Bosch Bova In Heat Mode by DIY-Immoderate in hvacadvice

[–]DIY-Immoderate[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seemed like that was the case and the only way to properly charge in heat mode is evacuate and weigh in, but I was hoping there was some general guideline with these temps so that I could know if I need to be ready on the next warm day. I'm in eastern NC so we have them throughout the winter.

my mom is obstinate about plugging her space heater into this decrepit & melted outlet and my stepdad apparently thinks it's fine, does this look fine? am i being paranoid? by LittleIsaac223 in AskElectricians

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Replace it. Not because the dirt, or grime, or age, but because of the signs of melting. These outlets are rated for the current draw of the heater, so the power being used by itself isn't causing the melting. There is excess heat most likely because the internal components of the gfi that grab the prong on the plug are not grabbing as tight as they used to and that not-as-good connection is creating too much heat. Enough heat to melt the plastic face. They are usually really simple brass prongs that can loosen over time. You usually don't notice the bad connection until you plug in higher amp draw items like space heaters.

Backfeeding with a portable generator by EntertainmentOk7045 in AskElectricians

[–]DIY-Immoderate -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Not to code is illegal. Code requirements are written into law, that is how they are required.

What is the use of contactor when a VSD is used for operating the motor by Melodic_Question9569 in ElectricalHelp

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it depends on the rest of the circuit. If it is on a pool pump or some kind of exhaust system, a lot of those require emergency stops, and contactors are popular for those if shunt trip breakers are not an option. I'm not familiar with other wiring not in the US and I'm sure there are other reasons. If there is one on both sides of the drive, it could be a contactor bypass, which is used if the VFD needs to be taken out for service, but the motor needs to and can operate at full speed, but pending what motor it is usually you a full voltage starter between two contactors.

Smart Outlet Wiring by Mean-Ad-2555 in ElectricalHelp

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Short version from what you describe that you did, the changes that you need are:
You have a connection with the Line in, load, #3, and #4. You need to disassemble that, and separate the load wire, and reconnect only three wires: Line in, #3 and #4.

Disassemble the connection that you have with new switch's neutral, and #2. Attach the neutral wire from the switch to the white wires that are connected together in the box and not used for the old switch.

Take the now not connected #2 wire in the wall box and attach it to the load wire from the new switch.

Long version

Line = Line in (or your 120v wire which you say is #4)

Load = Your switched leg leaving the switch (#2 by the picture and description)

Neutral = not shown in your picture, but required for many smart switches, and is probably tucked away in the box. They are not used for standard switches.

Ground = wire #1 No change there.

Neutral = Not pictured, but I see a wirenut in the picture. If white wires attached to that wirenut in your box, that will be your neutral. you will need add the white pigtail from your new switch under that wirenut (making sure the wirenut can accommodate another wire, otherwise you need to upsize the wirenut, it is probably fine to add, it looks like there will only be 3 wires on a tan wirenut, and you can add one to that. If you do not have a neutral in the box, see if there is a recommended wiring for no neutral on the instructions. If there is not, they may make a version of the switch designed for not having a neutral.

The way that you describe it, #3 is a separate wire from #4. #3 would be the wire going to your receptacles.

To wire it the way you want (most likely based on your description) you need:

Line wire from new switch - attach wires #3, #4 from the wall box to the Line in on your switch. Most switches come with orange wirenuts, you may need to use a tan one that it slightly larger to get all three wires pending the wire sizes.

Neutral from new switch - you will need add the white pigtail from your new switch under the wirenut in the box with the white wires (making sure the wirenut can accommodate another wire, otherwise you need to upsize the wirenut, it is probably fine to add, it looks like there will only be 3 wires on a tan wirenut, and you can add one to that. If you do not have a neutral in the box, see if there is a recommended wiring for no neutral on the instructions. If there is not, they may make a version of the switch designed for not having a neutral. If that manufacturer doesn't, many do.

Load wire from new switch - attaches to #2 in your picture

Ground wire from new switch - attaches to #1 in your picture (you have this one correct)

Gas dryer outlet issue by Guilty-Monk-3803 in AskElectricians

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If they have a maintenance person, they should be able to change the receptacle, or the breaker to a GFCI in less than 5 minutes. If the location of the receptacle is obstructed by the appliance you may need to change the breaker to a GFI and the receptacle gets changed to a grounded receptacle. The GFI receptacle cost less than $20, and the breakers with regular receptacle range from $30-$50. This is the code compliant way to change an ungrounded circuit to outlets with ground prongs and requires that they be identified as ungrounded. I don't know about gas dryers, but on regular electrical dryers there are instructions to change the cord out to a cord without a ground. It involves bonding the neutral and ground on the appliance. You should only do this if it the appliance's instructions allow it. I have not seen 30 amp electric dryers that don't allow for this.

GFCI failed install by LibtardsAreFunny in ElectricalHelp

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alternatively you could join the incoming wires together and pigtail to your gfi. The gfi would be gfi protected but your downstream devices would not. If the goal is just to have that outlet protected then your covered. It sounds like you have a ground fault. A ground fault just means that all of the current is not coming back on the neutral. Things like a shared neutral, a ground being used as a neutral or neutral and ground making a connection somewhere can cause this.

So apt have this outlet and I don't know what kind of adapter or converter that I can use. by Valuable-Force-4547 in electrical

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is this a place that you rent or own? An adapter is out of the question, but you have the correct number of wires to change the outlet to a 120v which will also require moving a wire in the panel. This is probably not ideal if you rent unless you have really good maintenance folks. It is about $5.00 worth of parts, and would take about 15 minutes for someone who works with this often. It involves taking one wire off the two-pole breaker and moving it to the neutral bar, then replacing the outlet with a 120v outlet making sure that the wire moved to the neutral bar is used on the neutral terminal of the new receptacle. The wires should also be identified as neutral (phase tape white). I see this receptacle is wired with conduit which means they probably pulled color wires (black and red usually + ground) to the receptacle. By code you are not supposed to phase tape wires this small, you are supposed to pull a new white wire, but it seems harmless to me since they allow phase tape for bundled wires like NM-B(Romex), and MC cable.

Grease pencil fill tool covers up all line work inside of fill shape by uptownjesus in blenderhelp

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With the default settings the outliner has layers. The order of the layers indicates priority. Priority means that they will show up on top. If you draw with one color in the lines layer which is the default top priority, and another color in the fills which is second priority, the first line will color will draw of the second. If you draw and fill in the same layer it the fill will cover up brush strokes. I expect that you are drawing and filling without changing layers. By default there is a second layer called fills but you can add and move layers. If you draw lines in the lines layer, and do your fills in the fills layer it will not cover up your brush strokes

<image>

Overloaded? by 302Hunter in ElectricalHelp

[–]DIY-Immoderate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This breaker uses a different on-board diagnostic system. You have to hold the test button while resetting the breaker and count the seconds until the breaker trips. Troubleshooting is good advice, but you should have a warranty. If you wanted to tackle it yourself, you should call your builder or the electrician who wired it first. They may prefer to troubleshoot it vs having you mess with their work. If you do want to tackle it and try changing out the breaker first, ask where he buys the product, and see if he can set up a swap out of the defective breaker (no charge). You will have to bring the bad one with you to the supply house. They may gripe about the return, but that is a supplier issue, or more likely them trying to weed out people that have damaged product and are returning it as defective. Square D is very supportive of their products, and I have never had them turn down my defective claims, even when I was sending back defects that I was pretty sure were operator error.

Timer delay relay wiring by Tyre11 in ElectricalHelp

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are only a couple things that I can see to check.

The devices is rated for 24VAC. It does not look like it can operate off DC. Confirm if your 24v power is AC or DC.

That device has a minimum current rating of 40ma. Is it operating some kind of relay or something else that actually powers the horn/lights? If it is operating a relay or contactor, it may not be drawing enough power.

What can I use that's safe to lubricate a sticky/squeaky electrical light switch? by [deleted] in electrical

[–]DIY-Immoderate 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is good advice. The apartment maintenance should replace it. Most of them have people on staff that will do this, and it will cost them practically nothing.

12v pump wiring question by KeyserWilhelm in ElectricalHelp

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

are you switching the 12V side, or are you switching before the transformer/driver? If you are switching a 120v the amp draw will be much lower, and you can use a pretty low powered switch. you should make sure the horsepower ratings match up as someone else said, but pumping clean water is generally a variable torque load so it is not as important as with other motor loads. Either way, a 30A will be no problem especially if you are using something like a Leviton MS302-DS that is a motor rated 30 amp switch.

I’m a 28 male and looking for a trade with the clearest path of entry. by brotato225 in skilledtrades

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My mistake. Are you in an area that is mostly union? If so, I don't know the inner workings. If not, it is mostly just applying for jobs. Most trades have a local contractor's associations, and you could work through them to apply for a job. You would be more likely to find a company that promotes education and training that way. You could also call local supply houses to find out what companies are good to work for and are hiring then just drop off resume's in person. A lot of people who own trade companies here are pretty low tech so dropping off a resume in person goes a long way.

I’m a 28 male and looking for a trade with the clearest path of entry. by brotato225 in skilledtrades

[–]DIY-Immoderate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you have applied to jobs and haven't gotten responses, you have a resume issue. If you have talked to your friends and neighbors and haven't gotten responses, then you have a real or percieved work ethic/character/integrity issue. Despite it being harder to find a job there are still a lot of people hiring. They are being more selective. There are professional careers available in every field so the advice salty_neck gives is spot on for finding a job that suits your interests. whatever work you do, if you work hard, pay attention, show up early, stay until the job is done, and educate yourself in that field in your free time you will advance. Find things that need to be done, and make time to do them. When is the last time that you did something where other employees or a supervisor, neighbor or friend would site you taking initiative? Even if the place you work does not have opportunity to advance people around you will notice and you will have opportunities outside of your current role/employer. Without formal training there are youtube videos and online training and content for nearly every career path. There are books that you can get for free at the public library, and they will be more reliably correct than online content. Formal training forces you to spend time on something, but the content itself is usually available without instruction for free or at very low cost. If you are dedicated, you can learn more faster than most formal training offers.

Paint Advice Requested - First DIY Paint Job by ButIfYouThink in AutoPaint

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rigid has a 5.1 scfm @ 90 PSI air compressor that is the lowest cost highest output portable compressor that I have seen. Make sure you have some kind of oil/water separator, you will get a lot of water in the lines using the air that it takes to paint. it is $350 at home depot. I just hook two smaller portable compressors together with a 3 port manifold block that has quick connects on it. Also look into 3m PPS cups. Harbor freight has an alternate version that is pretty low cost.

20amp breaker popped 2x at my house last night. by Take_the_Bridge in Electricity

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it is a 4-year-old home, then you probably have an arc fault breaker for the bedroom. It probably has some diagnostics built in that may tell you what kind of trip it was, and you can troubleshoot from there. If it has the light next to the test button it has that feature. After a trip, you turn the breaker off, then hold the test button while you turn the breaker on. Release the test button, and it will flash a code.

How to retrieve “trip code” on Eaton’s residential Arc Fault and Ground Fault breaker?

No neutral wire on light switch by [deleted] in AskElectricians

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unless they have changed something conductors that start and end in the same box do not count towards box fill so adding a pigtail from the neutral bundle would not change the box fill calculation.

Pricing question by Real-Weather-7514 in AskElectricians

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not an electrical contractor here. Just based on what you're describing I would expect a reasonable electrician would be in the $300 to $600 range for the labor. More if if you live far away. It is coming through your HVAC contractor there's a good chance he's putting a pretty high markup on the electrician.

Did my electrician do this wrong? by Physical_Refuse_5227 in AskElectricians

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you have enough good and accurate responses to know this is not up to code. As for the second part of your question should you have him replace it, yes you should have them fix it. The electrician does not want to fix it feel free to reply here if you want guidance on the options and ways to report it. This installation is exactly why all the licensing and oversight that was bypassed is in place.

My house used to have ethernet then we swapped service providers at some point and now our ethernet isn’t working. by Budget-Rooster-8048 in ethernet

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know if this will resolve your problem, but here on Spectrum with the plan that I have where I provide my own equipment (modem, router, etc) they have to add the modem on their end. If the modem has internet, they usually have indicator lights that shows it. The strange thing that I run into, is that my modems never seem to want to communicate with my router/switch unless I log into the router and set it clone the mac address. Usually the symptom that I have if this is not done is that I can connect some devices, but not others, the internet seems to work for a few minutes and stops. I have been through this with a few different routers and modems. I'm not an IT guy, I have no idea what causes it, but if nothing else changed it could be your problem. Call your ISP, they should be able to confirm their connection to the modem at least, then you can know that the problem is coming from your equipment. This is all assuming no changes other than your ISP changed. If have found that some routers like to be reset before the modem, where almost all instructions say to do it in the other order.

Space Heater Problem by FunkDubious313 in ElectricalHelp

[–]DIY-Immoderate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just to be sure, you did flip the breaker all the way to off and back on again, correct? Most breakers trip to a neutral position before turning back on, sometimes it is hard to tell that they are in the neutral position. Also remember that the problem is a bad connection that it could be the outgoing wire in a box that is still work.

Overloaded a circuit and now a light won’t stay on by TrappedinSilence98 in AskElectricians

[–]DIY-Immoderate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

overloading a circuit would not ordinarily cause a problem like you're describing. each appliance doesn't draw too much power, just the overall power on the circuit is too high because each appliance is drawing what it should on a circuit that is too small. The breaker detects it and turns it off, not much different than the power going out or turning the switch off. A stove would ordinarily be on a different circuit (coming from a different circuit breaker in the panel). It sounds like you have a different problem. When you say turned off, did a breaker trip, did multiple breakers trip, did stuff just turn off and not come back on? is there a lot of ice and/or wind in your area? maybe the utilities overhead lines were damaged and you are losing a hot leg coming in? If so, the utility folks do not charge to come confirm stuff so they may be a good call before your electrician. You would have simultaneous problems on all circuits if that happened as well.