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Quick question; does anyone here know if you are allowed to do an entire panel swap-out by yourself in Minnesota? I know we're allowed to do pretty much everything else in a residence, but I've read conflicting reports online as to whether replacing your main panel is allowed or not. My mom just bought a cabin by Itasca state park, and I want to upgrade from a 100 amp panel to a 200 amp, mainly so we can install a tankless water heater. I know what all is involved, and I believe I am up to the task, I just want to know whether or not I can actually do it legally.
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Jun 29, 2009 14:42
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IsaacNewton posted:I really wish I had been told about that, but to be honest with you the electrician didn't give me a choice per say. (I didn't know better either anyway so..) I'm not Canadian, but I've watched enough Holmes on Homes to know that running any circuits through the dead front is a big no-no. There's a reason why the dead front doesn't have any pass-thru holes. Go thru the side or top/bottom. If you need to, you can splice the wires inside the box with properly sized maurets, or mount a blank faced junction box near the panel and extend the wire from there. Take this as a lesson learned, never cut the wire to length until you're sure it's long enough. And then cut it a foot or two longer anyway.
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Jul 28, 2009 23:06
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IsaacNewton posted:It's left over wires I had. Oops, I missed that it was 2ga wire. In that case, you need split bolt connectors. I don't have an image handy, but they're basically a large bolt with a notch cut out of them, so they look like a U, with a nut that...actually, just do a Google Image Search, you'll see what I'm talking about. Get one of those for each conductor, use the electrical tape where it's designed for (wrapping the split bolts instead of trying to pad a sharp edge), and run the wire outside the dead front. As for the box, get a deep 2 gang metal box with large knockouts on opposing sides, and don't forget to ground it.
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Aug 6, 2009 01:13
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RedReverend posted:Here's one I can't explain. My wife rented a carpet shampooer which only works on one receptacle. She asked me if I was loving with the panel as none of the receptacles in the living room worked. I checked them with my voltmeter and they were reading hot. The entire circuit in that room is fine, but for some reason, the shampooer won't run. Plug anything else into the receptacles and it works fine. Does the shampooer plug have a GFCI wart on the end that could be tripped? My wife's parents had a Rug Doctor shampooer a while back that would trip the GFCI if you looked at it funny. I never figured out if it was the machine or the plug, but they got a new one and that worked fine. If it's not the GFCI, check the machine for hidden switches or levers, near the handle hinge if the machine has one. Again with the in-laws machine, it had like 3 switches to turn on (main power, heater power, and a main machine/upholstery attachment toggle), plus a dead-man type switch that wouldn't allow the machine to turn on unless the handle was raised.
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Aug 15, 2009 21:13
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grover posted:Yeah, it's illegal, but so is jaywalking. As far as code violations go, I still wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't sweat doing this in my own house. (Actually, I've done far worse in my own house.) Just out of curiosity, what's the difference between a movable screen blocking the breaker panel and having a cabinet door covering it, with the panel recessed in the wall behind it? Either way is one simple action to remove the obstacle, and I know the cabinet doors are kosher, because I have one covering the panel in my office. When the inspector came out to do the rough-in inspection on my basement wiring, he even commented on how he liked the style of the door (I made a door with an oak frame and a magnetic white board panel). Sadly, the door is no longer with us, since my wife didn't like the fact that dry-erase markers would leave marks when they were erased.
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Jan 30, 2010 19:24
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kid sinister posted:In other words, it has a feature that every GFCI receptacle has built in already. The button on the GFCI tester is useful for testing outlets daisy chained off the GFCI outlet, to make sure the GFCI outlet will trip when an outlet down the line faults, and also for testing outlets on GFCI breakers.
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Apr 21, 2010 04:46
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dietcokefiend posted:Question for the electricians out there who wire in new circuits to then be drywalled over. Would it be wise to put a spraypaint dot on the floor below the junction box to know where they are after the drywall goes up? I just randomly nailed up junction boxes I have pretty much no clue where each one is by memory. I used a crayon to mark the location of each box, and also wrote the height to the approx. center of the box. Also, look at the wires in each box and make sure they're pushed back at least 3/4" from the front. Any closer and they could get nicked by an errant rotozip blade.
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Sep 27, 2010 05:56
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dietcokefiend posted:
Yay, I'm not the only one who doesn't read directions. I ran into the same exact problem in my office. You have two options. Option 1 (the "proper" method), is to remove the round box, patch the drywall in the area, cut a new rectangle hole and install an old-work box. Option 2 (the quick and dirty method), is to get a 2 gang decora faceplate, cut out the extra plastic on the inside so you can access the mounting screw holes in the box, paint it to match the ceiling if necessary, then sandwich it between the light mount and the box.
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Oct 22, 2010 17:29
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kid sinister posted:It could related to the physical size of the bulb maybe? Some older CFLs took up WAY more space than their incandescent equivalents. Some fixtures made before CFLs were commonplace just didn't have enough space around the socket to fit a CFL. Hell, I bought a fancypants $250 ceiling fan only 7 months ago and it didn't have enough room under the glass to fit most CFLs I found. I finally found some Sylvania "ultra-compact" ones that fit under the glass... after I bent around on the socket mounting brackets. The switch to candelabra bases is due to the Energy Policy Act (EPACT), passed in 2005, mandating that all ceiling fans be reversible, have separate fan and light controls, and move away from medium base to candelabra or intermediate base bulbs. The act also limits fans made after January 1st, 2009 to no more than 190 watts of light total. <edit>Correction, actually the EPACT doesn't prohibit fans from using medium bases, it just mandated that all fans using medium bases must ship them with CFLs. The alternative was to switch to candelabra bases, due to a provision which allowed them to ship candelabra base incandescent bulbs (since candelabra CFLs weren't available yet when the act was passed). Most manufacturers chose to go the cheaper route, switching bases and including cheap incandescents. Mthrboard fucked around with this message at 21:55 on Dec 11, 2010 |
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Dec 11, 2010 21:51
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