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Jesus Christ. I have tiles in my shower and about half a dozen of those have this floral/scroll type pattern, the rest have nothing on them. One of those tiles is upside down compared to the others. Glad that poo poo doesn't bother me.
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Oct 7, 2023 23:12
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eddiewalker posted:At closing, the previous owners of my house told me they just left their basement lights on for 40 years because the 3-way switches were wired wrong. The basement lights in my parents place are half knob and tube, half BX, with exposed screws on one socket, and on 3 different switches (one runs one light, one runs the rest, if you touch the third it trips the breaker for all of them) because it's a nightmare mess and every time either me or my dad look at it we can't make heads or tails of it so we've been ignoring it for 32 years now. Actually, if I visit for Christmas, maybe I'll wire a new basement light circuit for them so we can disconnect the old stuff completely. It would take less time than trying to unfuckulate the existing mess.
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Oct 8, 2023 23:40
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My Spirit Otter posted:thats not too much work, heck, you could even replace the double ganger with a deep double ganger. just break connections one at a time, pull both wires out of the box, wrap a piece of tape around each wire and write a 1 on both pieces of tape then repeat the process with the rest of the wires. for the 3 way, label a b for the traveler so you dont lose track. probably a 1.5 hour job if youre taking it slow. No no no. You don't understand. This is a challenging job that Abso-lutely will take two trips to the store and I don't want to do. It will leave me in the in ruins. I do not have the time or desire to do this. Anything you tell me that is easy will not be. Do not try to convince me otherwise. I have fourteen unfinished projects right now. Don't make it 15.
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Oct 9, 2023 02:15
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How do I determine what amperage my service is at my house? Meter:  Main service panel under the meter:  Subpanel that seems to handle all the interior stuff:  The largest breaker in the main panel is 60A (Top right) and then there is a 40A(top left). By my best guess without opening anything up, is the 60A breaker the main breaker and the 40A feeds the subpanel and basically my entire house (including 2 fridges and dryer) are all running off that 40A subpanel? Or is that 60A breaker feeding the subpanel, the 40A is ???? and there is no main disconnect? It's an older house and definitely could only have 60A service, but I've definitely run my AC (40A) and dryer (30A) plus normal lights/fans/electronics and not tripped anything but of course I know the AC/Dryer aren't necessarily pulling their full load.
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Oct 9, 2023 15:29
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:How do I determine what amperage my service is at my house? Only guaranteed way is to ask your utility. That looks like a 60A meter base, but it may be a 100A. It could also be a 100A/200A meter base fed with wiring capable of 60A. Again, your utility will know, or they'll send someone by free of charge to find out.
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Oct 9, 2023 16:39
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It's probably on your bill somewhere.
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Oct 9, 2023 18:34
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H110Hawk posted:It's probably on your bill somewhere. I've never seen it on any of mine but then again I have a sample size of one utility provider for the last ~20 years. Do you not have a single main breaker that cuts all power downstream of the meter? I'd expect that to match the service size - it'd be dangerous to oversize it, and pointless to undersize it. If you've never flipped that 60A breaker, I'd flip it and see what happens.
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Oct 9, 2023 20:05
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You didn't need a main for a long time (maybe still true), as long as the whole premises could be disconnected with 6 or fewer flips. Before I did my solar and replaced my panel, I had 200A service into a panel like that, I don't think all the breakers added to 200-- I had, very similar to that a 60A to an interior panel, 40A to an AC and a few other circuits added by gary.
Qwijib0 fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Oct 9, 2023 |
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Oct 9, 2023 20:28
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Qwijib0 posted:You didn't need a main for a long time (maybe still true), as long as the whole premises could be disconnected with 6 or fewer flips. Before I did my solar and replaced my panel, I had 200A service into a panel like that, I don't think all the breakers added to 200-- I had, very similar to that a 60A to an interior panel, 40A to an AC and a few other circuits added by gary. I have a building I sometimes visit that has five (!!!!!) Service Disconnects supplying the property. One of them is a 2400A 480V service-entrance switchgear with six 600A switches on it. They've also got a couple of 1600A 208V service entrances with four or five breakers installed, all in the 200-800A range and DEFINITELY more than 1600A total. Getting the arc-flash one-lines for that place was exciting. The 480V service above has 3 dedicated transformers on the pole outside, 13kV copper wire on the pole. It's an old service! I fear the day anything finally breaks. Having to source Westinghouse and General Electric breakers from the 50s is gonna be a GREAT time. babyeatingpsychopath fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Oct 9, 2023 |
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Oct 9, 2023 21:01
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StormDrain posted:No no no. You don't understand. This is a challenging job that Abso-lutely will take two trips to the store and I don't want to do. It will leave me in the in ruins. I do not have the time or desire to do this. Anything you tell me that is easy will not be. Do not try to convince me otherwise. i retract my previous statement, this is an insurmountable problem and cannot possibly be done in less than a week, with a materials cost in the tens of thousands.
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Oct 9, 2023 23:10
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:I have a building I sometimes visit that has five (!!!!!) Service Disconnects supplying the property. One of them is a 2400A 480V service-entrance switchgear with six 600A switches on it. They've also got a couple of 1600A 208V service entrances with four or five breakers installed, all in the 200-800A range and DEFINITELY more than 1600A total. heh we have 4160 inside the building
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Oct 9, 2023 23:21
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My Spirit Otter posted:i retract my previous statement, this is an insurmountable problem and cannot possibly be done in less than a week, with a materials cost in the tens of thousands. Ah thank you for understanding.
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Oct 9, 2023 23:22
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shame on an IGA posted:eliminate the issue of switch positions altogether with industrial momentary start/stop button pairs tied to a latching 120v relay that controls the lights. I don't know if you're joking or not, but this is a thing that has been done. Several times by several different companies. https://www.kyleswitchplates.com/identify-your-low-voltage-lighting-system/
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Oct 10, 2023 16:47
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Shirley, there must be a simple 110 (or 220) volt switch that just resets back to original position, or just a push button. That way there won't be any wrong or right positions.
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Oct 10, 2023 17:01
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His Divine Shadow posted:Shirley, there must be a simple 110 (or 220) volt switch that just resets back to original position, or just a push button. That way there won't be any wrong or right positions. THere might exist one somewhere. And don't call me Shirley.
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Oct 10, 2023 17:09
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His Divine Shadow posted:Shirley, there must be a simple 110 (or 220) volt switch that just resets back to original position, or just a push button. That way there won't be any wrong or right positions. That Lutron Maestro seems to be the only one that isn't 'smart' on the market that I could find. I thought for sure there had to be more which is why I initially came to the thread to ask. I still don't really understand why they aren't more common.
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Oct 10, 2023 17:11
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His Divine Shadow posted:Shirley, there must be a simple 110 (or 220) volt switch that just resets back to original position, or just a push button. That way there won't be any wrong or right positions. Yes, and it's zwave. Which can be easily ignored/not used. https://www.amazon.com/UltraPro-QuickFit-SimpleWire-Assistant-39354/dp/B07B3KKDL8?th=1 (This is not some new unknown brand, it's just Honeywell apparently rebranding their zwave stuff or something)
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Oct 10, 2023 17:12
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I've got a plug and it's got a UPS plugged in it and in that UPS is my tv, computer, pad charger, and occasionally a printer. The computer was built in probably 2014/15. When running some games, the UPS will begin to beep and eventually shut down taking the computer and tv with it. This is when anything graphically "heavy" is happening and can sometimes be mitigated by looking away from whatever is causing it or lowering the graphics settings. No other plug in the house has done something like this. We've had a portable air conditioner running with no issues. The house was built in 1945 and at some point was upgraded to grounded outlets. Where should I begin with this?
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Oct 11, 2023 03:11
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Cat Face Joe posted:I've got a plug and it's got a UPS plugged in it and in that UPS is my tv, computer, pad charger, and occasionally a printer. The computer was built in probably 2014/15. When running some games, the UPS will begin to beep and eventually shut down taking the computer and tv with it. This is when anything graphically "heavy" is happening and can sometimes be mitigated by looking away from whatever is causing it or lowering the graphics settings. No other plug in the house has done something like this. We've had a portable air conditioner running with no issues. The house was built in 1945 and at some point was upgraded to grounded outlets. Where should I begin with this? That's not the plug it's the UPS. UPS's are rated for a certain output wattage and when your PC is drawing a ton of power it's exceeding the limit of the UPS. Since the PC hasn't been upgraded recently, it could be you plugged in something else recently, or it might could be that the UPS's internal battery is dying from age and causing the max wattage to be lower. I had the exact same thing happen with my PC and UPS.
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Oct 11, 2023 03:38
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Also, if this is a laser printer it's going to exceed the capacity of any reasonable consumer UPS and should not be plugged into one.
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Oct 11, 2023 13:52
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To verify, plug the ups communication cable (USB hopefully) into your computer and get the software for the ups (generally free). It'll record your overload alarm or whatever reason the ups decides to shutdown.
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Oct 11, 2023 14:07
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You might want to pick up a Kill-a-Watt that will let you see how much power is being drawn. Plug it into the wall, plug the UPS into it, switch the display to VA, and try and reproduce the problem. You'll almost certainly see that the power being drawn is near to or higher than the rating of the UPS. If it isn't, switch the display to voltage and see what it reads; as long as voltage isn't something like 105V or lower the problem is with the UPS. If you are feeling up to it before replacing the UPS you might want to try cleaning it out. The circuitry inside generates a decent amount of heat so there are a lot of cooling fins inside. If the fins get coated with dust they will no longer be able to provide enough cooling for it when it's heavily loaded, and a good blasting from a can of compressed air might help things out.
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Oct 11, 2023 14:33
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Most UPS batteries can be replaced too, and they're not that expensive. So before chucking it in the trash, Google it and see if it's serviceable.
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Oct 11, 2023 15:23
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A UPS should only kick over to the battery when it detects that the voltage has gone out of standard range though, so a bad battery by itself shouldn't cause the symptoms they are having.
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Oct 11, 2023 15:27
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Cat Face Joe posted:I've got a plug and it's got a UPS plugged in it and in that UPS is my tv, computer, pad charger, and occasionally a printer. The computer was built in probably 2014/15. When running some games, the UPS will begin to beep and eventually shut down taking the computer and tv with it. This is when anything graphically "heavy" is happening and can sometimes be mitigated by looking away from whatever is causing it or lowering the graphics settings. No other plug in the house has done something like this. We've had a portable air conditioner running with no issues. The house was built in 1945 and at some point was upgraded to grounded outlets. Where should I begin with this? I don't quite know how to interpret 'No other plug in the house has done something like this'. Do you mean that no other device on the UPS has caused it, or do you mean that you tried plugging the UPS in different sockets and you only have the problem on one specific outlet? If the UPS is running from battery, measure battery voltage under load. If it drops too far even though the batteries are freshly charged and you're not exceeding the rated power output on the UPS, the batteries have worn out.
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Oct 11, 2023 15:31
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Shifty Pony posted:A UPS should only kick over to the battery when it detects that the voltage has gone out of standard range though, so a bad battery by itself shouldn't cause the symptoms they are having. Some UPS are wired up to use the battery for normal operation. I believe it's to reduce/remove switching time when the power fails. My friend just had his UPS battery fail and now the battery backed up side of his UPS won't power anything, regardless. The surge protected side is fine though.
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Oct 11, 2023 15:39
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SpartanIvy posted:Some UPS are wired up to use the battery for normal operation. I believe it's to reduce/remove switching time when the power fails. "Some" are, they are typically called "online UPSes" and they definitely aren't what OP has. You're looking at something decent sized rackmount for starters here because they have to have an inverter and cooling that can handle the load 100% of the time. It's not done for switching speed. It's done because you can provide clean perfect power to a device at all times regardless of the input voltage and frequency.
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Oct 11, 2023 15:45
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SpartanIvy posted:That's not the plug it's the UPS. UPS's are rated for a certain output wattage and when your PC is drawing a ton of power it's exceeding the limit of the UPS. Since the PC hasn't been upgraded recently, it could be you plugged in something else recently, or it might could be that the UPS's internal battery is dying from age and causing the max wattage to be lower. This would be great if it's just the UPS. I had been using an old one and finally pitched it for a semi-used one that's been having the same problem. Motronic posted:Also, if this is a laser printer it's going to exceed the capacity of any reasonable consumer UPS and should not be plugged into one. It's an ink jet and it's only plugged in when I need it. unknown posted:To verify, plug the ups communication cable (USB hopefully) into your computer and get the software for the ups (generally free). It'll record your overload alarm or whatever reason the ups decides to shutdown. Hm, had no idea this was a thing. I'll look into it. Shifty Pony posted:You might want to pick up a Kill-a-Watt that will let you see how much power is being drawn. Plug it into the wall, plug the UPS into it, switch the display to VA, and try and reproduce the problem. I'll do this and see what happens. LimaBiker posted:I don't quite know how to interpret 'No other plug in the house has done something like this'. Do you mean that no other device on the UPS has caused it, or do you mean that you tried plugging the UPS in different sockets and you only have the problem on one specific outlet? Since my assumption was it plug related, I meant I had no other electrical problems with other plugs when power heavy stuff was plugged in. The battery in the UPS is probably dead since everything just shuts down after it beeps for awhile.
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Oct 11, 2023 18:51
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What brand and model is the UPS?
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Oct 11, 2023 22:56
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Cat Face Joe posted:The battery in the UPS is probably dead since everything just shuts down after it beeps for awhile. It beeping is it telling you that it's switched to battery and draining it. Drain it too many times and it will kill a brand new off the shelf battery. The USB cord is dollars to donuts the same as your ink jet printer. Windows supports all the major brands of ups now for the basics. Your ups kicking off onto battery being solved by turning down your graphics means this is a draw issue no matter what used to work. Ups's are wear items like every other peice of electronics. If the battery is more than 5 years old it's overdue for replacement. With how much you've been cycling it, it's overdue regardless of age. The ups itself, sans battery, also is aging - specifically the capacitors it uses to hopefully "hold up" the power through brownouts (voltage under 110v or something, heavy on the google it) are drying out and will fail. This reduces the total available load on the ups before it kicks over, as more load pushes the voltage it can hold up down. Couple this with potentially lower than average voltage from the utility, your old lovely panel, your old lovely outlet, could be causing this. Best bet right now: 1. throw your inkjet printer in the trash. (this is unrelated to your problems.) 2. Move the USB cable to the ups+computer. 3. Buy a kill-a-watt and let us know the watts + voltage on the computer, from the wall, and by TEMPORARILY running everything through a power strip -> killawatt->wall (no ups) and same with the ups. 4. Buy a brother network laser printer and don't plug it into your ups. (To be clear that's 4 different configurations of <stuff> -> Kill-a-watt -> Juice. You can temporarily use a power strip to make the kill-a-watt easier to plug in to things.) H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Oct 13, 2023 |
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Oct 13, 2023 00:53
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I’ve got a set of outlets that are the terminal end of my living room circuit. Both of them read low but “ok” voltages at the circuit (112 instead of the 120 across the other outlets on the circuit). However, when something is plugged in and “On,” like a floor fan, the other receptacles drop to ~30V and I get a ground fault. The fan itself never turns on. Pictures for clarity  With fan turned Off  With fan turnedOn I can’t get at the feed wire running this because it’s buried in a wall I don’t wanna cut into, but it seems like it’s related to the feed wire powering these two outlets back at the splice. I have no idea where that’s spliced though. Anybody have any ideas? In the meantime we’re just not using those outlets.
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Oct 16, 2023 23:28
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It sounds like you have a ground-neutral short somewhere. They can do that where they are marginal until something big turns on.
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Oct 16, 2023 23:32
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This looks a lot like a barely-floating neutral I saw--the neutral lug screw (many of them, in fact) were loose in the box. Tighten the screws, fix the problem. (there was enough contact to show 120v but as soon as a load went on the system, voltage dropped out).
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Oct 17, 2023 02:09
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the poi posted:This looks a lot like a barely-floating neutral I saw--the neutral lug screw (many of them, in fact) were loose in the box. Tighten the screws, fix the problem. (there was enough contact to show 120v but as soon as a load went on the system, voltage dropped out). I opened and retightened and swapped receptacles just to be sure. I think there’s a loose neutral (or loose everything) back where the feed line is spliced
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Oct 17, 2023 02:20
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Dr. Lunchables posted:I opened and retightened and swapped receptacles just to be sure. I think there’s a loose neutral (or loose everything) back where the feed line is spliced Realized my post wasn't clear--my issue was loose screws at the _panel_ . Worth checking!
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Oct 17, 2023 02:36
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Ahh. Ok. I just had my panel swapped a month ago and this problem has persisted between panels. It’s not at the panel level AFAICT, it’s somewhere downstream.
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Oct 17, 2023 02:38
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Dr. Lunchables posted:Ahh. Ok. I just had my panel swapped a month ago and this problem has persisted between panels. It’s not at the panel level AFAICT, it’s somewhere downstream. Undo that circuit's neutral and ground from their respective busbars. Unplug everything. See if there's continuity between ground and neutral on that circuit still, then report back.
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Oct 17, 2023 02:51
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(x-posted from the general DIY thread) I have one of these because my DSL router keeps getting fried by lightning. But I'm struggling to find a good place to earth it. There's a normal (UK, 3 pin, plastic) electrical socket next to it. I couldn't find any 3-pin sockets that have an exposed earth post or something, do those exist? As far as I can see my other options are: try to see if the screws attaching the socket to the wall are earthed, make a little hole in the socket plate to feed an earth wire out through, ditto for the telephone line socket, or try to piggyback from using an actual intended earth pin in the socket with no actual plug attached? Or just do nothing and try to unplug my modern during thunderstorms until I get ftth ofc. After some thought I might use a normal 3-pin socket with only the ground pin connected to anything. ESD sockets are not suitable due to their high resistance for discharging charged objects slowly. There's some woo grounding sockets I've been shown actually. 
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Oct 18, 2023 17:10
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gonadic io posted:(x-posted from the general DIY thread) In the US, we call the frame of the outlet itself the "yoke". They're grounded, which means the face plate screws are grounded. Do you have a 2 prong circuit tester? See if there's a circuit between the hot hole and the faceplate screw. If so, just screw that spade terminal to the faceplate screw. edit: another option would be to buy a repair outlet and just run that green wire to the ground prong. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 19:08
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the power through ethernet surge protectors are designed to be used inside racks, which is why the earth tail has a crimp lug on it to bond onto the frame. if there's an unused socket nearby then get a rewireable plug and terminate the earth onto the pin inside (you'll have to cut the crimp off and strip the end) and plug it into the socket. Don't turn the socket on, as the earth is always connected regardless while the plug is in.
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Oct 18, 2023 23:00
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