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nwin posted:I installed this switch in my bathroom maybe 3 weeks ago and tonight it seems like it failed. I tested the wires and they’re still hot. No breaker is tripped because the outlets in the bathroom still work. Not a gfci issue. I have the same switch. Installed it about six weeks ago and mine failed, too. Yesterday. Report it to home depot. May be a recall! Maybe we can get our money back or something.
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Dec 4, 2023 03:44
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Teabag Dome Scandal posted:
Teabag Dome Scandal posted:
If there's enough room to slide the dishwasher back, surface-mount metal box with a Romex connector. If there's not, use a cut-in box with integral clamp and be 100% done with the whole thing. No requirement for a GFCI here, but it is not atypical to have this circuit be fed by an accessible GFCI outlet upstream.
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Dec 16, 2023 17:12
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Shifty Pony posted:Counterpoint: after closing but before move in is the ideal time to do a service and panel upgrade because it won't disrupt your life any to be without power. If you do get a service upgrade, you should only be without power for half a day. Usually, the new service is built while the old one is energized and once inspected and approved, the swap is done. PoCo pulls the meter and fuses, does the swap, and re-energizes all with the same crew at the same time. If your house shares a transformer with some neighbors, chat with them about getting service upgrades at the same time. The process takes longer, but the PoCo is MUCH more willing to do 2-5 houses at once than 1.
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Dec 23, 2023 15:31
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Main thing is that I think I'd want to do the panel upgrade and the buried line at the same time, but I don't want to bury the line until I know what permanent structures I'd want to build in the lot...unless I can convince the poco to run the wire around the perimeter of the lot or something. But yes, before move-in is the ideal time to do major work on the place. If you want to do the trench yourself and have them lay the cable in, that's also fine. You wanna run around the perimeter? No worries; they'll charge you for the cable used. The burial depth rules specify the MINIMUM cover (the shallowest your trench can be), so everyone goes that depth because digging sucks. But there's nothing stopping you from putting your cable as deep as you want so that any structure you build won't hit it unless you need L-shaped foundations. Normal burial depth is 24", but if you're digging the trench and your trencher goes down to 48", go hog wild. As far as the panel upgrade and service upgrade, it makes sense to do it at the same time, but that's not required. A panel upgrade follows basically the same path. The new panel is installed and any new circuits are run and the whole thing is set up to be swapped somewhat rapidly. It's inspected and approved, then the PoCo pulls the meter. The electricians do the swap, it's inspected, and then the PoCo puts the meter back in. If your electricians are any good and can get their scheduling correct, this all happens same-day (meter first AM, inspection by lunch, meter reinstall afternoon); frequently, it's a two- or three-day process (meter pull and the swap, inspection next day, reconnect day after). Again, if the scheduling all lines up, the PoCo could be doing their service outage and the electricians can do the panel swap and get the inspection all on one day, but there's nothing saying these processes can't happen at different times. The meter-pulling folks at the PoCo are typically not the ones doing service upgrades, so they may not even be the same crew. tl,dr: of the previous paragraph: Can do them both at once, but that's not required.
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Dec 23, 2023 15:58
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Federal Pioneer is not immediately scary. Federal Pacific Electric is the danger one.
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Dec 26, 2023 19:06
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H110Hawk posted:You could also convert the 1 gang to a 2 gang box and just gfci the second one as protection for the downstream stuff and don't gfi the fridge. Or put a standalone gfi in its own box somewhere. This is the best plan. Any of these options.
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Jan 2, 2024 02:20
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LimaBiker posted:The philosophy here is that there need to be multiple failure points before it gets dangerous. For instance: before we had a gfci for our washing machine (located in the bathroom) it suffered from a burning out motor or heating element. It smelled like hell, and because apparently the grounding had failed, there now was voltage on the metal bits and my mother got shocked. She was fine but it scared her a lot. So the thing in your panel you're calling a "GFCI" is probably an RCD. GFCIs are designed to prevent damage to humans by tripping at <6mA of current imbalance. RCDs detect residual current leakage and have trip ratings from 30-300mA. In the US, those would be called GFPE. GFPEs are required in the US for any 1000A or greater service (in general). The US doesn't really need RCDs because we don't run ring mains and the code to have really robust grounding has been in effect for long enough that the grounding and bonding of our electrical equipment is sufficient to trip the breaker if a fault condition occurs. The fact that most electrical equipment has one live conductor and one intentionally grounded conductor (the neutral) PLUS an additional BACKUP grounding conductor means that case-energizing faults are more than normally difficult. Even on 240V equipment, it is exceptionally rare to have something installed within the last couple of decades that doesn't have a very good ground connection, plus probably the neutral wire in the plug. That said, GFPEs at 30-100mA are common for some pieces of equipment: water heaters (in some places), sump pumps, and other things that have electricity and water only barely separated, but aren't human-facing.
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Jan 3, 2024 01:51
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LimaBiker posted:There are many names for them. Aardlekschakelaar, differentieel etc etc. Not.to be confused with an aardwachter, which only measures leakage but doesn't interrupt. That's what you might find in industrial settings here. When you say "here," where do you mean? What is your standard plug? For most appliances, is one terminal of that plug deliberately earth-referenced within the building?
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Jan 3, 2024 02:37
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FISHMANPET posted:I'm curious what kind of torque screwdrivers professional electricians would carry around. The EVSE I'm getting says that the wires should be torqued to 1.2 Newton-Meters, which comes out to about 10 inch-pounds. I also for the heck of it looked what the torque rating is on a QO breaker, and that was 50 inch-pounds. I found a torque screwdriver at Home Depot that does 8-40 inch-pounds, and another at Menards that does 10-80 inch-pounds. First of all, 1.2 Newton-Meters seems like an absurdly low torque value. But I'm wondering what kind of torque range a pro would keep in their toolbox. I'm guessing that the torque needed on the service cables is higher than either of those tools can provide, so there probably isn't a "one size fits all" tool that they can use in all cases. Professional electricians don't carry torque screwdrivers. They have digital 1/4"-drive torque adapters. But mostly, they get the "this is 50in-lbs" single-setting torque screwdrivers from the supply house and throw them away when they're busted. Same with the 1.2N*m. Just get a single-value from the supply house and throw it away when it's junk. The point of these torque values is to say "DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN" with some specific numbers on. If you say "10 in-lb" then a good electrician knows that's just past finger tight. 50 in-lb is snug. 20ft-lb is really tight. Anything that actually requires real "you're gonna need a torque wrench" torque will have big warnings on it or a tech bulletin or something. I can't find any of the screwdrivers now. They're really cheap (like $3 each) and have a flimsy plastic shank that deflects when you hit torque. Everyone had one so when the inspector showed up, you could say "yeah, I used this" even if it were obvious it had never seen a screw.
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Jan 9, 2024 00:50
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Shifty Pony posted:I've only ever seen torque screwdrivers consistently used when I was working in a semiconductor fabrication plant. I used a torque screwdriver on every fastener for helicopter rotor tip caps. You're spinning a titanium screw into an aluminum block to fasten a piece of stainless steel. Get ANY of the forces wrong and you gall threads, create corrosion, and the tip cap comes flying off (in flight). I also used a torque wrench for every fastener on the gearbox-mounted generator, since a new gearbox flange cost more than every car and house I'd ever lived in, and I was terrified of breaking off a stud or bolt or nut. So by the time I got to do electrical work for residential and commercial, I had a pretty solid lock on what N inch-pounds was, where N was between 10 and 150. Then I got to work in a place with a ton of antennas that were SMA and there was a big thing that said "DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN" on the front panel. I was there to replace the unit because someone had used a wrench on the connectors and broken them all. Included in the box was a 3.5in-lb torque wrench. 3.5 in-lb is light enough that you could absolutely damage a connector hand-tightening it with your fingers if you had a strong grip.
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Jan 9, 2024 01:09
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right arm posted:wired the 50 amp inlet (in the dark lol) for my generator so that my wife doesn’t have to run extension cords this weekend while it’s 2° and the power inevitably goes out lol Yeah. Generac guys came out to replace one of my powerlink modules. Said everything was good to go. Power was out for 10 hours yesterday and the battery didn't kick in. Wife called Generac. "Your system isn't on the internet, we can't do anything." Yeah, guys. We know. The cell phone towers only have power for four hours after an outage. We're calling you on 1g voice-only because that saves battery.... I shouldn't have gone with Generac. Shifty Pony posted:And buttoned up for the future: Write the circuit number on top, too. SUPER helpful later. For DMM, anything autoranging at a big-box store is better than HF. I have an Ideal and a Greenlee, as well as a Fluke, and a cubic foot of HF meters (half digital, half moving-coil). The HF meters are sprinkled everywhere in vehicles, garage, etc, kinda like lighters. If you find one and it works, bonus. If not, no loss. I know exactly where the Fluke and Ideal are. Greenlee stays in the tool pouch. I'm 80% sure the Greenlee and Ideal product lines are made in the same factory and wear different colored plastic skins. babyeatingpsychopath fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jan 12, 2024 |
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Jan 12, 2024 22:55
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H110Hawk posted:What a loving joke. This is why I ostensibly want my system not to have internet access. "Oh, no, I don't have wifi at my house. Sorry." Is there literally no local troubleshooting they could walk you through? My wife was checking settings and stuff on the inverters and the guy just couldn't work out how to get to where he needed to be in his script without checking the settings himself in his little app onscreen. Fundamental inability for the tech support guy to actually know what's going on instead of following the script.
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Jan 13, 2024 01:33
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The reason I went with Generac is because I worked with their industrial power stuff and it was ROCK SOLID and had amazing customer support and technical help. I think the consumer division of Generac is a completely separate company wearing the skin as a suit.
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Jan 13, 2024 12:28
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Faustian Bargain posted:hello, i’m back with more questions! Hole in the drywall for the cable clamp is fine. NEC 404.14 posted:(A) Alternating-Current General-Use Snap Switch. A form of general-use snap switch suitable only for use on ac circuits for controlling the following: So, you're fine with putting a 15A switch as long as your load is considered inductive or resistive and less than 15A, and just plain fine as long as your load is <7A otherwise. IF you kept the plugs and outlets, then you'd be REQUIRED to have a 20A switch!
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Jan 13, 2024 18:58
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right arm posted:just get an extension cord for the furnace to run to the gen. you can probably fit it under the weatherstripping for the door. I ran mine through my cat door as a test before I wired my interlock and inlet since I wasn’t sure if my ng meter would feed both my 13000w gen and my furnace This is precisely what I was going to recommend.
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Jan 18, 2024 23:48
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Extant Artiodactyl posted:new england, we use external cutoffs above the furnace that go at 165 degrees I have never seen a setup like this before. It's always interesting learning new things about how localities make everything far more complicated than strictly necessary. Once again proving that the code is a minimum to be added to, not a target to try to achieve.
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Jan 20, 2024 00:20
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:
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Feb 7, 2024 01:39
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That looks completely amazing. Well done. The marks on all the home runs and the cable markers are  .Cut all the cable ties off in six months after the cables have formed to their own shape.
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Feb 19, 2024 01:35
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H110Hawk posted:Have a laptop with a video camera? Setup your meter on a zoom call. Join it from your phone. Unplug things and watch it go until it auto shuts off and you have to go turn the meter back on. This is brilliant. Shifty Pony posted:Also you might want to check the water main coming in to make sure the previous owner didn't install some stupid magic "treatment" device that is applying current to the water. This is something so crazy I never would have thought of it.
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Feb 22, 2024 21:59
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KKKLIP ART posted:I am not sure if this is quite the right place to ask this question but since it deals with electricity and I don’t want to burn my place down, here it goes: Those are legit. I use USB-rechargeable AAA batteries, but if you want to put a cord in there, something like that works fine. The Electronics Thread might also have some other options. The easiest solution (and 100% not recommended, but I've done it before) is just cut the end off of a USB charge-only cable and attach red and black to + and - inside the case and be done with it.
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Mar 3, 2024 17:00
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Hungry Squirrel posted:I just replaced my ceiling fan. It has a globe light fixture. I want to use a smart bulb but I can't find a smart bulb that is both rated for enclosed fixtures and the right size to fit through the opening in the globe, but not a candelabra shape/base. I have a replacement light kit that I got second-hand but the connectors are different. Post the wiring of the existing fixture on the lighting side. You're going to be connecting the black and white wires of your new kit to exactly two of the wires you see there and putting wire nuts on the other two. Just can't tell which for certain from the current pictures.
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Mar 3, 2024 17:20
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Looks like the on/off switch with speed control for the fan is down there in the light unit. That's annoying.
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Mar 3, 2024 17:27
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H110Hawk posted:That is super fun. Yup. NEC posted:300.3 (B) Conductors of the Same Circuit. All conductors of the same circuit and, where used, the grounded conductor and all equipment grounding conductors and bonding conductors shall be contained within the same raceway, auxiliary gutter, cable tray, cablebus assembly, trench, cable, or cord, unless otherwise permitted.... Having two phases in one pipe and one phase in the other meant that the pipes themselves had significant induced current, especially at the ends.
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Mar 10, 2024 00:35
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I'll freely admit that a nontrivial portion of the motivation here is a basically-irrational desire to have the best network connection possible. Gotta get my ping down for all those competitive videogames I don't play! I presume the requirement for raceway is for looks? Because just running the cable tucked into the corner of the ceiling and using a cable color that's reasonably close to the paint color is fine. There's no code requirements for ethernet because it's low-voltage. So there's nothing REQUIRING conduit/raceway/literally anything at all.
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Mar 12, 2024 00:11
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Been having a bunch of equipment installed at work. Reinstalled, actually. We had some equipment that we were using, then took it out, and now are putting it back. The people who demo'd it out, took out the wire from the disconnect to the unit. No worries. Well, some worries. Because they only pulled out the neutrals and grounds, and left all the phases. SO the electricians come to wire it up, and think to themselves "hey, there's no ground here, better run one." So they run one from the disconnect. The equipment is cord-and-plug connected, and the cord is 5w (3ph + neutral + gnd). Anyway, we get the thing hooked up and turn it on and the panel lights are going crazy. The neutral is ONLY for some indicator lights on the panel, which are now floating between 208 and 0V depending on ?????. We shut it off, figure out that that tiny tiny tiny lug is for neutral, and everything's good. Just very confusing. It's a 200A 3phase 5w cord with big 1/4" lugs for the phases and ground yet a #6 lug for the neutral. Engineers figured it's only 200mA max on the lights, no need for a full-size lug for all of that. Ok guys, then how are we supposed to land the #0 wire that comes in the premade cord? Split bolts, apparently. Other fun thing was the attached picture. A new piece of equipment was shipped with the motor incoming power leads all landed on the shorting bar instead of on, like, the incoming phase lugs. This made the motor starter unhappy.
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Mar 15, 2024 00:03
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I have seen lugs listed with crazy wire ranges. like: 10-19 #18 6-16 #16 6-14 #14 4-10 #12 2-8 #10 1-4 #8 1-4 #6 1-2 #4 1 #2 1 #1 1 #0 1 #00 Not for sale recently, though. Pretty sure they were Westinghouse lugs.
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Apr 15, 2024 22:15
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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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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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