outlet tester. Dammit, I bought so many tools last month. And I already have the little outlet tester. But I want this one
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Nov 3, 2021 18:15
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Extension cord and a lamp
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Nov 3, 2021 18:34
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Epitope posted:Extension cord and a lamp I can't see the lamp upstairs when i'm in the basement at the panel.
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Nov 3, 2021 18:37
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toplitzin posted:I can't see the lamp upstairs when i'm in the basement at the panel. thus the extension cord
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Nov 3, 2021 18:38
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I usually just have my wife stand there with an outlet tester. But tools are fun!
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Nov 3, 2021 18:39
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Sous Videodrome posted:I usually just have my wife stand there with an outlet tester. But tools are fun! I usually do it live. And then I get shocked. And then I get pissed off for getting shocked. And then I finish the job. I'm not very smart.
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Nov 3, 2021 19:10
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EVERYWHERE 
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that circut breaker finder rules, i've used mine a bunch
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Nov 3, 2021 20:09
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The old school way I've seen this done is plug a radio into an outlet and turn it up, then start flipping breakers. It's probably easier to find a circuit tester than a radio at this point but hey, it used to work.
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Nov 3, 2021 20:16
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Keebler posted:Can anyone give advice on sizing a generator to power a sump pump in a power outage? Wife and I moved into new construction 2 months ago. So far the sump has only run twice: during hurricane Ida and again this past week when we had a significant amount of rain. When it runs it typically cycles on for 2-3 seconds then off for 60+ seconds tapering off over a day or so until the water stops. You should be able to get by with 2500 19a is 2280 amps and that's for a split second on start.
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Nov 3, 2021 20:34
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TacoHavoc posted:The old school way I've seen this done is plug a radio into an outlet and turn it up, then start flipping breakers. memorieswithpapa.txt
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Nov 3, 2021 21:14
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meatpimp posted:I usually do it live. And then I get shocked. And then I get pissed off for getting shocked. And then I finish the job. I had to decipher wiring for an upstairs hall that was this last winter: [2 way switch] --- [3 way switch] --- [2 way switch] I gave up going to basement constantly and said f it and unwired everything (with power off), figured out where the power feed was then work backwards from the NON powered end, live (with gloves). Worked like a charm first time when following a wiring diagram.
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Nov 3, 2021 21:19
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Nthing the circuit breaker finder, it's great. Just be aware if you have a lot of fuckery in your house, it might not be able to tell you the right breaker.
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Nov 3, 2021 21:56
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If you've been blessed with GFCI breakers for (nearly) every circuit like I have, you can use your tester and hit the GFCI test button to trip the circuit and see which breaker it is.
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Nov 3, 2021 22:02
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FISHMANPET posted:If you've been blessed with GFCI breakers for (nearly) every circuit like I have, you can use your tester and hit the GFCI test button to trip the circuit and see which breaker it is. Well the issue here is the house pmuch doesn't have any so I'm thinking of taking a day to just swap them all out.
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Nov 3, 2021 22:18
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That really really expensive and would be a lot of work. GFCI outlets are mich thicker and wires will have to be re wrangled to fit back in each outlet. I'd just put them in where required by code, which is usually in a bathroom and next to a kitchen sink.
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Nov 3, 2021 22:21
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HootTheOwl posted:Well the issue here is the house pmuch doesn't have any so I'm thinking of taking a day to just swap them all out. If you're planning to do all of them, it's going to be much easier and cheaper to buy CAFI/GFCI breakers instead. Unless your panel is trash, I guess.
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Nov 3, 2021 22:28
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BonerGhost posted:If you're planning to do all of them, it's going to be much easier and cheaper to buy CAFI/GFCI breakers instead. Unless your panel is trash, I guess. According to inspector guy the panel is A-OK (needs some new putty, one circuit is double tapped, but there's space to do it right)
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Nov 3, 2021 23:09
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HootTheOwl posted:According to inspector guy the panel is A-OK (needs some new putty, one circuit is double tapped, but there's space to do it right) Like the home inspector? If he's anything like the one we had, he wouldn't know a breaker panel from a fuse box. See if you can get the make and model of the panel and bring this to the wiring thread. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3090739&pagenumber=399&perpage=40 I did electrical on my house in the dumbest way possible. We should have just rewired the whole thing to get grounded outlets and clean runs that didn't have flying splices, waaaay overstuffed junction boxes hidden behind drywall, and 20a circuits run with 14 gauge, but we figured it was an ok compromise to switch the outlets to GFCI. I didn't know at the time you could do it at the panel, and our lovely electrician was happy to do all the receptacles instead because it cost a lot more. For how much time I spent working on it and the money we spent on the electrician and materials/tools to basically get it bodged together, we probably could have spent the same amount of money for a pro to just rewire it properly. Basically sometimes what you think is easier or cheaper is actually way more expensive and time consuming.
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Nov 3, 2021 23:46
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So my wife and I are closing on our first ever house in a few day and man this process is stressful and so much goes into it. I'm soon to be retired military and I have zero idea how alot of my co- workers but a new house every 5-6 years when they move, this is an expensive process. At least we manged to save a bit over a 15% down payment. I was able to get a full line of inspections and a brand new down stairs ac unit before the house hit the market. Everything in the house looks great and is in fine repair with a bit of minor odds and ends that I can fix easily. Two big projects are hiring painters to paint the entire interior, original home owners of 15 years and the paint shows plus we got $5k knock off the price of the house too. Thankfully we've will have a full week from closing to when my movers come and pick up everything and deliver it all the painters have plenty of time. Second project is to have the small back yard re-sodded, apparently the neighbor had trees and my own trees that provided large amounts of shade that didn't do much for my grass growth. That neighbor tree is gone and the home owner did some good work opening up the back yard for more sun. No idea what sod cost but the back yard is small with an abundance of trees. My wife, daughter and I are beyond excited, we each have a private room to claim as our own (outside of the bedrooms) to do what we want and to create our own little oasis.
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Nov 4, 2021 01:09
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Rythe posted:Two big projects are hiring painters to paint the entire interior, original home owners of 15 years and the paint shows plus we got $5k knock off the price of the house too. Thankfully we've will have a full week from closing to when my movers come and pick up everything and deliver it all the painters have plenty of time. Any kind of home contractors, including painters, are run off their feet right now. Do you already have somebody scheduled? If not, and you're closing in a few days, it is too late. If you do, you need to be prepared for the possibility that at the last minute they'll be unavailable. Have contingency plans. Can you move all the furniture into one or two rooms, leaving the rest free to be painted? Can you move your larger things into storage if you need to? What sort of trees are there in your new back yard? There are a few varieties of tree, most notoriously walnut, that kill all other plants in their root zone. Leaving that aside, look at all your small trees, and ask yourself if they'll all fit at their mature sizes. It's cheaper to take out an out-of-place sapling now than to wait until it's full grown and spindly because it didn't get enough light. What climate do you live in? Fall is a great time to sod if the sod has a chance to settle in before the frost hits. Assuming it's at least a week until you take possession, there are a lot of climates where it's already too cold to plant sod this year. If so, try overseeding; grass seed is way cheaper than sod, and it can't hurt to try. Have fun!
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Nov 4, 2021 02:02
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Painting a whole house in a week? I hope you have no trim, molding, or doors.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:21
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I'm trying to troubleshoot an underfloor heating system. This is the first time I've tried to run it since I installed it. The thermostat is an OJ Microline UDG-4999. It has a built in GFCI. It powers on but every time it calls for heat it trips its GFCI and reads "ground fault." It's on a dedicated 20 amp circuit run to the breaker. It is the only device on the breaker. The breaker does not trip. The breaker seems to be in good working order. The wires from the breaker read 120v on the multimeter. The breaker is a normal breaker, not a GFCI or AFCI. The heating mats were tested during installation and I got resistance readings consistent with the manufacturers instructions. They are now buried under a tile installation and several hundred pounds of self leveling concrete, so they aren't coming out. The thermostat looks like it's working, and I believe I have wired it correctly. The unit powers on, lights up, and the display runs.   The wires were connected in the proper positions- neutral in to spot 3, hot in to spot 2. The power in wires seem to check out. 120v difference between hot and neutral, 120v difference between hot and ground, 0v between neutral and ground. Infinite resistance between hot and neutral, infinite resistance between hot and ground. 0.2 ohm resistance between neutral and ground. The hot and neutral wires out to the heating mat seem to check out. 0v from hot out to neutral out. 0v from hot out to ground. 0v from neutral out to ground. 23 ohm resistance between hot and neutral. Infinite resistance between hot out and ground. Infinite resistance between neutral out and ground. The user manual, here: https://www.warmlyyours.com/en-US/publications/OJ-NHANCE-UDG-4999-USER-MANUAL-A.pdf Just says "If during normal operation the GFCI trips without the TEST button being pressed, there could be a ground fault! To check whether it is a ground fault or nuisance tripping, press Standby/Reset. If this causes the red light to go off and stay off, it was nuisance tripping and the system is operating correctly. If this does not occur, there is a ground fault! Contact your electrical installer." But I am my electrical installer, so that's where that ends. What's the next troubleshooting step?
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Nov 4, 2021 02:33
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Congratulations on the house, and on having a place you can make exactly what you want to be! We have them scheduled for 5 days from the first week of December and we can either keep everything in two rooms if needed or just delay the move a week or two. I have the ability to leave my current house at any time after Now 30th with no issues and if needed the government will pay for my stuff to stay in storage if needed too. That is solid advice to keep in mind, I appreciate that. I guess I over stated painting the whole house, it's about 2/3rds of the walls, leaving all the ceilings alone, bathroom, a spare storage room and the stairwell is in great shape. We are having the trim and baseboards taken care of too. The main trees are pine and oak and we live in NC so we don't get much of a freeze so tossing a bunch of grass seed down might be a option but I was looking at bringing out a landscaper for a quote to do the work in spring. I want to get that stuff rooted before the rainey season comes and definitely before hurricane season. Need to look into what grass grows in our area as we have like a inch of top soil and then sand.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:35
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Sous Videodrome posted:I'm trying to troubleshoot an underfloor heating system. This is the first time I've tried to run it since I installed it. I did one by Schluter last year. I took resistance measurements from the in-floor temperature sensors AFTER the sensors were installed but PRIOR to tile, as well as AFTER tile. Do you still have those measurements recorded, and how do they compare to now? Also, for this system, they had me run a 2nd spare sensor in floor that you don't even use unless an issue arises in the future, which seems like some solid forward thinking to me.
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Nov 4, 2021 14:30
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Yeah, I measured before and after the tile. I did write them down and they measured the same values, which were in the mfrs spec. I cross posted this in the wiring thread and they congratulated me on my floor being "rich with copper ore" :P My plan is this: I'm going to swap to a different breaker. I'll try another unit of the same thermostat. Assuming neither of those work, my last diagnostic attempt will be to get into the junction box where the wires from the 3 heat mats are joined to the power out wires. This junction box takes some getting to as it's behind a full shelving unit on the other side of the wall from the room with the heat, that's why I'm trying the other parts first. Anyway once I'm in that junction box I'll be able to measure the resistance of the mats again and see if they still measure good. Maybe, but I doubt it, but maybe I did a bad join of the wires. If not that then I hope that it's just one of the mats that's faulty and not all 3. If that's the case then I should be able to get it working with 2 of the mats. If not, ah well. This was just a 'nice to have,' when I did the tiles. I'm not relying on it to heat the room.
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Nov 4, 2021 18:34
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HootTheOwl posted:I think I (or a parent) has one of those little plugs. Good tip on the outlet drawing.
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Nov 4, 2021 19:11
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i like nice words
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I'm bringing back flood insurance talk, because I saw this article today which has some good info about how the NFIP's Risk Rating 2.0 is really going to hammer properties near water: https://www.newsday.com/business/flood-insurance-rate-increases-fema-nfip-climate-change-1.50411873 It has a nice heat map showing how the areas on the coasts are (obviously) riskier, and a table showing how bad the rates will get. Some homeowners will see close to a 10X! increase in their policies as it slowly phases in the new rates at 18% a year:  It's going to be ugly for flood-risk properties. Avoid water.
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Nov 5, 2021 19:48
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Oops, wrong thread.
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Nov 5, 2021 20:01
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Whelp, our ancient water heater is finally leaking (installed in 1998!) and it's time for a replacement. It's a 40 gal gas unit and we're going to replace it with another tanked 40 gallon gas unit as well (I decided to skip tankless after researching it). Are there really any brand, performance metric differences, or feature differences to look out for on those units? Or are they all basically commodity pieces that are more or less the same?
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Nov 5, 2021 22:17
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This might be more of a question for the home automation thread, but has anyone dealt with an automatic water shut off system? I'm buying a place built in 89 that has some poly b in it. Not too worried about damage because its on the better end of risk factors (right kind of poly b, installation date, proper fittings), and I plan to replace it eventually. Reading into the flo by moen, and it seems pretty bananas as a stop gap in the meantime. It does some basic use monitoring so if you have a major leak it shuts your main water off automatically. More importantly though, you can run health checks on your system during off hours to look for minor leaks such as a leaky tap, toilet, or pinhole leaks in the poly b.
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Nov 5, 2021 22:41
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