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CharlieX posted:Does anybody make a timer that can go on/off for a set number of minutes? For example 5 minutes on, 20 off, 5 on, 20 off ect. I have a woodburner in my basement with a fan to heat the house and I would love to have it go on/off like that when I have a fire going so save money this winter. I would plug the fan for the fireplace into the timer and then it would heat my house without running all the time. (which is loud, wastes electricity, and shortens the life of the fan) poo poo, my $2 Ikea lamp timer will do this. But, if the fan is a part of the stove, be careful. I know on mine I need to leave the fan running whenever the fire is burning, otherwise, the fan internals can cook themselves.
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Jan 13, 2010 01:58
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:I'm going to respectfully disagree with this post. GFCIs are notorious for nuisance tripping on motor loads. If it is a GFCI breaker, then replace the breaker with a normal one. Laundry rooms are only required to have GFCI within 6ft of a laundry sink. I suspect it's actually an AFCI breaker, which are much MORE notorious for tripping on heavy motor loads. As far as AFCI goes, This brings up something that happened last weekend at my parent's house while they were out of town. They have a sump pump in their basement, connected to a GFCI outlet. They lost power at the house in the middle of heavy rains. Power did not return until the basement had flooded up over the motor of the sump pump. When it did return, it tripped the GFCI, as the motor was underwater and shorting out. My dad did some research and found that sump pumps shouldn't be put on a GFCI because of nuisance tripping, but instead to be connected with an ELCI extension cord (he presumably found that info at http://www.sump-pump-info.com/float-switches.html) . This isn't what happened here, but should he switch to an ELCI? Regarding backup power to the sump pump - they do have a generator, but it's not an automatic one and wouldn't have helped them in this particular case.
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Mar 1, 2010 18:07
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Richard Noggin posted:This brings up something that happened last weekend at my parent's house while they were out of town. They have a sump pump in their basement, connected to a GFCI outlet. They lost power at the house in the middle of heavy rains. Power did not return until the basement had flooded up over the motor of the sump pump. When it did return, it tripped the GFCI, as the motor was underwater and shorting out. My dad did some research and found that sump pumps shouldn't be put on a GFCI because of nuisance tripping, but instead to be connected with an ELCI extension cord (he presumably found that info at http://www.sump-pump-info.com/float-switches.html) . This isn't what happened here, but should he switch to an ELCI? Friendly bump here.
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Mar 4, 2010 14:17
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It's a Rigid 1/2HP pump. Not sure of the exact model, but it's definitely not submersible.
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Mar 4, 2010 18:20
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Yes, it's a pedestal. So...GFI or ELCI?
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Mar 5, 2010 02:04
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grover posted:It's a common trick home theater people do when trying to run cables from the floor to a wall-mounted TV and don't want any cables exposed. You're not legally allowed to run an extension cord, so they do this. grover, can you explain a bit more about what this "trick" is? I'm having trouble visualizing what's connected to what, and which ends are male/female.
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Apr 5, 2010 23:45
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As I was removing the outlet covers before painting my bathroom, I found that one of the blank covers was hiding some wiring that was not used. The ends were cut off clean, but there are no wire nuts protecting the ends. I can't imagine that this was up to code. 
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Apr 12, 2010 20:41
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dietcokefiend posted:New construction? Nope, house was built in 1991.
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Apr 12, 2010 20:54
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kid sinister posted:Did you try a circuit tester to see if it was hot? I have a circuit tester somewhere, but couldn't find it. I think I may have left it at my in-laws. So it's perfectly OK for them to leave uncapped wire in a box like that?
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Apr 13, 2010 13:39
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He said it was legal, not illegal.
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Apr 13, 2010 14:57
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Richard Noggin posted:As I was removing the outlet covers before painting my bathroom, I found that one of the blank covers was hiding some wiring that was not used. The ends were cut off clean, but there are no wire nuts protecting the ends. I can't imagine that this was up to code. I found my tester today; the line is dead. No idea what it's for.
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Apr 17, 2010 22:25
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I'd like to come up with a better way of providing generator power to my house. My service comes into a 100A service disconnect (a single 100A breaker mounted so the switch flips up and down, instead of left and right) on one wall of the garage. That in turn is wired to the main panel, which is located on the opposite wall. Currently, when we have an extended outage, I flip the service disconnect and the main panel disconnect off, then backfeed the panel. I always make sure that both disconnects are in the off position before I do this. I really don't want to be limited to a few circuits with a standard transfer switch. What I'd like is a transfer switch that gets installed at the service disconnect location. That way, I can provide power to whatever circuit in the house I want. Do they make something like this? I don't need an automatic transfer switch; a manual one will be fine.
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Apr 30, 2010 20:35
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Ouch. That's waaaay more than I wanted to spend.
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May 1, 2010 12:00
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GreenTrench posted:If you can put a main breaker on your panel, you could use I do have a main breaker on the panel, so that would be perfect, thanks!
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May 1, 2010 18:37
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I'm thinking about partitioning off the back of my large garage into a workshop. I'm going to need some additional power back there for tools (table saw, drill press, etc.). I currently have 100A service coming in to the north wall of the garage, with a 100A serivce disconnect on the inside wall that feeds a 100A main panel on the south wall. This panel is almost full. What I'm envisioning is upgrading the service to 200A, then somehow splitting the service where the disconnect is on the north wall, with 100A to the existing panel and 100A to a new sub-panel. What's the best way to go about this?
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Feb 1, 2011 16:41
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Richard Noggin posted:I'm thinking about partitioning off the back of my large garage into a workshop. I'm going to need some additional power back there for tools (table saw, drill press, etc.). I currently have 100A service coming in to the north wall of the garage, with a 100A serivce disconnect on the inside wall that feeds a 100A main panel on the south wall. This panel is almost full. What I'm envisioning is upgrading the service to 200A, then somehow splitting the service where the disconnect is on the north wall, with 100A to the existing panel and 100A to a new sub-panel. Any takers?
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Feb 7, 2011 13:34
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grover posted:Anything that deals with the main service entry requires the poco to secure power to your house while everything is completed; there's no breaker you can turn off to do it. Your plan sounds fine; I'd probably put in a new 200A main and feed the 100A as a subpanel vice two 100A panels, but that's just me. Thanks. My plan is to have an electrician do the panel installs, and I will be adding the circuits in the shop.
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Feb 7, 2011 14:38
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Here's a tip that I used to solve a lighting/wiring issue in a walk-in closet I built. I know I'm not the first to do this, but it saved a bunch of wiring. I walled off one end of our bedroom because we didn't have enough closet space. There was a sconce above the window on the dormer, but the switch was on the sconce. There is also an overhead light to the far right, with a wall switch directly below it. The red line is the wall I built; you'll see that the lights are far away from the door. I bought an indoor motion sensing socket and put it in the sconce. Now, whenever I open the closet door, the light comes on automatically and shuts off after 5 minutes or so. 
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Feb 11, 2011 13:23
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I discovered last Sunday that the effluent pump that pumps liquids up to our raised leach field had tripped the breaker, and the tank was overflowing. I reset the breaker, but the pump was dead. When the repair guys came, they found this gem. That's a regular (non-GFI) outlet in an outdoor box. The conduit is only 4' long, and the whole thing is wired with plain old 14/2 romex that's direct-buried in my lawn, then wired to an outlet in the master bedroom. The outlet was submerged.
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Jun 3, 2011 15:22
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Landerig posted:
And just in case anyone is wondering, I will be fixing that. Just need to get an electrician to put in a sub-panel for me. The guys who replaced the pump wired everything correctly into a watertight pullbox; once the sub is in I will dig a new trench and run the wire correctly.
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Jun 3, 2011 20:18
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I had an electrician come over to quote a sub panel install so I can fix that effluent pump wiring I showed a few pages back. He says that code requires a means of disconnecting power to the pump (a switch, for example) within 25 feet of the pump. This would mean that I would need to put a 4x4 post in the middle of my lawn with a switch that would get used once every 10-12 years. Fact or crap?
Richard Noggin fucked around with this message at 12:27 on Jun 23, 2011 |
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Jun 23, 2011 12:24
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