Billy_Bob

I searched google.com for voltage monitoring and found voltage monitor relays... http://www.macromatic.com/products/volt ... mmary.html Also search for overvoltage relays or protective relays.

I think all you need to do is report the problem, but... I would use a voltmeter, a long length of wire to a known good ground (not electrical), and test each prong on various outlets for voltage. (The wire for testing can be cheap small gauge speaker wire or whatever.) A known good ground would be a ground rod for the electrical system, next best would be a cold water pipe going into the ground and hopefully the underground portion is not plastic PVC. So using that ground would give you a good reference to see exactly what is going on. Then there should be little or no voltage reading on neutral and ground. Of course if you get 120 volts on the ground prong of an outlet, this could be a VERY DANGEROUS situation! They should call an electrician ASAP! Then all grounds to outlets in a home are tied together at some point (or should be). So the problem might be in another part of the house! Could also be that particular outlet tester has weird readings on certain GFCI's?

Also common sense prevails with something like this. Imagine one of those weed whackers going to work on that. Or more specifically a weed whacker which has blades rather than string. The insulation could be easily removed. Then the family dog comes along and gets zapped via the nose or other end by marking his territory. Or a small boy with a metal stick going along walls or fences banging/poking on things.

Should be fine so long as everything was installed to code and the shower is not leaking into the wall. And if the shower was leaking into the wall, the problem would be with the electric panel rusting/corroding, then this possibly causing poor connections, and then eventually arcing due to this. Typically there is all sorts of wiring in the walls on the other side of showers/baths for adjoining rooms and there is no problem. FYI - Pure water does not conduct electricity! Water with minerals, chemicals, and especially salt will conduct electricity. See the following... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wa ... f&oq=&aqi=

Basically think of a mom yelling "That's enough!" to the kids. No more will be allowed... Newer surge protectors use an electronic component called a "metal oxide varistor". Others might use electronic components called "zener diodes". In either case, these components work like electric switches, but they only turn on at a certain voltage. And this would depend on the specific rating of the component. One might "turn on" at 330 volts. So a surge of electricity comes through and this raises the voltage from the normal 120 volts to above 330 volts. At the 330 volt level, the component then turns on and creates a dead short. There are wires from each hot to ground typically. So if the voltage went above 330 volts, there would suddenly be a dead short to ground from each hot. Then when the voltage dropped down below 330 volts, these components would "turn off' and allow the regular flow of electricity. All this may happen in fractions of a second and you might not even notice anything going on with your electric system! The following page shows "oscilloscope" pictures of AC house type electricity. AC is alternating current. It goes from +120 volts to -120 volts 60 times a second. Thus the little white line in the pictures going up and down. Higher up and lower down means MORE voltage. So in the case of the first picture (Power surges), the white line going up higher/lower shows a voltage spike... http://www.ackadia.com/computer/power-p ... oblems.php More... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surge_protector

When you connect two wires together, the connection can come loose and then sparks can fly all over the place! Or connections can be "not so good" and they will heat up and get quite hot. For that reason, you MUST have all wiring connections inside an enclosed electrical box. This keeps the sparks/heat inside and away from combustible materials. (That is house 120 volt and higher voltage wiring.) Things like this can happen...

That's about all there is to it! I don't know if you have ever seen "emergency procedure manuals" or "evacuation manuals" which are "school notebook size" and sitting on the bookshelves of government / industrial employees... I've always wondered if there was a fire or explosion in one of these places, if anyone would take out the notebook and start reading what to do? [:-bigeyes

The idea of a drip loop is that rain water hitting the wire will follow along that wire to where it goes. So you first route the wire down, then back up into where it is going. Then the water will flow down and away from the opening the wire is going into. The following picture is probably easier to understand. Here the water will flow down and away from the hole going into the house... Then here is a drip look on an electrical service doing the same thing. The water flows away from the opening the wire goes into...

The number or wires on a circuit does not cause it to be overloaded, it is what is being used on all those wires [at the same time] which determines if the circuit is overloaded or not. For example a house may have 4 outside outlets (front, back, and each side). And 4 wires from these outlets connected to the same circuit. And you only use these for an electric lawnmower. But you only use one outlet at a time and move from outlet to outlet as you mow around the house. So the circuit is never overloaded. Now if a family moved in which owned 4 electric lawnmowers and tried using them all at the same time, then this would exceed the capacity of the circuit (overload it), BUT the breaker would trip! So no problem so far as safety goes. That is the job of a circuit breaker, to turn off power if the amount of electricity being used exceeds the capacity of the wiring on the circuit.

I think you were inspecting my home too! I have a 40 slot panel with all 20 amp circuits (other than 240).

With a new installation generally, you would need 4 wires going from a subpanel back to the main panel (two hots, a neutral, and a ground). And the subpanel neutral bonding screw removed. But then there are "existing installations" which might fall under different rules in certain situations??? This is all up to local rules. Best to check with your local electrical inspector. Local states/areas can modify the rules to be anything they want. (I personally think the 4 wire system is the safest.) Then in *my* opinion, cold water pipe grounds are no longer good grounds. This is because everyone tends to replace water pipes these days with plastic PVC pipe when doing repairs. So is all the existing cold water piping still all metal? Or has someone replaced sections of it with plastic? And will someone at some future time replace sections of the metal pipe with plastic? And will they at that time be sure to move the ground connections to a good ground? So far as the local electrical inspector goes, using the cold water pipe might be perfectly OK! (Again these rules are local, so ask the inspector...)

Well keep in mind the NEC covers all situations, not just homes. Also light switches which control many lights per switch in a commercial situation. So this would include high-rise buildings, commercial buildings, industrial buildings. something like the Pentagon (6.5 million square feet), etc. Or a housing development where they are building 100 homes. That's a lot of wire! Then you get a large building with thousands of light switches and circuits for those switches. Imagine being able to use a smaller gauge wire or less expensive switches in a situation like that. It could mean a lot of money!

In the case of the outlet, the amperage is limited by the plug type of the appliance, however with light fixtures, there is nothing to stop someone from installing higher wattage bulbs! So on the one hand they are saying you can't exceed 15 amps with an outlet... But on the other hand they don't seem to realize someone could replace the originally installed bulbs with higher wattage bulbs that would exceed the 15 amp capacity of the switch. Then of course there is the present day reality of the situation. I know many people and businesses are doing the exact opposite - That is installing lower wattage bulbs wherever possible to save on their electric costs. But there are always these gizmos which could add a bit of amperage to a lighting circuit...

One thing to consider when buying a new panel is what breakers are mostly stocked in your local stores. See what breakers they carry; AFCI, GFCI, whole house snap in surge protector, good range of different amperage breakers, etc. For some brands of panels the pickings are slim. For others they have the full range. It is nice to go to the store and find what you need!

It would be nice if someone placed a note in the electrical panel that the kitchen light is controlled by that outlet! Someone will appreciate it some day...

Well a hot tub is a different situation. Here you have people in the water and the potential for water leaks onto electrical devices. But.... How about this... How about we just go by "case history"? That is have people been shocked / electrocuted in or around hot tubs? The answer is yes. So therefore to prevent these things from happening again, it is a good idea to install GFCI's. AND... For cases where there has NOT been a case history of people being shocked / electrocuted, there is no need for additional protection necessarily. THAT is basically how the codes come to be. Someone is shocked or electrocuted, someone dies. Then everybody says "What can we do to prevent this from happening again?" The cause of the problem is found, new products are designed, new codes are written and adopted. An extreme example is there is no requirement for a GFCI to be installed on automobiles. Being electrocuted by a 12 volt DC car battery is not a problem! At the other extreme, take the example of nightclubs. There have been some nasty fires with great loss of life. Therefore all sorts of codes are in place to prevent these things from happening again. Or "high rise buildings". There have been many nasty fires with great loss of life. So they really throw the code book with tons of rules at a high rise situation. And they make darn sure the building owner's comply to the "T".

My opinion is... Basically you have "controlled" electrical situations and "uncontrolled" electrical situations. (As to what is plugged into a given electrical outlet...) Uncontrolled... As for a washer outlet, there may be two 120V plugs there and the homeowner can plug anything they want into the additional plug. Then you have the potential of handheld devices, extension cords, etc. posing a shock hazard. A dog could chew on an extension cord. A kid could cut an extension cord with scissors, a cord could have damaged insulation and the wires exposed, a handheld device might malfunction and energize a metal part, etc. No telling what a homeowner might plug into such an outlet! Controlled... As for a 240V dryer, there is only one plug. Only the dryer can be plugged in. If everything is manufactured, wired, and installed properly, then there would not be a shock hazard to the homeowner. The metal case of the dryer would be grounded. If a hot wire came in contact with the metal frame of the dryer, this would shunt the electricity to ground and trip the circuit breaker. So no need for a GFCI in my opinion. Then look at case history... Has anyone ever been electrocuted by a dryer which was properly manufactured, properly wired, and connected to a properly wired electrical system? Then look at two wire (non grounded) hand held appliances, three wire grounded hand held appliances, and extension cords. Many people have been electrocuted by these. These are under the control of the homeowner. They modify things. They use 3 prong to 2 prong adapters to defeat the 3rd grounding plug so they can use 2 wire non-grounded extension cords, etc. All sorts of possibilities for dangerous situations!

All the 240 breakers are connected to the same two connections... The left main at the top and the right main at the top. And either of these two would be used with a 120 volt breaker. So it is protecting everything.

If all pro work, then probably a transformer. BUT there is also the "do-it-yourself factor". I've seen all sorts of wire used in walls for regular house voltage (120V) wiring. You pull apart a wall and no telling what will be found!

Some kid may have done that just to be funny. Or there may have been a problem with the panel where someone was shocked? If they are selling the home and there *was* a problem with someone being shocked by touching the metal case of the panel, I would suggest having an electrician inspect it. Then remove that label! A problem with no ground or a disconnected ground or a cold water pipe ground and the pipes were replaced with plastic - could cause such a problem... (So check grounding system too.)

No telling! Post a picture. To change the voltage, you need a transformer. These are usually cube shaped things about 2 inches x 2 inches x 2 inches or larger. Then in older homes, you have the "do-it-yourself" factor. Wiring may have been used for one thing at one time, then switched to another use at a later time. No telling what they may have done! Modern doorbell transformer... Old doorbell transformer...

That looks like an old telephone surge protector... http://countryjoescollectiblestuff.com/ ... tning.html

But in Oregon, there are local (state) exemptions to the removed exemptions! (Check your local amendments/rules.) Like a sump pump in a garage and specific appliances. The exemptions are at this link on adobe reader page 17 (document page 16) 918-305-0130(1)(a)... http://www.cbs.state.or.us/external/bcd ... 305_pr.pdf

You might do better to ask your questions on a do-it-yourself electrical forum like the following... http://forum.doityourself.com/electrical-c-d-c-9/ or http://www.diychatroom.com/f18/ or http://www.terrylove.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9 or Usenet: alt.home.repair

That would be fun to cut out that whole mess as is, then place it in a new construction job for the electrical inspector to find. Not connected of course, just as a prank to pull on the inspector. Then watch the look on his face when he sees that!