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You are gonna likely ground your server rack to that bonding bar, so its good.
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Jan 17, 2024 16:43
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Our side of Knoxville got a bit over 8 inches of snow between Sunday and Monday nights. 4runner did great with the new tires, I burned nearly a half tank of fuel driving around assisting and shuttling her coworkers around. Power was flickering for a few hours earlier when it was negative 4F degrees but now it seems fairly stable. 4runner is the only thing that has been able to get out of the driveway since around noon on Monday, only thing with enough ground clearance and 4wd. Heck of a strange week to burn my left over vacation time, the site has been closed all week due to snow and cold. Multiple outages postponed to next week and I don't think we'll have any hardware repair people at site until maybe some time late tomorrow. This snow did make me realize how much I miss snow and winter driving.
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Jan 17, 2024 16:58
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Kazinsal posted:Meanwhile at home I wish that we had a standard way of easily identifying which outlets go to which breakers. I've been in this apartment for three years now and still haven't figured out how to properly spread out my electrical load across the five different 15A unlabeled breakers on the panel. Not a standard way, per se, but plug a radio into an outlet, with it playing volume up, and turn off breakers until it stops playing, then label. I should do that at some point, myself.
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Jan 17, 2024 17:57
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We plugged random stuff into all the kitchen outlets (chargers, webcam, radio, whatever) with all the breakers off then one person flipped breakers on and the other took notes. More of a pain with only one but still not too bad and if you have enough random electronic junk you can knock out all the breakers in a relatively short amount of time.
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Jan 17, 2024 18:18
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Circuit breaker finders are cheap and don't require flipping breakers. You plug one device into an outlet and then run the other device across the breakers in the panel and it beeps when you've got the matching breaker. Might have to make a couple passes due to false positives but otherwise it's pretty straight forward to use. I've got an Amprobe BT-120 but there are a lot of options.
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Jan 17, 2024 19:21
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NitroSpazzz posted:We plugged random stuff into all the kitchen outlets (chargers, webcam, radio, whatever) with all the breakers off then one person flipped breakers on and the other took notes. More of a pain with only one but still not too bad and if you have enough random electronic junk you can knock out all the breakers in a relatively short amount of time. My last apartment in the Dallas area (1 bedroom with a galley kitchen) had 7 breakers for the kitchen. 1 for the dishwasher. 1 for each of 5 counter outlets (one shared with a living room outlet), 1 for the light (shared with the entry light and vent hood). Not counting 240V, there was something silly like 20 breakers for the place, almost all 20A (when that place was built, you normally only got 20A in the kitchen). I never did figure out what every breaker did except for the kitchen, since it was seemingly 1 breaker for every single outlet in the place. Someone was clearly paid by the hour. My much newer/slightly larger apartment here in Austin? Not counting 240V or dedicated appliance circuits, there's 5 breakers for the entire place, all 15A except for the kitchen (which is one circuit for 7 outlets - don't think about making coffee and using the air fryer at the same time).
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Jan 17, 2024 20:10
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Raluek posted:i can think of one way to find out, lmao Toggle switch across hot and neutral in a box on a line cord 
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Jan 17, 2024 21:49
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kastein posted:Toggle switch across hot and neutral in a box on a line cord Well, you find out whether or not your breakers work, I guess.
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Jan 17, 2024 23:03
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kastein posted:Toggle switch across hot and neutral in a box on a line cord Good way to find any bad connections in the line, especially if you have a Zinsco or FPE panel. I like that there's 6 20A circuits in my kitchen. 1 is dedicated to the fridge (good!) 1 is a single outlet next to the sink. 1 is every single other outlet in the kitchen, including an outdoor one. 3 are ???? 
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Jan 17, 2024 23:49
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Man I would kill to have a breaker per room or per outlet even and all 20a, instead I have all 3 bedrooms and both bathrooms and all their overhead lights sharing 2 linked 15a circuits.
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Jan 18, 2024 00:08
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TheBacon posted:Man I would kill to have a breaker per room or per outlet even and all 20a, instead I have all 3 bedrooms and both bathrooms and all their overhead lights sharing 2 linked 15a circuits. Yeah, I've lived in enough places where you couldn't run the microwave and borderline anything else in the house without tripping a breaker that overdoing it is fine. Plus, you never know when you're gonna need to run a blender, the microwave, an air fryer, and the toaster all at once.
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Jan 18, 2024 00:56
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Elviscat posted:Good way to find any bad connections in the line, especially if you have a Zinsco or FPE panel. Single outlet at sink is probably disposal tied, and the group of all others is likely a outlet/lighting circuit. The others are wired to the neighbor's house
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Jan 18, 2024 01:59
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Elviscat posted:Good way to find any bad connections in the line, especially if you have a Zinsco or FPE panel. I have dedicated circuits for the dishwasher and fridge (and the garbage disposal is probably shared with the dishwasher - they share a duplex with the hot tab snapped off), but I lumped those in with dedicated appliance circuits (same with the clothes washer outlet). We also have a weird thing where the dishwasher requires a switch at counter height as a disconnecting means. I have no idea why, but I've lived in several cities that required it. It's always a when I go to turn on the dishwasher and it won't turn on, then look at the switch-that-never-gets-used and notice it's off (helpfully, it's next to the garbage disposal switch... on the wrong side of it even). The drat thing plugs in under the sink (usually.. there's been a couple where it had an outlet behind the DW itself), why can't that be the primary disconnecting means?In my parents house, it's in a 3 gang box. The middle switch is the dishwasher, the furthest is the garbage disposal, the one closest to the sink is for the light above the sink.  I always meant to swap them around to make a little more sense, never did though. I feel like the one closest to the sink should be garbage disposal, then light (if one exists), with dishwasher the furthest.
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Jan 18, 2024 |
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Jan 18, 2024 03:05
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kastein posted:Toggle switch across hot and neutral in a box on a line cord i am somewhat surprised at all the safe and sensible options upthread because this is exactly what i had in mind
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Jan 18, 2024 04:51
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Ticked over another digit on the odometer of life. Time to get drunk and enjoy an RDO weekend.
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Jan 18, 2024 07:32
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Humphreys posted:Ticked over another digit on the odometer of life. Time to get drunk and enjoy an RDO weekend. Happy birthday!
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Jan 18, 2024 07:55
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Raluek posted:i am somewhat surprised at all the safe and sensible options upthread because this is exactly what i had in mind Ironically today I seriously did this for the first time in my life. I've only been wiring for 25ish years now so I guess I was overdue. Was helping a friend of a friend set up his new art gallery. This involved rewiring some lighting. Two 120V 20A circuits, one on each phase. Old system was one circuit for front of house, one for back of house, decora switch for each, horrible rats nest in the box. Very ugly 4ft fluorescent overhead lighting. Since I was adding a third switch for 100ft of LED track lighting, I got a duplex single throw switch (2 line, 2 load, 2 paddles) and put the ugly original lighting on those two, and the new track lighting on the large single decora switch. All the lights started working when I flipped the first breaker on to make sure I had marked the switches right before shutting it off and pushing it all into the box. Wait, what? Only two should be on that breaker. Just as I thought that thought, I flipped the second breaker on. [VERY LOUD BANG AND BRIGHT FLASH] What the gently caress was that So... Ya know how those tandem switches often have a little break-off jumper tab so you only need to feed them with 1 wire to run both switches if you don't need two totally separate ones? Guess who forgot to break it off for the first time in his life? Turns out a bolted fault on a 20 amp 240 volt circuit that's like 3 feet from the panel has got some zest to it. It entirely removed the jumper tab and distributed it across the back of the box cover plate, one hand, both switches, and everything else within a foot as a hot brass vapor.  (This switch was the one next to the mistake, it got blasted with brass plasma from about an inch away.)  (The tab I vaporized instead of breaking off first, in case my rambling description was unclear.) Whoops. I think I'll probably remember to check for those jumpers in the future. 
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Jan 18, 2024 14:48
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I wish I could say I'd forgotten that tab only once, but at least in my case, both feeds were on the same phase (turning a duplex into one switched, one constant). Glad I wasn't near that, I would have crapped a bit. Could be worse; you could have fed 240 into the new lights.  Or had Stab Lok or Zinsco never-trip breakers.
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Jan 18, 2024 15:23
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In our country, we leave electrical work up to Electricians.
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Jan 18, 2024 16:12
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Humphreys posted:In our country, we leave electrical work up to Electricians. And we should leave mechanic work to mechanics. Welcome to AI.
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Jan 18, 2024 16:21
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CommieGIR posted:And we should leave mechanic work to mechanics. Welcome to AI. Speak for yourself I gotta get to work in an hour
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Jan 18, 2024 16:34
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Humphreys posted:In our country, we leave electrical work up to Electricians. You act like "Electricians" don't make these same drat mistakes, and then charge you for the privilege. Who the gently caress do you think wired the homes above with 75 outlets on one breaker?
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Jan 18, 2024 16:41
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Humphreys posted:In our country, we leave electrical work up to Electricians. I make my living by testing and then fixing their mistakes, why not cut out the middleman and only have my own mistakes to deal with? "No user serviceable components inside" is a challenge, not a warning.
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Jan 18, 2024 16:53
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Humphreys posted:In our country, we leave electrical work up to Electricians. I read the national electric code book cover to cover at age 13 and hold two degrees in electrical engineering. I wired my entire house without a single mistake including doing a one-day full service panel upgrade (8am natgrid shutoff, 4pm inspection, 7pm power back on by natgrid). I've wired a half a dozen vehicles without mistakes. I built an entire 8088 embedded computer on breadboards without any schematics, just pinouts and memory, and made only two minor mistakes. I planned and wired my parents entire garage to code when I was like 14 and told my dad "I told you so" when the one part I couldn't do (connecting it into the power source) resulted in sparks flying because he half assed it into an existing circuit using non code compliant methods because he didn't want to drill a bigger hole through the sill beam to put a larger conduit in and decided that running a 12/2 UF and a single conductor of 12 THWN through a cable clamp was a great idea. I think I'm allowed to wire stuff and make a mistake every 20 or 25 years. kastein fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Jan 18, 2024 |
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Jan 18, 2024 16:58
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Darchangel posted:You act like "Electricians" don't make these same drat mistakes, and then charge you for the privilege. Who the gently caress do you think wired the homes above with 75 outlets on one breaker? grover was an electrical engineer not an electrician
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Jan 18, 2024 16:59
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Darchangel posted:You act like "Electricians" don't make these same drat mistakes, and then charge you for the privilege. Who the gently caress do you think wired the homes above with 75 outlets on one breaker? literally everyone makes mistakes but hiring professionals is a good thing for a lot of tasks. professionals are experienced and trained workers who deserve the substantial wages they command. too many outlets on a single breaker is a code failure moreso than an electrician failure.
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Jan 18, 2024 17:06
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OBAMNA PHONE posted:literally everyone makes mistakes but hiring professionals is a good thing for a lot of tasks. professionals are experienced and trained workers who deserve the substantial wages they command. Me, getting paid 3 figures an hour to dig out a ouija board and curse in tongues at diesel fords. Da gently caress turn in life did I make to end up here. SpeedFreek posted:I make my living by testing and then fixing their mistakes, why not cut out the middleman and only have my own mistakes to deal with? "No user serviceable components inside" is a challenge, not a warning. Mostly this.
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Jan 18, 2024 17:17
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Salami Surgeon posted:grover was an electrical engineer not an electrician What bothers me here is that an EE should know WHY the code exists and figure out that their super special exception is probably just self deception. Or at least that's how I hope the world works. Sadly I know that there are a lot of "engineer brained" folks who just figure they know better than everyone else, that their tangential knowledge lets them know how the world "really works." It makes it hard to tell if the person talking is a Kastien or a grover.
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Jan 18, 2024 17:18
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If the pipes float it's grover
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Jan 18, 2024 17:34
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My post is a 'how to' on insulting americans and/or british. I used to wire up military aircraft. I still get an electrician to do anything mains level in my house. Do you all not have certificates of work incase something fucks up that the law/insurance can go after when poo poo goes bad?
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Jan 18, 2024 17:43
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kastein posted:If the pipes float it's grover failing to understand that he lives in a god damned swamp. Humphreys posted:My post is a 'how to' on insulting americans and/or british. DIY'ing electrical work is not unusual in the US, usually anything up to the panel you can legally do yourself. Now, caveat, you should have someone come look at it and sign it off, but in most cases people are just replacing fixtures, outlets, and switches and that's not really something you absolutely have to have an electrician for as long as you know basic electronics and are not an idiot. Its also important to note most of our electrical is 120/110, so a little bit safer than mucking about in a 240v circuit like you might in the UK or EU. Granted, I did my own 240v wiring for my server rack. CommieGIR fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Jan 18, 2024 |
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Jan 18, 2024 17:58
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Humphreys posted:Do you all not have certificates of work incase something fucks up that the law/insurance can go after when poo poo goes bad? In America, insurance is a tax you pay to a corporation. If you ever try to go after it, you pay more tax until you make the corporation whole.
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Jan 18, 2024 17:59
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Humphreys posted:My post is a 'how to' on insulting americans and/or british. Being wrong and getting made fun of for it? Dude. I quite literally have town and county official inspections on record saying I did it right and it passed. I've never failed an inspection. The inspectors are so used to looking at my poo poo at this point that I've literally had to remind them to check something before. Hell, I was in charge of designing the electrical control panels for quarter million dollar industrial laser cutting machines in a former life, running on anything from 208 to 480 volt 3 phase, and getting them certified to a wide variety of ISO, IEC, and UL standards for use in facilities across the world, everything from laser safety and electrical noise emission standards up to electrical code compliance, safety labeling, and advising customers on installation practices to comply with national electric code. I built the first prototype of every new design out on the factory floor to make sure I wasn't dumping a nightmare on our industrial electricians. So yeah, no. I'm not hiring some jackass electrician with a Trump sticker on his van to come do half assed sloppy work in my panel and charge me $150 an hour for the privilege, I'll do it myself to higher standards.
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Jan 18, 2024 18:29
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OBAMNA PHONE posted:literally everyone makes mistakes but hiring professionals is a good thing for a lot of tasks. professionals are experienced and trained workers who deserve the substantial wages they command. ...you've never used an electrician in America, have you? Literally the only time I would use an electrician is if code requires it, or it's just too much work, just so I don't have to deal with the bullshit of finding a competent "professional." Finally found a decent plumber - keeping them. Costs to much, but some of this poo poo I just can't do any more. Getting old sucks. Salami Surgeon posted:In America, insurance is a tax you pay to a corporation. If you ever try to go after it, you pay more tax until you make the corporation whole.
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Jan 18, 2024 18:58
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It's illegal to just do your own electrical work in the city of Chicago. If they figure out you've altered any electrical equipment without a permit or inspection, the city will make you pay someone with a license and a permit to undo your work, with the option of fining you every single day that the job isn't finished. Obviously that's loving stupid because it's intentionally broad enough to suggest that switching out a fuse in an old house should require a permit Rules like that are put in place in order to prevent people from going, "well the rules never said I couldn't do it" after their condo in the John Hancock Building catches fire and causes tens of millions of dollars in damage. And probably also to make some very unfortunate people's lives a living hell if the government doesn't like them, but mostly because there's very valuable real estate that can't be left to the rule of cool In your own home? I say as long as you aren't putting others in danger, do it to the best of your ability, according to the spirit of the law and not the letter. You do have to CYA on certain things, but as long as your own work passes inspection, why hire someone? E: clarity The Door Frame fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Jan 18, 2024 |
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Jan 18, 2024 19:03
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Chicago is an extreme outlier in that regard, though. They also won't let you run any wiring outside of a conduit.
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Jan 18, 2024 19:28
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CommieGIR posted:DIY'ing electrical work is not unusual in the US, usually anything up to the panel you can legally do yourself. Now, caveat, you should have someone come look at it and sign it off, but in most cases people are just replacing fixtures, outlets, and switches and that's not really something you absolutely have to have an electrician for as long as you know basic electronics and are not an idiot. In Finland you can technically pull the wire and connect everything yourself, but leave all the junction boxes and stuff open. Then have a licensed electrician sign off on it, assuming you can get someone to do it.
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Jan 18, 2024 19:37
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His Divine Shadow posted:In Finland you can technically pull the wire and connect everything yourself, but leave all the junction boxes and stuff open. Then have a licensed electrician sign off on it, assuming you can get someone to do it. I had an electrician come by and basically document and give me the nod for my 240v wiring, so yeah same premise, but there's no requirement here to do that unless you are doing major work.
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Jan 18, 2024 20:19
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IOwnCalculus posted:Chicago is an extreme outlier in that regard, though. They also won't let you run any wiring outside of a conduit. We don't use ground wires here, the metal conduit is the ground wire. And I meant it as a statement of why those rules don't really apply to regular home repair, because the spirit of those extremely strict laws is to protect
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Jan 18, 2024 20:24
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I'm a lurker in AI, but we recently picked up a 2024 GR Corolla, which seems very AI and made me want to post here. Just about 1000 miles on it so far, but it's a really fun little AWD car. I'm hoping to take it to a local road course this spring in Bowling Green and see what that's like.
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Jan 18, 2024 21:04
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