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grover posted:That's EMT, electrical metallic tubing, does contain wires, and it's easy to work with. You can get the parts you need at Lowes or Home Depot. What you'll want to do is find the two ends where it terminates, pull the wire out of it, then cut and re-route it up (or down) and around the door. Once re-routed, you can pull in new wire. Now, you can only put 360 degrees of bends into EMT; if the two 90s you'd need would exceed that, you'd need to install a junction box to function as an intermediate pull box. This box needs to be accessible, btw. If it's just #12 wire in there feeding receptacles, you can install a new receptacle in it I need a little clarification here. Like I said I'm a complete beginner. Will this terminate at a box? Am I going to have to randomly cut up my walls to find where it terminates? I'd really like to not rip down any more drywall to do this :/ Would it be possible to kill the circuit breaker, unscrew that pipe, cut the wires right there and install inset a box right in that frame then route them up and back down to a second box?
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Oct 9, 2010 21:41
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Mouse Has Knife posted:I need a little clarification here. Like I said I'm a complete beginner. More than likely it will terminates at that receptacle that you have your light plugged into in the picture. Conduit can also just terminate in a place where the pipe itself is accessible, like an unfinished basement or wiring closet. A quick way to check a pipe so close to a supposed endpoint like yours is to take off that receptacle's wallplate, give that pipe a good shake and see if that receptacle's box shakes too. That set screw on the other side of the door could be for a box fitting, but it could also be for just a straight coupling. Stick a flashlight down that hole and tell us what you see. Your suggestion is partially possible. Pull points for conduit must always be accessible, so that means that you would need accessible boxes through the drywall on either side of the doorframe, you can't just cover them over with drywall. Also you would need a pair of 90 degree bends to go up the door frame and turn the corner up and over the frame, you couldn't use 90 degree open elbow fittings since they would be covered up by drywall. You would also want to mount the new boxes a little back from the edge of the opening anyway to account for any trim around that door. But with a likely termination point so close by (the pictured receptacle), I'd plan to use that for one new termination point instead of a new box a few inches to the left. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Oct 11, 2010 |
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Oct 11, 2010 00:26
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I think I saved the house I'm renting from burning down. Found an outlet that randomly went dead, traced the problem to a bad outlet in the kitchen, removed the outlet, which the back was getting rather crispy, cleaned up the wiring and put in a new outlet. Here's the weird part. I thought this drat outlet was one of the few grounded ones in the house, the gas stove plugs into it. But I found out the outlet is only grounded when the drat stove is plugged in. Wait, I just realized something: Gas stove. Outside gas lines that go underground. No, couldn't be, could it?
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Oct 12, 2010 18:29
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Landerig posted:I think I saved the house I'm renting from burning down. Oh sure it could. Now make sure there's a bonding jumper across the gas meter so the house won't explode if there's a serious ground fault. (Wire clamped from input pipe to output pipe, so if the meter is gone, there's still continuity)
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Oct 12, 2010 20:00
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Oh sure it could. Now make sure there's a bonding jumper across the gas meter so the house won't explode if there's a serious ground fault. (Wire clamped from input pipe to output pipe, so if the meter is gone, there's still continuity) So, uh, are you saying if the stove has a major ground fault, it could blow the house up? I'll have to ask the electrician, if and when my landlord ever gets him over here! Most of this house's grounding is to a cold water pipe. This one outlet is grounded by the stove.
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Oct 12, 2010 23:30
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Landerig posted:So, uh, are you saying if the stove has a major ground fault, it could blow the house up? grover fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Oct 13, 2010 |
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Oct 13, 2010 12:22
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Oh sure it could. Now make sure there's a bonding jumper across the gas meter so the house won't explode if there's a serious ground fault. (Wire clamped from input pipe to output pipe, so if the meter is gone, there's still continuity) I'm not by any means an expert, but when I first had the gas lines run at my house, I recall reading some things about gas pipes and grounding. Specifically, CSST (the yellow-jacketed flex piping). If you have CSST, and the gas line is currently your ground path for the stove, you might want to look into bonding along the run of pipe as well as at the meter. I think it has something to do with the off-chance of a lighting strike or other high-energy surge coming through the pipe, which is conductive but not as conductive as hard pipe, and burning a hole in the pipe and jacket. I think it was recommended to bond the gas pipe to the cold water pipe in your house, which sounds like overkill, but I'm a "rather be safe than sorry" type when it comes to grounding. On a related note, I've been warned by a couple of electricians that I need to be careful when bonding across meters (gas or water), as it is possible that there is a potential between the side that goes to the ground and the other side of the meter, and that you could possibly get a shock while installing the bonding. I don't know what the actual possibility of this happening is, but it might not be a bad idea to be extra careful if you run bonding jumper yourself.
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Oct 13, 2010 14:03
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insanity74 posted:On a related note, I've been warned by a couple of electricians that I need to be careful when bonding across meters (gas or water), as it is possible that there is a potential between the side that goes to the ground and the other side of the meter, and that you could possibly get a shock while installing the bonding. I don't know what the actual possibility of this happening is, but it might not be a bad idea to be extra careful if you run bonding jumper yourself. This mostly comes from transformer leakage. If you're in the sticks, have soil with poor conductivity, and have a transformer very close to your house, then there's probably a decent (40-80V) potential between the earth and the neutral from the transformer. That's why you bond the incoming neutral and your grounding system at your panel, and you bond any other subterranean metal features coming into your house.
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Oct 13, 2010 22:14
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Last weekend I took down a fluorescent light fixture from my kitchen and installed 6 recessed lights in its place. I ran Romex from the box that the light fixture was attached to to the first light, and then daisychained the others. I unhooked everything that was in the box so that I could hook it back up in a new box, but apparently I wired something up wrong. Here's what it looks like: The wires in the top of the circle are what was in the box. The wires attached to the light bulb are the new Romex. There are two switches, one on either side of the room. If one switch is on, the other will turn the lights on and off. If a switch is off, the other switch will do nothing. Essentially, it's an AND gate for my lights. There were two red wires, which I'm 99% sure were wired together in the old box. I'm 100% sure that the grounds were wired together. I thought that the blacks were, but in retrospect I'm not at all sure. There was a white wire and another white wire with electrical tape wrapped around it, and my research told me that tape wrapped around a white means that it's hot. At this point, I'm not sure what the deal is, so I turn to you, Internet. Help me fix my lights! Also, I'd like to wire up some under-cabinet lighting, and it would be really convenient to be able to branch it off of one of the switches. Can I do this? Would both switches turn the cabinet lights on and off? This is what the faded-out light bulb is.
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Oct 15, 2010 20:37
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My wife and I recently bought a house. In the back room, the previous owners had installed a remote controlled ceiling fan. It was wired to a dimmer switch and after living here for about two months, the whole thing stopped working. Since we didn't use the ceiling fan at all this summer even though it was the hottest one in ages, we decided to go with a standard three-bulb flush-mounted ceiling light (the back room is on the shady side of the house). I've spent my day off today trying to get this thing working, but no dice. Two bulbs will come on and flicker, but the third bulb doesn't light up at all. I've checked my pairings and I think they're all sound, but I can't figure out what might be causing this. Any help would be great.
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Oct 16, 2010 23:16
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You may want to (cut the breaker) and check things at the switch side, or even in the attic if it is possible to determine if another junction was made. Flickering would imply a poor contact somewhere, which is a potential danger since a resistive connection can heat up. A failing/loose connection would line up with the "stopped working one day" ceiling fan. If the issue affected both the fan and the lights on the old fixture its likely something either at the switch's box or further up the line where the switch's power comes from. If opening the switchplate and checking/securing the connections there doesnt make a difference perhaps try to identify what else is on the circuit. Can you identify any other lights/fans/receptacles that are non-functional? If so check their connections (with breaker off, and tested safe) because they may have the line feeding your switch in question. (Not an electrician. Dont do anything stupid.)
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Oct 17, 2010 02:39
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From what I've been able to determine, the breaker for that light also controls the light into the nearby closet and the motion detector light on the back of the house. Both of those work fine. The room this light fixture is in is an addition to the house built back in probably the late 60s-early 80s, so unfortunately there's no attic to access the wiring from. I'll take some pictures tomorrow once the sun comes up and go from there.
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Oct 17, 2010 04:24
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Disclaimer: In addition to not being an electrician I'm also unfamiliar with 60s wiring...but 80s should be a bit more normal. Thats one heck of a range for that addition to have happened inside  While slightly a bummer you don't have attic access unless they specifically wired a junction up there or the wiring has melted itself due to defect or overload it is most likely any type of loose/bad connection is going to be where you have an accessible junction. I see this as one of three places - The source of power for your switch; Since other things on the circuit work this may be later on in the circuit, chained off of a nearby switch/outlet on the same circuit - The location of the switch; A bad connection to the switch, interruption in neutral passing through that box or even a failing switch - The location of the fixture; Inspect what you can of what comes out of the box at the light's location. Unless there's a totally wild situation it really is likely to be a simple issue at one of those three places.
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Oct 17, 2010 04:32
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Retardog posted:My wife and I recently bought a house. In the back room, the previous owners had installed a remote controlled ceiling fan. It was wired to a dimmer switch and after living here for about two months, the whole thing stopped working. Are these just screw-in light sockets? The little tab at the bottom center of the socket could be bent downwards so much that it doesn't make contact with the bulb. Turn off the breaker and gently bend it back up with a flathead screwdriver. Or is it a halogen 3-bulb fixture?
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Oct 17, 2010 07:35
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The Human Cow posted:Last weekend I took down a fluorescent light fixture from my kitchen and installed 6 recessed lights in its place. I ran Romex from the box that the light fixture was attached to to the first light, and then daisychained the others. I unhooked everything that was in the box so that I could hook it back up in a new box, but apparently I wired something up wrong. Here's what it looks like: We are the internet, lol ttyl!!!!1 No, those are just 3-way switches and they function more like NOT XOR gates. There's several different ways to wire a pair of 3-way switches to control the hot for a branch. All of the methods revolve around routing the either-or lines from the first 3-way switch to the second 3-way switch. In your instance, it looks like it was done via this method, only with the black wire and taped-white wire swapped in the cable on the right in that diagram. And the final answer to your question would be that the proper way to branch other can lights off of that fixture would be to wire their blacks to the taped white, white to the exposed white and ground to ground. How much lighting would these switches be controlling again? You might be pushing the limits of your switches' ratings.
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Oct 17, 2010 08:00
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kid sinister posted:We are the internet, lol ttyl!!!!1 Interesting. That's how I have them wired up, but the more I think about it, the more I think that the switches were controlling the old light the same way and I just never noticed because I rarely use one of the switches. Right now, the switches are controlling 6 5" Halo lights. I'd like to be able to hook up 4 of these IKEA Dioder LED lights for under-cabinet accents.
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Oct 18, 2010 18:11
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The Human Cow posted:Interesting. That's how I have them wired up, but the more I think about it, the more I think that the switches were controlling the old light the same way and I just never noticed because I rarely use one of the switches. This is how 3-way switches work. Note that there must be two uninterrupted travelers between the 3-ways for the light to work. In this picture, I made red dots everywhere there should be a splice/wire nut. Note that the grounds are pigtailed to the box (if metal) or the switch. W=white, R=red, K=black, G=green/ground. The gray rectangles are the actual boxes in the wall/ceiling. There should be a 3-conductor (12/2 w/ ground) coming into one switch, a 4-conductor (12/3 w/ ground) in the other, and two 4-conductor (12/3 w/ ground) into the light fixture. Turn the breaker off, and verify this. Your switches should have three screws on them, typically two brass and a black. Make sure they're wired properly, with the power going in on one black screw on one switch, and the power going out on another black screw on the other. The black and red wires from the 4c cable should be landed on the brass screws. The white with black tape on it is marked, and should go to the black wire on your light fixture. The only place you can add wiring/light fixtures and have them work is there in the light fixture box. Tapping into the cables at either switch will mean incorrect switch behavior on the new lights. Questions? babyeatingpsychopath fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Oct 18, 2010 |
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Oct 18, 2010 20:30
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:This is how 3-way switches work. Note that there must be two uninterrupted travelers between the 3-ways for the light to work. OK, cool. That makes sense. I'll check on the wiring to the switches when I get home. babyeatingpsychopath posted:The only place you can add wiring/light fixtures and have them work is there in the light fixture box. Tapping into the cables at either switch will mean incorrect switch behavior on the new lights. That makes sense, and it's what I was thinking. I wanted to make sure so that I wasn't going to be doing extra work for nothing.
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Oct 18, 2010 20:54
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Is it possible to purchase those electrical box covers by themselves? Like the huge swinging doors on tall breaker boxes? One of the taller 200AMP units is about the same size as my plumbing inlet, and would be a great access hatch.
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Oct 18, 2010 21:04
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dietcokefiend posted:Is it possible to purchase those electrical box covers by themselves? Like the huge swinging doors on tall breaker boxes? One of the taller 200AMP units is about the same size as my plumbing inlet, and would be a great access hatch. Yup. Just ask at the electrical supply house. Be prepared to pay serious money though; I think the Square-D standard 48" tall door is something like $160 for "street purchase."
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Oct 19, 2010 00:00
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How do I waterproof wiring? Specifically I'm making an aquarium light and I want to make sure that an occasional splash or condensation won't give me a shocking surprise. I was thinking that if I just filled the wire nuts with silicone caulk after any joins and siliconed over the connections on the bulb socket it would be reasonably waterproof. Is this a terrible idea? Are there better ways to do it?
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Oct 19, 2010 16:59
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RndmCnflct posted:How do I waterproof wiring? Specifically I'm making an aquarium light and I want to make sure that an occasional splash or condensation won't give me a shocking surprise. That sounds like a terrible idea and a good way to kill your fish/yourself. You really need to get submersion rated electrical equipment for a fish tank. Generally the entire area is sealed behind multiple rubber gaskets, the cord is thick rubber, and it stretches far enough to be plugged in away from the water surface.
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Oct 19, 2010 19:52
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dietcokefiend posted:That sounds like a terrible idea and a good way to kill your fish/yourself. Then plug it into a GFCI. I don't know if 6mA will kill a fish, but it won't kill you. Also, drip loop.
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Oct 19, 2010 23:03
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RndmCnflct posted:How do I waterproof wiring? Specifically I'm making an aquarium light and I want to make sure that an occasional splash or condensation won't give me a shocking surprise. Or better yet, do this thing that I did with my aquarium a few years ago with a low-voltage DC system you plug LEDs and lasers into: 
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Oct 20, 2010 00:01
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grover posted:Woo, rave in your aquarium! Do your fish swim around with tiny pacifiers and glowsticks?
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Oct 20, 2010 20:08
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kid sinister posted:Woo, rave in your aquarium! Do your fish swim around with tiny pacifiers and glowsticks? Alas, that was like 6 years ago. It's all long-gone, now. I just wanted to make the point that there's actual SAFE stuff for fish tanks- no reason to risk your life on a jerry-rig.
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Oct 21, 2010 00:16
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 Seems as though track lighting is made to use rectangle/outlet junction boxes and not round junction boxes like what is in my newly drywalled ceiling. What the gently caress do I do?
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Oct 21, 2010 03:11
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dietcokefiend posted:
Yay, I'm not the only one who doesn't read directions. I ran into the same exact problem in my office. You have two options. Option 1 (the "proper" method), is to remove the round box, patch the drywall in the area, cut a new rectangle hole and install an old-work box. Option 2 (the quick and dirty method), is to get a 2 gang decora faceplate, cut out the extra plastic on the inside so you can access the mounting screw holes in the box, paint it to match the ceiling if necessary, then sandwich it between the light mount and the box.
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Oct 22, 2010 17:29
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Mthrboard posted:Yay, I'm not the only one who doesn't read directions. I ran into the same exact problem in my office. You have two options. Option 1 (the "proper" method), is to remove the round box, patch the drywall in the area, cut a new rectangle hole and install an old-work box. Option 2 (the quick and dirty method), is to get a 2 gang decora faceplate, cut out the extra plastic on the inside so you can access the mounting screw holes in the box, paint it to match the ceiling if necessary, then sandwich it between the light mount and the box. gently caress the hacking the drywall method. It was JUST hung for the low low price of 3200. Quick and dirty job it is!
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Oct 22, 2010 17:34
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Huge  wiring issue at my parents house.They have (well had, old one fried) a timer switch near the front door to control two lights on each side of the front door and a light pole at the end of the sidewalk. The light pole is the "newest" addition within the past say 20 years. We want to get a modern timer in their and most require a neutral lead. This junction box seems to only have Hot in, branch continuations going out... or so we think. Box in the basement that routes wire outside to the light pole.... it has to be neutral and hot.  Old wires at the switches junction box. Touch those two old fuzzy wires together and the lights at the front of the house turn on.  Here you see black/white coming from the box downstairs. Mystery white wire in the back of the junction not connected to anything.  What the gently caress could that wire wire even connect to? Only hot leads route through this junction box, meaning neutral runs directly to the source at least for the original front-door lights. Now the light pole at the end of the sidewalk using the newer wires I have no idea how that worked in this setup. It worked somehow... did it get neutral through some crazy grounding scheme? No wiring method I know of could have that white wire bonded to any other wire in that box without shorting as soon as the light switch was turned on or as soon as it touched one of the hot leads.
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Oct 25, 2010 04:08
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Less drinking would result in less posting of the same question.
Kidsmoke fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Oct 26, 2010 |
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Oct 26, 2010 07:01
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grover posted:I betcha there's a switch loop, and whoever installed the light fixture screwed up and connected the wrong wires, mistakenly wiring it always-on instead of through the switch. If the light switch was wired up with one piece of romex to the switch with the white on one screw, and black on the other, this is most likely the case. Forgot that I'd already posted this and came to the forums to uh, post this. I'll go over and test the breakers to see if the light is separate from the receptacles. And I'll check the light fixture wiring. It's a newer lighting fixture and I'm assuming the previous owner installed it themselves. Someone else had asked the age of the home, it's only 6-7 years old.
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Oct 26, 2010 07:18
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Ok, I'm just going to ask a question that is going to sound really stupid but I'm concerned and dont want to "overload" my outlets. I live in a new home which is about 5 years old. In one of the spare bedrooms aka the computer room with tons of poo poo- I have 3 outlets on one side of the room with 2 plugs each. This is where my ignorance kicks in. I have a lot of computers, laptops, and monitors that I plug into these outlets. I used 1 power bar at each outlet and maybe connect like a router/ cable modem to the unsused plug. Can i just plug in 2 power bars into one outlet or is this drawing too much power from outlet? I always worry that I'm going to burn the house down with so much poo poo comiung out one outlet so I try to spread them out. I have a ton of other poo poo like cisco routers and switches that i'll be needing to be on 24/7. Thanks!
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Oct 26, 2010 17:27
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Every outlet plug can handle the full 15 amp draw that the circuit could support. You won't overload an outlet by bulking up. As long as you arent tripping breakers or doing something stupid like swapping out a 15 amp for a 20 amp breaker without supporting thicker gauge wire, you are completely fine.
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Oct 26, 2010 18:05
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Code Question: On my building, the overhead service drop cables come into a weatherhead that has been installed upside-down. The previous owner/contractor literally turned a weatherhead into a water-catching cup. Is this a code violation? I want to fix it, but my downstairs neighbors only want to do the minimum work needed to bring things up to code.
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Nov 1, 2010 23:09
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Papercut posted:Code Question: Generally speaking, anything that has been improperly installed per manufacturers instructions is almost always a code violation. Like half the sections I have gone over in my local Ohio code states poo poo like "Most be done as specified by manufacturer" and whatnot. Are you renting or is this like a townhouse or something?
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Nov 2, 2010 02:49
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I own but it's kind of like a co-op. It's a situation unique to San Francisco. Right now it's us and our neighbors on a single loan for the whole building, but if we bring everything up to code then we can convert each unit into a condo and get separate loans. The inspector didn't specifically call this issue out, although he did ask for permit documentation for the main service installation. Edit: Might as well ask a couple other questions. All of the bedroom receptacles are non-grounded but use grounded receptacles. I know I can use a GFCI upstream, but with no documentation of what was installed, what is the easiest way to determine which outlet is most upstream? And is it okay if some of the devices downstream from the GFCI are light fixtures? Along the same line, is it okay to have lighting fed by a GFCI breaker? I'm thinking it might be easier to just install a GFCI breaker, but the contractor used tandem breakers everywhere, so another branch circuit would end up on the GFCI. Papercut fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Nov 2, 2010 |
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Nov 2, 2010 19:44
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Papercut posted:All of the bedroom receptacles are non-grounded but use grounded receptacles. I know I can use a GFCI upstream, but with no documentation of what was installed, what is the easiest way to determine which outlet is most upstream? And is it okay if some of the devices downstream from the GFCI are light fixtures? There really is no easy way to figure out which bedroom receptacle is first. Usually it's the closest to the breaker panel, but you'll just have to disconnect them 1-by-1 to find out.
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Nov 2, 2010 22:21
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Papercut posted:All of the bedroom receptacles are non-grounded but use grounded receptacles. I know I can use a GFCI upstream, but with no documentation of what was installed, what is the easiest way to determine which outlet is most upstream? And is it okay if some of the devices downstream from the GFCI are light fixtures? grover's right, there's no easy way. It will take awhile, but turn off the circuit, unhook the hot wires one at a time and turn the circuit back on until you end up with one hot that is on while the rest of the outlets on that circuit are off. While there's no electrical problem running lights off GFCIs, there is a slight practical problem. Say you're in an interior room with no windows like a bathroom and you trip the GFCI. Suddenly you'll be in the dark. That might not be enough to throw you off, but it's enough to scare a kid to hell. GFCI breakers cost 3-4 times what a GFCI receptacle does, don't go with the breakers if money's tight. Also, get tamperproof receptacles, they're code now.
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Nov 3, 2010 06:48
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Am I going to burn down my house? I needed to install some lighting in my basement, and fix parts of the drop ceiling I had removed, so I got some new construction recessed lighting (airtight). When I was at lowes I couldn't find anyone to ask about the wiring, but I noticed on their chart the 14-2 wiring was used for light fixtures, so I bought that. Over the course of a couple days I get the drop ceiling finished and the lights wired and all working (my first real wiring project - though the switch was already wired so it was too easy) and I talk to my dad, who is an retired industrial electrician. Seems to be a problem that I used 14-2 cabling on 20 amp breaker(s). He said not to worry about it too much, it's not a fire hazard as 14 awg is actually good up to 30 amps (though it's not "rated" for that) it's just not up to code. Can anyone confirm? I'd really hate to have to rip it all out right away, especially when I neatly stapled the wires to the joists and especially since I wrestled with those freaking drop ceiling panels for hours. Since I'm a n00b to electricity I don't know if it matters if there is high/low overall load on the circuits but they're both definitely low-load circuits. They're all outlet and lighting circuits, with really nothing running on them. Bonus picture of the completion last night:  Click here for the full 1280x960 image. Other details: 6 lights installed on 2 circuits (4 on one, 2 on the other). I belive they're both 20 amp circuits, but I could be wrong. I only noticed it on the second circuit as I started.
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Nov 4, 2010 16:54
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