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effika posted:This may just be something I need to ask an HV/AC guy about, but maybe one of you will know! Just resize the breaker smaller. Unless it's feeding more than one thing, it's fairly simple to cut off mains power, pop out the old breaker, pulls the wires, wire up the smaller breaker, and pop it back in. Hell, I've done that live because my house doesn't HAVE a mains breaker. God bless lineman's gloves and arc protection gear!
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Feb 2, 2010 10:37
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Welp, I just popped out a NEMA 15A outlet with a new, shiny NEMA 20A outlet to go with my shiny gently used 2200VA UPS I got for $20. Wire gauge was 12, so I'm good there, breaker was also 20. Here's hoping I never load it all the way otherwise my breaker will cry and my garage will have no more power.
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Apr 16, 2010 13:56
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Papercut posted:Just be careful after an outage, because the UPS will be pulling the connected load current as well as a battery recharging current. If you have it highly loaded, that's when you would be most likely to run into problems. Yep, on the plus side, the breaker is literally like 10 feet away from the UPS, so if it takes a poo poo it's all of 15 seconds work to unplug it and reset the breaker.
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Apr 17, 2010 03:00
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Hurricane Jesus posted:I have a problem this thread may be able to help me with. Short of pulling fuses until poo poo stops working, there isn't a hell of a lot you can do to check if it's your load or not.
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May 14, 2010 20:04
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grover posted:That's a practical rule of thumb, but there's no legal limit for residential, especially if you're installing extra outlets so there's always a convenient outlet available. You could put 100 outlets on a single 15A residential circuit if you wanted to, and it all meets code. You'll just be pissed when you figure out you have half your house on one circuit and the breaker keeps tripping the second something looks at an outlet funny.
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May 16, 2010 03:31
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So today I just wired a sub-panel for my buddy's garage. Ran 0/0/0/2 Aluminum wire in a 3 inch PVC conduit under his lawn, up into his new garage. Things I have learned: Pulling cable requires three people, one to yank the fish tape, another to wedge wire in the other end, and a third to wrestle the tangled bundle farther back so the dude feeding it doesn't get beaten to death by the wire. Wear gloves. The 11mm thick wire bundle is razor edged, and I cut the everliving gently caress out of my hand. A (few) good set(s) of pliers go a long way when working on the heavier cable. I ended up using a pair of electrical tape wrapped channel-lock pliers to contort the cables in such a way as to actually get the fuckers lined up right. Cut 1-1.5 inches off one of the leads, so when you bend them over to fit in the breaker, both wires are reasonably straight, and you don't have to do any creative bending to get them to fit. NEMA locking lug connectors are seriously the coolest thing ever. I ended up wiring in a few of the NEMA L5-30, and two of the even cooler NEMA L16-50. Three phase motherfucker, do you speak it? High amperage crimp lugs are the coolest thing ever. They make wiring poo poo like 50x easier, plus the crimp gun is badass.
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Feb 15, 2011 08:23
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Well, a while back I decided to run some cable to my new house. I used a centralized star topology where my single rack contains every Cat5/6/RG6/Cat3 in the house. Today I finally got around to setting up the conduit and pulling the cable. And word of warning, trying to pull plastic cable through plastic conduit is an exercise in creative new ways of saying 'stupid loving piece of poo poo motherfucker, GO ALREADY'. I learned that the big jugs of yellow KY jelly they sell in the electrical department aren't for show, and really do make it a poo poo ton easier to pull cable. Next up, I have to run 2 cat6, 2 cat5, 2 RG6, and 2 Cat3, from my garage to my living room. I will have to go up the wall in to the attic of the garage, then cut into the shared wall with my bedroom, snake the cable up into my house's attic through that wall, across the regular attic, then down two stories to my living room. I predict that I will very much wish I were dead, or that it really wouldn't be THAT hard to have torn out all the Sheetrock in the way by the time it's finished.
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Sep 13, 2011 15:56
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Three-Phase posted:I've watched arc flash testing videos filmed at a few thousand frames a second. You can see the AC "pulse" in brightness at that framrate. Those high speed videos end up looking like high speed lightening strikes, it's kinda cool how at high enough FPS you can watch and predict the ionization channel forming and the big horrific flashover start. Then the whole video whites out and the hellacious bang occurs.
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Oct 23, 2014 03:25
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bEatmstrJ posted:I'm installing a receptacle in my garage but i'm unsure of how to make the transition into the ceiling. Put a old work box in the B junction box, then a one of these in the A box. This will give you a single box that runs from inside the attic to inside the garage, that's legal, code compliant, and easy to work in. It also lets you terminate the conduit and swap from NM stapled in the attic to THHN (or the wires from inside the plastic NM jacket that you liberated) inside the conduit. skylined! posted:Yea, just realized that. Oops. Save yourself a LOT of heartache, and spend the extra cash for copper wire. For a 100A subpanel, you're gonna want to use #2 copper, but you only have to buy black, you can phase tape the cables any place that you can access it (so at each end of the conduit) with the red/white needed, and you'll want a #8 copper ground, in green or bare copper, either is fine. So red, black, white, all in #2, and a #8 ground. Buy like 10 more feet than you think you need, because a wire stretcher is really expensive to rent. You're going to NEED to use a minimum of 1.25" conduit for this, otherwise you'll gently caress up the fill calcs and if anyone notices and calls you on it, it'll be a bastard to go back and fix after the fact. PVC is fine, just make sure that you secure it every 4-6 feet, and within 2 feet of each end. Methylethylaldehyde fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Sep 4, 2020 |
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Sep 4, 2020 10:36
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skylined! posted:Two somewhat simple questions: 1) You don't have to splice it, but the box has to be big enough to be used to pull out and re-feed the wire. LBs, junction boxes, street 90s and pulling elbows all reset the 360 degree rule. 2) These guys?. They're handy because you can strip a little more off the ends, use a motor powered stripper/twister, then gorilla hand luke one of those on it and be done in like 15 seconds.
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Sep 11, 2020 13:44
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Elviscat posted:That thing is a joke right? Do not use that thing. Never said it did a good job, or even a code compliant job, just a really fast job!
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Sep 12, 2020 18:53
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skylined! posted:Going through mentally how I’m going to wire up my lights to be code compliant and now wondering if three-way smart switches are fine to use and be code compliant, as they might make wiring a two switch setup easier? I have at least four rooms with more than one entrance that I’ll need a three pole switch setup for plus a stairwell. The smart switch, assuming it isn't some insane aliexpress tier shitpile, will have a button that works regardless of connectivity specifically because of that code. Internally it's a relay hooked up to the button, and hooked up to the wifi chip. No wifi means it'll still work fine as a regular lightswitch. If you plan on using the smart function to get the 3-way you want, that should work fine without having to snake new wires. Draw up what you have and where things are, and we can probably tell you more.
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Sep 14, 2020 23:23
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GWBBQ posted:I might be wrong on the terminology because there is a piece of metal that I think is the grounding strip you're talking about in there. At least I think there is in some of the wires. I'll be doing some more wiring on Saturday and will make sure to chop off a piece of this old stuff and flay it for you folks to autopsy before reusing it. I'll also take a couple of snaps inside boxes before closing them up since I do need to start a homeowner thread and you guys will school my rear end if I do anything less than 100% (Our house may be many things like in need of painting and insulation, but it will not become a Groverhaus) If it doesn't have a dedicated ground wire, don't use it for ground, period. What code might let you get away with isn't what you want to do yourself, especially when you won't know the signs that you hosed something up and now have a stablock style housefire waiting to happen.
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Sep 25, 2020 00:45
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spf3million posted:Do you mean like spanning the gaps between the rafters rather like this? That's 100% not to code, and if you hit it hard with something like a ladder or stuff on a shelf, the romex sheathe won't stop poo poo, and you might have an exciting breaker tripping event. It works, and it can work for a long time, but if anything happens chances are your insurance won't pay if they can prove that wiring existed even proximally to an otherwise covered event. "Yes, I know your BBQ accidentally set the entire shed ablaze, but your wire job is bad so we're gonna say no until you prove that the wire wasn't somehow at fault." Best way to fix it is to get a roll of 1/2 metallic flex cable, *carefully* peel off the romex sheathing and feed the newly freed THHN wires through the flex line. Or use regular 1/2" EMT and some premade bends.
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Oct 4, 2021 04:58
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Guy Axlerod posted:Your puck light is effectively an access panel making the junction box accessible. Or something like that. If you don't need more than a screwdriver to see the wire nuts, it's accessible.
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Jan 13, 2022 01:04
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Messadiah posted:Channellocks maybe? Can confirm, channel locks work great. Be careful not to bend it too hard though, you can damage the outlets pretty easily with that much mechanical advantage.
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Jan 18, 2022 23:29
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Rufio posted:Parts counter employees can also be helpful for a project. Though there may be signs posted all over that they aren't electricians, they sure know a hell of a lot more than anyone at a general hardware store. Also you can usually get a question or two answered from an electrician who is waiting on their order. Can confirm "I need a box, that has a thingy, that you can attach to a dingus to do a job", the counter guy stares at you like you're a puppy who just poo poo on his carpet for about 10 seconds, then says "You mean a duplex new work box with the hammer bracket?" then goes and grabs one from the back. It's exactly what you just so poorly described, and it then cost you about $2. It's also how I learned that you need to use a hydraulic compression crimp for ground wire splices, AND that they'll rent the $4000 gun to you for about $25/day, and since you're cool, they didn't bother charging you for the 2nd and 3rd day since nobody else asked for it. carticket posted:So, lots of snow coming tomorrow, got my generator all setup. One thing I figured I'd ask: do I actually need to worry about grounding the generator separately from the connection to the house? If so, can I just throw some copper and wrap it around my well head (~8" metal pipe going straight down for who knows how far, it's 600 ft deep) and call that good enough? Ideally it'll be connected via a separate wire to wherever your neutral/ground bonding point is, but in the absence of enough give a gently caress to do that, grounding it to the well pipe should also work fine.
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Jan 29, 2022 06:43
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movax posted:e: There is not a minimum height off floor restriction in NEC, is there? I see the 6'7" requirement / 30 in. wide / 36 in. front clearance rules, but I see some places citing four feet off the ground... To the best of my knowledge and my inspector, there is no minimum height for a load center or disconnecting means in the NEC. Local codes can and do vary, and it's kinda a dick move to put the load center 3 inches off the ground, even if the top of it comes up to 4 ft.
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Apr 28, 2022 03:42
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Arsenic Lupin posted:So, I have a question. A major electrical line is about two yards outside my window. It has a big thick ridged cylinder around it. Something is going hmmm at a semi-regular interval. Is the round thing a transformer, and is the humming normal? That's a splice box for cable tv wire. It's a low voltage signal, and most easement/setback rules for it are 'as long as it doesn't rub on things when it's windy'. It's also why it's the lowest on the pole, nothing bad is gonna happen if you bump it or grab it. Power lines are generally up much higher and have a much larger setback requirement. Edit: The humming is most likely the actual electrical lines further up.
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May 19, 2022 01:17
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Yeah, that'll work fine. If the outlet isn't switched, you'll want to tie all the blacks together and feed the outlet from one terminal. Daisy chaining wire through the outlet makes it super fun to figure out why some outlets don't work years later. Also, spend the $5/outlet instead of $1.86 and get the commercial specification grade outlets. https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-d71aa6c34e94ec254f5bf5bbb03cdfa2-lq The screw and clamp back wire is the legit nicest wiring method available on 120v outlets, and it's worth the extra spend. The outlets also last a lot longer, because the spring contacts inside them are much heavier. Outlets are a wear item, and any time an outlet doesn't authoritatively grab whatever you plug into it, it should be replaced. A high draw item like a space heater can start a fire due to intermittent or weak contact.
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Jul 7, 2022 00:47
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Motronic posted:If it's in Home Depot or Lowes it's just not. They have commercial grade stuff, more or less. It's still big box home improvement price points, but the difference between the $2 builder grade unit and the $6 commercial grade one is night and day, mostly in the fact that the screws have either a pull through back stab hole, or have the little metal plate which means you never again have to twist the wire. Real electrical supply place will give you EXACTLY what you ask for, and having done it half a dozen times, going up to the counter guys and going "I asked you very authoritatively for the thing I didn't actually mean, and didn't check it was what I needed, can you please take this $400 order back" is kinda really embarrassing. If you go to a real electrical place, describe what you want and carefully inspect what they bring you, and don't be shocked when an outlet costs $30 because you wanted spec grade red, and all they had were hospital grade.
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Jul 7, 2022 08:16
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Tom Guycot posted:
https://www.solar-electric.com/lib/wind-sun/PV-Ground.pdf That PDF gives you the NEC guidelines, and a decent picture showing all the parts of the system that need grounding, and where the grounding wires need to go. Assuming you do NOT have any utility service of any kind, the Figure 2 diagram on the pdf is what you should do. At least one ground rod, preferably two, tied together with wire based on the largest ungrounded wire in the system. Rotohammer is the easiest way to drive a ground rod, though a sledgehammer and a helper can also work. https://www.electricallicenserenewal.com/Electrical-Continuing-Education-Courses/graphics/sectionPics/large/qid867.jpg This is the chart for determining the size of the grounding wire that ties the ground rods to eachother and to the service disconnect. Use the largest wire size your system uses (not counting the battery wires) to determine the sizing. All the grounding wires should be that size. Methylethylaldehyde fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Jul 11, 2022 |
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Jul 11, 2022 22:17
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You should be fine. Current guidance for new construction may call for a dedicated circuit for the microwave, but probably half the houses in the US don't do that and they work just fine. Additionally, unless your fridge is a huge commercial unit, or literally older than sin, it'll draw maybe 400w peak starting current, and less than half that running, so there's no way nuking a burrito will cause an issue if the fridge decides to start. Only issue you'll run into is if you run a toaster or an air fryer on one of those counter outlets, and go to nuke something, that'll pop the breaker real quicklike.
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Dec 3, 2022 02:22
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Super-NintendoUser posted:In the easiest scenario the fridge and microwave have a dedicated circuit to themselves. The counter circuits are separate. That's what I did. Fridge/Head Chef on branch 1, back wall on branch 2, island is branch 3 and branch 4, garbage disposal is branch 5. I can run a slow cooker, an air fryer, the toaster, my microwave, and the disposal all at the same time. It was worth the $200 in 12/2 romex and all the fiddly bits needed to install it all properly.
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Dec 3, 2022 03:22
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fatman1683 posted:Is there such a thing as a 'dummy' 5-15 plug with plastic blades, a metal ground pin, and a lug on the outside to attach a ground wire? I need to provide a ground for a piece of equipment, but I don't have a way to run a dedicated ground wire. I'm hoping I can use an outlet ground. Either link the equipment, or pull the nameplate power draw. If it's something weird like a 100w 24v radio that wants a ground, that'll probably be fine. Or a stereo that's fed from a 2-prong, but has a grounding wire lug to make the AM/FM radio work better.
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Dec 9, 2022 23:03
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movax posted:I have a CH panel I pulled off, replacing with a QO. It’s been sitting in my garage for the better part of a year as a result… don’t have any projects in mind that I think could use it. Habitat for humanity might take it?
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Dec 18, 2022 04:36
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H110Hawk posted:Don't gently caress around with microwave transformers GFI or not. Microwave transformers are amazing devices useful for all kinds of mad science electrical fuckery. They are also deceptively lethal, so it's best to treat them like a rattlesnake, respectfully, and from a distance. If you don't know what lock out, tag out is, never ever gently caress with one.
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Jan 4, 2024 03:05
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Admiralty Flag posted:I have three questions. I had the same thing, and I ended up running two 3/4" pieces of FMC from the breaker panel to a pair of flush mounted two gang boxes, then screwing on a box extension to allow for surface mounting regular metallic conduit. You're going to gently caress up the drywall regardless of what you try, so you might as well include enough conduit capacity to set up your 'forever' garage. 3/4" flex is enough to run a 50-75 amp quick charger (depending on the temp rating of the lugs, 6 AWG will go 55/65/75 amps for 60/75/90c wire and fit nicely in a 3/4" conduit), with the other able to run 2-3 circuits of 20 amp, depending on conduit fill and how you break out the runs. Surface mounted metallic conduit is also super nice if you ever change your mind, or end up with a newer/better/different thing to plug in, or just need more to home-run a single set of conductors for your new car charger or whatever. Put another run of conduit 6" above it, run it back and call it a day.
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Apr 8, 2024 09:56
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Coolguye posted:*: just so people do not fear i am going to go Full Groverhaus on this, i have an unfinished basement and my fiberoptic internet comes in there. i'm just going to plug in their router, run the uplink to your standard network switch, and then staple network cable to the joists until i get to each room of the house. at that point i drill through the floor just enough to slap an RJ-45 outlet down into the actual floor to service the room. sure it won't be in the wall like a "normal" outlet but also i can do all this myself, safely, and if someone wants to unscrew and slap down a pirate treasure chest there or something, that's both easy to do and their business. Doing the networking properly via the wall is trivial. Step 0: Figure out where your studs are with a studfinder, finding one with your hole saw makes for sad times. Step 1: Get an oscilating multitool and whatever flavor of box template you find online. You can eyeball it with a old work box and masking tape. Cut out a box hole in your sheetrock at the appropriate height. 'Appropriate' meaning match the outlets in the room. Put an old work low voltage box in, they're dayglo orange and have no back. Step 2: Sill plate hole cuting, get a flexible drill bit (greenlee makes them, you can buy them at lowes), a 1/2" hole is plenty. Step 3: Fish the cables up. Step 4: Get keystone jacks, and punch down the network cables. Use a keystone cover plate to load them up. Step 5: Never worry about it again. Step bonus: You can get keystones for Coax, fiber, ethernet, phone, HDMI, etc. And since you already cut a hole, you can fish whatever you want to it. I did this in my house with approximately zero experience and a few youtube videos literally 10 years ago, and it was stupid easy once you wrapped your head around 'how not to put hole over stud, how to fish wire'.
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Apr 12, 2024 03:16
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