Wiring Thread: This stupid safety device started alerting that there wasn't safety!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Wiring Thread: This stupid safety device started alerting that there wasn't safety!

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devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

FISHMANPET posted:

Ran a 4 pair Cat5 cable to the Lightning arrester, using the blue pair, and got a punch down jack on the other end. I doubled my speed to 20/10, but still not the 40/10 I'm supposed to be getting. Also I took the nuts on the terminals all the way off which was dumb because they were a bitch to get back on (had to basically pound the nut to get it to grip the teeth properly). I could try and attack the wires coming in from outside just to see if I can get any better speed out of the line.

Harass your ISP until they come and install a proper NID: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demarcation_point . They should not charge for this (at least, I was able to get them to do this with minimal convincing in the past)

After they do that, get a 'whole house DSL filter' and install it. It splits your DSL signal from the rest of your (old, crusty) phone wiring.. giving you a better signal.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 01:36

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 16:45

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Combat Pretzel posted:

Belgium. I'm around 800m from the DSLAM and by theory and what people on a large Belgian DSL nerd forum say, I should be in the 30/6mbit profile. Up to the premises, the telco claims everything is in order, so the rest is in my block. Since everything's hooked up correctly, at least as far as the technician says, there's nothing they will do.

There isn't much I can pull on to move it. The cables themselves are shielded, apart from the stripped ends at the panel. Those are the parts I want to shield. Seeing how twisting 3-4 cm of wire raised my download bitrate by 25%, I want to try some ghetto shielding, because it feels like the exposed ends act like an antenna and pick all sorts of crap up.

I mean, it's this terrible contraption.

That said, after taking this picture just now, I see a fatal issue. The purple and teal wires are wound tightly, creating a longer path than the white and blue ones, yet I'm mixing the two.

--edit: Come to think of it, everyone has the blue-white pairs, but my blue was never used. Because I never clipped anything on my phone line, and the end of the blue one of my line isn't stripped.

Do you use your phone? If not, get a DSL filter and install it around that mess of a junction. This may isolate it enough to help.

If you use your phone you could probably get away with running DSL on one pair, and phone on the other (just use the filter/splitter to separate them)

What happens if you bring your modem down there and attach it as directly as possible (bypassing the crusty old wire that goes to your apartment)?

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 00:40

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

n0tqu1tesane posted:

My mother-in-law did exactly what you are describing, and ended up having another florescent fixture put in because the cans didn't give her enough light in the kitchen.

LED retrofit kits for cans are really, really bright. They're fairly cheap as well (I found them for $10/ea and bought a bunch)

# ¿ Aug 9, 2015 18:11

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

baquerd posted:

Yeah, then I may only have to turn it off twice...

I know the real solution is probably to move the ceiling mount to the other side of the kitchen or do a full and proper vent hood (I have an exterior venting microwave fan but yeah it sucks). I have tried multiple alarm models, but every one kicks off doing relatively low-temp sautees, never mind real smoking hot sears.

Are heat detectors code where you are? Obviously don't replace your only smoke detector with one...

# ¿ Feb 7, 2016 23:24

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Walked posted:

I want to put outlets on the same circuit as a set of lights controlled by two 3-way switches.

I cant seem to find a good diagram that covers how to do this setup; and I am fairly sure it's very straightforward but I cant find a diagram to confirm.

Power source -> a number of outlets -> lights&switches.

Can anyone assist in a diagram for this? I'm doing this all as rough-in in exposed framing, and will be having an electrician look it over + do the final hookup; but I'd like to do the vast majority of labor and wiring myself (While all the wires aren't live / connected in any way).

Any suggestions? Diagrams? Books I could pick up?

Run two circuits instead, so if you're doing work on the one with the outlets, you don't have to do it in the dark?

# ¿ May 24, 2016 13:29

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

kid sinister posted:

That has to be the worst diagram I've ever seen. How about some labels on the devices?

Indeed. Is that left wire really a 6 conductor wire?

# ¿ Jun 17, 2016 02:12

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

kid sinister posted:

There sure is: get a hotel room or stay at a friend's place. Another option would be to replace your furnace air filter with a really good one before the work happens, then consider it sacrificial. Once all the dust has settled, start cleaning.

I remember that post, kinda. How much of your existing wiring is reusable? Any aluminum that needs replacing?

How many bays do you have in your garage? You may want to plan ahead for electric car chargers in each bay. The fastest chargers take 40 amps each. How handy are you? Will you want to be doing any big 240v work out there, like a welder?

Also, make sure your electrician does all your AFCI and GFCI updates. Those 2 are probably the biggest changes since your wiring was first installed.

40A? The Tesla chargers go up to 100A now (page 6 or 16 here). We're going to be upgrading to 200A service soon (our current panel has some water damage). I've just been planning a 100A subpanel in the garage, because I figure the extra cost is pretty trivial as compared to the cost of getting someone out to do it again in the future.

While I'm thinking of it, are whole house surge protectors generally worth it?

# ¿ Aug 25, 2016 01:13

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

kid sinister posted:

Dang, I haven't been keeping up. That's actually pretty impressive.

Define "worth it". Surge protectors of any type are one of those things where it's nice to have and gives you reassurance, but you'll probably never need it considering the odds. It really comes down to how much your piece of mind is worth to you. That being said, whole house surge protectors are better suited to protecting the bigger things in your house, like appliances. If you get one with the right features, they can protect other surge paths into your home besides the power lines, like your TV/phone/data. I would still get surge protectors near your end devices though to really protect them, especially electronics.

Also, I don't know if they ever fixed it, but surge protectors from over 6 years ago that claimed to protect ethernet cables only protected pairs 2 and 3, while 1 and 4 weren't even connected inside. That means they effectively blocked gigabit ethernet.

Not really sure what I meant by "worth it". I'm still planning what I'm looking for when I upgrade my service... it'll currently be a 200A panel, with a 100A subpanel in the garage. Whole house surge protector seems like it would be a good thing to put in at the same time.

Though, it also looks like it's well within my ability to install later, so maybe paying a pro to do it isn't worth it.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 01:29

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

H110Hawk posted:

Bought NordicPure 20x20x1 Pleated Air Filters [MERV 8] Qty 12 + 3 of those fans. Plaster dust beef jerky here I come. I resisted buying nordicpure intimate personal lubricant and cookies.

Get the 20x20x2 filters next time. More surface area gives you more airflow.

Haven't found them in stores, but if you're already getting them online they're pretty easy to find.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2016 01:12

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I'm dealing with 12ga wires here. The green ones are the only nuts I saw at Home Depot that could combine more than 2 12ga wires in a single nut. EDIT: in retrospect, I should've checked the Pro store for a better selection. Will probably need to go back there soonish anyway, so I can get more nuts then.

Even for a normal Home Depot, I'm surprised that was the only thing you could find. I was able to find this one at my local Lowes with minimal effort.. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ideal-WINGTWIST-Assorted-Red-and-Yellow-Wire-Connectors-150-Pack-30-5152J/202956754

The bigger one in that package goes up to 5 12 gauge wires

# ¿ Oct 7, 2016 00:23

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Medullah posted:

Hi guys -

I'm not a complete newbie, but electrical is an area that I'm a bit sensitive about. I just had vinyl siding put on the house, and in the process of it being done, I decided to have them keep the old janky front light off so I could replace it with one that wasn't created in 1826.

This exposed an issue, however, in that there is no ground wire, or even a freaking junction box. Now, I've been here for about 12 years and never really had a problem with it, but I figure I'd ask.

If I replace the light as is (with the addition of a junction box and some proper caps and insulation), how screwed am I without a ground wire? I'm not jumping to pay an electrician to come out and do rewire work since I just paid a ton for the siding.

Janky wiring -

Are you sure there's not a junction box behind that weird trim piece? You'd have to have some downright ancient wire for there not to be a ground wire at all.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2016 00:38

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

kid sinister posted:

With the lights on the ends, no. With 3 way switching, all methods rely on an incoming hot from one switch going over 2 travelers to the second switch, and the hot going from there to the lights. In other words, you'd need the final hot going between both lights no matter what. That means: put the lights in the middle with the switches on the ends for the fewest number of wires.

Do option 4 here, but with some modification. All light switches now need a neutral wire to that box regardless if they use it, so that run of /3 to the right switch needs to be 2 runs of /2 and the neutral capped off there. Optionally, you could replace either run of double /2 (light-to-light and light-to-switch) with 14/2/2 if you can find it. Don't forget to tape up your neutrals repurposed as hot carriers.

You can do this with home automation stuff too. Buy a couple of these: https://www.amazon.com/Insteon-2466SW-ToggleLinc-INSTEON-Non-Dimming/dp/B003ICY0M6 and you can pair them to each other so that either switch controls both.

They are definitely going to be more expensive then just running a bunch of wiring though.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2016 00:39

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

So, I'm soon going to be getting some estimates for a service upgrade. We have 100A service, but our panel currently has some water damage (AC condensate line broke above it, and water was draining into it for years... previous owners didn't do anything about it).

Even though we have all gas appliances, I'm thinking it makes more sense to go to 150/200A service while we're having the panel swapped. I can see us having some electric car chargers in the future, and it doesn't seem to make sense to just get a 100A panel installed now and have to get all that work duplicated later on to upgrade.

I'm wondering if there's anything I should have done to future proof for a possible future solar install? I'm not really certain solar will happen, but I really hate doing things twice.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2016 01:48

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

kid sinister posted:

Seconding get 200A service for now, and maybe a garage subpanel if you're really going to be doing electric car charger upgrades in the future. The last time I was corrected on it in this thread, Tesla's latest chargers now draw up to 100A. That's one charger by the way, not for all your car bays.

edit: I'm assuming that your panel is in your basement? How hard would it be to run new cables from your roof down to the basement? Do you have an external wall where you wouldn't mind the cables showing, or an empty internal wall where you could potentially run cables all the way from the basement to the attic/roof?

No basement, panels on an exterior wall with the meter on the opposite side.

I guess I should have phrased my question better: Is there anything that I should have installed between the meter and panel that would make a future solar install go easier?

H110Hawk posted:

Get a solar survey done. They're often free. You can get panels now which are "solar ready." Mid sentence here I got a spam telemarketing call trying to sell me solar. I would go to 200A for just the reasons you mentioned, I did with our 1250 sqft house w/ gas appliances.

Nah, solar is definitely a few years out for us at this point. The last thing I need is to show interest and have to deal with the solar companies harassing me even more then they already do.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2016 14:39

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Vinny the Shark posted:

I went outside today to sit on my deck, since it's a relatively nice day for the middle of January. I looked over at the wiring box and noticed the cover was off. I just moved into my new home a few weeks ago, and this is the first time I've really looked at it since getting the place inspected. This is kind of freaking me out, since I don't think wires should be exposed like that, but at the same time it's been like this for God knows how long. The cover didn't fall off on its' own, either- it was deliberately removed. I know this may sound like an idiotic question, but should I be concerned? I reattached it as best I could, but to permanently fix it I would need to really dismantle the sides and rearrange the wires inside. Here's a visual aid. I can supply more if necessary-

That looks like it's coax, right? Do you live in a condo or something? If so, call your cable company and get them to come out and fix it. Those connections are usually outside anyway, so it's not terribly hard to fix. I wouldn't suggest you start disconnecting stuff to rearrange it.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2017 23:52

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

H110Hawk posted:

It's only going to make peoples internet and tv slower/crappier if water gets in to the box. Call your cable company and tell them it looks like the box has been tampered with and could someone come fix it. Good luck trying to explain it to the T1 person on the phone.

Yea, there is no safety issue there. You'd probably have a lot more luck telling the person on the phone there's a line down. That would hopefully get you to the right department.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2017 01:45

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Slugworth posted:

I'm afraid I'm confused then. You're saying if I have a hot/neutral pair coming from the panel to my first outlet, I *can* then use the second set of screws to feed the next outlet in line, right? That's how I've always seen it done.

But that seems to be contraindicated by the bit of code being referenced a few posts up - Or am I misreading the code? By removing the first outlet, I would be breaking the continuity of the second outlet's grounded conductor (neutral).

Multiwire branch circuits are a special thing, they are when two separate circuits share a neutral. They are not your average circuit (which has multiple wires, but is not 'multiwire').

# ¿ Feb 5, 2017 20:51

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

signalnoise posted:

I need to run ethernet cable from my server closet, which is located low and centrally in my house, to my front porch, above my garage door, and back porch. This is for cameras. I had contractors run cable to 13 locations in my house already, so there's kind of a conduit running out of the closet up through another closet and then into the attic.

I have never set foot in my attic. My understanding is that it is essentially an elevated crawlspace. But, those contractors I used are not available because they are highly sought after in my area, and everyone else is going to charge me a fuckload for this. So I'm doing it myself because then I can have the job done, get some experience, and own whatever equipment I'm going to need for less than the price of a contractor.

So what tools will come in handy other than a cable snake/wire puller and a power drill? Do I really need anything else? This is going to use power-over-ethernet injectors in the server closet, so I am really just running the ethernet and nothing else. I have crimpers and RJ-45s and all that, but what should I think about doing/getting before I begin, to make this easier?

Some type of cable anchor would be helpful (I have a cable staplegun which is handy, but probably overkill for just a few cables). Fiberglass fish rods can be handy as well, but you can probably just get by with fish tape.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2017 00:27

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

kid sinister posted:

That's either cellulose or fiberglass. If it's fiberglass, it will be itchy on your skin. Maybe try a handful of that stuff on your bare arm first before you go working up there. It will help you decide on how much to cover up while you're up there. Also, it's starting to get warm again, so you may want to do your attic work early in the morning or wait for a cloudy day.

I just had to dig through an attic to fix a hot-ground short. It was blown in pink fiberglass. It was hell. Then I managed to inhale a tiny piece... gently caress fiberglass.

Those sticky lint rollers work pretty well for pulling it out of your skin.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2017 19:34

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

kid sinister posted:

Really??? I'll have to remember that trick. I wonder if the old trick I used in college would work. I was too broke to buy a lint roller and just used a short length of duct tape.

Yea, I never remember to cover up when I go into the attic.. Lint roller fixes it pretty well. Duct tape might remove some arm hair though!

# ¿ Mar 25, 2017 21:52

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

H110Hawk posted:

And an ethernet jack for your IoT oven. (Don't put an ethernet jack.)

All IOT things are wireless... because inputting a SSID and password is so much fun on something that has controls designed to be an oven.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 00:12

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Scrapez posted:

Here. This is a box where the lean to feeder enters the barn. From the box it routes to the barn panel.

WTF.

That neutral that's connected at one end, but not the other is terrifying.

I don't think you're supposed to have a bonded neutral + ground in a sub-panel either.

How is any of this going to work with two hots and a "ground"?

# ¿ Jul 5, 2017 23:42

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Scrapez posted:

Here are all the panels I'm aware of on the property...

Green box has padlock on it and I assume is power company property. You can see feed coming into house.

What's that greenish box to the left of your meter (on the wall)? That almost looks like electrical cable coming out of it.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2017 00:25

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Hubis posted:

If you are able to run the wired Ethernet backhaul for your access points, a Ubiquiti setup with a PoE switch would be awesome (that's what I've been mapping out). The price and config work is not for the faint of heart, though.

The hardest part of the setup is getting the controller installed.. which requires like basic Linux knowledge (or you can just buy their cloud key thing).

I'd definitely recommend it, it's really hard to beat for the price point.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2017 23:52

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Baronjutter posted:

So I just moved into a new apartment. It's a 1930's building, plaster and lath walls. There's a fairly modern breaker box in the basement and individual meters and such, but in the closet of every unit is an old fuse box with 4 fuses in it. The big problem with the unit, and we've only noticed since we moved in, is there every room only has 1 outlet (3 prong at least thank god) at the maximum, and no hallways, the bathroom, or the kitchen have any outlets. There's nowhere to plug in the toaster or kettle in the kitchen, there's no place in the bathroom to plug in a shaver or a blow drier. There isn't even an outlet near by because there's nothing in any hallway.

Obviously we wouldn't do it our selves, but how difficult would it be to add another outlet or two? The actual switch for the bathroom light is actually IN the backroom which seems rare for buildings of this era, a little outlet under it for a blow drier would be a godsend. Similarly an outlet along any of the kitchen counters would be great too, there's a whole 2nd counter far away from the sink that would probably be ideal for a small kitchen appliance zone.

Is this something I could ask my landlord to do and pay for? I'm curious what sort of general price range it would be to get an electrician in to do so, or if it would be some massive nightmare that would need the whole unit's service upgraded or something crazy.

Those three prong outlets... I'd be fairly surprised if they were actually grounded.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2017 02:27

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Doctor Butts posted:

The bigger white wire is something I wired up. The other stuff is... scary.

I think it was an attempt to ground but man I have no loving idea how to fix this poo poo.

Looks like you have some ancient knob and tube that someone has spliced slightly less ancient cloth covered wire into. The real fix would be replacing that wire that goes off to the right, and putting in a real function box there.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2017 23:39

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Mimesweeper posted:

Yeah, hang out in a Home Depot and ask anyone in the electrical aisle if they have some scrap #12 solid since you only need a bit, most places won't sell that little but I always have a bunch of wire in my truck and I'd be happy to help someone out with a little piece.

I seem to recall Lowes selling it by the foot. Not that it's terribly cost effective, but if you can get a couple feet of 12-3 for $2, then no big deal. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Romex-SIMpull-12-3-Indoor-Non-Metallic-Jacket-Wire-By-the-Foot/4285589

# ¿ Oct 30, 2017 03:20

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Helvetica Sucks posted:

Weird problem I've been trying to figure out: moisture in my electrical panel. When it rains or when it's especially moist outside, one side of of breakers in the panel have moisture between the breakers. I've confirmed that water is not entering through the service entrance; it just appears to be moisture buildup from condensation. This is in a basement which is technically conditioned space but does get humid. Moisture buildup is worse in the fall and winter.

This is a Cutler Hammer panel with a copper bus bar so I'm not too concerned about bus bar corrosion, but there is some rust buildup at the bottom of the panel and some rust staining on the breakers themselves. Can there be enough residual heat from the breakers to cause moisture if the ambient air temperature is cool enough? And can moisture degrade the breaker internals to prevent the breaker from tripping?

In any case, looks like it's time for a new dehumidifer.

Is it cold air coming in through the service entrance, and condensing on the slightly warm breakers?

# ¿ Nov 8, 2017 14:50

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Boris Galerkin posted:

Hey guys, in my utility closet I have a coaxial cable that comes from a splitter and is piped into a pvc/plastic conduit labeled "living room" so I assume that this is the coaxial cable that terminates near the TV area. Thing is I don't have cable so this cable is kind of useless, so I was thinking about replacing it with a CAT6 cable so that I can hardwire the TV/Roku/etc.

So what I was thinking of doing is disconnecting the coaxial cable from the splitter in the closet, taping one end of a CAT6 cable to it, and then in the living room I'd take off the face plate and just pull on the coaxial cable until it comes out with my Ethernet cable. On that end I'd just change the face plates or whatever to have a female end to plug things into, and in the closet it would connect directly to my switch.

Is this a terrible idea and if so why? Is this something that's safe to do? This seems like a really easy way to hardwire my apartment and should be easy to put back to normal when I move out.

If the pipe has room in it, I'd just run CAT5e along side it (you have zero reason to use CAT6 here, it's completely unnecessary).

Easiest way to do this is to tie a plastic bag to a string, shove it into the pipe. Go the other end and put a vaccuum cleaner on it. You should end up with the bag pulled through very quickly (assuming it's conduit the whole way).

Then just attach your new wire to the string, and pull it through.

They also make ethernet over coax adapters.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2017 21:38

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

ElCondemn posted:

You should go for cat6a or cat7 if you can, there's no reason to use a standard that's been superseded and at it's limit technically.

Except it's an apartment so this isn't going to be there forever.. 5e is easier to work with, and there is no consumer level gear that does anything above 1gbit right now. Anything better then 5e is pointless expense.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2017 23:46

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

That's a fair point, but I still have gripes about the layout in this house.

Tangentially related: is there any particular reason not to put an exterior electrical outlet on the front of the house? With a covered-when-in-use cover, of course, and probably a lock so people can't mooch electricity (not that I think that's especially likely). It'd be handy for my corded weedwhacker, Christmas lights, and other similar stuff that currently I have to run an extension cord through the garage door for.

Put one up under the eaves too. Not having to deal with running extension cords makes hanging christmas lights way less of a project.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2017 01:36

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Boris Galerkin posted:

I�m trying to push a nylon cable through the conduit where my coax cable is running and the fish is getting stuck somewhere. The metal end of it is hitting something hard (can�t tell if it�s wood, metal, or plastic though) and the sound sounds like it�s coming from somewhere relatively close to the outlet I�m starting at, but that could just be acoustics.

Anyway is it possible (ie, legal?) that there would be some kind of junction hidden inside my walls for this that the fish is hitting? Does it make any sense that the cable installer would have �gaps� in the flexible plastic conduit, letting the fishing wire exit and just hitting a random stud/wall?

There aren't a ton of rules around low voltage wiring, so weird things like conduit suddenly ending are entirely possible. USB inspection cameras are pretty cheap, and might give you a batter idea of what you're actually dealing with there.

Even if you ended up leaving the conduit, I'd expect your fish tape to just follow the wall or stud it ended up hitting.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2018 14:44

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

So my neighbors house burned down last week... part of that process involved their service drop catching fire, arcing, and falling to the ground.

The next day, we had two electric blankets go into a weird error state, and my UPS briefly switched into battery mode.

That was a few days ago, today my UPS logs say we had two brief outages (a few seconds each).

Is this anything I should be calling the power company about? The neighbors house was not really near any electrical infrastructure (everything's on the other side of the street). Is one service arcing and falling to the ground enough to damage other things?

We got a weird call from the power company today asking if the outage we were having was resolved.. I suspect that was because they were dispatched to my address during the fire to pull the meter/deal with the downed line.

My multimeter is being really flaky right now, but my UPS is showing 125V from the wall.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2018 03:43

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

angryrobots posted:

What do you mean by the multimeter is being flaky?

One lead in the outlet, one lead in the air: 2V

babyeatingpsychopath posted:

Your house and your neighbor's house were probably on the same transformer. When the power company disconnected the burned wires, you may have momentarily lost a neutral or a phase or something, causing your blankets and UPS to think something was odd.

Maybe, but apparently we lost power a couple times last night, which is 5 days later.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2018 04:45

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

devicenull posted:

So my neighbors house burned down last week... part of that process involved their service drop catching fire, arcing, and falling to the ground.

The next day, we had two electric blankets go into a weird error state, and my UPS briefly switched into battery mode.

That was a few days ago, today my UPS logs say we had two brief outages (a few seconds each).

Is this anything I should be calling the power company about? The neighbors house was not really near any electrical infrastructure (everything's on the other side of the street). Is one service arcing and falling to the ground enough to damage other things?

We got a weird call from the power company today asking if the outage we were having was resolved.. I suspect that was because they were dispatched to my address during the fire to pull the meter/deal with the downed line.

My multimeter is being really flaky right now, but my UPS is showing 125V from the wall.

So, the power company came out and did something... and we haven't had problems since (only been 4 days though). They sent me a text saying it was fixed though.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2018 02:50

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Tomarse posted:

Looks like i'm right. Looked at my consumer unit today and found 2 large earth cables leaving it.

One goes outside and I tried to follow it but I lost it in behind some roof felting (my house has a single storey extension on one side). I dug out the back garden of this house and laid a patio around 7-8 years ago and I'm sure there was an earth rod for the house (with earth cable connected) which I uncovered and then buried under some gravel.

I'm pretty sure that should have been in soil.. not gravel. I don't think rocks are very conductive.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2018 01:53

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

minivanmegafun posted:

Fun US fact: there�s a not insignificant number of people suing their power companies for installing cellular networked digital meters because brain damage due to radio waves

My power company seems to not fight that... when I called up to get the meter replaced (because I wanted one of the networked ones, though I didn't tell them that), they explicitly asked if I'd be ok with a smart meter. Presumably they would have installed an old analog one if I said no.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2018 01:31

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

So I need a weird (combination of?) connector. We're making a lamp out of black pipe and fittings.. basically this.

So at the bottom I've got a cut off extension cord coming out. I'm trying to find a fitting that will fit into a 1" tee, and provide strain relief and a way of connecting the ground (those instructions don't mention it, but I think that guy's an idiot for not grounding a lamp made entirely of metal). Any suggestions?

# ¿ Feb 6, 2018 02:46

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 16:45

devicenull: May 30, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Motronic posted:

And if something bad does come up later (high resistance, under torqued, etc) the worst you should suffer is letting some smoke out/breaker trip/needing a new breaker. It's all gonna be contained in the panel.

But chances are very high you done fine.

I had fun swapping a breaker once.. turned off the main to change it out. Turned the main back on, and only half the house came back.

That was a fun call to the power company to get them to pull the meter so I could swap the main breaker.

Turns out linemen are willing to pull the meter and hang around a few minutes if you shovel a path through the snow to the meter.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2018 01:13

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Wiring Thread: This stupid safety device started alerting that there wasn't safety!

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