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Jabronie posted:Also, id recommend commercial grade receptacles for any outlet that’s being plugged into a lot such as spots for vacuums or kitchen appliances. They’ll cost a little more but the springs will last longer. Are you talking about the tamper resistant springs in particular? I think I've personally been using them for some time because they're also just easier to work with.
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Apr 24, 2024 18:40
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:Are you talking about the tamper resistant springs in particular? Tamper resistant or receptacles with TR stamped on them are just plastic shutters at the plug so a child doesn't stick a knife into a live conductor slot. Commercial grade receptacles have a better grip over time so plugs won't fall out.
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Apr 24, 2024 19:43
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Commercial grade switches too. They have a good snap so you really turned them the gently caress off.
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Apr 24, 2024 19:58
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corgski posted:No, AFCI/CAFCI breakers do not include any GFCI protection whatsoever. AFCIs only trip on parallel arcs (intermittent shorts to netural/ground with arcing,) CAFCIs trip on parallel and series arcs (loose connections inline in a circuit.) Any modern "AFCI" breaker on the market is going to be a CAFCI. kid sinister posted:It is. Decades ago there were two types of AFCI breakers before they were combined into one. Then on top of that, there are dual function breakers, which add the two types of AFCI to GFCI. I sure am! But many thanks to both of you for pointing this out, I had assumed Combination was the same thing as Dual Function so you've dun gosh-darned larned me something today. But it turns out I was correct in thinking that my breakers performed both functions as I installed the Square D PAFGF series - it's just that I should have referred to them as CAFCI / DF breakers, not solely CAFCI. (Slight oddity - I thought GFCI was supposed to trip at 5 mA and these say they trip at 6 mA). I will never get over Schneider's insane MSRP vs street price - I bought these for around $35 each and that page lists them at $326. SyNack Sassimov fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Apr 24, 2024 |
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Apr 24, 2024 20:08
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I have a rather long 15A circuit downstairs that serves the receptacles and lights in two rooms. Yesterday I needed to iron some clothes and ended up using an outlet near the end of the chain right before the lights of the room I was in. I noticed that the lights dimmed significantly when the iron kicked on and found that voltage was sagging from 121.5V to 106.2V with a 12.6A load. Not good! Whoever last replaced the receptacles in my house liked to daisy chain them using both the back-stab and screw terminal. Is it likely that the backstabs are contributing significantly to the voltage drop and that replacing them with more secure connections would help, or is it probably just too many feet of 14/2? Checking with a DMM the voltage seems to drop pretty smoothly along the length of the circuit, there's no sudden drop between two receptacles that would indicate a particularly lovely connection. Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at 10:47 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 10:45
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Shifty Pony posted:I have a rather long 15A circuit downstairs that serves the receptacles and lights in two rooms. Yesterday I needed to iron some clothes and ended up using an outlet near the end of the chain right before the lights of the room I was in. I noticed that the lights dimmed significantly when the iron kicked on and found that voltage was sagging from 121.5V to 106.2V with a 12.6A load. Not good! This is just normal voltage drop from 14AWG wire and heavy load. Replacing the receptacles probably won't hurt anything, but voltage drop for a 120' run of 14AWG pulling 13A is 7.27%, or 106V.
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Apr 30, 2024 12:28
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:This is just normal voltage drop from 14AWG wire and heavy load. Replacing the receptacles probably won't hurt anything, but voltage drop for a 120' run of 14AWG pulling 13A is 7.27%, or 106V. I think you may be doubling the voltage drop from a chart or calculator that already doubles it to account for the return. 14 AWG copper wire has a resistance of 2.525Ω per 1000 feet, or 0.606Ω for 240' (120' out and back). At 13A that's gives a drop of ~7.9V for an expected 113.6V. For it to be entirely from the cable there would have to be roughly 230' of 14/2 between the panel and the far outlet.
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Apr 30, 2024 13:40
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It could be aluminum. Al will be almost double the resistance.
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Apr 30, 2024 14:25
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I want to add a 20a 120v circuit to the laundry room. Running a new wire would involve cutting holes in a finished ceiling, so I would prefer not to run a new wire. I have an existing 8 gauge 240v wire (Black, Red, White) that runs from the breaker panel to the laundry room. This wire is hooked to a 50 amp breaker in the panel. It is not used for anything and the breaker is shut off. It terminates in a junction box in the laundry room. Can I use the 8 gauge wire for my 20a circuit? I would remove the 50 amp breaker and install a 20 amp breaker. I would then hook the Black wire from the 8ga wire to the 20 amp breaker. In the junction box in the laundry room I'd hook the 8 gauge wire to romex and run the romex to the 20amp outlets. Is this permitted?
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Apr 30, 2024 21:58
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Vim Fuego posted:I would remove the 50 amp breaker and install a 20 amp breaker. I would then hook the Black wire from the 8ga wire to the 20 amp breaker. In the junction box in the laundry room I'd hook the 8 gauge wire to romex and run the romex to the 20amp outlets. Yes, but you need a 20A breaker that is rated for 8 gauge (not all are, whether you can find one or not depends on what flavor of breakers you need). The connection in the j-box needs to be appropriate as for the two different wire gauges involved (I'd probably default to split nuts there if there is sufficient space in that box).
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Apr 30, 2024 22:34
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Motronic posted:Yes, but you need a 20A breaker that is rated for 8 gauge (not all are, whether you can find one or not depends on what flavor of breakers you need). The connection in the j-box needs to be appropriate as for the two different wire gauges involved (I'd probably default to split nuts there if there is sufficient space in that box). Couldn't you do split nuts at both ends?
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May 1, 2024 00:14
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devicenull posted:Couldn't you do split nuts at both ends? Yeah, that's a good point. Since the load center is an acceptable box you could absolutely split nut it down to 10 wire or whatever in there too.
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May 1, 2024 00:18
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Vim Fuego posted:
The blue Ideal wirenuts (454) are rated for 1 #8 and 1#12 to give another option.
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May 1, 2024 01:27
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The EV thread sent me over here with a couple questions on my electrical panel: 1) Is this 125A service? There is a 125A breaker in the middle of the panel, but it is unlabeled. 2) Is there a possibility to change the current 120V/20A circuit for the carport to 240V/20A (or better 240V/30A)? This would be to install a level 2 EVSE. If so, would this panel need to be reworked or replaced? EV thread said there are potential code issues here. This is in CA, with PGE service. I'm not planning to do any of my own electrical work, but it would be nice to have idea if this is a relatively minor job (new wiring/breaker for the carport), or major work (entirely new panel and/or utility service upgrade). 
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May 1, 2024 16:40
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You are pretty much maxed out on that panel, every slot that can have a double breaker does. Very likely panel upgrade time. There might be some incentives available to soften the blow. Jabronie posted:It could be aluminum. Al will be almost double the resistance. Thankfully it is copper, although it does have undersized ground conductors. I'll probably just mentally mark those outlets as not usable for larger loads until I can split the circuit. Also need to get a new DMM because my cheapish one is giving inconsistent readings when it switches measurement ranges.
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May 1, 2024 17:13
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What was the point of Split boxes? We're they just cheaper? I have one, and I don't like the idea that I don't have a way to shut off the bus bars from the service. This rule of 6 stuff just reeks of post-hoc justification.
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May 1, 2024 17:39
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Bone Crimes posted:What was the point of Split boxes? We're they just cheaper? I have one, and I don't like the idea that I don't have a way to shut off the bus bars from the service. This rule of 6 stuff just reeks of post-hoc justification. Split boxes are for having both line and low voltage in the same box, with the divider separating them.
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May 2, 2024 19:53
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kid sinister posted:Split boxes are for having both line and low voltage in the same box, with the divider separating them. mine has 240v breakers on the lower section behind the 'main' breaker, so I'm not sure what you mean by low voltage. 
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May 2, 2024 20:19
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This could go into a few different threads but is there 24 or 48V landscape lighting? Everything I've seen is either 12V or line, which, fine but I have a really large yard. I guess point sources have to standardize on something and it's not like in strip lighting where it's relatively easy to make strands compatible with higher voltages.
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May 2, 2024 20:26
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Bone Crimes posted:mine has 240v breakers on the lower section behind the 'main' breaker, so I'm not sure what you mean by low voltage. You're calling something a "split box" that isn't. That's the confusion. You have a main lug load center. You appear to be confused as to why it's not a main breaker style load center. I have no idea why so many california homes have that arrangement - main lug panels are typically used as subpanles in my area.
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May 2, 2024 20:45
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Bone Crimes posted:mine has 240v breakers on the lower section behind the 'main' breaker, so I'm not sure what you mean by low voltage. Then call it what it is, please. Split boxes are for devices. That's a breaker panel.
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May 2, 2024 21:17
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Motronic posted:You're calling something a "split box" that isn't. That's the confusion. maybe I should have said split bus, or split bus panel. The breaker at 9&11turns off 13-24 and is one of the six main breakers to turn off all the power. There is no single main breaker to turn everything off. House and I assume the box is from the 1950s. I'm in Washington State.  All the sites I've found and my electrician referred to this as a "split bus box" like here: https://schwab-electric.com/should-i-replace-my-split-bus-panel/
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May 2, 2024 21:19
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Hed posted:This could go into a few different threads but is there 24 or 48V landscape lighting? Everything I've seen is either 12V or line, which, fine but I have a really large yard. The transformer you buy for landscape lighting should have guidelines like this: 
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May 2, 2024 21:47
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Hed posted:This could go into a few different threads but is there 24 or 48V landscape lighting? Everything I've seen is either 12V or line, which, fine but I have a really large yard. There are 48V lights and stuff, but I don't know of any specific system to buy into. I went with a bunch of 12V strings and have a decent-sized box of 12V power supplies in it. The yard looks slightly less janky when just one string goes down instead of half the yard because the $9 power supply finally timed out.
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May 2, 2024 21:50
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Hed posted:This could go into a few different threads but is there 24 or 48V landscape lighting? Everything I've seen is either 12V or line, which, fine but I have a really large yard. New market unlocked: POE landscape lighting
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May 2, 2024 23:47
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devicenull posted:New market unlocked: POE landscape lighting Unironically I’ve thought about doing this on a long run to RGBW a post with my house number in it. The neighborhood kids would have a lot of fun bashing it in full color.
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May 3, 2024 00:48
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devicenull posted:New market unlocked: POE landscape lighting https://poelightingusa.com/product/wilton/
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May 3, 2024 03:01
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I’m moving our clothes dryer to the garage and I’m doing so moving the dryer’s 30A 240V service to a subpanel, so it’s new breaker time. I guess I could reuse the existing breaker but it’s god-knows-how-old so I’d rather not. Does the breaker for a dryer in a garage need to be GFCI? My guess is yes but I’ve been finding conflicting information for dryers in general.
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May 3, 2024 18:51
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I'm pretty sure that all circuits in garages need to be GFCI now.
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May 3, 2024 19:59
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csammis posted:
Depends on what year NEC your state/city is on. 240V gfi protection came with the 2020 code and some states have exempted it even if they’re on 2020.
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May 3, 2024 20:14
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Blackbeer posted:Depends on what year NEC your state/city is on. 240V gfi protection came with the 2020 code and some states have exempted it even if they’re on 2020. Well that probably explains why I was finding conflicting information about it. My county follows NEC 2017 without any changes which concern garages or dryers. TooMuchAbstraction posted:I'm pretty sure that all circuits in garages need to be GFCI now. Yeah, I remembered that after I posted and realized that it would likely be a catch-all. Thanks!
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May 3, 2024 23:33
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Weren't garage ceiling outlets for garage door openers exempt for GFCIs? I know you can't mount a GFCI outlet there as it violates the accessibility rule.
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May 4, 2024 00:13
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You can still GFCI protect the outlet, either putting it downstream of a GFCI outlet or with a GFCI breaker.
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May 4, 2024 00:28
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Do induction ranges require any different wiring than a traditional electric range?
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May 4, 2024 19:32
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The Slack Lagoon posted:Do induction ranges require any different wiring than a traditional electric range? Electricity is electricity. The internal wiring may be different, but the external wiring via the hookup is the same.
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May 4, 2024 19:35
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The Slack Lagoon posted:Do induction ranges require any different wiring than a traditional electric range? There are 40 and 50 amp models of both, so.... possibly.
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May 5, 2024 04:04
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We currently have a gas range, but are getting a panel upgrade for a heat pump so I was asking the electrician if they could add an outlet for an electric stove. They asked if it was for a regular electric or an induction, and I figured the outlet would be the same - 14-50?
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May 5, 2024 04:12
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