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Holy christ, I finally got around to looking at the minor electrical problems that have been plaguing the house I'm renting since I moved in. Besides the minor, easily fixable issues of reversed hot and neutral and a floating ground, I discovered that all 14 lights in the house, 4 outlets, and 2 ceiling fans are on one 15 amp breaker and on knob and tube wiring that really shouldn't be handling more than 7 amps. What's worse is that it only has one terminus in the basement, so I can't just break it out into a bunch of 10 amps and go about my business. Short of tearing down walls or snaking romex through 150 year old walls, I'm hosed. Especially since the landlord doesn't give a poo poo. corgski fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Nov 14, 2009 |
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Nov 13, 2009 22:56
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Desi posted:My ideal solution would be to have a bank of dimmers/relays in the basement by the panel that control, lets say, 8 banks of lights. I would then place about 5-6 "scene programmable" switches (that ideally wire up to the dimmers/relays for reliability's sake) strategically throughout the area. As a professional lighting designer, I say you should not use consumer grade Leviton products. You're much better off using architectural lighting controls and dimmers that use the DMX-512 standard, so you're not locked into one particular vendor. I'd recommend using Leprecon controls and dimmers, because they're fairly cheap and still very functional, and DMX means you can add more dimmers (up to 512 total) or control panels, or even replace your existing system without having to pull new wires. For purchasing the equipment, contact Leprecon and ask them to direct you to a local vendor. Other companies that make DMX-compatible architectural control and dimming products are ETC, Lehigh Electric Products, Phillips Lighting, Lex Products, and Elation Lighting. Shop around... for each of these you'll want to find the local distributor and talk to them about prices. corgski fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Dec 8, 2009 |
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Dec 8, 2009 01:41
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eddiewalker posted:Um, he wants a to have little more control of the lights in his house, not stage a musical or set up a dance club. He was asking for architectural lighting control, not a full blown home automation system. (And even then, you should get a high-end one that supports DMX, so you can add more lights simply by buying another dimmer unit from any one of a number of companies, instead of dealing with the proprietary, often horribly crippled and overpriced expansion options provided by most low to mid-grade home automation systems.) I've installed architectural systems from Lehigh and ETC in offices and yes, even homes, so I don't think it's out of line to suggest more-expandable mid-end to high-end equipment for someone who asked for it. Also, Lehigh I know for a fact makes nice looking control surfaces that install in single and double gang boxes.
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Dec 8, 2009 04:15
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Smiling Jack posted:Is upgrading to properly grounded 3-prong something I can do myself? Would swapping everything out to GFCI be an acceptable safety substitute? Yes, depending on the quality of the wiring and local code, you may have to pull entire new circuits instead of just grounds. I'm not sure you understand how GFCI works. It still requires a ground line, it just cuts current if something shorts to ground. Having a floating ground in there (besides being against code) will negate the entire functionality of the GFCI outlet.
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Jan 20, 2010 21:17
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I almost burned the house down. Well, rather, not I, but years of neglect and the fact that my landlord has a strict hands off approach to building maintenance. I was having trouble with nuisance tripping one one particular circuit, so I was going through disconnecting lines to see what was causing the trouble. When I disconnected this outlet, the problem went away, which was odd... because there was no load on it, it was behind the couch. Well, I decide to take a look at it, and when I pulled the box away from the wall, this is what I found:  Click here for the full 2048x1536 image. Definitely billing the landlord for this repair. E: Also, how much do you think I should bill them for replacing the box, outlet, and entire run back to the breaker, considering it's all cloth insulated wire. I only know IA rates, and seeing as this isn't a theatre I don't think they'd apply. corgski fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Apr 21, 2010 |
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Apr 21, 2010 22:43
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Hillridge posted:What are the black connectors on the front of this box called? Those look like strain reliefs, not connectors.
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Jul 8, 2010 21:29
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http://www.electronicplus.com/content/ProductPage.asp?maincat=WA&subcat=WST In the section labeled *********WATERTIGHT CHASSIS MOUNT CORD STRAIN RELIEFS********** there's a whole selection of them with photos. You should be able to find them at Home Depot or Lowes without too much trouble.
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Jul 8, 2010 22:32
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kid sinister posted:Well then, if logic's out the window for my washing machine, then I guess I'll have to perform every possible maintenance and fix for it. I've already swapped out GFCIs and I'm pretty familiar with the insides of washing machines. Hell, I swapped out the motor coupling in one yesterday. What would I do if there was leakage current? Isolate every possible place it could be shorting to ground, go in there with a multimeter, and check continuity to the ground prong on the plug. Once you find it, clean up or replace that part, spray it with contact cleaner, redo any enamel that might have worn off, whatever. The only thing guaranteed with leakage current is continuity to ground. Get rid of that and you're golden. corgski fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Jul 29, 2010 |
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Jul 29, 2010 21:52
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Posting to make sure it's okay to feed a power tool that expects single phase 240 with both hot legs of a household 120/240 service before I fry myself. (Already checked to make sure the tool didn't have neutral tied to ground or some other stupid wiring decision.)
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Aug 26, 2010 07:51
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Cool, just wanted to make sure because the guy I bought it from was hell-bent on telling me that I needed a 3-phase 480v delta supply and a step down transformer, even though it clearly says AC 200-240V 1Φ 21A on the controller. 
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Aug 27, 2010 06:02
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If you do decide to do it live, make drat sure you're wearing ALL natural fibers (even the elastic on your underpants will make you wish you were dead if you get a bad arc.) Oh, and wrap all your screwdriver except for the very tip in several layers of electrical tape, to minimize the chance of shorts. Do this anyway, it's just a good practice in general. corgski fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Nov 9, 2010 |
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Nov 9, 2010 02:13
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grover posted:nobody makes a strain relief for zipcord. Hm? I've got plenty of strain reliefs sized for zipcord. It's worth noting though that zipcord is against code for any sort of permanent install, however, so it's only really useful for temporary construction. Get a low profile junction box and use that to hide the excess wire.
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Nov 9, 2010 05:10
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Delivery McGee posted:Also, the "daylight" CFLs are not actually daylight color temp, according to my Nikon D2x. This is true. "Daylight" CFLs are only around 3400K, where as daylight is 5500K or 6500K depending on the standard you're using.
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Feb 22, 2011 06:40
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Undersized neutral for the first, phase doesn't really enter into it, you size it by the amperage of the load and the number of hots in use. If you were running two hot lines over a neutral sized for only one, I'm sure that feeder got toasty. The second was just a shoddy wiring job on the quad box. The bang and smoke coming out of the plug means that one of the wires inside the box was loose and it arced off. Pull it and throw it in the fixit box. The breaker wouldn't pop unless you had an AFCI. corgski fucked around with this message at 10:19 on Sep 25, 2011 |
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Sep 25, 2011 09:45
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wormil posted:I could, not sure if you can use them with electric motors. You can't. AC motors derive their speed from the frequency of the sine wave, not the voltage. By reducing the voltage with a dimmer switch you'll just cause it to draw a higher amperage until eventually you end up with a pile of molten slag and/or a thrown breaker.
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Feb 7, 2012 00:21
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Granted, I've only used SCR dimmers, but the typical result when someone accidentally dims an AC motor with one of those is a very hot cable and eventually a thrown breaker on the dimmer pack, with the motor moving at roughly the same speed the entire time. DC motors, on the other hand, derive their speed directly from the input voltage.
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Feb 7, 2012 00:56
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That is boss.
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Feb 9, 2012 21:23
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A "hope" run? As in "I hope this cable is long enough to do the entire run?"  E: I think you meant home run. And really, at the very least you should put a junction box in the basement where it turns to go up inside the wall, plus one for every 180° of bend after that. corgski fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Mar 22, 2012 |
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Mar 22, 2012 02:52
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No. There will be one set of wires connected to the lugs. Off those lugs, you'll have some little 4" chunk of wire, and at the end of that, you wire nut on the remaining lines running out of the box.
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May 8, 2012 01:43
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NewcastleBrown posted:I guess the first question is that as a renter (in CA, if that matters) should I even be attempting anything like this, No. NewcastleBrown posted:or should I leave it up to the landlord to take care of? Good luck.
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May 10, 2012 23:27
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Just buy a bunch of these things. http://www.google.com/products/cata...ed=0CLMBEPMCMAI
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May 10, 2012 23:32
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grover posted:No! Those things are dangerous and illegal 99% of the time, and it amazes me they're still allowed to be sold. You should not be considering using an ungrounded adapter with a metal-bodied appliance that requires grounding (like a computer) without at least a GFCI power strip. Like anything else, they're illegal if installed permanently, but they're an absolute necessity for any audio equipment that would share a ground with, well, practically anything. Dangerous is a homemade ground neutral bond. A floating ground is nothing.
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May 11, 2012 03:48
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grover posted:derp He moved from NZ to Canada. The answer is yes, you can run your appliances off of US/Canada's 240V delta, but you'll be creating a shock hazard in the process, because your appliances expect one leg to be neutral, when they are both in fact hot.
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Jun 13, 2012 03:37
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The only legally unsafe way to use a cheater plug is in a permanent installation. It's the same reason power strips and underspecced extension cords that aren't matched to the amperage of the breaker are allowed.
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Jul 5, 2012 10:35
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Given that a large amount of the equipment I install either needs fully isolated grounds or has its performance negatively impacted by having multiple paths to ground, I'm not going to dismiss their usage as inherently unsafe when used temporarily and with an understanding of what you're doing. The problem arises when people plug in their kitchen appliances with cheater plugs and then promptly get zapped.
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Jul 5, 2012 22:23
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If you don't tag out the breaker or physically disconnect the fixture when you're re-lamping, you're doing it wrong. [ask] me about getting zapped and falling off a ladder when relamping a fixture that was connected to a SCR dimmer that was "off" but not disconnected. Best practices would call for tagging out at the nearest disconnect every time you changed a lamp, even in your own home. E: It would also call for calling out every time you're energizing a circuit. "Kitchen Lights going hot NOW!" corgski fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Jul 14, 2012 |
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Jul 14, 2012 23:02
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You're looking at a $200-ish transformer to run your $60 electric kettle. Luckily, since it's not motorized, it's unlikely that the 10 hz difference will cause any problems since it's all getting rectified down to DC anyway. http://www.quick220.com/220_catalog.htm corgski fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Jul 21, 2012 |
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Jul 21, 2012 07:52
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The only way it could be wired for 240v and not trip the breakers is if one hot was on the hot lug, another was on the neutral lug, and the neutrals were on the ground lug or disconnected.
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Oct 24, 2012 16:24
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Bad Munki posted:I presume a dimmer would work just fine with a DC fan? My options are still pretty wide open since I'm just in the planning phase right now. Yeah, you can dim a DC motor just fine.
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Feb 4, 2013 18:41
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Well, that jack is useless anyway. It's two USB-A female connectors. All you can do with that is plug two device cables together. At the very least it should be an A male to an A female, so you can use a USB extension to connect it to a host.
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Feb 27, 2013 03:12
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It's a simple rf coil, not a flyback transformer.
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Mar 3, 2013 07:58
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Aramoro posted:Indeed it is. I'm just unsure what could cope with the voltages involved. I mean it purposefully creates arcing electricity. Just finding wiring for it was hard enough. All my experience is in digital electronics, so I'm not sure if what I'm looking for is possible or exists even. You should be fine with a solid-state relay on the input side of the coil. Your typical plasma globe is switched on and off with one of those dinky little lamp switches, and there's no arc protection in those things.
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Mar 15, 2013 04:28
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willkill4food posted:I'm staying really close to the existing outlet so I don't think it makes sense to bury it. I'm more or less going 1' horizontal and like 4' vertical. Put an unswitched, non-dimmed outlet outdoors, wired to code. Get some lumber and build a freestanding (with the emphasis on freestanding, it can not be anchored to the structure in any way) panel on which to mount your dimmer and outlet, using the fittings you purchased. Wire that dimmer and outlet with a suitable wet location-rated power cord and edison plug. Plug it in to the wall like you would any other portable dimmer. Since it is not a permanent installation, it's code-legal. The downside is that your dimmer is almost certainly not UL-listed for that use, so god forbid your house burns down and the fire inspector sees that. corgski fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Mar 23, 2013 |
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Mar 23, 2013 02:19
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 In the "electrical failures" category, this wonderful photo of a device got forwarded to me today. It would be more believable if it only had one hot cam, but I can't help but think that someone has done this for real.
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May 4, 2013 19:44
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Noctone posted:To add on to both of these posts, cam-locks are primarily used for temporary three-phase power feeds. Probably the most common application I see is to connect a load bank to a generator. We also use them quite regularly at work to feed 480 or 208 to our breaker test sets. Those cams in particular are the ones we use for temporary connection to a 400A company switch, something like this. The other end goes to a distro that breaks it out into 120v 20A circuits or to dimmers/hydraulic pumps/automation controllers/etc. 
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May 5, 2013 07:19
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Crotch Fruit posted:Update on the light-switch/dead bolt of death, the maintenance guy finally came over. "It's normal, all the apartments do that." So I am examining the lease breaking clause in my rental agreement. Maybe give the fire marshall and the electric company a call while you're at it.
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Jan 31, 2014 19:09
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Blindeye posted:Isn't the one disadvantage of this the fact that he won't have AFCI protection for potential fires? That is a downside, especially if the wiring is knob and tube which is notorious for having flying splices inside walls and ceilings which can come loose and arc as the asphalt insulation degrades. You would need a dual-function AFCI/GFCI at the panel for that. (And also ideally, an inline fuse at like 10A since lots of knob and tube is #16 wire.) Also none of that is kosher since the official rule is more or less "if you touch knob and tube take it out" but it'll at least reduce the chance of it burning your entire house down.
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Apr 21, 2020 20:28
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The Wonder Weapon posted:You're supposed to replace wires between switches and light fixtures if you work on them? How the hell do you do that without ripping the walls apart every time? If you modify a branch circuit you're required to bring it up to code. Usually it's not that big of a deal because we've been using MC and NM cable for close to 90 years now, both of which are still explicitly permitted in current code. If you have knob and tube it can require complete replacement because the insulation on knob and tube is almost guaranteed to be degraded to the point of being a hazard at this point. Ultimately it's up to your local inspector, there's no rule explicitly disallowing knob and tube but plenty that implicitly disallow it.
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Apr 22, 2020 01:11
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What I usually encounter here in PA is wrapped in tarred cloth along the entire length, although at this point the tar is so brittle and the cloth so rotten that it falls off if you look at it.
corgski fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Apr 22, 2020 |
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Apr 22, 2020 01:41
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Blackbeer posted:Just speaking as a residential/farm sparky, but if someone talked about plaster that much I'd def tell them to hire a carpenter w/ plaster experience to repair the holes. I'd also run the wire through the joists; a right angle drill or attachment would avoid that looping under bullshit in the vid. I agree. I work in commercial, mostly upgrading old theatres with new lighting controls, so any finish work is solidly Somebody Else's Problem as far as I'm concerned. I get that in residential people often expect one guy to do it all, but if you care that much about plaster you should be paying someone who specializes in it. Also if you only need a single run of NM you don't even have to drill, you can just knock out the tubes left over from one leg of the decommissioned knob and tube and fish your wire through the existing holes. Notching and going under like that is lazy bullshit and it'll piss off whoever has to do the finish work. It's also dangerous if you're working on newer construction that might have engineered beams in there.
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Apr 23, 2020 01:53
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