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PageMaster posted:Possibly correct on the#2 copper? To be honest I haven't been able to look in person thanks to COVID so I just copied that from the inspection report, and electrical is a huge weak point for me . Good to know on the rewire necessity. We would spend 20-30k on it to save 500 a year on home insurance so my primary concern was realistic safety. Remember that pretty much any EV can be set to charge in the middle of the night when you aren't using anything else except maybe AC, so you can pretty much forget about it adding to your load except maybe in combination with your AC (which probably is still under 100A). Since you didn't see it yourself in person, are you sure the AC isn't off a separate dedicated breaker by your meter instead of a part of the 100A panel? If so you are home free on 100A in my mind.
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Mar 18, 2021 04:41
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edit: removed unclear midnight post
ROJO fucked around with this message at 14:37 on May 18, 2021 |
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May 18, 2021 07:33
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Inner Light posted:Speaking of, my detector is probably 15 years old now, I'm guessing I should replace it? It always bothered me the 'test' button doesn't really test the smoke detecting part. Been eyeing the Nest Protect but it's pricey. I've been happy with the Protects - it is nice to also get easy indication of *which* smoke alarm is the culprit for why things are going off. But yeah, they are pricey, and frankly if they are all within easy reach, probably not worth the cost unless you really love the Nest integration with Google Home (which really does nothing useful for Protect).
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Jul 20, 2021 20:17
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Blackbeer posted:I feel like this is so unlikely that I'm comfortable calling it not a thing. If metal things were sliding down walls and hitting loose plugs the NEC would mandate receptacle direction. It absolutely is a thing in at least the majority of industrial/commercial spaces I have been in, but I agree, the logic behind it is very weak, and as a result, NEC doesn't mandate that. Plus it fucks with a lot of pre-molded plugs that assume the ground is down, which is far more obnoxious day to day.
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Jul 31, 2021 03:31
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IOwnCalculus posted:Mine would also rotate around a solid wire but they pass a pull test with flying colors so 
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Jan 15, 2022 20:17
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n0tqu1tesane posted:I was having this happen when my AC kicked on a few years back. Called at 7PM on a Sunday, and a utility worker was there by 8PM. Turns out it was a crimp connection at the transformer that had worked itself loose over time. Voltage at my meter on one leg was fluctuating between 100-120v with no major loads switching on or off. Same. My neighbor and I share an underground feed that goes up our cul-de-sac and then runs up a pole to the above ground service everyone else has. A Christmas or two ago, you could watch the duty cycle of our immersion circulator show up in the incandescent Christmas lights on the exterior of our neighbor's house. PG&E was out real quick - found bad connections for our feed up at the transformer.
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Aug 18, 2022 01:08
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Keebler posted:Sorry, I didn't mean to imply 5 separate circuits. Just the power provided provided by a single 2-pole breaker: The top outlet of each receptacle wired in parallel to one phase, and the bottoms in parallel to the other phase. Is that still kind of weird? I don't really plan to draw that much power but I wanted to give myself a little buffer vs a single pole 20 amp breaker servicing all 5 receptacles since I really have no other outlets down there. Our builder really skimped on the power in the basement and tied all the basement outlets into existing circuits from other places in the house. The lights in my basement briefly dim whenever my dehumidifier kicks on... Yeah, this is fine, I did this in my garage, except everywhere is a pair of duplex outlets with each outlet being on a separate leg, rather than top/bottom. But yeah, this should have nothing to do with why your lights dim.....
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Mar 4, 2023 06:42
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OK, the metal plate on the switch was my first clue along with the black plastic box barely showing (nevermind the fact that it would be so loving bizarre to DIY a dimmer yourself), but then your follow-up photo clinches it: Those are standard commercially available dimmer switches. You aren't supposed to take the black plastic backing off and look at the guts  They frequently have integral wires that you just pigtail into your home wiring. Nothing funny about that at all, except if they are making buzzing noises, they should probably be replaced anyways so they don't annoy you.Rest comfortable knowing you PO wasn't THAT crazy at least. edit: quick example from google image search: 
ROJO fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Aug 20, 2023 |
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Aug 20, 2023 05:27
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So, I have a 12 year old Hunter ceiling fan (first mistake, I know - but I've gotten my money's worth) with a remote control that started having just one of the bulbs flicker. The bulbs were these tiny little 40W Krypton bulbs with E12 sockets because they were the only thing that fit in the globe 12 years with an E12 base and put out decent light. I figured the bulb was going bad or something funky, but for kicks I grabbed a newish candleabra LED bulb from another fixture to see if they would fit and I could reduce my power usage. 1 basic LED bulb + 1 Krypton bulb works fine. Grabbed a second LED bulb from the donor fixture and put it in place of the remaining Krypton bulb, nothing. Think that is weird, but don't have time to troubleshoot, so put back in the one Krypton bulb and leave it. Do a little more dicking around, and realize Philips now makes Hue E12 base bulbs (we have a lot of Hue stuff already), so order one up to see if they will fit. It, along with a single Krypton bulb also works fine, and hey, it fits inside the globe! Fabulous. Order another Hue bulb, and with two in the fixture, they strobe on and off at probably 5 Hz or so. If I swap one Hue for a basic LED bulb, they both still strobe. Well this is loving bizarre. So my behaviors so far are below, although they aren't always consistent: 2 Krypton bulbs -> just one bulb blinks on and off at very long (tens of seconds), erratic intervals 1 Krypton bulb + 1 basic LED or hue bulb -> works great, no issues, even for extended time 2 basic LED bulbs -> no light 2 Hue bulbs or 1 Hue + 1 basic -> seizure mode The only discrete thing accessible in the lower part of the fan that is inline with the lights is a 120C thermal fuse, which doesn't seem like a credible source of this behavior, although it is easy enough to bypass to see I suppose. Anything else silly I should be checking before I start dismounting the whole fan to find the remote module and see if I can find a replacement? Could this just be some weird intermittent connection that has a weird thermal behavior or something? If so I would think it would be more consistent and linked to higher wattage bulbs causing more issues. I'm at a loss beyond electronic fuckery between however the remote control module switches power to the bulbs and the electronics in the LED bulbs - but then why the issue with two Krypton bulbs? Maybe that was truly a weird bulb failure and separate from the problem with the LED bulbs? None of this makes sense to me; I'm just a dumb mechanical engineer, although that is normally sufficient for home wiring. The thermal fuse in question: 
ROJO fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Sep 19, 2023 |
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Sep 19, 2023 04:53
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Qwijib0 posted:The canopy remote control receiver isn't compatible with LED bulbs. Since you want to use hue stuff anyway, just bypass the module for the lighting circuit. Rather than use the lighting output of the module to feed the sockets, just connect directly to the hot lead in the ceiling box. The remote will still control the fan, but the lighting will be controlled via whatever runs your hue. Shifty Pony posted:A pretty good rule of thumb is that if a dimmer is more than about ten years old it is going to have trouble with LEDs. A wall-mounted fan control would also likely work just fine. Something like [url=https://www.lutron.com/en-US/Products/Pages/StandAloneControls/FanControls/Maestro/Overview.aspx]this: Yup, that was totally it. Since the fan remote had a dipswitch for dimmable/non-dimmable lights, I assumed that wouldn't have been an issue, then you all made me realize it is just restricting the commands the remote sends, not changing how the controller actually drives the lights  Bypassing the module for just the lights worked great. Thanks guys!
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Sep 19, 2023 18:26
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sithael posted:how common are GFCI outlets failing in a year? I think I put this one in almost exactly a year ago. I can't seem to find any reason this one stopped working, what was plugged into it works fine on another outlet, and everything else on the circuit is working fine. It just seems like the GFCI is completely dead. I've never had a GFCI outlet fail, but I have had a GFCI breaker fail within a year of install. Just swap it out for another and don't worry about it unless it fails again.
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Oct 21, 2023 18:13
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Hadlock posted:*I just realized the outlet above the utility sink in the garage isn't GFCI Unclear from your posts if you know this or not, but in case you don't, NEC requires ALL garage outlets to GFCI, regardless of location, so you should check to see if there is upstream protection somewhere else. edit: although from your statement it seems like your unprotected bubbler was run off an outlet in your garage, so you likely don't have upstream protection. ROJO fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Feb 8, 2024 |
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Feb 8, 2024 23:38
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Extant Artiodactyl posted:ah the 5p batteries...looks nice! Yeah my city required disconnects between both my batteries and the solar combiner and the system controller, despite having basically redundant breakers and the rapid shutdown  edit: also my controller is apparently super hosed and my whole system is in shutdown until enphase can come out with my installer on the 4th to fix/replace it
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Feb 25, 2024 07:36
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Extant Artiodactyl posted:the shutdown mode still lets line voltage through to the loads, it just renders the solar and batteries inoperable. theoretically i guess it could fail in a way that has it trying to power the loads from empty battery but i haven't seen it. there's a tiny switch underneath a "don't touch this without talking to support" sticker that i think toggles it between on and off grid mode without the installer app getting involved. Yeah I had to resort to the hidden switch to actually get normal power back into my house. For whatever reason, just shutting everything down with breakers but not manually throwing that switch only allows 1 of my 110 legs into the house. Hence the "super hosed" nature of my controller.
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Mar 1, 2024 20:17
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Is the desktop the only thing you care about getting internet to? Before running wires (unless you truly need the benefit of a cable), I would look at mesh wifi systems. Then you could get better wifi coverage throughout your house, not just a single drop to your desktop. Don't get me wrong, cables are superior, but if you are balking at the work, a good mesh system would probably work well and give you better performance throughout the house. edit: I know, heresy for the wiring thread to push back on cabling.
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Mar 11, 2024 21:24
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Coincidentally enough I just enrolled in our utility's (PG&E) load reduction program, which yeah, pays out at $2/kwh when they pull from our batteries, which beats the $0.66 peak rate that grid power costs me during the same 4-9PM timeframe. Seems like a no brainer - only downside is it means that my batteries will hit their reserve level earlier in the evening than they otherwise would, which does provide a larger window where maybe I couldn't coast through an evening grid outage until the sun comes up in the morning. Our batteries already hit the reserve level every night we decide to charge a car, but that is usually around 1-2 in the morning, and the house only draws about 3-400W if everyone is asleep and we can easily coast on 30% battery till solar production starts up again. If we drained to 30% by 9PM, making it till sun-up the next day might be a little more challenging, but probably generally workable. I dunno, we'll see how it goes!
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Mar 26, 2024 21:40
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