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Thank you guys again for all the help so far! I have a new problem. I bought a fancy new thermostat (https://www.ecobee.com) and foolishly assumed that since the HVAC had been completely replaced less than five years ago that surely the thermostat connection would have a common wire ("C" wire). If it does, it is not obvious. It definitely doesn't have a C wire connected, but it does have a fifth wire and a bit of googling does imply this may be the wire I am looking for. So far though, I have found no tricks for how I determine whether it is indeed the common wire. Is this possible to determine without having to tear apart the HVAC and checking the wiring there? In case you care to look: https://imgur.com/1gyqytF From here: https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/10482/how-can-i-add-a-c-wire-to-my-thermostat/10527#10527 "If you're lucky when you upgrade to a newer thermostat that requires this connection, there will be an extra (unsused) wire in the cable at the thermostat. If you're not, you'll have to run new cable to the thermostat." I am hoping I am lucky???
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Oct 28, 2014 00:18
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Associate Christ
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Kaluza-Klein posted:"If you're lucky when you upgrade to a newer thermostat that requires this connection, there will be an extra (unsused) wire in the cable at the thermostat. If you're not, you'll have to run new cable to the thermostat." Even if you're lucky, you're going to have to open up the air handler and make sure the wire is connected at the other end, and connect it if not. It's not scary. Four to six screws, and everything is right there in front of you. Turn the power off if you're really worried, but most modern HVAC units have a switch on the door that cuts power to the controls when open.
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Oct 28, 2014 01:32
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Even if you're lucky, you're going to have to open up the air handler and make sure the wire is connected at the other end, and connect it if not. I am not sure if I was staring into the air handler or the furnace. It appears to be one large unit? The fuse which disconnects power to the furnace also disconnects power the the loving light in the attic. Good thinking!   I see from the manual there should be a furnace control thermostat unit but it is not at all clear to me where that is... I didn't see anything with a red, green, yellow, and white wire protruding.
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Oct 28, 2014 02:30
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Kaluza-Klein posted:I am not sure if I was staring into the air handler or the furnace. It appears to be one large unit? You're looking at the furnace. Take the panel off to the right. You see that brown wire at the bottom Right of your first picture? Follow it to the right. That is the thermostat wire. Edit: at least one of them is. Your picture isn't detailed enough, but if there is more than one cable, the one that goes to your thermostat is most likely the thicker one with the most wires inside. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 05:13
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Can an old work box be mounted directly to the back panel of a kitchen cabinet? Or should you mount it in the wall and use a box extender so it's flush with the back panel?
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Oct 28, 2014 16:53
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dyne posted:Can an old work box be mounted directly to the back panel of a kitchen cabinet? Or should you mount it in the wall and use a box extender so it's flush with the back panel? Boxes are allowed to be fastened to cabinets. In fact, all kitchen islands are now required to have at least one outlet. Just follow the rules for protecting wiring.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:39
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  so much for that klein quality...i only used them a handful of times. 
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Oct 28, 2014 20:59
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crocodile posted:
hosed up. Good news though! All Klein Tools distributors are required to process warranty returns. If you have a problem with a warranty return, you may want to consider using a different distributor because most of our distributors perform this process without hesitation. They know we back up our products and provide them prompt credit for warranty returns. If you have a warranty return and your local distributor is unwilling to process it, please call 1-800-553-4676 and we will process your return directly.
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Oct 28, 2014 21:33
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unfortunately they were a gift from someone who didn't think to save the receipt...luckily my trusty old beat up ones are still kickin' around somewhere. i can't tell if you copy/pasted that from a website or if you work for klein? some dude i know who sells for a supply house was telling me those aren't rated/made to cut high tension messenger wire...whereas my whole career that's what i've always been told to use and never had a problem the other hundrends of times i've done the exact same thing. also it's what i see every lineman ever use to make those cuts. maybe i just lucked out and got a poo poo pair? what do you guys use when you cut into the service drop?
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Oct 28, 2014 21:51
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I am just a server janitor, I googled 'klein warranty'. I'd imagine you could take it in to any store and they'd process it without a receipt.
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Oct 28, 2014 21:57
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crocodile posted:
What were you doing with them? Trying to cut off a padlock?
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Oct 28, 2014 22:55
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I've broken channel locks but only managed to lose my 9's.
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Oct 28, 2014 23:02
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kid sinister posted:You're looking at the furnace. Take the panel off to the right. You see that brown wire at the bottom Right of your first picture? Follow it to the right. That is the thermostat wire. Yay, thank you. I had a suspicion I was in the wrong place but there was no other obvious panel to remove. I can now control our thermostat from anywhere in the world. Awesome, I guess....
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Oct 29, 2014 00:54
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crocodile posted:unfortunately they were a gift from someone who didn't think to save the receipt...luckily my trusty old beat up ones are still kickin' around somewhere. Start walking into supply houses with the pieces. Odds are you'll find one that will just hand you one over the counter without a receipt. I got a klein screwdriver that way, and I'd dug up just the handle in a ditch (with a trencher).
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Oct 29, 2014 01:00
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kid sinister posted:What were you doing with them? Trying to cut off a padlock? just cutting the neutral in an overhead resi service drop. i think it was like 1/0 aluminum around the messenger wire..they barely made a dent in the first strands and that half just flew off. kind of scary when you're working on a live drop lol. they had to have been defective...i'd maybe used them 20 times. babyeatingpsychopath posted:Start walking into supply houses with the pieces. Odds are you'll find one that will just hand you one over the counter without a receipt. I got a klein screwdriver that way, and I'd dug up just the handle in a ditch (with a trencher). haha i thought about doing this but i'm really thinking about just trying out another brand. one of my co-workers swears by knipex. i really like their channel locks...might give one of their other tools a try. i've always used klein "side-cutters" (lol dykes) but my most recent pair has lasted half as long as my previous ones without any real difference in use. might be time to venture out~ crocodile fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 06:27
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crocodile posted:just cutting the neutral in an overhead resi service drop. i think it was like 1/0 aluminum around the messenger wire..they barely made a dent in the first strands and that half just flew off. kind of scary when you're working on a live drop lol. they had to have been defective...i'd maybe used them 20 times. That's "ACSR" Aluminum conductor: steel reinforced. I've never had a problem using my lineman's pliers on it, either. If you actually got a bad pair (likely), then just get another. I've found all kinds of klein stuff in ditches and walls and things. I have a set of lineman's I found in a wall. No handles anymore, and they were fairly seized. I put them in a bucket of kroil for a day or so, and they work great now. Apparently they're 1940s manufacture, based on their features. My toolbag is all name brand stuff. Klein for hand pliers (lineman's, dikes, needle-nose), channellock for pipe pliers, wiss metal snips, and wera screwdrivers. The knipex pliers are great, but I don't see myself needing to replace these channel-locks for a long, long time. I'm done with craftsman tape measures, though. The new version is rear end. I think I'm using kobalt or something. Magnetic tip, 1.5" wide, 30' length. Whatever.
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Oct 29, 2014 19:33
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Friend has a new build house. This gutter has current going through. Verified by touch and volt meter. So do all the others, but not to the same intensity. There are also vent covers on the soffit that set off the volt meter. Most of these down spouts are not connected to each other. No clue how they would all be setting off the volt meter. Could it be somehow associated with the power lines in that picture? It's all we can think of.
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Oct 29, 2014 23:11
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fknlo posted:Friend has a new build house. Aluminum siding? I worked on a house that had a bad dryer outlet. The outlet was grounding out through the vent, through the siding, and arcing on one of the downspouts. These things are HARD to pinpoint. Flip your multimeter over to current and see if it draws appreciable amps. Start turning off circuits in the house one at a time until the voltage goes away. Of course, if this is a non-contact voltage meter, those things detect flux only. Fluorescent tubes set them off from feet away. If you're actually getting shocked by the downspout and turning off the house breakers doesn't fix it, call the power company.
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Oct 30, 2014 00:22
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:I'm done with craftsman tape measures, though. The new version is rear end. Since when has Craftsman made tape measures? They actually stopped selling their own last year. I had to trade mine in and they gave me a Stanley instead.
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Oct 30, 2014 00:25
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gently caress Sears. Last few tools I've tried to warranty, they refused because they don't offer them as a single unit (individual sockets and wrenches). Hello kobalt. Re: hot downspouts. Is that line actually over the house or is it just the angle of the picture? I dunno if it's actually an NEC rule or whatever, but we definitely do not allow primary voltage over a dwelling regardless of clearance. Anyhow, it is possible the voltage you are experiencing is induction from the power line. I've personally only really noticed it around transmission lines, but your distribution voltage there could be higher than what I work on. angryrobots fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 30, 2014 01:26
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angryrobots posted:
It's a few feet away from the power line. There were issues when building about it possibly being too close at some point. I think he's going to test the breakers tomorrow to see if that does anything with it. It's weird that downspouts on the opposite side of the house not connected in any way to that one closest to the lines were still setting off the volt meter and very, very lightly shocking you.
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Oct 30, 2014 05:08
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fknlo posted:It's weird that downspouts on the opposite side of the house not connected in any way to that one closest to the lines were still setting off the volt meter and very, very lightly shocking you. It's not weird because it has nothing to do with the service entrance. Someone hit a piece of romex with a screw and energized them. Or, as mentioned already you are using a non contact voltage tester and there is nothing at all wrong.
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Oct 30, 2014 15:19
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Motronic posted:Or, as mentioned already you are using a non contact voltage tester and there is nothing at all wrong. We were using a non-contact voltage tester but you can feel it when you touch the downspouts. They literally shock you. The ones on the opposite side of the house are really weak but you can hear it when you touch them with the back of your hand. We just busted out the voltage tester to see if it picked anything up and it did.
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Oct 30, 2014 16:09
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fknlo posted:We were using a non-contact voltage tester but you can feel it when you touch the downspouts. They literally shock you. The ones on the opposite side of the house are really weak but you can hear it when you touch them with the back of your hand. We just busted out the voltage tester to see if it picked anything up and it did. Standard house defence mechanism, though it sounds like you will want to up the amperage a bit to stop the scrap metal guys from stealing your downspouts. Or at least I think this would be a good idea, but I recently had a scrap metal guy steal one of my downspouts so my opinion may be biased.
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Oct 30, 2014 16:17
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Motronic posted:It's not weird because it has nothing to do with the service entrance. Someone hit a piece of romex with a screw and energized them.
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Oct 30, 2014 17:18
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angryrobots posted:That's not service wire. I'm not saying it's necessarily the culprit but that's a distribution single phase line running by the house. Oh, yeah, you're right. I just looked at the picture larger. That has to be way above the house, so I can't see any possible way that has much to do with anything other than slight inductance coupling which is likely what's setting off a non-contact voltage probe.
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Oct 30, 2014 18:50
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With the weather turning colder, I'd like to make sure my pup is nice and warm in his dog house. I just use a low wattage light bulb (plugged into a 110 GFCI outlet) in his house to radiate a bit of heat and it keeps it a nice 68-70 degrees in there even on sub-freezing days (also he's scared of the dark). I figured for a nice little project I wanted to try hooking the light up to some sort of pressure plate so that it only turns on while he's in the dog house and so I don't have to go out there and make sure it's either plugged in or unplugged. Anyways, is this a thing? Can you just buy pressure plates like that or is this something I'll need to whip up custom?
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Nov 1, 2014 01:55
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larchesdanrew posted:With the weather turning colder, I'd like to make sure my pup is nice and warm in his dog house. I just use a low wattage light bulb (plugged into a 110 GFCI outlet) in his house to radiate a bit of heat and it keeps it a nice 68-70 degrees in there even on sub-freezing days (also he's scared of the dark). I figured for a nice little project I wanted to try hooking the light up to some sort of pressure plate so that it only turns on while he's in the dog house and so I don't have to go out there and make sure it's either plugged in or unplugged. Depends on whether you are looking for a project or not, but if not, an occupancy sensor is probably a less-hassle easy button since it won't get worn out, and you won't have to figure out the right amount of pressure. https://www.amazon.com/Lutron-MS-OPS2-WH-Maestro-Single-Occupancy/dp/B005WM3ALC/
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Nov 1, 2014 03:30
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Qwijib0 posted:Depends on whether you are looking for a project or not, but if not, an occupancy sensor is probably a less-hassle easy button since it won't get worn out, and you won't have to figure out the right amount of pressure. I had never considered that, and it may be an option. My only caveat would be whether or not it's sensitive enough to, say, see the dog breathing if he goes to sleep at night and stay on. For $20 it's worth testing, though. Shouldn't be that difficult to wire up, either. Worst case scenario is that I just have to turn the light on manually like I used to do the heating pad. Thanks for the idea, man.
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Nov 1, 2014 04:09
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larchesdanrew posted:I had never considered that, and it may be an option. My only caveat would be whether or not it's sensitive enough to, say, see the dog breathing if he goes to sleep at night and stay on. For $20 it's worth testing, though. Shouldn't be that difficult to wire up, either. Worst case scenario is that I just have to turn the light on manually like I used to do the heating pad. Thanks for the idea, man. It's a combo ultrasonic/IR so even fine movement like breathing should keep triggering it. It's also got a 30 minute delay so even if the dog is extremely still for long stretches there's a lot of buffer. edit: it's not dual, but they claim to have fancy IR processing to detect fine motion. Guess you'll see either way. Qwijib0 fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Nov 1, 2014 |
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Nov 1, 2014 04:33
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There's been some chat about checking for voltage with meters - both standard and non-contact meters. Just a few points to make involving safety: 1. Non-contact meters will only detect AC voltage (which isn't a problem for almost all home applications). Using a meter on a DC power source can cause a dangerous false-negative. I've also seen false positives on voltages that are low but at high frequencies. 2. Whatever meter you're using (contact or non-contact), you should always try and use a hot-dead-hot method for checking for voltage:
3. As long as you're doing standard around-home work, cheaper meters (except for some of the really cheap ones that have counterfeit certification) are OK. If you're doing stuff at the feed to your meter panel, or are working on something bigger (like at a place of business), watch out - you may need a more expensive meter (like a Fluke or Gosen) that's designed to work safely on larger electrical systems. larchesdanrew posted:With the weather turning colder, I'd like to make sure my pup is nice and warm in his dog house. I just use a low wattage light bulb (plugged into a 110 GFCI outlet) in his house to radiate a bit of heat and it keeps it a nice 68-70 degrees in there even on sub-freezing days (also he's scared of the dark). I figured for a nice little project I wanted to try hooking the light up to some sort of pressure plate so that it only turns on while he's in the dog house and so I don't have to go out there and make sure it's either plugged in or unplugged. Only comment is that for something like a dog house, you might want to find something that's weatherproofed. (Not serious.) How about an occupancy sensor combined with a temperature PID controller? I could whip up a basic design if you have a budget of, say, less than $1500 for this project. Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Nov 1, 2014 |
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Nov 1, 2014 04:36
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Do pets put off enough infrared energy to trigger a regular cheap motion light sensor up close? My cat can set off the motion detector in my bathroom, so I suspect so. That could be a thing to try?
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Nov 1, 2014 05:17
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I just bought a house and have been doing some small renovations before we move in. I'm getting read to try my hand at doing some rewiring and running a couple new outlets in the house. One of the things I'm wanting to do is rewire the switch for the recessed lights in the basement. The switch it all the way across the basement instead of at the bottom of the stairs. The main panel to the house is also located in the basement. I turned on the lights and went to the panel and started shutting off breakers one at a time. I flipped every single one and those lights never shut off. I thought I was losing my mind so I flipped off every breaker individually in the house and they still stayed on. Any ideas?
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Nov 3, 2014 09:13
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Look for another panel in the basement somewhere. Can you take a picture of the panel? it should have a main breaker, if you flip that does it kill The Lights?
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Nov 3, 2014 12:48
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Just replaced a dead dimmer. Who wants to start counting the problems? This is immediately after removing the wall plate and pulling the switches out - wires have been untouched.  House was built in 1994, so probably 1992 NEC. Left 3 way is original. Dimmer is not. 3 way is backstabbed in addition to screw terminals, btw.
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Nov 4, 2014 20:02
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looks pretty standard for the era to me..nothing really sticks out as crazy dangerous tho? the worst violation i see is that the power in and out need pigtailed down so there's only one on the 3-way common screw and one going to the dimmer. bonding the yolk on switches wasn't required back then so it's not surprising they aren't. i doubt that 3-way even has a screw for it but whoever installed that dimmer should have taken the time to make a pigtail for the new device. might as well do it and replace the 3-way while you're in there. maybe tape up the white wire being used as a traveller to black if you're that worried about it..otherwise it looks fine to me.
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Nov 4, 2014 21:52
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crocodile posted:looks pretty standard for the era to me..nothing really sticks out as crazy dangerous tho? the worst violation i see is that the power in and out need pigtailed down so there's only one on the 3-way common screw and one going to the dimmer. bonding the yolk on switches wasn't required back then so it's not surprising they aren't. i doubt that 3-way even has a screw for it but whoever installed that dimmer should have taken the time to make a pigtail for the new device. might as well do it and replace the 3-way while you're in there. maybe tape up the white wire being used as a traveller to black if you're that worried about it..otherwise it looks fine to me. You missed the switch frames not being grounded.
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Nov 4, 2014 22:17
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kid sinister posted:You missed the switch frames not being grounded. that's what i meant by the yolks not being "bonded". i've had it grilled into my head that we don't "ground" things anymore we "bond" them. e: oops..i meant "yoke". crocodile fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Nov 4, 2014 |
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Nov 4, 2014 23:04
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crocodile posted:that's what i meant by the yolks not being "bonded". i've had it grilled into my head that we don't "ground" things anymore we "bond" them. I thought 'bonding' and 'grounding' were different things? At least with swimming pools...
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Nov 4, 2014 23:08
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the last grounding & bonding class i took (granted it was more than 3 years ago so i might be remembering wrong) the way the instructor explained it is that grounding only happens at the point of service and you bond every other piece of metal in the system after that to ground. i thought it was the last code update where they changed the wording pretty significantly in article 250 to reflect that? i'm also home sick from work (....and talking about code for some reason....) and hopped up on cough medicine so someone correct me if i'm wrong.
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Nov 4, 2014 23:20
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