Billy_Bob

I'm just guessing, but looks to me like that is water tubing you would use for lawn water sprinklers (buried). And then they slit it. Might look at the length-wise cut to see if it is perfect or looks like it was cut with a utility knife or a circular saw. Also this looks like what the electric company uses to put over live wires when working for safety, except theirs are much larger and orange colored. And anyone could have done this. The electric company, the electrician, or the homeowner.

It used to be the thinking that a cold water pipe ground was a good ground if it is all metal pipe and the water meter electrically connects to a metal pipe water main. But lately cities are installing plastic water mains. The question is, what distance of buried metal water pipe would be considered a good ground? You could have a N.Y. City type building where the basement wall is at the curb and there is only a few feet of metal pipe. And this then connects to a new plastic city water main. Or elsewhere you could have a ranch style house and 50 feet of metal water pipe run to the water meter at the curb. (Or the same house where the pipe was replaced with plastic and ground rods not installed.) What I would want to know as a potential homeowner is if there was *just* a cold water pipe ground. And is that ground still a good ground? Or was plastic pipe installed and this is no longer a good ground? Or I suppose I would be happy as a potential homeowner that it was pointed out to me that there was *just* a cold water pipe ground, and I should have this checked to be sure it is still a good ground. And maybe that the current homeowner does not know if the pipe is metal all the way to the street or not. As to checking this, I would NOT recommend that home inspectors test this. I suppose you could test with a length of wire and a continuity tester from the ground clamp at the meter to the water meter... HOWEVER if there was an open ground because plastic pipe was installed and also a malfunctioning appliance leaking to ground, this would be a POTENTIAL ELECTROCUITION HAZARD to the person doing this testing. Like holding two live wires in your hands! There is ground testing to actually measure how good a ground is, but this is quite involved and requires very expensive test equipment.

Sometimes the combination of a resistor and a capacitor is used as a "filter" to only allow the signals you want... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band-pass_filter Then the first link below is a similar TV outlet and the second link explains about wire run distances from the antenna and signal loss... (MATV means Master Antenna TV system) Winegard ST-7700 RV Line Tap-Off 75 Ohm Selectable Isolation Outlet... http://www.summitsource.com/rv-line-tap ... -8111.html Master TV Distribution System Design... http://www.blondertongue.com/media/pdfs ... Design.pdf

I got really ticked with FHA (and the realtors) when I was looking around to buy my house. They would not allow me to buy fixer uppers. They wanted everything to be in pristine condition. I didn't want a high mortgage payment, I wanted a low mortgage payment! I like to live within my means and have extra money left over for fun stuff each month. But the realtors would only give me listings on properties which had monthly payments at the maximum I was qualified for. That is until I threatened to walk out and find another realtor. Then they came forth with the run down low payment fixer uppers. But then FHA would not approve the loan on these. One thing was not right, that was not perfect, etc. Well that is fine with me if there are broken windows and holes in the walls. Or the electrical panel is a hazard. I do this kind of work, so easy for me to fix these things. Finally I found a house where the seller let me work on it before sale to get it up to FHA "standards" so they would allow me to buy it. The final straw was they would not approve the loan unless a bush growing against the house was removed! And this was 2 days before closing! So I had to drive 100 miles to cut down that bush so they would approve the loan! I was ticked! Ever see the movie Mommy Dearest where she is in the garden at night chopping down her rose bushes? Well that was me! Anyway in my case, I could have afforded a home 2 times more expensive than what I bought. I just wanted a lower monthly payment. But what about people who can only afford a low price home? Well they can't afford something which is perfect! Yet here you have FHA forcing them into an "American dream home", then they can't keep up with the payments and they lose the house. So if some of these people want to live within their means, are being smart financially, it seems to me silly to force them into something more expensive. They should do the opposite and only allow them to buy homes they will be able to afford! Have some money left over for luxuries like food, electric bill, etc. BTW - The first thing I did after buying my house was to replace the electric service. And I had no problem paying for it, just a couple of months of what I was saving on my mortgage payment covered it. And my home has not been foreclosed on.

I should have made the torque comments more clear. The torquing is separate from the anti-oxidant. For example you would torque a copper wire and not apply anti-oxidant. I was just saying a "good install" would include anti-oxidant if aluminum *and* torquing. What happens if you don't do either is the connection can get hot/cool, hot/cool, etc. as you turn things on/off. Then eventually the connection can work its was loose and you can lose power entirely.

I call it anti-oxidant "goop". I apply it with a toothbrush (used). The official name of one brand is... Ox-Gard Anti-Oxidant Compound Also what goes along with this, as this is mainly used on main lugs is a torque wrench. The instructions/labels on main panels will say to torque the main lugs (connections) to a certain inch pounds (in. lbs.). And 12 inch pounds equals 1 foot pound. When you get high amperage connections, the tightness of the connection gets to be very important! You can tighten these quite tight and it is not tight enough! (Depending on your strength.) The connection can become warm/hot if not tight enough. And you can even measure a voltage across a connection which is not tight enough. This is called "voltage drop". On voltage drop... http://psihq.com/iread/faqvolt.htm

Just my opinion, nothing to do with codes: So far as the safety factor of wires being on or near gas lines, the gas line is not spewing gas into the attic and the electric line is not throwing off sparks, so I see no safety issue so far as that goes. And say there was an environment where there was flammable fumes around, the issue with electrical things is primarily switches which "arc" and these sparks can ignite the gas. And electrical connections/splices which can arc if the circuit is overloaded. And fluids or gasses can fill conduit. So for these situations, all the wiring and devices are "explosion proof". Basically sealed air tight - no fumes/liquid can get in, no sparks can get out. You would find this at a gas station around the pumps or industrial sites. Explosion proof switch...

For new construction, they will sometimes hire new people without any experience "working under the supervision of an electrician". And these people will just run wires and connect switches/outlets. The electrician wires the main electric panel. Many of these people want to go on to become electricians, but a few don't know what they are doing and will not last long. So no telling how it could have been wired! They are supposed to check every outlet and switch when they are done. But I have seen them have the beginners do this. Might want to have the appropriate person point this out to whoever did the electrical work. They should have caught it.

These things can be changed for the customer's needs. For example in a housing complex designed for older people, the outlets can be mounted higher up so people will not need to bend down to reach them. Or for housing designed for those in wheel chairs, things may be mounted lower down so they can reach them. I'm tall and in my house I have the shower head mounted high! (Not at eye level...)

Call an electrician! Now! (Leave the dishes till later...)

I've seen older ranges where the insulation on the wiring inside has shrunk back exposing live wires. These can be rewired with new special high temperature rated range wire. This stuff is not cheap... http://www.infraredheaters.com/wires.htm

I've seen plenty of 200 amp main panels outside feeding 200 amp subpanels inside. Quite common.

Actually the "tightness" of electrical connections is an interesting thing! "Tight" is not always good enough. Some instructions which come with regular 120V receptacles will say to tighten the screw connections to 14-16 in.lbs. of torque (where 12 inch pounds equals one foot pound). Other higher amperage outlet instructions will specify a tighter connection. Then the very high amperage main connections on electrical panels need to be very tight and it will specify the tightness on the panel label or in the installation instructions. If an electrical connection is not very tight, you can measure voltage with a multimeter across the connection. And it can become warm or hot if not tight enough. The higher the amperage, the tighter the connection should be. A good example is a space heater plug inserted into an old outlet where you need to "wiggle" the plug to get it to work. You might notice that the plug will get warm or hot to the touch after the space heater has been on for awhile. This is because of a loose connection. The prongs inside the outlet are loosely touching the plug prongs of the space heater plug. But plug the same space heater into a new outlet, and the plug remains cool. This is because the prongs inside the outlet are placing more pressure on the prongs of the plug. Anyway here is a google search of the words receptacle "in lb". You will notice different outlets require different tightness of the screws... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe ... tnG=Search

100 amps is too small if you keep tripping the main breaker because you are using more amperage than that at the same time! But if you never trip the main breaker, it is fine. And one family living there may never trip the main breaker, yet another family might trip it everyday. Basically it is what all you have tuned on "at the same time". My favorite for designing these things and thinking about how much total amperage will ever be needed is the "thanksgiving test"... You have all the kids in their rooms with everything on playing with their gizmos. Adults in the living room with everything on. The "in-laws" have their RV pulled up to the garage and plugged in. Grandpa is out in the shop with someone seeing how that new table saw cuts wood and trying out other power tools. Then there are 3 people in the kitchen cooking up a feast with every gadget known to man going full blast. Range, dishwasher, refrigerator because door is constantly open, garbage disposal, water heater, blender, bread maker, microwave, etc. Then pop goes the main breaker!

You want ALL grounds connected to neutral. If a hot touches a ground wire, then there would be a path back to the neutral and this would trip the breaker. If you had separate grounds rods and the ground in question was not electrically connected to the neutral - just grounded, this would not cause the circuit breaker to trip in the case of a ground fault. The ground is not that good a conductor of electricity. So say a stray wire touches the metal housing on your drill press and you have a separate ground for this. This ground fault would not trip the breaker. Then you would walk up and touch it, then you would be electrocuted! Then we could not discuss grounding anymore with you and this would make me sad! [:-weepn] Or if you connected the ground from your shop panel to the same ground rods as your main panel (and not in the panel), this would be dangerous as well. It is quite common for lawnmowers and the like to brush by ground wires going down a wall and break them. So best to connect the ground to the neutral in the panel. Basically electrical codes/rules are there because of what has happened in the past. People have been electrocuted and died, then new rules put in place to keep it from happening again. Follow the electrical code rules and you will have a safe electrical system - for YOU! (And your family, and others who may purchase your house in the future.)

That is QUITE dangerous! The grounds at the shop MUST be connected to the neutral at the main panel. Otherwise you are risking fire or electrocution. Note that you can get electrical "noise" on the power wires as well and THIS would be the most common source of electrical noise. This can come from other people connected to the electric lines in your area. You can fix this by plugging your electronics into an "On-Line - Pure Sine Wave UPS". On-line means 100% of the power which comes from the UPS is made by the UPS and not passed through from the utility connection. And pure sine wave means it is the best electricity you could possibly get as opposed to "square wave". Other cheaper UPS only "make" electricity when the power goes out. And other cheaper UPS will make a square wave or modified sine wave. Here is what electricity from "cheap" sources looks like... http://www.jkovach.net/projects/powerquality/ So far as grounding and reducing noise... A good ground system, with multiple ground rods and EVERYTHING grounded, is your friend! Sink two or more ground rods placed 6 ft. apart and bond them together with large diameter copper wire. Then "distance" with isolated ground wires is your friend. Wire has resistance with length. So run your shop equipment grounds directly to the main panel (per code, including subpanel requirements, etc.) But basically separate subpanel from electronic stuff. Then run isolated grounds or dedicated circuits for your electronic stuff to the main panel. If using isolated insulated wire grounds, you would need to run a second ground wire to the electrical box to ground a metal box and an isolated ground receptacle mounting yoke (metal part on outlet you screw to electrical box). Or if a plastic electrical box and a dedicated circuit/wire, use a regular receptacle and then no need for the second ground as the mounting yoke would be grounded as well. Then install "whole house surge protection" at the main panel and use good quality surge protection power strips at each electronic device. Do all this and your electronics will have the cleanest power in the state!

You can have an "isolated ground receptacle". But this just means the ground wire could be insulated and would *only* connect to ground at the panel (not anything along the way like junction boxes). Many circuits in a house are already like this. You would find this type of outlet in a hospital or office. The following link has more on this. http://ecmweb.com/mag/electric_basics_i ... grounding/ The outlets are typically orange like this...

Electrically that is fine, but I would prefer something like that be insulated. Or use a wire nut which has insulation on it. A bare crimp connection would be a shock hazard for someone working in the panel (although they should turn off power when working in a panel). And someone working in a panel should know enough to watch out for things like this. But best to do things as safe as possible if you can. Also typically bare ground wires "rattle" around inside a breaker box like that and the bare crimp connection could be further out and the bare wires closer to the breaker and might touch if someone was pulling a new wire or whatever. Again power should be off when doing this, but still a good idea to make things safe for the next guy to come along!

In general, someone who is not specifically trained to trim trees around electric lines (a line clearance arborist) should not get within 10 ft. of any electric lines. So I think if you called them and said you wanted to trim your tree, they would rather do it to be on the safe side. Or they would remove power to the line so you could trim it safely. So far as trees they trim, they look for "hazard trees". These are trees which are rotten and might fall on the lines or dead branches which might fall on the lines. Or even healthy shallow root trees which are leaning and could fall during a wind storm. The tree above looks quite healthy, so I don't think they would be in a big hurry to trim it. So tell them you want to trim it and see what they say...

I am quick to install GFCI's in my own home. This is in wet areas and also where my dog might chew a wire. Then I don't worry about my dog so much! I have not installed ANY AFCI's though. (Nor do I intend to.) This is because I keep reading about all sorts of problems with certain appliances false tripping these. Things like vacuum cleaners, a dehumidifier, and I think a computer in one case. With the new NEC rules and AFCI's installed everywhere but the kitchen/bathroom/garage/outside (GFCI'S), AFCI problem posts are popping up all over the internet. People are having to plug their vacuum cleaners into kitchen or bathroom outlets so they can vacuum (GFCI). From what I have read, the industry approach to this problem is to get appliance manufacturers to change the designs of their appliances so they will not trip AFCI's. This will take some time. They even have a false tripping report page for AFCI's... http://www.afcisafety.org/report.html

First of all that place is a fire waiting to happen, but you have that covered. Then so far as the weird running of cables in old homes... Some areas at one time had two electric meters. One for the hot water heater and another meter for everything else. Then these were converted to just one electric meter. Then with home additions, there might be a subpanel "in the way" and this is removed for the addition, but some wiring may stay. And things may be moved around in a house for remodeling, but existing wiring may stay. Then sometimes homeowners like to convert old large wires to regular outlet use. Maybe they had an electric range which was moved (new wire ran), then they switch the old large wire for that range over to regular outlet use. Or maybe they leave old wiring in which goes to nothing and leave it connected. So no telling what you will find! It gets REAL interesting when you tear out the walls in a home built in the 1930's which had a couple of additions and lots of do-it-yourself electrical work!

When I was a kid, light bulbs lasted a very long time. In the last 15 years or so, suddenly they stopped lasting so long. I think there are some greedy big corporations which decided that light bulbs which do not last as long will make their bottom line bigger. Some very old light bulbs are still working today... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest-la ... ight_bulbs

So far as safety goes, that is fine provided the breaker is the correct size for the wire size. As to being overloaded or not, that would depend on the homeowner and what all they have turned on at the same time. And what the 3 different wires go to. If they never exceed the amperage of the breaker with the use of all 3 wires combined, then it is not overloaded. If someone new moves in and they have lots of things on at the same time and the breaker is tripping, then it is overloaded. As to code and being ok or not, depends on what the 3 wires are going to and the local code rules at the time it was installed.

There have been cases of small children electrocuted by metal garage doors when the garage door opener malfunctioned! In my opinion, a GFCI (which protects from electrocution) is a good thing to have on a garage door opener outlet! (Code or not...) It is my understanding that the latest code requires all outlets in a garage to be GFCI. Local states/areas have amendments to some rules or go by older codes.

I've seen some old switches which had all sorts of crud, dust, spiders, whatnot in them. This stuff can sometimes conduct a bit of electricity. Also soda pop, coffee, etc. can conduct a bit of electricity. A kid may have poured something into the wall switch. That would be the first thing I would replace. If that did not fix the problem, pull all the switched outlet covers and look for crud between the top/bottom hot screws. Then after that I would start looking for a nail or screw through a wire. BTW the term computer bug was originally from a bug crawling on the computer wiring and conducting electricity! This caused random problems with the computer...