Electrical Foolishness

[RichG]

7. Morons who use stranded thhn for outlets...

Just for my own education, what would be the problem? Is it that you want a solid piece of copper making the connection? So would you use a short piece of solid between the thhn and the outlet?

[Bruce Cohen]

Q: What's black, crispy and hangs from the ceiling ?







A: A DIY electrician !!!

[Ed62]

When I had my A/C replaced two summers ago, the electrician found a similar thing in my house: two breakers were feeding out to a break-out box. Explains why there were a couple of outlets in the house that I couldn't determine their breaker by going through and flipping each one off, then back on when it didn't cut the power.

If you really want to have a good time, flip the breakers, one at a time, until the light goes off. Leave that breaker off, turn the others back on, and go to work.

Ed

[Hellrazor]

Just for my own education, what would be the problem? Is it that you want a solid piece of copper making the connection? So would you use a short piece of solid between the thhn and the outlet?

Stranded wire and outlets are not a smart thing to do. Although, who uses THHN in a house? You should use pigtails to the THHN.

[p8ntblr]

I deathly afraid of electricity. I turn off all the power in the house when working with it. Mostly because the house is so old the labels are faded. I also use one of those non-contact electrical testers now. One that was recommended here actually. It's called "Live Wire" and I highly recommend it. But my paranoia also has me testing with a contact tester as well.

On a side note my neighbor had his circuit breakers replaced a while back and asked me to let him in the house as he wasn't going to be there. I believe normally when they do this they ask the city to turn off the power at the street. For some reason the city didn't and instead of coming back, he worked on it live. To top that he did about 80% of the job while holding his cell phone to his ear with his shoulder

[Texas splinter]

more electrical foolishness

A few years back I was doing a "favor" for my sister-in-law. She had moved into a house that we later found out was owner-built by a guy who was a cement contractor. She wanted a different light fixture in the bathroom and I got the job. Like others here, I also made a foolish mistake, i just turned of the switch on the wall - after all, there was only one switch! After getting the snot shocked out of me by the nuetral wire, I started back tracing the wiring. It was Ok at the switch, so I pulled the cover off the main panel.
The ground and power wires were reversed on the main panel! I just told her that anytime she did anything to t he electrical system, even changing a light bulb, turn off the main poser breaker to the whole house.

That was just the first of many, many things I discovered wron with that house. It was built in the country when texas didn't have county building codes. They have them now but I have never seen them enforced.

[bigangelman]

low hanging light fix

Take one of the S hooks out of a rubber bungee, now hook it in high up near the ceiling, now lift the light and rehook it on the other end of the S hook. No wiring to do the and the light out of the way. Remember to remove before leaving or you'll be drivng back to unhook it. If no hook is available, move the first thing in and put beneath the light and leave it there.

Tom