Just grumbling...

[MacGyverS2000]

Getting ready to remodel major portions of the significant other's house, which means messing around in the breaker box. As an electrical engineer I'm fully aware of electrical safety practices, but that also means I'm very nervous about approaching the box because I know what can go wrong (been shocked too many times building high-voltage circuits as a young'un, but they were obviously low current). The house was built the early 70's, and everything looks copper (thankfully). There doesn't appear to be a main breaker in the box, so I'm hoping there's a cut-off on the meter (I'd feel much safer doing that anyway). I'll be doing a lot of work on and off, so I don't want to call the power company each time to shut it all down.

The first change is to move the water heater downstairs, but I'll also be debugging a nagging problem... the power to the bathroom goes out about once a month. With no warning, the lights fail to come on and the outlet attached to the same box supplies no power, and power is restored in the same manner by next morning. It happened two nights ago and the meter shows no power being supplied to the switch, so I'm thinking it's in the breaker box (loose terminal screw?). I don't smell/see any arcing or burning in the switch/outlet box. I love the puzzle, but hate that it's on a high-voltage/current circuit

Just wanted to grumble about having to do it, maybe get a few "I was once nervous, too" stories added in. Now that I think about it, some self-learned safety tips would be good to add here, too (maybe easy ways to block off live bus bars while working in the breaker box, etc.).

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[btrueblood]

mac,

not a horror story, but it caught me by surprise: a 3-phase lighting system wired with standard (1 phase only, I thought) Romex wire (the kind with two solid, insulated wires and a third bare "ground" wire running in a rectangular jacket). Third leg was on the bare wire. Our "facilities" engineer in the plant told me that it was "to code".

 

[itsmoked]

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[MacGyverS2000]

I don't know 3-phase and even I know that can't be to code! ;-)



Keith, I'm using water-soluble flux, so after a few days/weeks worth of showers I imagine it should all be gone.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[OperaHouse]

I was adding a circuit to a fuse box after purchasing the house. Removed the cover and found all the later upgraded wiring with grounds had all the grounds twisted together. Not connected to ground, just twisted together! In the basement there was a one foot section of pipe hanging in the air by just a wire and a ground clamp. Clamp had a tag on it that said do not remove without calling telephone company. Well, it wasn't removed when they cut the pipe out!

Another 1910 era house I bought had its original fuse box with wire and tube wiring. This had the returning neutral fused on each branch.

 

[pooslinger]

Hows this? I was called to my brothers house after his TV,Stero,answering machine and computers power supplys smoked. When the microwave or the fridge or freezer turned on, half the lights in the house would go dim and the other half would go bright. When I put my meter acrossed both legs of the breaker box, I measured a consistant 220V no mater what. When I referenced neutral which was straped to ground I would get 110v with no load but when a high draw like the furnas blower turned on, one leg would go to 60v and the other leg would go to 160v. The neutral wire coming from the pole had broke stopping the transformer from balancing the load. I scratched my head for two hours. After the Detroit Edision told me I was full of crap they fixed it the next day.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Opera, While prepping for all of this I noticed a copper pipe that came from upstairs near the water heater and ended in the main drain in the basement. For no particular reason I tried to shake it, and much to my surprise it actually moved... a LOT! After a few more minutes of crawling around I realized what had happened. They replaced the heater a few years back but didn't reconnect the overpressure drain line (it was M-rated pipe). Since the heater had been moved from its original location, the pipe didn't immediately strike me as belonging to it. It had a couple of convoluted bends and other pipes were trapping it, but after a few twists of the cutter I was able to recover about 16' of pipe and connectors. At least I'll be patching the floor in there.

Scares me to think what I'll find when I finally open the breaker box!


Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[Proofseeker]

All the above. Pulling the meter is the "Best Practice". If you must work live and a short circuit occurs you may not get zapped but sparks fly so protect your eyes! Always wear safety glasses!

 

[itsmoked]

Dan water soluble is good.... but if you aren't wiping if off the outside of the fittings that just means atmospheric moisture will keep it "cleaning"... until, well, you get the point.

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[jraef]

Well if plumbing horror stories are acceptable, I could go on for days. Condensed version of my biggest was that I bought a house in Seattle built in 1910, originally without indoor plumbing. Plumbing was added in the '20s by the original Rube Goldberg I think. Bizarre angles and combinations of fittings that made me assume they had to use whatever they could find at the store that day. All of it galvanized. When I bought the house, they had painted everything ion the basement white.

<<Note to self: never again ASS-U-Me that someone who paints everything in an area that didn't need painting was just a neat freak>>

Several years later, I noticed rust on the concrete floor of the basement, looked up and saw a drip mark coming from the (white) pipe. Long story short, all of the pipes were rusting through. Sent the wife and kids off on vacation for a week, ran new copper pipe everywhere. Being concerned for my young kids, I chose lead-free solder (before it was required). Ran the pipe, soldered all the joints, leaned back to admire my handiwork and flipped the lever on my globe valve (I spared no expense). Leaked like a fire sprinkler system! I hadn't had a shower in 4 days at that point, but that was not how I wanted to take one! Shut off the water, drained the pipes and started re-soldering the joints, ALL OF THEM! Turned the water back on, same thing, except worse now, plus the family was returning in 2 days. Went to the hardware store to get a recommendation for a plumber and to bitch about their silver solder. Picked up the container and saw, right on front in bold letters; "MUST USE SILVER SOLDER FLUX ONLY; DO NOT USE STANDARD FLUX". After some appropriate swearing and auto-glutial-podiatric punishment, I disassembled the entire system, melted and wire-brushed off the old solder on every joint, applied the proper flux, reassembled and re-soldered the whole house plumbing in 20 hours non-stop. Took a nice long shower and slept for about 12 more hours until the family returned.

 

[itsmoked]

I feel for you jraef. haha..
But only so much, because I had to lay in the dirt under my house to redo all mine.

Why would you leave Seattle to move to CA?? Or don't you like big lahars?

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[zeitghost]

I've still got lead plumbing in bits of my house... gives the water that sweet taste. )

 

[jraef]

Keith,
I was born in CA, right in Bezerkely, so I was coming home. I liked it in Seattle, but my wife didn't. She was born in Minneapolis and worked hard to escape the snow by coming to CA on her own at age 18. 5 years after marrying me I moved her to Seattle and the first time it snowed, she made me promise to take her back to California. Took me 12 years to do it.

Ironically, the house I ended up buying here in CA has... you guessed it... GALVANIZED PIPE! I added on to the house after buying it and hired a plumber this time, he told me nobody used galvanized pipe in CA in 1971 when this house was built. Apparently I found the exception. Next year I'm having it redone by an outfit called Re-Pipe that specializes in doing the entire house in 2 days max., without opening up the walls. They quoted me $2400 for the whole shebang, money well worth it IMHO.

 

[itsmoked]

I see - makes sense.

Last time I visited Seattle my young son decided to hit our host's son in the head with a hammer. (Experimentally)(once).. Luckily it was a small hammer. I have rarely been more mortified. (Barely knew the people.) They lived directly across the street from the water. The next morning 2 ferries collided in front of their house.

Interesting place..

Thanks for the info.
I will forthwith relate that company to my buddy. Maybe they will replace all his sieving for something reasonable.

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com