Richard Moore

Nothing to do with disease but pigeons in an attic almost killed me my first year in business. I still think of it as the worst POS home I have done. I had already been scared by a live possum in the basement and found a huge bloated rat floating in the sump pump. So, later, as I start to lift the attic hatch I was greeted by a sudden loud noise that sounded like hundreds of scurrying rats and almost fell off the ladder. After regaining my composure, I tried the hatch again, slowly, and discovered the noise had been a startled flock of pigeons. Not good, but better than rats. As you can see by the photo, they had increased the R-value of the insulation. I now have a habit of first knocking on attic hatches in old houses. Click to Enlarge 107.98 KB

I just got an e-mail for this... http://www.tequipment.net/ExtechBR200.asp . It seems to have some nifty features including jpeg and a wireless screen for only $269. Anyone familiar with it?

I'm not sure I'd use a flow gauge to test it. The water dept guy might then try to claim that that gauge is faulty. Personally, I'd fill up some garbage cans or whatever of known size.

If not, and it's only cutting power to one conductor, that's a whole bunch more dangerous than having no switch at all.

It's a cantilever, dammit!

My interpretation (with difficulty) from the OP's two posts... He has a panel with a 100-amp main breaker acting as the service disconnect. In that panel, there is a separate grounding bar in addition to the neutral/grounding bar. He has some circuit neutrals connected to the grounding bar. We do not know if the neutral bar is bonded to the panel. I'm going to assume the neutral (grounded) SEC is connected to the neutral bar. Issues... If the neutral bar is bonded to the panel: The unbalanced current for those circuits with the neutrals connected to the grounding bar is having to use the panel itself as a conductor back to the utility grounded feed. Not good, some potential safety issues, but would probably work fine with no "noticable" problems. If the neutral bar is not bonded to the panel: Then those circuits are using the grounding electrode(s) and the soil as the path back to the utility ground. Very unreliable, I would expect some odd voltage fluctuations, and might be a shock hazard at the the panel under some circumstances. The latter would be more serious, but both need fixing. Jon, I have to ask...in what capacity?

Wouldn't having the ants identified first be a good idea? Moisture ants, as others have pointed out, very likely mean previously rotted wood and I would go along with tearing the drywall down until I found all of it. Carpenter ants might or might not be related to the plumbing leak but will (very probably) still need to be treated. Other "nuisance" ants in a 60's basement in the San Juans? Might be nesting inside or you might just need a penetration or two sealed. Too little to go on. Getting a good pest control guy in there seems like a smart idea. He should, at the least, be able to identify the critters and might also be able to pinpoint the problem, or at least narrow the choices.

That may not seem fair at first glance, but they would otherwise be on the hook for unforseen future freakish storm damage, dingbat owners, and other stuff completely out of their control. In other words, everything and not just their own work. Still, I could see a really good company offering to pay for damage, or part thereof, if it was obviously their fault, but even those would have to cover their behinds with disclaimers. And, in reality, how many of those companies do we have left?

While I can't argue with that, I do remember trying to get full color cards and every local printer wanted 4 to 5 times as much as I could get them for online. I use GotPrint.com. You can get 5000 very heavy cards, full color, full bleed, glossy front and BW back for under $40 (plus shipping). Really nice quality. I designed them myself using CorelDraw and uploaded them to GotPrint as a PDF file. The extra wording on the back is nice. Quick turnaround both times I have used them. I plan on using them again once I get my license number. You can see the pdf file I used here... http://www.prwebworks.com/rainspect/fil ... s-grn2.pdf ( May not be to everyone's taste [:-tong2] ) John, if you have a good logo (or photo) and know what you want the cards to say (front or front & back) I wouldn't mind taking a stab at designing them for you. No charge...I enjoy doing a bit of that stuff. Let me know.

I'm no expert on air flows but I would think the reason tee's are OK is that the gasses are really being sucked into the main flue by the draft rather than being forced into it. Just a guess tho.

The problem is that unlicensed inspectors are a group that, by nature, doesn't have an existing list. Those here are, of course, "plugged in" but I can see some independant inspectors, especially part-time ones in rural areas, being taken by surprise. Maybe the best way to get (or have gotten) the word out would be to contact a group that is known because they are already licensed. I'm talking about agents. It would be fairly simple to ask them to pass the word each time they come in contact with an inspector. Just a thought...and a little late at that.

But, I had 120v between hot and neutral. Thanks for trying though, Jim. I've moved on, but will pick up one of those cheap neon testers for future use in the test you described earlier. I'll sue you if it zaps me! []

Hi Jim, I've used this same tester many times and it has a different light pattern for reverse polarity (hot/neutral reversed). I think they all do. I've seen that many times. This is the first time I can remember ever seeing the hot/ground reversed pattern. Here, I even took a photo... Click to Enlarge 14.61 KB So...yes, you are right that reversed polarity would give me the same readings I got with the multi-tester. But then why would the three-light tester read hot/ground reversed in the first place and not just the normal reversed polarity? I know these things can't diagnose multiple problems but I would expect the same readings for the same condition. BTW...I didn't want to fry my Suretest so I didn't try that. Damn...now you got me wishing I had thrown the breaker, taken the cover off and done a bit more 'vestigating. Oh well. I stuck a large piece a large piece of tape over the receptacle with "hot ground" written on it. Something is wrong. The builder's electrician can sort it out.

May I ask why? I don't see that many hot water circulation systems, but all that I have seen are on timers, some on fancy 7-day programmable ones. Seems like a good idea to me. Why would you need instant hot water in the middle of the night or during the day if no one is usually home? I doubt the pump uses that much power but you are also going to lose some heat during the circulation. Now...if you live in an area where water is constantly in short supply and a bigger issue than power, I can see setting it up differently.

"Need" or "required", no. Good idea, yes, but keep in mind that ANY switch in a bathroom might be operated by a dripping wet person.

Nothing, although frankly, I didn't spend much time with that one and it's always possible I didn't have contact in the gounding hole. I assume you are thinking multi-wire circuits? Possible, but it would still take some pretty screwy wiring.

As soon as I've finished the patent paperwork for "confusing a cat with a laser pointer", I'm going to start work on a patent for IR scanning of puppies. All puppies will have to come to me...which will be so cool!

This has been bugging me a bit since Monday. New townhouse. Besides the gas fireplace switches being left buried behind the drywall, I had a single duplex receptacle in the middle of a living room wall that showed Hot/Ground reversed on my 3-light tester. I then used a multi-meter and found that both the ground and the hot gave me 120 volts to the neutral. Because of the hot ground, I didn't feel like taking the cover plate off and just reported it as in need of prompt repair. However, how would that happen??? None of the other receptacles had any issues so it couldn't simply be the grounding wire in contact with the hot terminal (which, in any case, should have tripped the breaker). I'm left with a horribly bad (even evil) receptacle itself, or some wing-nut who wing-nutted the ground wire pigtail with the hots. Any other options? Just curious in Seattle.

Jim, don't you mean a wye or a combo? I didn't think any "Tee's" were approved for vertical to horizontal.

OK...after pondering & googling this a bit more... The code (UPC at least) doesn't differentiate between types of water heaters when it calls for a thermal exppansion tank, but it probably should. I agree that if a tankless just serves the potable water it doesn't seem that a thermal expansion tank would be needed. Presumably when the hot water faucet is shut off there will still be a little latent heating at the heater, but I can't see that being a large amount. If the tankless also serves hydronic heat, in a very basic set-up like the photo I posted around the middle of this thread, then I think it does need a TX tank. When heat is called for the first time, the tankless is going to heat all the water circulating in the hydronic piping, and I can see that increasing the pressure significantly. In my original post set-up, I now strongly suspect that a TX tank is not needed because of the expansion tank in the heating box. I had reported it thus... I'm still comfortable with that, although my "believe" in that last sentence is now very shaky!

Thanks all. Lots of food for thought. Actually the only food I'm allowed today...grrrr....rumble. I have my own tri-annual plumbing exam tomorrow.

LOL...well, that is just a tad more complex than what I typically see. That your own work Rob?

Thanks Rob. It makes sense but I don't know about "required". I see lots of combo water/heat systems, usually with a storage type water heater. I don't think I've ever seen a priority valve before. The photo is of a fairly typical townhouse system around here (albeit tankless). Basic tempering valve for the potable water and a circ pump (on a timer) for the heating. Click to Enlarge 48.53 KB Do you have a photo of your system? I'd like to see it.

No. it's not that. There is definitely no heat exchanger or separation of the water. As far as I can tell, it's basically just a pre-packaged circ pump and tempering valve(s). It "worked", but I don't know about "better".

According to the label... There could actually be as many as 26 toggles (counting those tied together as 2). The label allows a twin-quad in the "4" position and 4 twins in the bottom 4 full size position. The other stabs are not supposed to accept twin GE breakers. So...the lighting section is "listed" for 16 breakers maximum and if you have 22 there it would be wrong. But that's nothing to do with the "70-amps" and you certainly don't just add up breakers to come up with the number. The label shows the main breaker feeding the lighting section can be as big as 100-amp. No individual breaker (single or two-pole) feeding actual circuits can be larger than 70-amp.