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Slugworth posted:We have this stupid master switch thing at work for our lighting throughout the clinic, that if anyone accidentally bumps, makes entire sections of the clinic refuse to light back up until we've hit the master switch thing a couple times, flipped the light switches a couple times, seemingly at random, until it works again. We all hate it, and maintenance is dragging their feet on removing it (I suspect they don't know how to fix it). Just put one of these over the top of it.
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Aug 18, 2023 00:03
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Yeah, sorry, guess 'smart device' has specific connotations, it's definitely a centralized lighting control, handles our sign, parking lot lights, etc. Hadn't occurred to me this could be a requirement though, so all the better that I didn't monkey with it I guess.
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Aug 18, 2023 03:16
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Slugworth posted:We all hate it, and maintenance is dragging their feet on removing it (I suspect they don't know how to fix it). I'm certain youre exactly right on this. I filmed training of a couple of these systems, which I know were very expensive and very nice versions done by some of the best commercial electricians I've ever worked with and it was a long presentation to a bunch of maintenence staff that aren't qualified to change a drat thing about it. Edit' semi related my friend was telling me of their childhood home and how it had switches she's never seen since and I knew right off it was a residential low volt lighting setup. I'm really glad those didn't take off.
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Aug 18, 2023 03:25
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I have a dehumidifier (the sticker says 5.5A) in a bathroom downstairs. When the dehumidifier is running, an overhead light in my entryway starts to flicker every 10 seconds or so. What does this mean?
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Aug 18, 2023 05:08
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QuarkJets posted:I have a dehumidifier (the sticker says 5.5A) in a bathroom downstairs. When the dehumidifier is running, an overhead light in my entryway starts to flicker every 10 seconds or so. What does this mean?
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Aug 18, 2023 05:18
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Foxfire_ posted:Dehumidifier's haunted Just the water, try dumping the reservoir down the tub instead of the toilet to appease the spirits.
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Aug 18, 2023 06:20
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StormDrain posted:Edit' semi related my friend was telling me of their childhood home and how it had switches she's never seen since and I knew right off it was a residential low volt lighting setup. I'm really glad those didn't take off. I;'m glad they didn't because every last one to date has been garbage, but we're back at needing them again because running 15 amp minimum circuits for .5 amps of LEDs that are getting rectified individually at the bulb is really dumb past being a transitional situation. But there needs to be a real deal standard and interoperability.
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Aug 18, 2023 14:03
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StormDrain posted:Edit' semi related my friend was telling me of their childhood home and how it had switches she's never seen since and I knew right off it was a residential low volt lighting setup. I'm really glad those didn't take off. Hard disagree, the one at my in-laws is great, I almost considered retrofitting one into my own house. All the actual control in a relay panel means making groups for scenes easier, and you can have N-way switches. It also makes adding automation centralized with a single relay control rather than needing communicating switches all over the house. There's also this neat original switch in the primary bedroom  Which cycles through all the outdoor and common area circuits turn em all off (or on) from one location.
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Aug 18, 2023 14:39
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Qwijib0 posted:Hard disagree, the one at my in-laws is great, I almost considered retrofitting one into my own house. All the actual control in a relay panel means making groups for scenes easier, and you can have N-way switches. It also makes adding automation centralized with a single relay control rather than needing communicating switches all over the house. I get where you're coming from, every existing one I've seen had some great light flicker, busted buttons, and general lack of reliability that I don't want to revisit. My home is not a Broadway production, if I need to set up a scene I go to each light and mess with it.
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Aug 18, 2023 23:45
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So I am the new owner of a Lettuce Grow, a hydroponic system. Overall this is a great design, but it has one major problem. The daisy-chained connectors for the lights run through the inside, which is also where there is water spraying everywhere. The connectors are secured with an o-ring and a sheath to help prevent water ingress.   But you have to disassemble and reassemble this thing a couple times a year to clean it. That wears down the o-rings, and well, I guess this can happen (from Reddit.)  I love this system but do not want to run this risk, at all. I have the system on a GFCI adapter but I'm not sure whether it really protects me. Are there other steps I can take? Maybe some kind of PVC sheath held on with plumber's tape?
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Aug 19, 2023 14:34
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Is that a mains connector? GFCI will offer some protection against death, if it's a mains thing. If you can also put a grounding electrode into the water or run a bare wire you losely wrap around the length of the cable with all the connectors, it will trip if there is an electric leak, probably before you touch it. You want the ground wire to get zapped before the whole thing goes live. An AFCI might also "see" the arcing connector, but this depends on the sensitivity of those things and i have no experience with those at all. If it's galvanically isolated from mains the GFCI and AFCI won't help (but you also won't get a shock from touching the water). Same goes for if the thing is running on a low voltage power supply (which is imho the right thing to do, hell - i'd convert that whole thing to low voltage if it isn't already) A solution to the melty sparky problem i don't really have ready for you. You can fill it up with silicone grease every time you disassemble it and get a stack of spare O-rings, and replace the ring every other time you clean it. LimaBiker fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Aug 19, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2023 14:46
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LimaBiker posted:You can fill it up with silicone grease every time you disassemble it and get a stack of spare O-rings, and replace the ring every other time you clean it. You could probably get a pack of 100 orings from McMaster and the shipping would probably be the expensive part. Clean the connectors and fully grease the orings when you take it apart, you can get the grease when you order the orings.
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Aug 19, 2023 15:01
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the o-rings will almost certainly be a commodity size too, find you a friend with some calipers, measure them, and hit up mcmaster carr those are small you should be able to get like a 200 pack for $5 another suggestion I would make if you have the skills is to follow that wire back to its source in the not-spraying-water part of the machine and put a very small inline fuse on it so if there is any shorting it'll get shut down quickly. measure the power draw of the lights and rate the fuse as close to that as you can. The GFCI protects you against shock, not fire.
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Aug 19, 2023 15:07
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StormDrain posted:My home is not a Broadway production, if I need to set up a scene I go to each light and mess with it. If I could get legit DMX protocol lighting devices for my house that would be about the only way I'd consider it. SpeedFreek posted:You could probably get a pack of 100 orings from McMaster and the shipping would probably be the expensive part. Clean the connectors and fully grease the orings when you take it apart, you can get the grease when you order the orings. This is the exact solution. "Rubber grease"/i.e. silicone grease is the key here. Undoubtedly people are putting these thing back together dry after using something tp clean them that dried out the o-rings further and they are ripping when they're tightening them down.
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Aug 19, 2023 15:29
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A hydraulics shop should sell O rings of the correct size for cheap. A little bit of this on the new rings: https://www.amazon.ca/Ring-Silicone...216587650&psc=1 Its food grade.
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Aug 19, 2023 15:48
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To be clear though, that is a stupid design.
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Aug 19, 2023 17:44
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Shifty Pony posted:To be clear though, that is a stupid design. Stupid enough that I guarantee you it hasn't passed anyone's safety certification for residential electronic devices.
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Aug 19, 2023 18:22
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LimaBiker posted:Is that a mains connector? Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I will try to figure out what the right o-ring size is. Do I need to heat-shrink the o-rings or anything to get them on securely? Yes it is an abominably stupid design, it's all to prevent the wires from showing on the outside of the planter lol. They could have just built some kind of channel into the structure of the thing but noooo.
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Aug 20, 2023 04:55
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OK, the metal plate on the switch was my first clue along with the black plastic box barely showing (nevermind the fact that it would be so loving bizarre to DIY a dimmer yourself), but then your follow-up photo clinches it: Those are standard commercially available dimmer switches. You aren't supposed to take the black plastic backing off and look at the guts  They frequently have integral wires that you just pigtail into your home wiring. Nothing funny about that at all, except if they are making buzzing noises, they should probably be replaced anyways so they don't annoy you.Rest comfortable knowing you PO wasn't THAT crazy at least. edit: quick example from google image search: 
ROJO fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Aug 20, 2023 |
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Aug 20, 2023 05:27
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KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD posted:The lights are daisy chained to a big brick which I believe is a transformer. (I'm an electronics genious can you tell???) If it's connected to a power brick (that says something on it like IN 110v 0,5a OUT 12v 1000mA or something vaguely similar), it means with 99,9% certainty that the thing is isolated from mains and uses a touch safe voltage. Therefore, neither GFCI nor AFCI will do anything for safety. Regardless of the condition of the connector, the water will be safe to touch. O-rings don't need to be shrunk. As someone said before, a very conservatively specified fuse in line with one of the low voltage wires might help prevent a fire in the case of catastrophic failure. But the fuse will only react by the time the connector has already leaked enough water, or has charred enough, to let the current increase to more than the nominal value. It's a reactive rather than a proactive safety system. Grabbing some dielectric grease and fresh O-rings is the thing that will prevent it from starting to arc and char at all.
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Aug 20, 2023 08:43
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My god that thing (six level with lights) is $1300!!? That design is beyond inexcusable at that price.
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Aug 20, 2023 11:44
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Shifty Pony posted:My god that thing (six level with lights) is $1300!!? That design is beyond inexcusable at that price.
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Aug 20, 2023 14:29
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Lol, anyone spending 1300 on that thing is a loving sucker, when you can get this for just 20 bucks. https://www.amazon.com/Duraflame-Fi...027092939&psc=1
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Aug 20, 2023 16:28
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Motronic posted:If I could get legit DMX protocol lighting devices for my house that would be about the only way I'd consider it. Doug Fleenor has reverse-phase dmx-controlled dimmer boards pre-installed in NEMA1 enclosures, the modern equvalent of the sierra or other LV relay panels. I'm not actually going to do this. I might, I already own the cueserver for another project
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Aug 20, 2023 17:35
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I had not used *FCI breakers until today, and I immediately understand the appeal of the plug on neutral setups. Holy gently caress is it annoying getting all the wiring in there, I can't even imagine what a mess doing a whole panel with these would be. Also $60 for a breaker wtf
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Aug 20, 2023 21:56
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devicenull posted:I had not used *FCI breakers until today, and I immediately understand the appeal of the plug on neutral setups. Holy gently caress is it annoying getting all the wiring in there, I can't even imagine what a mess doing a whole panel with these would be. It's way easier doing a whole panel because you can plan it out and put extra neutral bars where they make sense and not make a complete disaster of your wiring. Of course, this goes with basically all panels. But yeah, PON is really nice and at this point with the codes as they are should just be a minimum standard for any new install.
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Aug 20, 2023 22:00
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devicenull posted:I had not used *FCI breakers until today, and I immediately understand the appeal of the plug on neutral setups. Holy gently caress is it annoying getting all the wiring in there, I can't even imagine what a mess doing a whole panel with these would be. It's annoying how much more expensive the breakers are than a regular breaker and GFCI outlet...but I still get the breakers, just so that I know that if something trips, the panel is always the place to go to fix it.
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Aug 20, 2023 23:15
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This should make me mad, right? The big wires to the outdoor AC unit apparently weren’t long enough to reach the terminals on the shutoff, so they were extended with 12ga wire. I only discovered this because the AC failed on a 100degree day. The problem was one of those wire nuts had worked loose. 
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Aug 22, 2023 03:59
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It's been done in an approved box, which is a lot better than most of the shenanigans I've seen.
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Aug 22, 2023 13:29
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I am thinking about getting a portable generator, and I'm unsure if it's better (cheaper) to go with a full transfer switch setup or just a lock out. All my previous houses have been meter-->exterior main shut off panel-->interior sub panel but this house goes meter-->interior sub panel with the main shutoff in the sub panel. The shut off is giant breaker at the top of the panel with all my regular breakers for the house. I'm guessing this set up isn't conducive to a lock out? All the lockout installs I've seen have used a main shut off panel, not an all-in-one box like I have. If I go the transfer switch option, would that free up space in my existing panel? I'm assuming that the circuits I'd want powered by the generator would be relocated to the transfer switch?
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Aug 22, 2023 15:13
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TheWevel posted:I am thinking about getting a portable generator, and I'm unsure if it's better (cheaper) to go with a full transfer switch setup or just a lock out. All my previous houses have been meter-->exterior main shut off panel-->interior sub panel but this house goes meter-->interior sub panel with the main shutoff in the sub panel. The shut off is giant breaker at the top of the panel with all my regular breakers for the house. I'm guessing this set up isn't conducive to a lock out? All the lockout installs I've seen have used a main shut off panel, not an all-in-one box like I have. They make mechanical interlocks for almost every panel type. You put a double pole breaker that's fed by your backup generator in the top left or top right (panel dependent) breaker slots, then install the interlock. It prevents the generator breaker from being on while the main breaker is on. Here's an eaton one for example, but they make them for any reasonably modern panel you'd find in a home: https://www.eaton.com/us/en-us/catalog/backup-and-temporary-power/mechanical-interlock-kits.html
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Aug 22, 2023 17:20
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eddiewalker posted:This should make me mad, right? The big wires to the outdoor AC unit apparently weren’t long enough to reach the terminals on the shutoff, so they were extended with 12ga wire. How big of a breaker is it on?
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Aug 22, 2023 22:45
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devicenull posted:How big of a breaker is it on? 2x 50amp
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Aug 22, 2023 23:42
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eddiewalker posted:This should make me mad, right? The big wires to the outdoor AC unit apparently weren’t long enough to reach the terminals on the shutoff, so they were extended with 12ga wire. As Motronic said, I've seen a lot worse fuckery. Depending on your answers it may or may not be to code. TheWevel posted:I am thinking about getting a portable generator, and I'm unsure if it's better (cheaper) to go with a full transfer switch setup or just a lock out. All my previous houses have been meter-->exterior main shut off panel-->interior sub panel but this house goes meter-->interior sub panel with the main shutoff in the sub panel. The shut off is giant breaker at the top of the panel with all my regular breakers for the house. I'm guessing this set up isn't conducive to a lock out? All the lockout installs I've seen have used a main shut off panel, not an all-in-one box like I have. As far as I can understand it, the idea of the rules locating your neutral ground bond is that it should be in the same location as the most likely single breaker to disconnect the entire house, you want it to move the fault current from the ground conductor to the grounded conductor in the same enclosure as the breaker that will disconnect the entire service. The rules I seem to recall are much more roundabout than this explanation. If you add a manual interlock and generator inlet you can probably get away without moving the bond or adding an external emergency disconnect but if you go whole house ATS you possibly may need to.
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Aug 22, 2023 23:53
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kastein posted:Well that really depends. I see it's on a 50 amp breaker. There are specific code rules for breaker and wire sizing for HVAC units, what gauge wire are the wires past the disconnect? What fuses if any are in the disconnect? The HVAC should say on the side what size breaker it needs too. If it were my house I'd fix it regardless.
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Aug 23, 2023 00:00
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Yeah. Paraphrasing here but basically the HVAC specific breaker and wire sizing is that you need to: -use a breaker at least as large as the nameplate minimum circuit ampacity rating (plus the constant load derating iirc) -can't use a breaker larger than the maximum breaker rating -must use conductors sized for the load, not the breaker, as usually done So for example if your HVAC unit says it needs 30 amps and the maximum breaker rating is 50A, and that's wired with 10AWG and a 50A breaker, that's totally legal, even though normally you'd need 6AWG for a 50A breaker.
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Aug 23, 2023 01:40
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eddiewalker posted:2x 50amp My guess is the contractor or homeowner that installed this cut the whip to the exact length between the condenser and the breaker box, forgetting that the wires need to run inside the box. Whoopsy. We would occasionally run across homeowners loving with breakers on their A/C units. On one service call, customer says the unit keeps blowing their breaker shortly after turning on. Ok, probably a dying compressor or fan motor. We get there, switch off the 40 amp breaker, and get to work. My dad cuts the power wire and his cutter pliers simultaneously fuse and leap out of his hands. Something in the condenser was tripping the breaker, and the idiot homeowner kept upping the breaker size as the breakers blew. First from 40A to 60A, then from 60A to 2x 100A before having the sense to call a professional. My dad figured it was for a hot tub or a kiln or something. HolHorsejob fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Aug 23, 2023 |
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Aug 23, 2023 07:14
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Motronic posted:Stupid enough that I guarantee you it hasn't passed anyone's safety certification for residential electronic devices. 
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Aug 23, 2023 14:07
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KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD posted:The light modules are actually UL listed somehow. The lights themselves can be UL and the assembled unit not be. However seeing that those are 24Vdc makes me wonder where the power brick is for them, and what caused that pictured failure. Low voltage shouldn't melt plastic like that unless its output isn't regulated.
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Aug 23, 2023 14:38
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H110Hawk posted:The lights themselves can be UL and the assembled unit not be. It's exactly that: https://productiq.ulprospector.com/en/profile/872471/ifdr.e339122?term=IFDR
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Aug 23, 2023 14:40
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