Advice The Home Improvement/Automation Thread

Domon said:
oh, so i can really piss off the angry pixies, the full 14kv ones.

I actually have an outside shutoff next to the meter. Tis nice, flip a 100a breaker, house is deader than dead.
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That sounds nice. Albeit, 100a is kinda low for a whole house unless really tiny. *No 14kv inside your meter box. Two 120 hots and the ground supplied by the utility. Granted, it will supply a lot of amperage before deciding you are done. Do you trust that outside breaker more than the main breaker on the box or the same?
A double-pole breaker isn't merging anything. It's strictly a space saver doing the same job as two separate without the retardation of having to flip two breakers for one circuit. Which could lead to a deadly accident.
 
Mr. Asa said:
Both are equally likely.

Home inspector mention anything about the electrical system?
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We didn't get a full home inspection but I knew going on that there was work to be done. The last inspector we got did about as good a job as I could have. Didn't even open the breaker box because it was painted over. He honestly colud have run a flat head around the edge to break the paint.

Any other inspectors wanted me to accept full responsibility for any thing that might go wrong during or after the inspection.
 
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OOD said:
We didn't get a full home inspection but I new going on that there was work to be done. The last inspector we got did about as good a job as I could have. Didn't even open the breaker box because it was painted over. He honestly colud have run a flat head around the edge to break the paint.

Any other inspectors wanted me to accept full responsibility for any thing that might go wrong during or after the inspection.
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Is your real username shamwaw? Do you enjoy short walks across the street.
 
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OOD said:
We didn't get a full home inspection but I new going on that there was work to be done. The last inspector we got did about as good a job as I could have. Didn't even open the breaker box because it was painted over. He honestly colud have run a flat head around the edge to break the paint.

Any other inspectors wanted me to accept full responsibility for any thing that might go wrong during or after the inspection.
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They are all over the place on quality. The inspector should try not to kill the deal but really needs to find a few fucking things that are wrong or areas of concern. I figured if I gave the customer 2-3% of the purchase price in a shopping list of needed items they would have some leverage to get some amount of price reduction.
 
HipHugHer said:
Take a boom box, crank it up to where you can hear it at the panel, plug it into one outlet at a time, start flipping breakers and drawing a map/chart of what's what.

Then do the same thing with lights and switches.

If your wife gets sick of yelling "yes, no, on, off", get one of these and plug the boom box in the light sockets.

View attachment 10188
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Did that except had the wife go around plugging her phone in. We still have 3 double breakers (one can't be untriped) and 2 singles unaccounted for. I just have them off for now. And the house is not mapped out by room or type. I have breakers that are cutting things off at opposite ends of the house.
 
OOD said:
Did that except had the wife go around plugging her phone in. We still have 3 double breakers (one can't be untriped) and 2 singles unaccounted for. I just have them off for now. And the house is not mapped out by room or type. I have breakers that are cutting things off at opposite ends of the house.
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Attic? Basement?
 
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OOD said:
Did that except had the wife go around plugging her phone in. We still have 3 double breakers (one can't be untriped) and 2 singles unaccounted for. I just have them off for now. And the house is not mapped out by room or type. I have breakers that are cutting things off at opposite ends of the house.
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That sounds amazingly fucked up.
 
wetwille said:
Go full tilt - pull the meter. j/k
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My old house had no master breaker, so I would frequently pull the meter. The power company got pretty irritated with me for that, because they figured I was just shoving copper bridges in there to avoid paying for power. Also, they had to keep replacing the anti-tamper tag.
 
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OOD said:
Did that except had the wife go around plugging her phone in. We still have 3 double breakers (one can't be untriped) and 2 singles unaccounted for. I just have them off for now. And the house is not mapped out by room or type. I have breakers that are cutting things off at opposite ends of the house.
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Things at opposite ends,etc. Lights should be on different breakers than wall outlets - who wants to be in the dark when they trip a wall socket(code). So if lights in 3 rooms came on/off, that is very normal. Usually 2 rooms to a breaker for wall sockets in bedrooms and living rooms. Kitchen maybe 2 breakers with a seperate one for garbage disposal. 4 slice toaster is just shy of tripping a 15 amp breaker . . .
 
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Jehannum said:
My old house had no master breaker, so I would frequently pull the meter. The power company got pretty irritated with me for that, because they figured I was just shoving copper bridges in there to avoid paying for power. Also, they had to keep replacing the anti-tamper tag.
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I've done that. I usually just put on a zip-tie and let them wonder about it. With metering checked by WI-FI now, it could be years before they notice.:fly:
 
Mr. Asa said:
Attic? Basement?
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Found the lights in the attic. We have no basement.

There used to be baseboard heating, door bell, there are two 220 receptacles and a 120 that are dead. The washer, dryer, and water heater look like they have been moved before.

I imagine a lot of these breakers went to or go to this stuff.
 
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OOD said:
Did that except had the wife go around plugging her phone in. We still have 3 double breakers (one can't be untriped) and 2 singles unaccounted for. I just have them off for now. And the house is not mapped out by room or type. I have breakers that are cutting things off at opposite ends of the house.
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When was it built?

Plugs that look like these

KIm5b.jpg_20_amp_220_volt_657574393.jpg

are 220s for big ass window air conditioners. They wired that in some houses before central a/c was as commonplace as it is now.

110/120s that seemingly don't do anything could be from some previous rewiring, maybe diy off the books.

Same with the ones that control seemingly unrelated stuff in different parts of the house. Or that could be an electrician connecting stuff wherever there's room to make the load calc's work out right.

My bigger concern above any of that is the one that won't reset. Either the breaker itself is bad (cheap, easy to replace), or that breaker is doing its job because you have a short somewhere. Fix that shit first.
 
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OOD said:
Shit mine was built in the 70s...
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Aluminum branch wiring is fine, but difficult to deal with. Either you'll need to get Al-rated fixtures (which are expensive, and difficult to come by), or you'll need to pigtail it to copper. I chose to pigtail to copper.

I used these alumiconn connectors, because 1) it keeps the aluminum and copper separate, avoiding issues with galvanic corrosion, 2) they're easy to install correctly (as opposed to the aluminum wire nuts, which you can get wrong easily and badly), and 3) they're UL listed in the application (so if your house burns down, you won't get hosed by your insurance company).
 
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