Advice The Home Improvement/Automation Thread

idk. I get the whole paranoia thing. I went to install a ceiling fan, turned off the room's breaker & a light was still on. Went back down, turned the whole house off with the main, headed back upstairs and that fucking light was still on. I did the install because where I was putting the fan & the closet light I was hijacking was off.

Curiously, at a later date, the gfci outlet in the bathroom was exactly the same. My dad was over & all "oh, no worries. you just do it this way & be careful." The whole time I thought, "yup, today's his last day." told him, "Dad, just want you to know I love you." He stops, looks down his nose at me & says, "I'm not done with you yet." :lol:
 
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APRIL said:
The hot tub panel is in our garage next to our regular house panel. Maybe that's weird.
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Technically that's not up to code :) NEC now requires an outdoor disconnect switch for any hard-wired outdoor device like a hot tub, air conditioner/heat pump outdoor unit or whatever. At least there's a GFCI on there though.

To permanently add a 240V outdoor outlet you'll need to put a GFCI breaker in the panel, and run wire to your outdoor outlet.

For a cheaper solution you could add a 240V breaker and a non-GFCI outlet in the garage next to the panel and make yourself a 240V extension cord.
 
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gee said:
Technically that's not up to code :) NEC now requires an outdoor disconnect switch for any hard-wired outdoor device like a hot tub, air conditioner/heat pump outdoor unit or whatever. At least there's a GFCI on there though.

To permanently add a 240V outdoor outlet you'll need to put a GFCI breaker in the panel, and run wire to your outdoor outlet.

For a cheaper solution you could add a 240V breaker and a non-GFCI outlet in the garage next to the panel and make yourself a 240V extension cord.
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Ya, the previous owners did it. Had one of our neighbors install the shit.
 
gee said:
Technically that's not up to code :) NEC now requires an outdoor disconnect switch for any hard-wired outdoor device like a hot tub, air conditioner/heat pump outdoor unit or whatever. At least there's a GFCI on there though.

To permanently add a 240V outdoor outlet you'll need to put a GFCI breaker in the panel, and run wire to your outdoor outlet.

For a cheaper solution you could add a 240V breaker and a non-GFCI outlet in the garage next to the panel and make yourself a 240V extension cord.
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The right solution would be to put a subpanel outside, using the same gauge that feeds the subpanel in the garage, and then just bypass the subpanel by pulling the wire through that box to the outside (where he could install a new subpanel).

Then boom, @fly would have all the power he needs and an outside shutoff for the hot tub.
 
APRIL said:
Why does the panel have to be outside?
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Fire/safety reasons. If your device is outdoors and hardwired, and it's on fire or electrocuting someone or whatever, you need to be able to kill power to it. If the house is locked, you're SOL.

edit: if it's just an outdoor outlet where you can pull the cord, this isn't necessary, but outdoor outlets are required to be protected by a GFCI. Outlets themselves can be GFCI (easy/cheap for 120V, not so much for 240V) or you can use a GFCI breaker in the panel.
 
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gee said:
Fire/safety reasons. If your device is outdoors and hardwired, and it's on fire or electrocuting someone or whatever, you need to be able to kill power to it. If the house is locked, you're SOL.

edit: if it's just an outdoor outlet where you can pull the cord, this isn't necessary, but outdoor outlets are required to be protected by a GFCI. Outlets themselves can be GFCI (easy/cheap for 120V, not so much for 240V) or you can use a GFCI breaker in the panel.
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So garage isn't considered the outdoors? lol
 
gee said:
Have a peek at the hot tub outdoor box and see if it's got room for a 2nd breaker in it - I added a 120V breaker to mine to provide an outlet for plugging in a stereo or whatever. Even if there isn't room in the box, it'd be a quick job to replace the box with one with room for a 2nd breaker. Easier than running wire all the way back to your panel.

Only catch is depending on how much your hot tub draws and how much your brewing machine does, if both of them run simultaneously they might trip the breaker in the house, so you'll have to switch off the tub briefly, but that's no big deal.

And you won't shock yourself - turn off the breaker in the house and you can monkey with the outdoor panel all you want.
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Well, another problem is that the conduit leaks and gets water in it. Every once in a while, it trips the GFCI breaker and I have to go blow out the conduit with the shopvac. So the whole damn thing needs to be redone.
 
fly said:
Well, another problem is that the conduit leaks and gets water in it. Every once in a while, it trips the GFCI breaker and I have to go blow out the conduit with the shopvac. So the whole damn thing needs to be redone.
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that probably takes about an hour of labor to redo (correctly)

just do it.
 
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fly said:
Well, another problem is that the conduit leaks and gets water in it. Every once in a while, it trips the GFCI breaker and I have to go blow out the conduit with the shopvac. So the whole damn thing needs to be redone.
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If you're shorting because there's water in the conduit, you need to run the right fukn' wire.

Seriously, this is a fire hazard. Conduits are wet locations by default, so you have to have THHN pulled through.
 
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