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The resistance will depend on the number of windings (which determines the voltage) and the thickness of the wire used for that winding (which determines the amount of current that winding can supply), so you can't really depend on that for any sort of info. You SHOULD see voltage across the blue wires when it is on, and voltage across the green wires, also voltage across the orange/brown wires. If you don't, you may have an issue.
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Apr 11, 2013 22:49
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The low voltage winding is PROBABLY for the filaments/cathode in the vacuum fluorescent display I see on the front panel of that thing. The center tap is likely grounded, the two orange wires running to the ends of the filament. Normally filaments on VFDs take around 1 volt but they're almost always run by a center tapped low voltage transformer winding, so I'm not sure what other winding would be used for it.
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Apr 12, 2013 03:00
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A quick once-over on wire colors: bare or green/yellow: ALWAYS ground. Do not use for anything else ever. white: ALWAYS neutral. If used as a hot, must be recolored as already discussed. blue: neutral in EU standard. An acceptable color for hot in the US... brown: hot in EU standard. An acceptable color for hot also in the US. Anything else: hot. Avoid using light grey as it is close enough to white to be confusing. Generally red will be a second hot, smoke alarm trip signal, a traveler in 3+ way light switch setups, or in some cases, a switched hot. I don't like the last one really, but I believe it's to code and parts of my house had that setup when I bought it. Blue, red, brown, yellow, orange (iirc) all have special meanings in 3 phase power distribution as color codes for specific hot phases, but in 120/240 are fair game. Personally, when I recolor a wire, I do it all the way from the end back to the cable sheath.
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Apr 20, 2013 04:23
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Sounds right to me - clarification, if it doesn't spin properly, swap the two green wires. Or swap the two red wires. Don't swap both though because you'll simply make it not spin properly again.
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Apr 21, 2013 06:35
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There is one in the Newark area too, when I was working down there we used to get everything next-day even with economy shipping and occasionally if we ordered early enough in the day it'd show up same-day with economy shipping. Was pretty nice.
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Apr 22, 2013 20:47
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You know what's fun? When some idiot runs those cables across a road on campus when doing a concert setup, uses proper protective ramps/stuff, but crosses the cables. And then a bus drives across it in just the wrong spot. That was a hell of a bang when the insulation crushed to the point that two phases shorted together  blew up around 3 feet of cable. IIRC it's still hanging on the wall in the A/V club's office as a warning to newbies.
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May 5, 2013 14:09
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The problem is, P=VI. To get the same amount of power to a low voltage light, you need a thicker wire to handle more current. On the other hand, lower voltage means less hazard, so the manufacturers can use less bulky wiring/track insulation that (on some 12 volt systems I've seen, anyways) can even be bare, open wires, which can add to the appearance of the lighting system instead of having to try and hide it. So thicker wires may not be that big a deal, I've seen ones that looked really great even though (because?) they were made from 3/16" brass rods as conductors.
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May 14, 2013 18:44
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ShadowStalker posted:Do you have an attic, unfinished basement, or crawl space for easy access? Agreed. Hell, if you have a basement or attic above/below every room you need it in, I would literally fly to you and do it for half that with all materials included. That's a ridiculously high price unless it's a masonry house and/or has absolutely no above/below access to the rooms from an unfinished space.
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May 16, 2013 20:49
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I'm in Mass, not that far away. I was mostly making a point, not offering, as I'm not a licensed electrician (not sure you need a license for ethernet/catv... the cable company installers certainly don't, though they do a horrible job of butchering houses with drills generally) but post up pics of the general areas you'd need to put drops in and I'd be more than happy to either walk you through doing it or whatever. Hell, there may be an actual licensed electrician local to DC in this thread. I could swear there are at least a few guys from Virginia who post here regularly.
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May 16, 2013 21:44
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Yeah, that's for sure. I give out quotes like that for stuff I really don't want to do, like crawling around in crawlspaces full of mold for wiring/insulation, doing a transmission in a FWD car, or significant rust repair on unibody vehicles. And once in a while someone actually accepts it.
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May 17, 2013 16:52
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 When was the house built? Are you sure there isn't a third switch for that light somewhere? Can you post pics of the original switches? How many terminals does each have, not counting the green ground? Where's the ground bonding wire for each switch? Please tell me there were wire nuts on those ground junctions, though based on the uncapped wire stuffed into the back of the box I fear there weren't. Something very hosed up is going on in this wiring and I don't trust the person who originally did it.
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May 19, 2013 16:46
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The whole "connect both the travelers together" thing makes me think that the occupancy sensor device is not compatible with 3 way systems and so they just tell you to disable the 3 way by doing that. Connecting both travelers together will make the other 3 way switch do absolutely nothing.
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May 19, 2013 18:46
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Wrap a bit of leather around it so you can grab it without cutting yourself. If you don't feel like doing that, stick a potato on it and turn it. I recommend not eating the glassified potato.
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May 20, 2013 06:12
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The Gardenator posted:I am planning on running new wiring through my home that I just bought. I also have a lot of 12/3 romex on hand. Code wise, can I use this wiring to wire regular 110volt 20amp outlets and cut off or cap the unused red wire? I googled this and every link is giving me information on multi-wire branch circuits, which is what I do not want to mess with. That's fine... do yourself and future owners a favor and just cap it off instead of cutting it. It might come in handy sometime (for instance, if you want to break off the jumper tab on the hot side of the outlet and feed the second outlet as a switched-power one for a floor lamp.)
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May 23, 2013 01:04
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I would run it in a conduit, 1/2" conduit is really cheap (around 2-3 bucks for 10 feet, IIRC) and it'll make it easier to change things in the future. I am not sure what NEC says, though.
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May 25, 2013 01:24
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Careful with the popcorn, depending on how old it is it may have asbestos in it. I hate to bring it up but better safe than sorry. Hell, if it were me I'd probably rip the entire ceiling out, drywall is like 8 bucks a 4x8 and you can do whatever wiring and stuff you need with ease. I'd rather spend the 50 bucks on a couple walls and ceilings worth of drywall and a few hours with a putty knife than screw around trying to patch and cover up demolition damage and previous owner hackjobs/water damage etc.
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May 29, 2013 06:11
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Yep. When working alone on ceiling sheetrock in small rooms I like to just lean a 2x4 against the opposite wall with the end about 2-3" below the level where the sheetrock will end up. Lift that end of the sheet up and get it sitting on the 2x4, then carefully lift and finagle the other end into perfect position, stuff a couple screws in it, then work my way toward the 2x4 and remove it. You come up with some pretty strange techniques for getting 2-3 person jobs done with only two hands when you remodel a house alone.
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Jun 1, 2013 00:53
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Are both breakers the same rating? I'm guessing the one that is tripping is a 15 amp and the one that isn't is a 20 amp, or something like that.
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Jun 8, 2013 18:22
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basically... good loving luck. The nylon does not carry a signal, it's used as the filler for the conductor to make it more flexible and stronger in tension so it takes longer to metal fatigue the conductors. It also makes it pure hell to solder that wire. I usually throw em out and buy another pair.
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Jun 11, 2013 06:25
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Thirding. That sure looks like SJOOW to me, and it is NOT designed to be suspended overhead, especially without a steel support cable. Someone did that without knowing what they were doing and somehow your home inspector did not catch it. Things I see that are worrying: Cable feeding the whole thing from the house end comes through some siding. No idea what things look like behind that, hopefully OK. Cable is definitely SJO/SJOOW. Not only that, knots have been used to keep the cable from sliding through the ceramic knobs. Both of these are way into "burn your poo poo down" territory. I'm not sure what is with that weatherhead or whatever on the garage end, but it may be to code. Really the answer is to put it underground properly. But there's probably a way to do overhead without breaking any laws of common sense or building codes as the previous owner did.
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Jun 24, 2013 13:13
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That's a common misconception, actually. Water conducts well enough to give you a lethal shock, but that only takes a few tens of milliamps, literally a thousand times less than it takes to trip even small branch circuit breakers. Wires half an inch apart and dunked straight into a bucket of salt water might not even trip the breaker. They'd fry you in a second though.
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Jun 24, 2013 16:30
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It should definitely free spin at least a couple times before stopping, the more the better.
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Jul 1, 2013 17:41
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Sure looks like what's known as "knob and tube" for the single wires. That's natural rubber insulation under cloth weave, which holds the rubber on and protects it from abrasion. Unless both wires go into a metal cladding, which is metal clad/BX cable.
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Jul 4, 2013 21:09
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Typically I've seen rigid metallic conduit run through the walls with a plastic bushing threaded onto each end to protect the cables. Red fire cement/firestop putty or whatever filling around the conduit, with something or other (don't know exactly what) stuffed in around the wires inside the conduit to keep fire from spreading through it.
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Jul 9, 2013 00:58
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I'd recommend taping or painting/sharpie-ing it black (or literally any color other than white, grey, or green.) No reason not to do it right when it's that easy.
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Jul 16, 2013 04:12
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Dumb question that I really should answer by getting a modern codebook. My copy is from 93 and very outdated. I am installing an auto transfer switch and a new main panel. What I have: 100A Generac ATS 100A Square D QO panel It's all HOPEFULLY going in the same corner of the basement the original, badly corroded, gunked up, lovely, undersized panel from the 80s was installed in. That being said, I'm worried about: workspace/free area around panel(s) ATS grounding/panel grounding/where I bond the neutral and ground (main panel? ATS?) height from ground lighting panel loading (I haven't rewired the rest of the house yet, so I'm going to have to figure this out later.) Basically I have a right angle inside corner, with a 2x4 foot section of 3/4" plywood screwed vertically to furring strips on each wall, AKA I have a total of 4x4 feet of plywood. Some of it is too far into the corner to be useful except for stapling cable to obviously. The ATS is 15" wide, 20" tall, and 7.5" deep. The breaker panel is 16" wide, 27.5" tall, and 4.5" deep. What are the work area requirements for free space around each panel/ATS? Can I mount the ATS on the right hand plywood sheet with the bottom 62" off the ground (the plywood starts 39" off the ground and goes to 87" off the ground) and the panel wherever I want (roughly chest height, vertically I have no problems here but I'm worried about interference with the ATS housing) on the left hand plywood sheet? Basically, how much space do I need between the boxes? The ATS gets bolted and locked closed so I'm not sure it needs workspace, but I'm worried I need x inches of free space around the breaker panel which may not be possible with it mounted where it's going to go. Unless it's permissible to put it under the ATS which would put the top of it ~60" off the ground and the bottom ~32" off the ground, which I strongly suspect is verboten. I can draw pictures and show dimensions if that'd make things easier, but I have limited power and internet access right now because the old panel's already torn out, the power is off, and running the generator past around 9-10pm is a great way to piss off my neighbors. Grounding: I have an existing ground stake right below the panel, no idea how far down it goes or how good a ground it is. I also have a copper water supply line with a proper grounding cable running to it. I intend to make use of both of these as well as a pair of 10 foot copper plated ground rods I will be driving into the ground outside directly below a downspout to improve soil conductivity. Oh, one last thing. If I can't mount the ATS and breaker panel where I want to, is it permissible to use a large (say one of the 16x16 ones from Home Depot) junction box and the same bolt style lugs or split bolts (if aluminum-certified) to splice in another length of SEC cable so I can move things over to another wall, or should I plan on installing all new SEC from the meter base to the ATS? If the latter, I'm probably going to just say hell with it and drop in a 2-3" conduit run, new meter base, and new conduit+weatherhead where I want them, then have the power company move the service over to it when they come back to put the meter back in. The old setup is SEC stapled to the wall, which I don't believe is quite as weather/animal-proof as what I have in mind (at least, when it's properly done.) kastein fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Aug 10, 2013 |
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Aug 10, 2013 00:12
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Good to know. I assume the width of 30" or the equipment, whichever is greater, is to be centered around the panel, AKA 15" from the center of the panel to each side? Yes, the ATS will be upstream of the main panel, I decided if I'm going to do this generator thing at all I should do a whole-house generator and stop loving around, since I'm redoing everything else at the same time basically. So I'm not sure where I bond the neutral and ground - my assumption is at the panel not the ATS, but I want to make sure before I do anything more. Complicating this all is that there is another wing to the basement to the left of the left plywood panel, and a door to the right. And the drat hinge is on the side toward the panel. Here, I might as well just draw it:  The ATS on the right, the breaker panel at the top. Or I can switch them. But I think the cramped corner and the 30" rule are probably going to nuke that since each panel will reduce the width I have available (already pretty drat close to the limit) by its depth, and I'll need to move the breaker panel elsewhere. Annoying, but not unexpected. If the panel(s) don't need to be centered in the 30" width (since each is less than 30" wide) I should be fine, unless the open door is considered an obstruction even when closed, if that makes sense. I expected the veto on the above/below mounting, it didn't even seem close to right. As for public record - I couldn't find anywhere to get it free. If anyone knows, I'm all ears.
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Aug 10, 2013 01:45
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It won't break my heart if I have to put in a 200A panel, upgrade my service, then run a 100A breaker to the ATS to a 100A panel for all the regular house stuff, and just drop outlets for my welder, future shop, machine tools, etc in the remainder of the 200A panel. If that's what it will take, I'll do it. In fact I've been planning this setup specifically because I will be able to change to that setup in the future without modifying any of the wiring downstream of the ATS when I do those upgrades. If I can offset within that space I *think* I can pull this off - ATS up near the top of the left/upper (in that drawing) wall and as far from the corner as possible, as high as I can get it without exceeding 6'6", then ~1-2 feet of cable or conduit and separate wires from the ATS to the main panel on the other wall, again as far as possible from the corner. I'll go looking for the codebook on that site and do some research, thanks. e: to clarify - What I have right now: ----> triplex cable ----> lovely weatherhead clamped onto a chunk of SEC running down the side of the house ----> meter base, caked heavily in water sealant dope ----> chunk of SEC running into the house ----> crappy old woefully undersized 100A main panel What I plan to install: (first version) ----> triplex cable ----> lovely weatherhead clamped onto a chunk of SEC running down the side of the house ----> meter base, caked heavily in water sealant dope ----> chunk of SEC running into the house ----> ATS ----> new 100A panel (when funds and time permit) ----> newly upgraded triplex cable ----> weatherhead on 2" or 3" conduit ----> new 200A rated meter base ----> 2 or 3" conduit into house ----> 200A panel, extra 100A dedicated to detached shop + 30 or 50 amp 220V welder outlet + possibly lathe/mill, etc. 100A breaker feeds ----> ATS ----> new 100A panel The latter requires a few hundred bucks (the electric company wouldn't give me an exact quote, but said around 750 bucks estimate) to have the service upgraded to 200A, which isn't in the cards right now. So I'm just upgrading what I can afford to now and trying to avoid painting myself into a corner or wasting money on stuff that'll need to be torn out when I eventually do it. I want the 100A subpanel for all the actual house stuff so that I can put it downstream of the ATS and not really worry about power outages. The shop stuff I can do without, and I'm worried with the amount of equipment I want to bring in eventually I'll overload a 100A panel, so going to a 200A one kinda makes sense to me. I may be overengineering this, but I have a very reasonable building inspector who lets me do almost anything (aside from asbestos pipe insulation removal and plumbing) myself as long as he likes the result, so it basically just costs me time and materials. I enjoy this and consider it a hobby so time doesn't really cost me anything. Almost everything I build is either to code or ridiculously overbuilt (he told me outright to stop wasting money when I said I'd be using 3/4" ply and 19" overlapped 30# felt on my roof) so so far, he's just shaken his head and wondered why I am building things to last forever and handle anything. kastein fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Aug 10, 2013 |
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Aug 10, 2013 02:00
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grover posted:Couple bits of code: Good to know. Guess I'm shopping for a service rated breaker. The ATS I have is 2-pole, and has the neutral bus isolated from ground, so it's clearly designed to work with the N-G bond in the service panel or service disconnect breaker, with an option to bond at the ATS using a wire of course. That's fine. The generator will be a 15kw, 18kw surge setup, I bought a generator head on eBay and will be combining it with my own motor. 15kw is less than my total load if I turned everyfuckingthing on at the same time, but there's no chance I'd have everything on while away anyways, and the ATS controller supports a few load shedding contactors that I can use if required. Also, since I'm building the generator myself, I can arrange for the neutral to be floated at the generator no problem. My only real worry is where the 36" deep space from one panel interferes with the 30" wide space from the other. crocodile posted:404.8(A) All switches and circuit breakers used as switches shall be located so that they may be operated from a readily accessible place. They shall be installed so that the center of the grip of the operating handle of the switch or circuit breaker, when in its highest position, is not more than 2.0 m (6 ft 7 in) above the floor or working platform. Excellent. That was my interpretation of the code as well when I read it Sunday night. babyeatingpsychopath posted:To further complicate things, if your ATS doesn't switch the neutral (most residential don't), then the neutral-ground bond is inside your main panel, only. You're forever and ever completely forbidden from ever allowing your generator to run when there's ever any possibility at all in any possible way of energizing the utility, no matter how remotely. Usually, this means some kind of locking cam inside your ATS that only your utility company is allowed to have keys for. If power drops, it's up to them to unlock your ATS for you to get back on the grid; until then, you're pouring gas in your generator to keep your steaks chilled. Ooof. This all sounds like I'm simply going to relocate the main panel to another wall and stop worrying about it. I am gonna hate working in that corner if I stuff everything in there anyways. As far as I remember from my discussion with the poco, their equipment ends at the end of the triplex drop from the pole. They made no mention of any sort of locking devices or anything when I mentioned an ATS. That was a few years back now though, I should probably call them again. Wish I'd realized power cos were paranoid about some chucklefuck backfeeding the neutral, I would have just bought a 3 pole ATS in the first place. How the hell do you gently caress up so bad that the neutral gets backfed with line voltage? tomapot posted:So the guys that did my landscaping reconnected the electrical to my detached garage. Since they cut one of the pavers in the wrong spot the PVC pipe and connector into the garage are all cockeyed. I have one pic of what it looks like now and a Photoshop of what I'd like it to look like. I recommend a large potted plant.
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Aug 13, 2013 15:52
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A lot of the flex board lights can be cut, you just have to cut on a line they give you every ~4-6 inches or some of the lights at the end of the strip will go dead. You can use the cutoff part as well in some cases, you just need to scrape the plastic coating back and solder new feed wires to the little pads just like they do. Just take a look at how it's put together first and duplicate whatever they did to attach the power wiring to the thing.
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Aug 21, 2013 14:18
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That's the only thing I would use them for, I don't trust them. I generally pigtail outlets because I know I'll be the poor SOB replacing them and I'd rather unscrew and rescrew 2 wires than 4. And I got the deepest boxes I could fit in my walls, so I've got no problems with space available for the extra wire and wire nuts.
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Aug 26, 2013 15:23
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I've got something like half a dozen CAFCI/AFCI breakers in my house so far and zero nuisance trips. Price: not a fan at all, holy gently caress! Annoyance: neutral. I have no problems with it. Safety: it has to be better than $4 regular breakers, so I like it. This is probably because every single branch circuit that's actually powered in my house is brand new wiring I did myself, so there are no crappy outlets, no worn switches, no dodgy ground/neutral shenanigans, and no loose wire nuts. It hasn't tripped due to running an arc welder on a 30 amp breaker in the same panel as the AFCIs, either. So they're properly discriminating between arcs downstream of the breaker and arc type loads upstream of the breaker. My lovely old shopvac with very worn brushes that puts on a lightshow through the vents if the room is dark doesn't set them off when plugged into it, either. I will be installing them in every branch circuit I'm required to without any complaint except that from my bank account. ... I'll have to report back after I test out their interaction with the ATS and generator, however. I hear that often causes nuisance trips so I'm curious to see how it goes, seeing as I've been careful about my N/G bonding I don't think it will be a problem but I could be wrong.
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Aug 31, 2013 01:40
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ncumbered_by_idgits posted:Nuisance tripping from turning off high-current loads, particularly from removing the plug from the receptacle under load. Vacuums, circular saws, etc. This one almost SHOULD trip the breaker, seeing as that's a fairly hot arc for the split second where the entire outlet glows when you rip the plug out of the outlet with a 7 amp motor spinning at warp nine on the other end of the cord.
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Sep 2, 2013 01:59
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I thought CAFCI was combined series and parallel AFCI, not combined AFCI and GFCI, but I haven't been too clear on it.
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Sep 3, 2013 01:34
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From what I've been told, smokes should be on their own breaker and it SHOULDN'T be AFCI. My understanding was that you want them powered no matter what. Maybe I'm wrong?
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Sep 4, 2013 15:16
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Gothmog1065 posted:My house does not have a grounding wire. I found this out last night when my TWC tech let me know. Because nobody else would. There is a 95% chance the TWC tech is lazy/stupid/incompetent. Cable install techs are almost universally worthless.
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Sep 17, 2013 22:20
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Take some pictures inside the panel and we can see what we find. Dumb question. Basement only circuit, dirt/future cement floor, only enough outlets to run heat tape on pipes and a sump pump. Do I have to use GFCI, or can I get away with a regular breaker given that it's special purpose with all outlets permanently occupied? Hoping for the latter because GFCIs for QO panels cost more than our aid to Africa in a given decade.
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Sep 18, 2013 03:16
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That's a good idea, forgot I could do that even though I did exactly that in my bathroom. I heard there was a limit on the number of outlets that can be run off the load terminals of a GFCI, though I've never seen justification for it.
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Sep 18, 2013 15:29
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Dedicated equipment outlets don't need GFCI, but it's a good idea to have a sump on a GFPE. I think the leakage on GFPE is 200mA. That's enough to let you know your pump wiring is on its way out, but still pretty high so there aren't any nuisance trips. Dumb question. What is a GFPA and where can I get one for a square D QO panel? I've heard of and used far too many GFCI and AFCI or CAFCI breakers, but never heard of GFPA. And for once google is failing me. E: durr, GFPE. I reed gud 
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Sep 19, 2013 01:42
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 11:20 |
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aaaaahahahahahaha NO. Who are they kidding? I'll either run GFCI or break the law and run regular breakers for the really critical equipment far before I'll spend $542 on a breaker.
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Sep 19, 2013 14:44
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