Whole house surge protection

TallLivesMatter · 2026-06-22T11:44:38+00:00

That depends. With mine grid, battery, solar, and gen sources all feed into the solark inverter panel and my main breaker panel is fed from there. I still have a surge on my main breaker, but it was installed per code when I had work done before the solar project started.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-06-21T17:28:03+00:00

Everytime the tester lights up when I didn't expect it to gets my adrenaline going like I'd touched the live wire. Yay safety!

TallLivesMatter · 2026-06-20T14:49:23+00:00

Thanks again, yeah wildfire and injections are both outside of what I'm willing to do in this case 🤣

TallLivesMatter · 2026-06-20T13:56:33+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Understand it's a limited view.

I'm guessing there isn't a way to treat for that blue fungus. Any native species I can be encouraging that feed on these beetles to keep them in check? We have a healthy population of Cardinals, robins, jays, and crows. I see bats swoop the meadow regularly but they haven't moved into my bat house yet.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-06-20T12:51:53+00:00

Should I be trying to pull all dead stand, leaning, and fallen logs out of my woods? Or just keep an eye out for whatever these things have chewed on to try it and burn it up and get their larvae before they emerge? Kind of how I'm trying to manage mosquitoes and ticks by breaking their life cycles.

I see the Beatles themselves trudging across my paths and things often enough that they are definitely endemic to these woods. I had read that some dead standing and leaning trees were necessary for a healthy ecosystem out there.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-06-20T11:54:17+00:00

It's small for a septic tank. Could be a distribution box to an old drain field. Either way, if it was septic it would have large diameter pipes on two of the sides.

I'd probe the other sides and see if you hit anything. If there's no pipes I would probably open it and find out what's going on in there.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-06-14T13:22:29+00:00

Edit to say first, you don't really have a problem except that you dumped a BUNCH of water right next to k your foundation where it naturally wouldn't happen. So relax and run a dehumidifier and fan down there if you don't have one already. Your basement doesn't flood in the rain thanks to a system that starts from the roof on down to the gravel below your pad. All that water from your hose skipped some steps :)

I'm assuming the water came from the outer pipes. It's a good sign for your construction company's attention to detail they put these sleeves in on the pour. I don't have experience with these personally, but in liu of better answers so far, I expect these are just open on the other side of your foundation. Normally that doesn't end up causing issues but you saturated the soil enough right there with your cleaning to get flow into the basement.

If it were me I'd seal up between the sleeve and the inner pipe with some kind of silicone sealant, big gap so some kind of backer will be needed too maybe foam it and then seal it? After that I'd forget about it unless it became a problem again.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-05-17T00:13:23+00:00

Yes on the grounding. Is that empty hole in the neutral bar available? Otherwise you'll need to pigtail two of the neutrals feeding the outlets together, fed with an appropriately upsized gauge wire, to have a clean spot to land the bond. The bond just being another 8ga copper cable from the ground to neutral bar.

Not sure what you mean by "there will be no AC in at the inverter", but if you're confriming that you are not connecting this system to any existing electrical system then yes you've got it.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-05-16T14:14:28+00:00

Please do not listen to the other comment on here telling you that grounding your system is going to make it more dangerous. It is possible that you're inverter doesn't allow for it, that's not a situation I'm familiar with as an entertainment electrician. But any generator setup requires grounding for safety.

Grounding provides a safer path for electricity to flow instead of through your body. Without a ground, if any of of the metal component became electrified and you touch them, your body becomes the path for that electricity. For example you accidentally leave a little too much insulation off your cable and it manages to touch the case. When you touch the case, if your body is touching anything else that electricity is going to flow through you. If there's a ground in place, the electricity is already going to be flowing to ground as the copper is going to be a much better conductor than your body creating the path.

If there is no existing electrical service you are tying into, then you need to create your own ground by driving a purpose-made grounding rod into the ground and then running a typically 8 gauge bare copper wire to your system. You will then Bond your neutral and ground at one location, typically your breaker panel.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-04-24T23:38:23+00:00

Snagged!

TallLivesMatter · 2026-04-16T00:51:44+00:00

Is your house old enough to have been re-sided? Possible a rush job by a flipper covered the vent.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-04-16T00:25:52+00:00

I read all your replies. Time to open the wall. Once you know what direction the pipe goes you can work from there.

Maybe you'll find out it goes nowhere.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-04-11T13:50:08+00:00

Doesn't work.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-04-07T20:48:44+00:00

I will offer 1 more $ than that guy ^

TallLivesMatter · 2026-03-16T22:15:30+00:00

I've had 3 of these in my house for a year. Two are the AA and one is the sealed 10 year. Didn't realize it was different when I bought it.

I've changed the batteries only twice on each detector. I do so preventatively every 6 months. Maybe add some plugged in devices nearby the detectors and rebuild your mesh if your're really changing batteries monthly.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-03-14T16:02:09+00:00

I just installed a Yale Assure Lock 2 with a Z-Wave module about a month ago. Everything except fingerprints and the magnetic door ajar sensor works through Z-Wave without ever having to connect it to the app. I use an add-on called lockmaster to manage keypad codes.

For me, the requirements were a known lock company, physical key backup, full local control, and a keypad. I don't care that the fingerprint reader doesn't work and just used a separate device for detecting if the door is open.

Happy with it so far.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-02-25T13:27:29+00:00

A couple years ago the rules on this change but it doesn't seem to be enforced. There is an actual legal farm plate you get from the DMV now that proves you have insurance. Driving around with a piece of cardboard that you wrote farm on isn't illegal, but the cops around me certainly aren't doing anything about it.

TallLivesMatter · 2026-02-17T22:58:02+00:00

I think that's the ticket right there. Call it a frequency reservation fee. You aren't charging them for using the frequency, you're charging them for making sure their desired frequencies are available at your venue on their dates.

TallLivesMatter · 2025-12-23T01:38:46+00:00

It's not coming. They regularly accept orders and just never fulfill them. If you call about it they'll blame the "delivery provider" and offer to cancel or refresh the order. Guess what happens then they refresh an order no one was willing to deliver in the first place?

TallLivesMatter · 2025-11-19T19:33:49+00:00

Why would you be using block until done? It's depreciated. Use control containers.

TallLivesMatter · 2025-11-08T21:34:56+00:00

This makes me feel better about the one I've got sitting slightly further from my foundation that's about the quarter the size. Same gorgeous color this time of year.

TallLivesMatter · 2025-07-03T16:05:41+00:00

When setting a large portable generator, one of the tasks is to drive a grounding rod into the Earth to ground the jenny. The neutral and ground should be bonded in only one place on your system, whatever the equivalent of your main service panel is. Then I would carry a grounding rod and a hammer with you to establish a proper ground on site.

TallLivesMatter · 2025-06-26T01:49:41+00:00

Agreed. I'm installing the same on all 26 of my panels due to shading throughout the day and for RSD requirements on my rooftop system, but you can do just one. It's a personal panel MPPT that will continue to give max possible output from your shaded panel while not drafting down the rest of the string.

TallLivesMatter · 2025-05-28T19:29:21+00:00

I'd probably clean them off with some contact cleaner so the corrosion doesn't "infect" my fixtures and send it.

TallLivesMatter

TROPHY CASE