In a bad rental situation right now with outlets that are obviously not installed well. This just happened when I unplugged something. I don't have access to the breaker box. What do I need to do to make sure this doesn't start a fire until I can get the landlord to do something about it?
I am trying to see if I can upgrade my 15A outlet to 20A in my garage. There are no markings on the wire to see if it’s 12 or 14 gauge (Should I pull out the wires more to see the type of wire?). I will swap out the 15A outlet to the 20A outlet and swap the 15A breaker to the 20A breaker as well if the wiring permits.
For a surge protector, would this Phillips product be too little in joules for the things I need to plug into it? It is 1080 joules. I have to plug into it my MacBook laptop, a Seagate Desktop 8tb hard drive, iPhone 17 Pro charger, another iPhone charger, a MagSafe charger to charge AirPods, and a charger to charge a rechargeable cellphone battery. Otherwise if this is not good enough to protect my devices, how many joules do I need? And what’s a great brand? Is Phillips good or no? Thank you!
Closed and moved in last Wednesday. Since I moved in the lights all throughout the house have been flickering and have been getting worse. I assume that has to do with setting up the rooms and plugging more stuff in.
I’d post a video but this sub won’t let me.
Anyways does anyone have any idea?
Also, because I know people will ask, I contacted the contractor who got me in touch with the electrician. The electrician read my text early in the day but hasn’t replied back. I plan on calling tomorrow.
I've never seen an outlet like this before, with the little circle thing plugging the hole. I just want to be sure it's 100% safe to use before plugging anything in it. Thanks in advance!
Hi everyone,
Hanging out at the house, cats playing in the hallway. One of them knocks over a random house fan we have to air out our bathroom. As I go over to pick it up, I get a quick whiff of an electrical/melting plastic smell in the hallway under our attic access to our AC components and in between all the bedrooms.
Didn’t linger; no noticeable smoke; nothing that I could trace to a certain bedroom. No fishy/rubber odor.
But my brother and sister both said they noticed the smell occasionally in their respective rooms.
Our AC has been running basically constantly the last month, it’s the only thing I could think of that is a constant factor among all 3 areas where it was noticed.
House is 26 yrs old, original wiring; don’t think there has been an inspection since build.
Our AC tech company won’t be able to come out til September, but I want to book specifically with an electrician if possible to check things out.
I am very, very paranoid of a house fire. Are we in immediate danger? Or will we be okay for now until we can get someone to come out?
Thank you
The breaker box is on the opposite side of the wall, where the meter is.
Is this loose black wire the ground wire and, if so, shouldn't it be attached to the ground rod? And, if so, isn't this something the home inspector should have found and noted?
TIA...
I ask because a 250 volt 15 amp and 20 amp would fit in this. along with 125 volt variants. isnt this a fire hazard. This is sold by leviton too by the way.
im on the 6th of 7 floors so no attic, pressing it doesn’t make anything happen as far as im aware, the thing needs a ladder to reach so I don’t think it’s meant to be flipped
also that pannel there takes the standard latchkey (a single key used for many things that aren’t actually meant to be locked so much as latched and need a tool not your bare hands) but requires too much torque for a standard latchkey (made of plastic) to handle, maybe the two have something in common?
Location: San Francisco, CA
We had to have a sub-panel replaced to get our system up to code for a larger remodel. The electrician hired by our GC turned off the power to the unit (3 BR condo), replaced the panel, then re-energized the system. My partner noted hearing several "pops" at some point during the repair (unsure if prior to re-energizing or not) We later discovered that several appliances in the house were dead, including dishwasher, microwave, stereo receiver, and others. A repair technician for the dishwasher confirmed that the controller board was fried and the entire appliance needed to be replaced.
The electrician did say at one point that they found a "back feed issue, but it was on a different circuit. Not the ones the appliances were on". When we pressed them on their responsibility for frying the electronics, they said that the back feed was probably due to some unpermitted electrical work in a previous renovation, and since the panel was a like-for-like upgrade, they could not be held responsible. We did not perform any unpermitted work, so if this is the case, it was done by previous owners.
The GC sent the electrician back out after we expressed our concerns, and he plugged a voltage detector into several outlets to show that it was reading 120V. His claim was that was sufficient evidence, and that there was nothing in their work that could have caused the fried electronics.
I have a million questions, but I'll try to keep them tight.
Assuming that they are telling the truth about a back feed issue, was there a way that they could have and should have detected it before re-energizing the panel?
Do they have a responsibility to detect these kinds of issues and disclose them?
If there was improper wiring from previous work from before we owned the home (3+ years), why would it only manifest itself on a panel upgrade?
Is there a risk to us or the home since the issue was not corrected?
What should our next steps be?
We are currently out thousands of dollars in appliance replacement cost. We're getting stonewalled. We had a third party electrician come out to examine the work. He said that the workmanship looked good, and the evidence points to a "lost neutral", but couldn't pinpoint a definitive cause. We only have the effects, no causes.
Im replacing a bunch of old receptacles and switches. Virtually all boxes have these clips. Wondering if they’re acceptable for today’s standards or if I should just go ahead and swap them out for grounding screws. In a few instances I swapped them out to fit a larger receptacle or switch, but curious what people’s thoughts are on these?
Need help with a white lie
I just picked a date for to take my journeyman’s test.
Bossman knows I’m getting it soon but I don’t want him to know when I’m taking my test. I just want to tell him I have my license.
I was planning on telling him I have a doctors appt but I feel like that’s too obvious.
Any suggestions on an excuse to take a random weekday off without calling out sick last minute.
These wires (white, black and ground) run from one electrical outlet box to another. They are in the wall and will be wall boarded up. Do I need a conduit running between the two electrical outlet boxes, or is it okay for these wires to run without being in a conduit? (I'm pretty sure the wires are sufficient gauge, just wondering if they need to be in a conduit.)
Hello, I replaced an old degraded junction box and replaced the rigid conduit to flex conduit for ease of repair in future. I installed Liquid Tight fittings upside down and now am second guessing if that is correct and water tight. Is this ok with this orientation or does it need replaced?
Hello,
I'm renting an older apartment in Canada.
Trying to find a way to get 2x 3-prong plugs and 2x 2-prong plugs (or 2x grounded and 2x ungrounded plugs) into an ungrounded wall outlet, SAFELY.
The plugs are connected to a Low-end PC, monitor and PC accessories.
Is there an adapter or anything that can make this work or is this a situation where an electrician is needed to upgrade it to a grounded, 3-prong outlet?
I'm assuming it's out of pocket as a renter so if it's the latter, any ideas on price range is highly appreciated.
Thanks
Hi,
I am noticing some voltage issues with the power coming into the house. I have a ting monitor and a sense energy monitor. The ting has recorded two “brownouts” in the last two days and the sense energy monitor is showing a ton of voltage issues, my biggest concern is the huge difference in voltage that occurs during the day between L1 and L2. I did have the power company come out for something similar about a year or two ago and they discovered a melted connector on the pole that they fixed which rectified the issue.
Am I being crazy here or do I have a legitimate concern here that I need to call the power company about?
Any help is much appreciated.
If you can repair electronics, please more to Maui as we have no one and so a shit ton of electronics are just being thrown "away"
Recently bought a house that was built in 2002. All the circuit breakers that feed the rooms and lights are 20 Amp breakers, yet all the wiring to these circuits are 14 AWG wires. The outlets, themselves, are rated for 15 Amps.
I knew that one could use 12 AWG on 15 Amp circuits, but didn't know that one could use 14 AWG on 20 Amp circuits. Was this allowed back in the day?
TIA...