Basic Electricity For Homeowners

[Worth1]

Here is an example of a supervised circuit with an end of line resistor.
If the resistor isn't seen due to a line break the panel will go into trouble.
In the pictuer you will see this wiring three different ways.
One is normal at the top.
The other two are good and bad but the resistor is all the way back at the panel.
The reason for this is we may have to split up the circuit later into two circuits.
The bad one will work but as you can see it would be a nightmare splitting or trouble shooting any bad connection or break in the wiring.
The single line represents a pair of wires/two conductors, not one wire/conductor.

Worth

Device wire. R.jpg

[Worth1]

Been awhile since I have been here but I thought I would share this with you all.

We have been installing new temperature probes in coolers and freezers at school cafeterias.
Part of the job is to remove the old stuff.
Our stuff runs on 12 volt DC.
Don't assume the old stuff does.
There was a wire previously removed from the old stuff hanging in the air right by the door.
I have no idea how long it had been like that.
Wasn't us.
It had an orange wire nut on it.
Before i started fooling with this looks like dead wire I checked it.
The thing was the hot side of 120VAC.
It was a zip cord not rated for 120 volts.
It was going to an electrical box inside the cooler with water dripping out of it.
I texted my boss and told him I wasn't going to mess with it.

Always and I mean always check wires.

Picture of it next post.

Worth

[Worth1]

Here is the booby trap.
Worth
IMG_20180205_46327.jpg

[kurt]

Our new demo permits,repairs,that are indexed( work,orders,computer online ,Sears,Home depot roofers )all have to adhere to all local,fed,homeland,ice. Rules and rags.This includes,asbestos,mold,old phone cables that when burning give off cyanide gas that has dropped firefighters through inhalation,then burn to death with a fire hose in their hand.I dreaded the EPA desk,everything had to be cleared,and inspected by a FINAL DEMOLITION INSPECTION.This would include ac gases,diesel tanks and that little orange wire that might be still energized and waited all these years to kill ya.Itis a insurance issue nowaday it seems like.

[Cole_Robbie]

The porch light on a rental trailer quick working some time ago. I just now opened it up. I'm no expert, but I don't think it is supposed to look like that.

[PhilaGardener]

You have obvious water problems with all that rust - water running down the wall is getting into the box and pooling there. The insulation on the leads to the fixture look bad too. Hope you shut that breaker before opening that up (it may well already have tripped on its own!)

Suggest you replace the fixture - a water-tight box that seals and flashing will be an important part of the long term fix, and will keep water out of the wall too!

[Cole_Robbie]

A new fixture is indeed the plan. I siliconed the heck out of the old one the last time I worked on that trailer. I had to cut it off with a knife. The seal looked fine from the outside. The fixture itself may have been the culprit, or at least I hope. I will certainly use a lot of silicone on the new one.

[Worth1]

In my long career I have found it advantageous to drill drain holes.

Worth

[PhilaGardener]

At the bottom!

[PhilaGardener]

They don't call them weep holes for nothing!

[kurt]

We would remove all the crap,drill new device hole next to the abandoned one.All marine boat seal tite.If not movable,cap after clean prime,drill new,all fresh.Be brave ,open up have that green bug spray evil foam ready spray close,check other side.Sprayfoam mutes a lot of noise,like those Diebold hammer alarms on sides of banks i hear(not)��

[Worth1]

Another bit of Worth's worthless advice.
If you are making a penetration into an outside wall with wire, seal the wire and hole with sealant and wait for 24 hours to do the rest of the work.
This way you dont disturb the seal as it cures causing leaks.

I just gave these instructions to a young man at work the other day installing a box to hold a cell dialer outside a building.

The cell dialer didn't have any signal inside that building and had to go outside to get signal.
A cell dialer connects to power and tip and ring on a panel and transmits information to a monitoring station for fire and security.

Just the other day my co worker and I had to pull about 300 feet of wire from the central part of a building to an area of the building that could receive cell signal.
We do this in a very scientific way.
We walk around the building until we can pick up good signal with our cell phones.

[kurt]

Scary,you can make your own “ hot spots” now with your devices.
Some neat little ant/amplifiers available at our local” spy “electronics hobby shop store.

[Worth1]

Spent the last day or so showing the young ones how to use the fluke meter as a tool and not just some pretty yellow thing to see if there are volts or not.
Also how to methodically troubleshoot things.
Case in point Keypads for security.
One of the guys said one was acting up and blinking on and off on a system we were bringing on line.
Go take the thing off the wall and see if it is wired up right.
He cam back and said it was wired up right.
Go take it back off the wall and check the wires with the meter to see if the polarity is right you cant keep assuming things.
the polarity is right.
Go back and check the voltage.
It is 11.40 volts.
That's too low that is why it is acting up.
Go put the keypad on another area and see if it works.
It works over there.
Fine now where are all the splices at.
Long story short some jackass months ago spliced in a long run of 22 AWG wire in the line coming from the keypad buss in the MDF room.
Thankfully each IDF room has a power supply and we took 12 volts from them to power up the keypads at each location.
Checked the powder at the keypad that is now working correctly and it was 13.5 volts.

The young man in question is 20 years old and is like a sponge.
My boss asked him a question yesterday and he came up with some sort of babble.
I said that is the most BS answer I have ever heard in my life, you have no idea what you are talking about.
My boss said yeah I was thinking the same thing.
The young man said well at least I tried.
Very respectful person indeed and has been literally thrown to the wolves.
One last thing I asked him if he was a member of Facebook.
He said hell no I read the disclaimer and there is no way I am going to have anything to do with them.

Next last thing.
His family all drinks and acts like a bunch of jackasses when they get drunk.
That is enough for him not to want to drink.
Some of the guys want to take him out to get drunk when he turns 21.
I told him in private dont do it.
He said he wasn't.

Anyway dont assume stuff with or without meters and the story is an example of how to use one to find out why something isn't working even though it has volts.

All voltages in this episode were DC not AC.

Worth

[Cole_Robbie]

I have two outlets that don't work. This is in my grandpa's 1980's rental trailer. My electricity meter lights up when I touch it to the side of the outlet, but nothing plugged into them will work. I thought I should replace the outlets.

The first one was at the end of a wiring run, just a white, black, and neutral to attach. The second one was in a series. It looks to be original to the trailer. What surprised me is that the outlet was wired so that there was one black and one white on each side, instead of both being on the same side. I wired it with both colors on the same side, which I thought was the right way, instead of the way I found it.

I flipped the power back on....and the outlets still don't work, and still light up the meter. What the heck? Does it matter the way I put the wires on the series outlet? I thought I did it correctly.

Also, I don't know if this is relevant, but on the other side of the door from the series outlet are two switches. One is supposed to work the ceiling light, I think, but it doesn't do anything. Power to the ceiling fixture is constant. I don't know if someone modified it somehow for a ceiling fan, but I just put up a new ceiling fan, and will let the renters just use the pull chains on it to turn it off and on. I'm only mentioning it in case it gives a clue about the dead outlets.