Can I fish electrical down to the basement to add a new outlet? I want to add an outlet behind my TV, and another in a nearby coat closet for the cable box. I don't have an outlet in a stud cavity below the TV so I need to fish one from ~6 feet over.

I'd like to keep the outlet on the same circuit (for my sanity when shutting things off later). Is it acceptable to run electrical down from the existing outlet into the basement and then back up into the wall cavity behind the TV? Or should I cut an extra hole in the drywall below the TV and drill holes horizontally, and fish it up from there?

Electricity doesn't care much whether it runs vertically or horizontally (it really only cares how far it runs).

Often the easiest way to add an outlet or switch is to run it down through a basement or up through an attic. So long as the cable is properly buried in the wall cavities and you don't unreasonably compromise structural members, there should be no problem.

This assumes, of course, that you are not overloading a circuit, that you are using the proper gauge of wire, and that any exposed cabling is in a permitted area (usually an unfinished basement or attic is okay under most local codes).  You also need to make sure cables are properly tacked down and not subject to damage, and that as you drill, you are not hitting other cables, pipes, or leaving hidden cables too close to a surface where they might get damaged in the future.

Keep in mind that you should always consult the electrical code statutes for your region / state / country, as they vary a lot. You might not be allowed to have the same branch circuit feeding a room that is upstairs and another that is in the basement. In this case, you would have to dedicate a new circuit on the panel, or branch it off another receptacle in the basement.

Also, you might not be allowed to put a receptacle inside a closet, due to an elevated risk of fire.


How do I remove polyurethane spray foam from my hands? I should have worn gloves but sadly I didn't. Now I have yellow stuff all over my hands. I got most of the stickiness to go away by using WD-40. Is there anything that will get this off without giving me chemical burns?

Without looking, I think most of these adhesive foams dissolve with acetone. The first thing I'd try would be nail polish remover, or possibly Goof Off.

I tried everything on here and finally got out my orbital sander with some fine sandpaper and went at it. It took a while but it took all the stuff off. As long as you keep moving your fingers around there are no burns or cuts.


Using half of a 240v dual-phase circuit as a 120v single-phase circuit (US) Usually when I see a 240v device, it is wired to its own double-pole circuit breaker, with each pole connected to a different 120v phase (to provide 240v total). If there is a 120v device in the same location, it is wired to a separate single-pole circuit breaker, which it often shares with other 120v devices.

If a neutral were wired along with the two phases in the 240v circuit described in my first paragraph, either phase could be used along with the neutral to power a 120v device. If there were no other 120v circuits nearby (and with enough capacity), this could potentially cost less than leaving the 240v circuit by itself and adding a separate breaker, hot, and neutral for the 120v device.

Why is the scenario described in my second paragraph uncommon in practice? Are there safety or electrical code concerns that I am unaware of?

Thanks!

The problem with doing this is you may have, say, a 30 amp double pole breaker on your 240V line which may be 10g  wire,  and the you come off it on one phase with a 120V circuit with 14g wire, the 30 amp breaker is to high for 14g wire, which then is not protected from melting.

The US has moved to 4 wire 240V service, to accommodate appliances that have internal 120V electronics.

1) The 120 device would have a common neutral as the 240v device which is fine if the neutral and second phase are not device dependant for continuity(conductors must be spliced not traveling through the device). Circuits depending on devices out side of their branch, to function, is against code as of 2011.

2) A 240 phase requires direct sin oscillation in order to provide an even 60hertz. Any load on one phase of the 240 circuit not shared with the secondary phase will cause unbalanced return on reciprocal phase. This will not be a problem for a resistance coil or load fused device; Motors and sensitive electronics will not like it at all. No code regulation on unbalanced 240/480/720v or 2/3ph loads, just bad electrical work. Only the judgement of the ancient electrical gods will await you for your transgressions.

3)GFCI/AFCI regulations. All breakers not run to appliance loads and under 30A must have an AFCI/GFCI Dual function breaker. (Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter/Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) this device measures returned feed back voltage recieved at the source of power(the panel) from the neutral and compares it to the voltage leaving the breaker. If ever the variation between hot and neutral exceeds 5mA the devices assumes there is a short to ground somewhere, and the device breaks the circuit. Running a 120 device on a 240 circuit would leave it unprotected and that is against code as of 2014.

4) Dedicated circuits for any appliance loads; excluding dishwasher, garbage disposal, and any appliance load under 600W.


why did my mower suddenly start running slower? This mower has an odd history, but appeared to be in good shape. It was given to me by a friend, who picked it up from the curb in his neighborhood (it's a nice neighborhood). I don't know if he found out why it was being tossed out. He just picked it up as a repair project to do with his son, and then found out I was looking for one, and offered it to me.

It's a Briggs & Stratton 6.5 Hp engine. Looks to be only a few years old and in good condition. Friend put in a new air filter, spark plug, and I think also changed the oil. I checked the oil and it looks cleaner and new-ish.

I've used it several times this year. It's been running great, starts right on the first pull.  Suddenly at the end of my last session, the rpms dropped but it kept running. When I turned it off I could smell gas a bit. Next time it started fine, but is still running slow. I managed to finish the yard with it running slow.

I've check the air filter and spark plug. Both look clean. There was a little oil or gas residue at the bottom of the air filter. There was a little oil on the threads of the spark plug screw, but the sparky end was clean.

I'm just trying to see if there's anything else I can do or check before getting into the carburetor.

Any ideas?

In my experience, unless the engine is running roughly idle problems are usually related to the throttle and governor.

From your description, it sounds like you may have a problem with the governor spring that tensions the governor vane to the throttle body.  These can get stretched out and lose tension creating a slow idle.

I had the same problem. Found the solution by watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HveZoY5ddVM


How to connect when there are 2 cables of ceiling light I found some similar questions but none actually sort out my problem.
I bought a new IKEA light fitting and its electrical box has 4 holes (2 for N and 2 for L). The instruction said to put 1 N to N and 1 L to L. And I saw many videos online doing the same thing.
Mine is different. I have two cables (each has 3 N/L/E). I know that one of them is for the switch while the other is for the consumer unit. I tried different combination:

Putting only the consumer cable in --> the light is always on. The switch does not work
Putting only the switch cable --> the light is not on.
Putting both of them in, 2 N from the two cables go to 2 N holes. Likewise, 2 L from the two cables go to 2 L holes. --> The light is on even when the light switch is not on. When I turn the light switch on, the light goes off and the main switch (of the room) switches off as well (meaning the combination is causing some conflict).

I tried different combinations of the third (changing the order of the two N and the two L) but none working.
Can someone please help?

This is a switch leg or that’s what we call it on this side of the pond.
How we would wire it here is to connect the hot or L of the consumer unit to one of the wires going to the switch then the line coming back from the switch is the switched hot L. The switched hot goes to the L the N from the consumer unit in the n and connect earths
I did not put colors in since you did not mention them and I believe there are 2 or 3 possible combinations based on when built.
The wire going to the switch with the consumer unit hot we would use our normal color wire for N or white so that line is always hot and the switched hot brown or whatever is hot when the switch is on but the neutral always being hot can’t be mixed up as a neutral then we put tape or mark it as a hot.

The 2 L's on the one side is the hot in and out to feed through to another switch. The switch leg comes from the other. Neutral doesn't switch its tapped together. You can find the hot by touching the wire from the light to the others one at a time and when it comes on thats the hot.


2 switches in one box in bathroom I have 2 switches in bathroom in on box.  1 switch controls the light and the other switch controls the bathroom fan.  I believe power comes in to light switch then to fan switch.  How do I change out the 2nd switch?

use a non contact voltage detector (its a small "pen" like instrument that when put near power will beep) to confirm which switch the power comes from. black will be your power wire, white is neutral and red is for the switch. (any one will zap you if not careful)

switch the breaker to the OFF position (Make sure you've got the right one!!) and replacing the switch is as easy as unscrewing the screws and reattaching the wires in their corresponding positions.


Can I install a new dishwasher with no ground conductor? I am installing a new Bosch dishwasher and my current wiring has no ground wire. Also it comes with a junction box and special plug to supply power to the unit. Just wondering how to properly ground it and if it will work at all without the ground

The dishwasher does not know if you have a ground or not. The ground wiring on the inside of the machine (the dishwasher in this case) is tied to everything that will conduct electricity easily and could come into contact with the user; typically anything metal.

A ground wire can be thought of as simply a backup neutral. So if a hot wire ever touches some part of a metal system, the current will have this backup wire to run the current back to the breaker box. The breaker will detect this increase in current (unimpeded path) and trip which will cut off power to the device. If this wire weren't here, the metallic object would be energized, but it would not trip a breaker. It would simply be waiting for something (a person) to come along and touch it to give it a better path to ground.

So, as long as a hot never comes loose, you wouldn't need the ground. But if it ever were to, this wire could save a life (or prevent a really strong tingling sensation).

To shorten things off and end this; you don't need the ground for the dishwasher to function. It will work perfectly fine without one and you just wouldn't connect the ground wire on the other end. You then run the risk of a wire coming loose though.

But, what should be done regardless and will also provide grounding functionality is to use a GFCI breaker. The breaker would replace the existing breaker feeding the dishwasher and include a pigtail to the neutral. This breaker detects the current that is feeding into the circuit and out of the circuit. As long as everything is running like normal, it will work like a normal breaker. However, if a hot ever comes loose, the GFCI would detect that current is going in, but not as much is coming out and the breaker would trip itself.

Just installed a Bosch 300 series which required the dedicated ground.
  Problem solved by installing grounding rod (Lowes/ Home Depot) & grounding rod clamp.
The rod itself is approximately 7' in length.  You will also need 12 or 14 gauge wire (single strand). Make sure you have a mini sledge hammer.
This also allowed me to ground my adjacent stove which had an optional ground.
Sleep easier and do it right.  It will also void warranty if it wasn't properly grounded so take heed.


What type of screws/anchors to fasten a closer to a steel door What are some proper screws or anchors to use for affixing something to a steel walk-in door?
The example for this question will be attaching an automatic closer to an exterior steel door. The door is a typical residential steel walk-in door, which is "hollow" (foam core) and made of a rather thin-gauge of steel: 24 gauge = 1/40" = 0.0209 inch = 0.53 mm.
Here's a cutaway-view of an example steel door:

(Image from provia.com)
The steel being so thin creates a problem. The door closer in question came with machine screws and tells the installer to use a 12-24 tap, which I found odd. Maybe they expect a thicker gauge of steel? I used my tap and the screws stayed in for a few months, but someone tried pulling the door closed faster than the closer allowed  and the resistance from the closer caused the top screw holes to blow-out. The bottom ones are nearly ruined as well.

I would use anchors of some sort, but I can't seem to find any that are made to work on such an incredibly thin surface. Most anchors I see have a minimum thickness of 1/8 inch, and even then I would question them:

(Image from yindigoarya.com)

The only anchors I see that claim to be for "hollow-doors" are this type, but they seem to be made for hollow wood doors commonly used for closets and such. They don't seem right for this job:

(Image from homedepot.com)
Maybe they just don't make anchors for this type of thing?
I was thinking I could use "thicker" threaded screws like wood screws. I'm not sure how much that will help here. I worry it will just blow out the hole again and leave a larger hole behind. Plus, a rather thick wood screw would be needed since the holes are already wide.
What's a safe way to fasten this closer to reduce the risk of blowing out the holes even worse?

Any type of threaded screw will eventually pull out. I'd think about using some bolt and cap nuts. You'd have to drill right through the door and can probably use the same holes on one side. I'd think about adding a few washers on each side for a little extra strength.

I would recommend something this:

It is for wood, but I think it will do fine with thin steel.
Name should be coach bolt.
Drill hole through door big enough for thread on the bolt to pass freely. But too small for the rectangular extension under the head.
Insert bolt from outside of the door and screw nut from inside. The extension should extend round hole to square and prevent the bolt to slip as you tighten nut.


How to connect a 3 wire cable to a 2 wire outlet? I have recently had a conservatory built and want to wire an internal light fixture that has a live and neutral and Earth terminals.

I have removed my old security light and I am left with a cable existing of red, blue, Earth, and yellow with a red bit of tape on. My new light has a terminal for live, neutral, and Earth. So what do I do with the yellow cable. Can I just cap it off?

Yes, just cap off the wires you do not need.  Those are for future expansiom, you'll thank him later if you ever do something that needs it.


Will 1x4's and 1x6's be enough for an aquarium stand? I'm building an aquarium stand, with only wood and screws. I'm only equipped with a miter saw, a drill, and some hand powered saws and a leveler- this will be my first woodworking project. The goal is to have a stand that will hold a 35-40 gallon aquarium that will weigh at most 500lbs. But I am hoping this stand could hold 900-1000 lbs. (If I were to sell this, it's footprint is able to hold 75-gallon aquarium)

On the interior corners, it will have a 2x4 that spans top to bottom (30in) that the other pieces will screw into. I can use 2x4's and 2x6's for the other lengths as well, but I was hoping to use 1-inch thick common board to keep the weight of the stand down.

The finished product would have 1/4in plywood on all sides and 1/2 on the top. I was also planning on adding two handles on each end (drilled into the internal 2x4) for ease of transport.

...

So here are the bulk of my concerns.

Would using 2x4's and 2x6's instead of 1x4's and 1x6's be a better choice ultimately?

Would this design be able to take lateral pressure?

What alterations should I make to make it safe for 1000lbs?

Will the center piece (The one drawn in dashes) on the face and back be of any benefit? Or can it be left out entirely?

Should I use 1/2inch plywood on all sides instead?

The footprint of my aquarium is smaller than the stand, so it's edges won't be lined up with the frame, is that still safe?
Aquarium is 36x15in and stand is 38x20in

The picture isn't entirely to scale, but it's close enough to get the point across.

Edit
Updated Design - Forgot to add the two "joists" to the top and bottom.

Use 2x material... it's probably cheaper, stronger, and gives you more surface to screw into. (edit: this was based on the original question -- 'use 1x or 2x material?')

1/2" ply would probably be fine, but I'd suggest you upgrade to at least 5/8" ply (or whatever the horrible version of that is in the box stores -- 19/32"?!?) to skin the exterior. Construction adhesive would also be a recommended upgrade. Screws every foot or so.

With a plywood skin on 4 sides and the top, lateral pressure won't be a problem.

Thicker ply and 2x materials should make this adequate for 1000#, but only you can be the judge. (Maybe we need a bounty to decide what the best testing methodology is... I vote that you take it to a big box store and start loading bags of concrete on it.)

For the top, if you aren't sure that your weight will be bearing on the wood, 5/8" ply wouldn't hurt, either. One cross-brace would probably be all you need to keep the top from sagging and help keep the entire unit from wobbling.

Design-wise, you can make your life somewhat easier by double-thicknessing the legs and lapping them. (Can sketch if needed.) The 2x6 at the bottom could be replaced by a 2x4. (edit: this comment was based on an earlier sketch...)

Edit: let's see if I can add a sketch...

(sigh. after 2 attempts, I can't get it to rotate properly. Sorry.)

1x4s and 1x6s are the best material to use, 2x4 and 2x6 are overkill and much more difficult to work with.


Can I attach the main ground from my service panel to the old steel water main in my house? My current main ground is improperly connected to the water line in my house and I am planning on changing it this week. It is "connected" to (read: formerly soldered, now kind-of-sort-of laying on) a random point on the supply line in the center of my house directly under the bathroom approximately 20 feet from the point at which the main water supply comes into the house.

About 3 feet next to the service panel is what I am convinced is the old water supply when steel was the norm. Instead of running a new grounding wire ~65 feet to the current main, can I run the grounding wire to the steel pipe right next to the box? I do not know any specifics about the pipe other than it being steel but I find it hard to believe that it would have been removed when they converted to copper (my house is ~150 feet from the street).

You would be advised to not depend on the condition of some old discontinued water pipe for grounding. That pipe may have rusted and corroded so much that a lot of it is missing or not even making a low resistance connection into the earth.

If it was me looking to correct this condition I would contact my local building / electrical safety agency and/or inspectors and determine if you can ground with a copper clad steel grounding rod that you would pound 8 or 10 feet into the ground outside the foundation near the electrical service box. Then the appropriate size heavy gauge copper wire would be run from the service panel to the ground rod.

You need to sink a ground rod into the ground untill it zeroes a megaohm meter. Usually it is best to put it near your panel. Don't believe that less than 25 ohm crap, you want that megger at zero! Then and only then will you have a solid ground. And no, you cannot use a regular multi meter it has to be a megaohm meter.


Adding a ground to a GFCI ungrounded outlet box I have bought a 1974 built Condo that had GFCI issues.
 A bathroom has a GFCI outlet and no ground wire attached. It has a red/white wire hook-up that functions properly.
 There is a metal box, however it not attached to anything at all. It just flops loose in the wall opening having a hole in the vertical 2x with just the wires running through the hole. A previous owner tiled the entire bathroom and the electric box 'ears' are behind the ceramic and tension the cover into place. It fails the ground test needless to say and the inspector wants it fixed for occupancy.
 The red/white wires seem to come from the light bar.
 Should I remove the light bar and try to fish a ground-wire up to a proper metal box there if there is one?
 If so, is there a test I can do to check for ground-ability?
 Getting to the main light switch from the outlet would be a real trick.

GFCI with no ground is OK, though it should be labelled as such. The GFCI provides better safety than the ground would have.

In fact, installing a GFCI is a common fix when better safety is needed but no ground is available; I have three installed for exactly that purpose.

If you have a GFCI outlet, it can accept a three-conductor grounded power cord. Therefore, that outlet must be electrically grounded. The only time an ungrounded outlet is permissible is when no ground connection is provided and only a two-wire power cord can be plugged into it.

Non-GFCIs are forbidden in bathrooms. Therefore, you cannot use a two-conductor outlet because nobody manufactures a two-conductor GFCI.

If this were mine, I'd open the light bar and look for a ground there. If one is there, it'd be an easy enough job to fish a bare copper down to the ungrounded GFCI outlet. Failing that (no good ground in the light bar), I'd try to find a way to drill up into that wall from the basement (assuming 1st floor), from where I could fish a ground wire to the outlet. Failing that, I'd cap off the wires in the outlet and cover it with a blank plate.


How do I take apart a wooden pallet without cracking the wood? I'm trying to save the wood from some wooden pallets and have been unsuccessful.  I have been hammering close to where the nails are and then pry the nails out; however, before the wood comes out far enough to remove the nails it usually snaps in half.  Any suggestions would be most helpful.

They make several styles of tools that are made specifically for getting nails out. One tool called a "cats paw" looks like the picture below. (You may find similar tool under other localized names). A hammer is used to pound the hooked end in under the nail head so that it can then be levered out.

Another type of nail puller is also very effective in that the tool is used by itself without a need for a separate hammer. The handle on this type of nail puller is used to slide up and pound dowwards to embed the jaws around the nail head. Pulling sideways in the direction of the "foot" forces the jaws to clamp tightly on the nail and pull it out.

Use 2 strong planks + 2 strong supporting planks like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWnj4fUhyjI


Installing wall shelves- Crumbling walls My husband and I just moved into a new apartment and are trying to install our floating wall shelves. When we drill into the wall, the hole gets really big and the edges crumble. It takes a good bit of pressure to drill in.

The walls must be made of a plaster, as it is solid all the way through. Our last place was thick plaster, too, though, and we were able to drill smooth, clean holes that held the shelves no problem.

Is there any way we can install things onto our wall? We've already marred a few spots pretty good. Any advice is appreciated!

Walls aren't made out of solid plaster. Plaster is merely a coating. If its hard and 'crumbling' all the way through, my guess is it's a masonry block (or brick) wall coated in plaster. Knowing what region of the world you live in may help us narrow down the potential building technique for you.

If it is masonry, there are two things you need to do:

1) Make sure it's not a party wall. Party walls are fire walls and you may not be allowed to drill into them to begin with.

2) Invest in masonry drill bits and masonry anchor screws.

Most likely it’s a cinderblock wall. Depending on how heavy the shelves and what you are going to put on them here is what I’d try. Also it depends on the fastener mechanism that you need to hang the shelf. Here is what I’m picturing your dealing with on the back of your shelf:

Use a masonry drill bit slightly larger than the standard screw that you are wanting to use.
Fill the newly drilled hole with a 5 minute epoxy (don’t let it drip on the floor!)
Insert a standard screw with a head that fits into the bracket on the shelf into the epoxy filled hole - make sure to leave the screw head sticking out far enough to hang the shelf, but not too far.
Wait for the epoxy to dry and then hang your shelf!

The best part is when you move you can still back out the screw with a drill and fill the hole with putty to paint over!


Inbound calls to one line cause other line to ring Scenario:

Residential
Two VOIP telephone lines served by two Cisco SPA-122
boxes
Each SPA-122 connects to separate Line 1 and Line 2 junctions
in the house basement
A single, 2-wire cable connects a wireless
telephone to Line 1
A single, 4-wire cable connects a 2-line desk
telephone to Line 1 and Line 2

The problem:

Inbound calls on Line 2 will ring Line 1 once and display the CID on the wireless telephone during the CID cycle.

In other words, BOTH Line 1 and Line 2 ring and display CID on inbound calls to Line 2.

The Line 1 wireless telephone only rings once, even as the line continues to ring Line 2 on the desktop phone.

Tried:

Completely disconnecting the Line 1 SPA-122 from the circuit. Problem happens.

Completely disconnecting the desk telephone, down to disconnecting the wires from the wall jack. Problem happens.

Completely disconnecting the 4 wire cable that supplies the desk phone from the basement junction box. Problem does not happen.

Connected a new length of 4 wire cable to the junction box and tested with it still wound on the spool, leading no where. PROBLEM HAPPENS.

It's as if inbound calls on Line 2 are jumping / inducting cross-copper to Line 1 and ringing the wireless phone! Is this possible? How can it be fixed?

Is the 4 wire cable the type with 2 twisted pairs? If so, you may have the jacks wired incorrectly, such that the each telephone circuit is using 1 wire from twisted pair A, and one wire from twisted pair B. This would lead to increased and perhaps excessive electrical coupling from pair A to pair B.

If the 4-wire cable does not have 2 twisted pairs, then using a 2-twisted pair cable will reduce crosstalk between your two lines (provided you make sure that line 1 uses twisted pair A, and line 2 uses twisted pair B).

Evidently, the two VoIP base units and any satellite (extension) phone units have the same Bluetooth name. It is probably not the offending base unit that is ringing, but its satellite phones. The satellite (extension) phone stations are linked to its respective base unit, but since both base units have the same ID name only one base unit will ring, but all extension phones will ring because they will receive a signal from either of the base units.
 The fix: Rename one of the base units and link its satellite units to the new name.


PEX for hot water tank I was just replacing an electrical hot water tank.

Had to call a plumber because I didn't fancy my soldering skills on something that could flood the house. The plumber simply cut off the old copper lines (after the shutoff valve) and used pex to connect the tank and as a vent pipe.

Apart from if I'd known you could do that I would have done it myself - is this OK?
Seems to have been tightened with proper synch connectors and it certainly works.

PEX is usually rated at 180° F (82° C) -- it should say on the side of the pipe what the actual rating is. As long as your water heater temperature is below that, you're fine.

From wikipedia:

  There are two seemingly conflicting safety issues around water heater temperature—the risk of scalding from excessively hot water greater than 55 °C (131 °F), and the risk of incubating bacteria colonies, particularly Legionella, in water that is not hot enough to kill them. Both risks are potentially life threatening and are balanced by setting the water heater's thermostat to at least 54.4 °C (130 °F). The European Guidelines for Control and Prevention of Travel Associated Legionnaires’ Disease recommend that hot water should be stored at 60 °C (140 °F) and distributed such that a temperature of at least 50 °C and preferably 55 °C is achieved within one minute at outlets.

As @Michael points out, a T&P safety valve is rated to go off at 210°F (100°C), so if something does go wrong and your water heater overheats, there is a possibility the PEX will fail. If the PEX does fail, it almost certainly will happen right above the tank (which will be the hottest place, obviously). It will also serve somewhat the same job as the T&P valve, except that a T&P valve will close once the temperature/pressure has lowered, while a burst pipe will just keep gushing water until someone shuts off the supply.

The chances of water heater overheating like this are quite low: electrical heaters have thermal fuses in them that serve as an electronic safety (very hard to find the temperature rating of these: seems like it's anywhere from 167 to 210°F). In addition, the electronics are pretty reliable, and just very unlikely to fail "on", and without drawing too much current that would cause the breaker to trip.

I'm staying at a hotel that has pen running in the ceiling for hot water line. Their temp is set at 140 degrees and there per is showing stress factor on the per and leaking which makes me believe that pex and hot water doesn't work at 140 degrees


How to darken flagstone edge on fireplace hearth What can I use to color/darken the edge of a flagstone hearth. House built 1967. Hearth appears to have an unknown sealer on it - slight sheen, very water resistant. Top has nice color variation but edges are a much lighter mostly solid color. Stripping and heavy sanding is not really an option.

You darken flagstone with sealer/color-additive.   Or you can try heat.  I have darkened flagstone outside using a blowtorch, it works.   I am not suggesting that you do this as the results will vary and the sealer may melt weird or possibly start a "small fire".   The method does work as I have used it for outdoor grills and fire pits but saying that I would not have practiced my first time inside.

There is no quick fix for this.   You have to get sealer off first no matter what.   Even with past experience no way I am torching something with sealant on it.

If you don't want to strip the sealer off, then you will need to use something that sticks to the sealer rather than absorbing into the stone. Paint is a possibility.


Sink tailpiece doesn't line up with trap After installing a new bathroom sink, the drain tailpiece doesn't line up with the trap coming out of the wall.  I've seen flexible accordion hoses for this, but I think that violates code (P3002.3.1).  I live in California.  My tailpiece is 1.25" (OD) without threads.  The trap is 1.5" (ID) with male threads.  What's the best way to do this?

By the way, I have a flexible accordion piece from the old sink, which fits on the trap, but it has male threads on top, so it connect to the tailpiece.  So I don't understand how those flexible pieces are supposed to work anyway.

The photos posted above were really helpful, since many people may not know what connectors and adapters are available -- as I didn't before replacing two vanities. Therefore, I thought I'd post photos of what I did and the components I used.

The first thing to do is come out of the wall with a wall tube (otherwise known as a quarter-bend wall tube). Cut the long side if necessary, so it slides into the drain tube in the wall (make sure you have at least several inches in the wall drain).

The flange typically connects to the short leg of the J-trap.

There are two types of J-traps: one with a threaded slip-joint fitting on each end and a "repair" J-trap, with a slip-joint on the longer leg and a compression flange on the other. Use whichever one is suitable for your existing piping.

The connectors you use depend on two factors: how far is the tailpiece horizontally from the drain connection, and how far above or below it?

In the above situation, the drain connection is several inches to the side of the tailpiece and slightly below it. To close up horizontal distance, you can use another wall tube cut to the appropriate length, connected to the J-trap. The other end connects to a 90-degree elbow to make the turn and cover the vertical distance. Use a reducing washer to adapt a 1 1/4" tailpiece to 1 1/2" drain piping. (All the components pictured here are from Home Depot; other stores have similar items).

My other vanity has greater horizontal distance and less vertical. Therefore, I connected the longer leg of the J-trap to the wall tube, to get more displacement down, so the connectors would have room to cover the horizontal distance on the way back up. In this case, the 90-degree elbow didn't quite make it to the bottom of the tailpiece, so I had to add a coupling, attached to the elbow with a scrap piece of the wall tube I had cut off.

If, for some reason, you need even more vertical distance, you can use an extension tube, which has a threaded slip-joint fitting on one end, and connect it between the wall tube and the J-trap. (I tried this first, then realized I didn't need all that vertical distance and could eliminate the extension tube.)

If you find that it leaks after you tighten everything up, and you have water on top of the reducing washer on the tailpiece, it means your drain assembly isn't watertight against the sink. You may need to tighten it (carefully, so as not to crack the sink) or remove it and apply more silicone or plumber's putty, along with Teflon tape on the threads.

I have never posted to a site like this, though I have used them.  I feel compelled.
I had a problem with the pipes not lining up for me to use the P trap.
I was off by an inch or so.  I found this flexible P trap.
I have installed it.  I hope it works.  A rather cheap and
easy solution to this problem--if it works and does not clog up.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-1-1-2-in-Polypropylene-Form-N-Fit-Flexible-P-Trap-C3522605/205153746


What to use for 16ft span, max 1500 lbs Greatly appreciate if anyone out there would have an idea what to use to support a lift in the center of a 16 ft span, and have a 1500 lbs max load?
Thinking of maybe three stacked 2x8x16s??

An "I" beam. I have pulled engines from cars and see triple 2x8s bend over a 5-6' span.   No way are you going to carry a dead load of that much weight right at the center with less than an I beam...  I mean you could but the wood would be much much more expensive than a basic I beam.

A 4x8 wood beam can easily support 1900 lbs. located at the mid-span of a 16’ span of a beam using a mid-grade spruce, pine or fir (SPF) beam.
If you use a higher grade like “select structural”, then it will support 2200 lbs. or more.
Make sure you use adequate posts (4x4’s) and provide adequate connection (like Simpson connectors) to posts, walls, etc. Also, make sure it’s laterally braced.


Can these windows be shuttered from light in a simple and efficient way? I'm a very light sleeper. I cannot sleep if the room I am in is bright. Face-masks don't work for me because they give me allergies, prevent me from sleeping well, or don't match the geometry of my face.
I signed a 1-year lease in an apartment that has very bad general insulation (bad sound insulation, bad air insulation, bad insulation from vibrations from neighbors appliances, bad light insulation, bad heat insulation...), and that includes one of the worse window designs I've ever seen. They are not air-tight, not heat-tight and not light-tight at all..
This has caused me a lot of grief for various reasons:

Since they are not airtight, during fire season (this is in California), we had to seal the windows shut with tarp because smoke was getting inside the apartment (costly, time-taking, difficult, not easy to do/undo);

For the same reason, I left one of the sides tarped up because our
downstairs neighbors are heavy smokers and the smoke would come up
and wake me up at night;

Neighbors going outside their houses to place calls or listen to
music can be heard as clearly as if they were in the room, same with
street noises, construction areas, etc;

And most importantly, sunlight wakes me up every day at 5:30 or 6AM.

What makes it extremely difficult to shutter these is:

The overhanging fixture (totally useless and extremely annoying), which reduces the options to screw curtain rods above the window, and leave out very little space between the wall and said fixture - I don't think I would mess with unscrewing them as they are fragile and would take up a lot of room;

The levers to angle the window's panes which are protruding and prevent placing a flat plank of wood or other material against it without cutting a notch for them;

The whole wall area around the window seems to be made of metal - nothing can be nailed or screwed in near the windows;

The frequent winds that blow rather hard and would often push away anything flat placed against the windows;

The absence of metal around the windows, preventing to use magnetic solutions (everything is aluminium);

The width of the window casing (about 8ft), preventing the use of one single panel to go over it;

The sunlight hits the window very powerfully and any hole of gap in the shutter casts a lot of brightness into the room;

The solution has to be easy to put on and off in the morning/evening.

I tried to build shutters twice already. The first model was just a very large piece of folded cardboard placed into the wall frame against the windows, resting on the window sill. It was an OK solution, but I had these huge pieces of cardboard in the room, always sliding and falling down, and the seal wasn't great, especially on top, I had to tape it to the wall to prevent it from always gaping and falling down.
My current solution involves three panels, 2 are foam boards that I painted black, and which stay on thanks to magnets that I glued around the window frame and on the boards, and a middle panel made of light-sealing fabric and a wooden rod, also held in place with magnets at the top.
I am also not satisfied with this solution, since the sides of the light-blocking fabric are not pressed against the window frame and light leaks in, and there are gaps caused by the gap between the magnets and the foam boards, which on top of it are curving with the heat, thus letting in a lot of light.
I am really desperate to get good sleep in this apartment whatever the time of the day or the position of the sun is, and I am slowly becoming insane thinking about the poor (cheap?) decisions of the people who built this building, the absence of countrywide standards, and why I ended up accepting to live here so naively.
Can I efficiently block out all (or most of) the light from these windows in a simple, efficient manner?

(That window type is called jalousie or louver windows, by the way.)
If you search for "jalousie window seal", you'll get some products that come in a roll and assist in sealing the gap between each window. That should help with the airtightness, though not as much as a real window would.
You could also use an "interior storm window"/"storm window insert", which is basically a sheet of plexiglass with a seal around the outside, designed to fit snugly in the window. This is a somewhat expensive and bulky solution, but would actually seal the window. Up to you if $100+ is worth it for something that you'd leave with the apartment after a year. (It's also possible to hand-make something like this. The tricky part is the seal.)
For light blocking, I would suggest paired command adhesive hooks, (the bigger ones) and stringing a curtain rod between them. Looking at the blinds on my patio door, which use a similar design, you should be able to squeeze a curtain between the blinds and the wall, though you'd need to do the curtains as a pair because of the support in the middle. If you can't fit the curtains back there, go over the top; place the hooks as far up the wall as you can (remember that the hooks need a bit of room above them) then just drape them over the blinds. Looks ugly, but it works; had the same setup growing up.
If that's not working out well, my backup recommendation would be a four-poster bed. Instead of using blackout curtains on the actual window, you get a four-poster bedframe, and just hang heavy fabric off of that instead.
jalousie window seal: first Google shopping result. Not a recommendation, I haven't used this or researched this product that well. Note that this goes over the edge of each glass pane, fitting between that pane and the next. It's sold as a roll, and is cut to length. You can buy this from multiple sources, but I suspect they're all pulling from the same factory.
Interior storm window site: first Google result. Not a recommendation. Here, you have choices. You can roll your own with a trip to the hardware store (plexiglass, cutter, and something for the edges), get a kit (you still buy the plexiglass locally, but the other stuff gets shipped), or buy premade online. All these options are kind of expensive.
Command Adhesive This actually is a product recommendation. Command Adhesive is what I've used in all the places I've rented to hang curtains in my bedroom. It's designed to hold, and be removed without damage. I'm recommending the brushed nickel hook as it looks a bit better than the plastic ones, and the 5lb one because there's a possibility that you'll need to put it over top of the existing blinds, and Command Adhesive is weakest at withstanding pulling.
Four-poster bed: selected because it's less horrifically expensive compared to some of the other options. Not a product recommendation.

I would paint the windows with an easily washable black paint.
Two coats, no edge leakage and won’t let light through.
Since, based on your comments there are other issues not explained in the original post...
Then another option is while doing the best with the window, you could make a 4 poster bed and use a lightproof covering much like a mosquito net.


Why is my desk still tacky two weeks after finishing it with a polyurethane clear coat? I've recently built a standing desk out of sandply with a mahogany veneer.

I have stained it, and two weeks ago added a polyurethane clear coat to protect the stain. However, after doing this, the desk is slightly tacky, and things don't slide very well on it.

What can I do to reduce this "stickiness"?

The poly simply needs to cure for a while. Even after it "dries" and is safe to work on, the solvents that keep the polymers in suspension aren't all gone; they'll continue to evaporate, and the clear coat will fully harden in time. Check the can for your particular product; it should have a full cure time. It could take up to a month if you laid on a really thick coat and it's humid in your area.

Contrary to intuition, you can wax furniture that has a poly coat, much like you can wax a car that has a clearcoat. Just pick up a can of Minwax, apply and buff, then let dry overnight. This additional protective coating will be temporary, but hard, water-repellent and slick.

You applied an oil base finish on top of a water base finish. It won't dry. A fix trick is apply another coat of water base finish on top of it.


Fan works for heating, but not for AC, where to start? Our new place has a working AC (meaning that the physical box outside spins and can produce cold air) and a working fan (meaning that the fan spins and is able to put air out to the vents in the house). However, both the AC and the fan will not work together.

Through some experimentation, when turning the heat on, the fan will run and output warm air. If I then immediately switch to AC, I will get out about 2 minutes of cold air through the fan until the fan turns off.

The fan in all cases has not been set to 'auto' but rather has been forced to the 'on' mode.

This leads me to believe there is an issue with the control panel, as both components work individually. Any suggestions on how to debug/fix this issue before we have to pay for an inspector to come in?

If this is an older furnace you may have a bad relay in the furnace control box that runs the fan when the a/c is turned on. If it a newer furnace you may have a problem with the printed circuit board. A picture of the control board or the wiring of the furnace would help, along with the model, serial, and age of the equipment


How do you determine if a door is Right Handed (RH) or Left Handed (LH)? I am replacing a few interior doors and I need to know if the existing door is Right Handed or Left Handed so I have them drilled correctly.  Sounds like the acronyms for this are RH and LH.  This also would apply for new pre-hung doors as well I assume as they are all marked that way at the mega home improvement stores.

Not only besides RH or LH, you need to determine swing direction. Trust me, this needs to be agreed upon. When I built the additional room onto my house, I thought 84 Lumber understood the direction of door swing and they didn't. There is left inswing, right inswing, left outswing, and right outswing.

The door handle on my exterior door is on the right-hand side, but it is considered a left-hand outswing. Whereas my front door swings in, and the handle is on the right hand side so it is considered a right-hand inswing. Make sure you know what you are buying before you spend the money!

When you pull the door towards you, which side is the door knob on? LEFT or RIGHT.
If you can't pull the door, you're on the wrong side.

Anyone who gives you a longer answer than that is either confused or pulling your leg.


Why don't you connect unused hot and neutral wires to "complete the circuit"? I'm new to home wiring and had a question I'd like explained to me. I removed a vent hood over my oven and I thought I had to complete the circuit so I tied the hot and neutral wires that were powering the hood together with a wire nut, but all the lights on that breaker in the house didn't work after that. I then tried turning on the breaker with the hot and neutral wires NOT touching and all the lights worked!

This doesn't make sense to me; this might be a super simple question but I'm just trying to understand.

Why did the breaker work when those two wires weren't connected, but when I secured them with a wire nut then all of the lights also on that breaker didn't work?

You don't need to "complete the circuit".  Tying together the hot and neutral wires creates a short circuit, which should immediately trip the circuit breaker.  If you're removing a vent hood, you should put a wire nut on the end of each now-unused wire (to prevent a short circuit) and close up the box.

Every unused outlet in the house is an "incomplete circuit".  Presumably you don't install jumper wires across each outlet every time you unplug something, right?

Why did the breaker work when those two wires weren't connected, but when I secures them with a wire nut then all of the lights also on that breaker didn't work?

To put an emphasis on the name of the component:

The breaker working means that the breaker breaks the circuit. If you connect the two wires, you essentially unbreak the circuit, which causes the breaker to break the circuit you've just unbroken.

The job of the breaker is to keep the circuit broken. It might become unbroken (aka connected) by accident or failure. This is why you don't connect unused hot and neutral wires to “complete the circuit”, because you actually have installed a device that has the single job that the circuit is never completed (in the way you were completing it).


re-using wood from a concrete form? I strive to not waste materials wherever possible, and "use once then discard" methods are particularily irksome. So with this mind, what suggestions do you have for enabling re-use of lumber used for concrete forms?

If you use it for a form again no problem . . . otherwise, the remnants of the concrete on the wood will damage your power tools.

Re-use for forms. Lumber is cheap anyways, so go get yourself a new piece if you want to use the same type of wood again.


How should I upgrade or combine sub-panels so I can add another one? I'm building a poultry shed.  The building next to it has power going to it from the pole.  At the pole there are two breakers.  Then it goes into the old building where it looks like the two very old panels in there only have 120 coming from the pole each.
I put a panel in the new shed and buried 8-2, which I'm now thinking I may need to dig up and replace with #6.  The panel in the new shed is a six-spot 120/240 Homeline from Square D.
I have ran the hot to one bus and jumpered it to the other bus.  I have placed the neutral into the top bar and added a grounding bar attached directly to the panel.  I put in a grounding rod and ran a copper cable to the grounding bar in the panel.  I can go get pictures in a bit if needed.
My questions are these:
Am i wiring the panel in the new shed correctly considering the panel I'm coming from is only 120v?  The panel in the old building is probably from the 70's with the push button type breakers and no room available for another breaker.  The other leg of the 4 wire from the pole bypasses this breaker and goes to a breaker with a throw bar.  This just runs the lights in the old building.
Should/Do I need to replace the breaker panel in the old shed?  Should I combine both breaker boxes into a 240v panel?  There are 2 double pole breakers at the utility pole so I'm not sure if the 240 is separated there before going to the old shed.
The new shed has 5 outlets on 2 circuits and 2 lights on it's own circuit.  I'm seeing now that 8-2 only handles 40amps so I'm guessing I need to dig the 8-2 up and replace it with #6.
Do I need a main disconnect in the subpanel and if so how to I wire that in.
If pictures are needed I can get them this afternoon.
Thank you all for your time.
edited to add pics.

Honestly, from the questions you're asking and, the work you've described, I think you should hire an electrician.
If you're running 120 from one location to another, you don't need a sub-panel. Your 220/240 is two-phase. It is split in your service panel, left side breakers are one phase 120/110, and the right is the second phase. You get 220 from a panel by using a 2-gang breaker and providing two legs of 110 on the same phase. Wire rating is as follows:

15A - 14 ga.
20A - 12 ga.
30A - 10 ga.
40A - 8 ga.
55A - 6 ga.


Can I replace a 20A breaker with a 40A breaker? My basement has only one 20 Amp breaker running it. When I turn my heater on...it kicks the breaker. Can I just change that out to a 40 Amp breaker.. I'm freezing here. What can I do? It kicks every day .help me out

Never EVER swap a breaker for a larger amp.  Extremely dangerous and could easily burn your house down.  If turning on a space heater trips the breaker, there are other things on the circuit drawing current and you will need to shut them off to run your heater on that same circuit.  Also use the lowest wattage setting whenever possible - running 1500 watts (high power) all the time... no telling how warm/hot the wires inside your walls are getting.  If you have an industrial (high-amp) extension cord, you could use it to run your heater from another circuit, or even add a second heater to the basement using the heavy-duty extension cord. (Do NOT use a normal household extension cord to power a heater though!!!).  I'd suggest a kerosene heater to get you through really cold temps - they are great emergency heaters.  Or an oil-filled dielectric radiator heater (those are safer than most).

Edit: in short, I agree with John R. If you're interested in diagnosing the problem, or in finding out if a larger breaker is an option, here are some more notes:
An electrician can tell you if your breaker can be swapped to a higher current rating. The breaker capacity is based on the size and length of the conductor attached to it and other factors that a competent electrician will be aware of.
If your breaker is already the correct size, then a new higher amperage breaker will not provide the protection you need. But it's always possible that the breaker you've got is smaller than it could have been when installed. Or that there was once a 30 amp in there, and it was swapped to a lower size at some point in the past (which is safe) because that was the one someone had on hand. An electrician can tell you!
You can safely swap in a new breaker of the same size. It's unlikely to make a difference, but it will eliminate that as a variable.
If this is a new problem, with an existing heater that used to work fine, then that heater may have developed an internal short. If you can see inside the heater, look for two coils that are touching each other, that is a type of short.
The next step is to try and figure out what's using the 20 amps on your circuit. 20 amps is about 2400 watts, and that should be enough to run a pretty good sized portable heater (I'm assuming it's portable). Try unplugging everything else on the circuit, and see if it still trips the breaker.
Next try plugging it into another circuit of same capacity upstairs (all by itself). If it does not blow that breaker of the same size, then there may be a problem with your downstairs wiring.
If you use an extension cord, look for one that says '12/3', and get the shortest one you can use. Lots of cords will say '14/3', which has smaller wires, or '14/2' which does not have a ground. '12/3' or even '10/3' if you can find it is a good choice for big electrical loads like a heater.
Good luck!


How to trim a cut on a hollow core tabletop edge? I have a hollow core tabletop, which is too wide for where it will go. I'd like to cut it into two pieces. What is a good way to finish the cut edge? Or is it just easier not to bother and get a better fitting desk?

As in the comment, a hollow core door has wood around the edges, and the center contains a cardboard spacer in a honeycomb pattern.   When I shorten such a door, I cut it to the desired size, then take the cutoff piece, cut the solid edge part to fit, remove the veneer, and glue it back into the cut and exposed side.

(1) A crazy alternative would be to saw out a piece down the middle and put it back together. See videos on how to cut laminate counter-top for ideas and methods (masking tape, countertop jigsaw bit or fine-tooth circular saw blade). Various methods are possible to rejoin the halves. Best would be biscuit joints (but you need a specialized tool). A similar idea is to drill holes and insert wood dowels. In both cases use wood glue. Finally, toggle bolts can be used (again, look for videos on how to mate two pieces of kitchen countertop). In all cases, you can add metal straps on the underside of the table and (assuming it has one), the frame running around beneath the table top.

(2) If you prefer a saner approach cut off the ends you might try to reclaim the laminate used on each end (before you saw it off) and glue it back onto the new surface. I say both ends so that the legs remain centered.

(3) Depending on how the table top is attached to the frame and legs you can get the same effect but avoid making two cuts by detaching the table top from the frame. Cut one end and repair as above, then re-attach centered on the frame. Many times the frame is attached to the table top by wood screws from the underside and the legs are attached to the frame so this is not that difficult.


Can I accelerate caulk drying by using a fan or heater on it? From what I've found online, caulking takes 24-48 hours to dry. For my purposes, I need to apply caulking to my kitchen sink.

However, I am in a time crunch, so I would like to know how caulking dries. Specifically, can the dry time be sped up to less than 24 hours if I direct some fans at the caulking? Can apply a heat fan help too?

The tube of caulk should include drying and curing times.  It will vary based on the product so you definitely want to go by the manufacturer's recommendation and not some general guideline on the web somewhere.

You are not the only person who does not want to have to wait a day or two before using their sink and bathtub and the caulk manufacturers know this. It should be easy to find caulks that dry much faster than this.  Bathroom caulks are frequently advertising their "shower ready" time which is how long before it can get wet.  It may take a day or two to fully cure but many caulks will be able to get wet after a few hours.

Like many "fast drying" products the downside is that you have less time to work with the product before it starts setting up.  The last time I caulked my bathtub I used a very fast drying product that claimed it was "shower ready in 1 hour".  I am not a perfect caulker so I kept adding more and smoothing it out; unfortunately it started "clumping up" after maybe 20 minutes so I ended up with lumps.  If I had used a product that took longer to dry I would have had more time to smooth it without it starting to dry and get a skin over the top.


Will an existing 10-3 w/ground electrical wire handle a 50 amp 220 volt welder? I am wondering if my current electric service wiring can handle a welder.  The welder documentation recommends a 50 amp breaker on a 220 v line.

Currently I have a 60 amp breaker on a 220 line going to a separate garage.  I presume this was installed by the electrician who wired the house 10 years ago but I am the third owner so this is not for certain.  The 10-3 w/ ground wiring (not in conduit) to the garage is approximately 60 feet long or less.  It doesn't seem right that this has a 60 amp breaker but I'm not familiar with 220 v lines.  On 110 v I believe this should be a 30 amp breaker max.

There are 2 unused 20 amp 110 v circuits in the garage.  I have two configurations that I can run after removing the unused circuits. One is to run another 40 feet to get to a double garage door and the other is to put a 220 outlet right by the current box which would be a bit restrictive.  I haven't found the nec code that specifies what size wire I need for a 220 v 50 amp draw.

Wiring from garage panel to welder
NEC 630.11(A) may be of interest.

National Electric Code 2008
ARTICLE 630 Electric Welders
II. Arc Welders
630.11 Ampacity of Supply Conductors.
(A) Individual Welders. The ampacity of the supply conductors shall be not less than the I1eff value on the rating plate.
Alternatively, if the I1eff is not given, the ampacity of the supply
conductors shall not be less than the current value determined by
multiplying the rated primary current in amperes given on the welder
rating plate by the factor shown in Table 630.11(A) based on the duty
cycle of the welder.

Also take a look at 630.12 Overcurrent Protection.
The Owners manual (PDF) seems to contain the answer.

Wiring from service panel to sub panel
If we look at 110.14(C) in 2008 NEC, it says:

National Electrical Code 2008
ARTICLE 110 Requirements for Electrical Installations
I. General
110.14 Electrical Connections.
(C) Temperature Limitations. The temperature rating associated with the ampacity of a conductor shall be selected and coordinated so
as not to exceed the lowest temperature rating of any connected
termination, conductor, or device. Conductors with temperature ratings
higher than specified for terminations shall be permitted to be used
for ampacity adjustment, correction, or both.

Which means we'll have to check the breakers temperature rating, and the subpanel terminals temperature rating. Then we'll have to look at table 310.16 (Table 310.15(B)(16) NEC 2011), so we can determine the wire size we should use.

In this example image you can see if we're using copper, we'll use 60°C. Once we look at the table, we'll see that for 50A @ 60°C we need 6 AWG copper wire. (50A @ 75°C = 8 AWG).
110.14(C)(1)(a) basically says that if the temperature is not listed, use 60°C for circuits less than 100A.  110.14(C)(1)(b) says if the temperature is not listed, use 75°C for circuits over 100A. However, in the real world 75°C is often used for both.

If the rated primary current is 47 amps and the duty cycle is 20% you can use #12 thhn or #10 Romex with a 50 amp breaker.


Why would there be a 50 amp plug on a 30 amp appliance? I have an old conveyor dryer, which my office purchased used some time ago, just sitting in storage. The dryer is for silk screen t-shirts and has a large heating element and a variable speed conveyor that runs underneath, rather like a small pizza oven. I'm interested in getting it running, but I'm perplexed about the plug and circuit requirements.

The panel on the side of the dryer indicates that the full load amp is 30 amps. So why would the plug be a NEMA 14-50R, which handles 50 amps?

All the 220 outlets on the building have 30 amp breakers and run 10 gauge wire. Will I need to have someone install new breakers and run 8 gauge just for this dryer even though it says it won't pull more than 30 amps?

30 amps is where a 30 amp breaker should cut off, and to avoid that, you should only use 80% of the breaker's capacity. So for a 30 amp breaker, you shouldn't be using more than 24 amps. Using a 50 amp breaker and a dedicated outlet ensures that you don't exceed the capacity of the circuit with that appliance.

Your worries are correct here indeed. Why is there a 50amp in there? And I will tell you that it should not be there! In no home appliance rated for single phase @ 220v have i seen a 50amp fuse! You might as well stick a paper clip in there or piece of wire to bypass the plugs fuse.

50Amps = 11000WATTS! What the?

30Amp I have seen in like hot water boilers and those always run on dedicated 5mm solid core cable with 30AMP breaker, isolater and internal fuses.

So I would suggest to drop the 50amp to 30 amp.. or even 25amp.. but dropping it to low could blow it on start- as start always take a massive spike in electricity.

Either way if your main 30Amp is not tripping then the 50Amp is redundant because it will never fail.

What fuse is INSIDE the machine is the question to be asking! :-)

In the end plug it in and run it WITHOUT any other appliance on that breaker line!


Correctly wiring GFCI with two hot lines I recently bought a house built in 1958, with the original wiring. The outlets are not grounded (only two pins) and so I want to put some GFCI outlets as a hold-over until I can afford to have the house rewired with grounding.

One outlet I am working on is fed with two pairs of hot wires. They are on the same circuit, although when I turn the breaker off I still have 16V going through them, until I turn off the other breakers.

Would both pairs connect to the line side of the GFCI outlet? In that case I suppose I would not be able to chain other outlets off the load side. My main concern is that in this answer, the poster says

  In this procedure, only one wire should make the meter light up. If more than one wire caused the meter to light, contact a local licensed Electrician.

I would like to learn more about home wiring, without putting myself at risk -- if I need to get someone who knows what they're doing to come work with it that's fine, but I'd still like to know what I'm dealing with.

Update:

Took another look today. With the multimeter I was able to determine one pair that never had any voltage (I've separated all the wires from the outlet) so that must be a load pair.

The other pair of wires is another story. When the breaker is on it measures 120V as expected. When I turn the breaker off, it still has 16-18V going to it. There is a lightswitch near the outlet and when I turn it on, it goes right back to 120V, so it looks like that outlet is fed by two circuits, one of which goes through that switch.

As a note, when I initially wired the GFCI outlet, it tripped as soon as the breaker was turned on -- would that other circuit be coming into play to cause that? I did try wiring the outlet both possible ways, swapping the two wire pairs between load and line inputs, and it still tripped.

Onto the outlet, here is a picture, apologies for the less than great quality. Bottom line though, there are no tabs on the outlet and nowhere that looks like tabs would have been broken from.

Pick a circuit and stick with it

It appears that the existing wiring is confused, as it so often is in buildings of such vintage, and as a result you have one receptacle device that somehow got fed two circuits (one always hot and one switched hot) in a way that probably simply rendered the switch useless (as it was backfed power from the always-hot circuit to its load side).

Your well-intentioned-but-naive GFCI hookup attempt failed because the GFCI was seeing at least some voltage on its LOAD side and tripping/refusing to reset as a way of signaling "hey, dude, I've been wired wrong and can't help you because of it!"  This is a very important safety feature in the current generation of GFCI receptacles -- instead of silently offering an illusion of protection, they will do everything but scream to tell you about outside power appearing at their LOAD terminals, as that backfeeding both can render the GFCI unable to provide protection and can damage the GFCI's internals.

So, you need to decide whether you want the GFCI on the always-hot circuit or the switched circuit, and cap off the wires in the box for the other circuit with wire nuts, then connect the wires on the circuit you want to use to the GFCI.  Just make sure to keep which hot goes with which neutral straight to avoid a giant loop in your wiring.

It would be very unusual to have 2 hot wires from the panel. Unless one of the outlets is controlled by a switch.If you are using a non contact detector the induced voltage from the hot can trick the tester and it will light. A inexpensive volt meter would be a better piece of test Equipment to verify the hot wire. You may read 40-80 volts on the wire that is not hot this is the induced voltage from the 2 wires running in parallel but there is no real potential or current available. The wire that shows 120vac is the hot from the panel this is the wire/ cable you want on the line side and the other wire/cable on the load side then all the down line outlets or devices would be GFCI protected. They should be labeled no equipment ground until your 3 wire upgrade is complete.
Not sure why I got a down vote especially since my answer was correct 2 wires entering the box 1 is hot 1 goes downstream.


Bare or insulated grounding wire? I am pulling about 120' 6 AWG wires from my main panel to a pool control center, and my question is do I use bare or insulated ground wire. Also, based on the tables it seems like even 10 AWG would be fine for it, but I will be using #8.

Beg pardon: insulated is called for, unclear why (no explanation of the "logic" is made.) http://www.biupa.com/assets/poolelectric.pdf

When I was working on renovation of some gas stations where there was a budget issue some design engineers claimed that there is no need to insulate wires. At the end occasionally we had to insulate them on our cost just to be on a safe side. My advice in general is that everything that is going under the surface should be protected and/or insulated.


20 Amp Circuit with 15 Amp outlets I added an outlet to a bathroom. When I pulled the outlet, which was a 15A, that I was going to tie into it was wired with a #12. I checked the circuit and it is a 20 AMP circuit. It was part of a bathroom that was part of a GFCI. I thought maybe since the was a ground fault that it was okay to have the 15A outlet on a 20A.

I did a little more looking around comparing the circuit to the outlets. It appears that the 20A circuits are all wired with 15A outlets.

Is this a code violation or safety hazard?

Thanks,

Dave

Folks, folks...

15A outlets are totally legal on 20A circuits.

Because the NEC makes an exception specifically for that (National Electrical Code):

The exception is by careful plan. It would be stupid for electricians to have to carry two types of receptacles on their truck.  So UL (the listing agency) requires all 15A receptacles to have internal circuit paths good for 20A. This allows the same receptacle to be used in both 15A and 20A circuits.  It also allows two appliances totaling 20A to be plugged in at once, even though each appliance is less than 15A.  The extra copper is trivial, they still manage to sell these things as cheap as 60 cents apiece.

If you want a quality receptacle, buy one.  You can buy quality NEMA 5-15 (Mr. Horrified) for $3 and up.  You don't need to buy a NEMA 5-20 (Mr. Winky) to get quality, but it assures quality since cheapie 5-20's are not commonly made.

This is code but I would change the outlets.  Outlets are cheap and easy to replace.  Why chance it?

So you can leave this but don't plug more than 2 or more things into one of the outlets that exceed 15 Amps through extension cords or the like.  Technically, doing that isn't code but most people who are not electricians don't realize they have to know about this issue.  It's crazy that they make people hard-wire smoke detectors in (because people yank the batteries) but expect these same people to not overload an extension/splitter.

Make sure all the other occupants in the house know not to use these:

Or you could just change out the outlets to 20A rated.  Another option is that you could change the breaker to a 15A.  That will reduce the overall capacity of the circuit, though.


Can I use knee bracing to cantilever a deck further than code allows? I live in Florida and currently have a deck support by ten 9" round, 10' high pilings. The outer ledge boards are double 2x10x10 bolted to the piling which are notched to accommodate the double 2x10s.

The current deck is only 5.5' wide. The pilings are spaced 9 feet apart with one piling on each side of the deck every 9 feet to support it. I only want to extend the deck 30".

Instead of tearing the whole deck off and redoing the supports to cantilever it which can only be 24", I thought I could use 2x10s for a knee brace on each side of the piling and run 14" galvanized bolts through it. Then I would run a 2x10 parallel to the house on top of the knee brace on the outside and use lag screws to attach it to the knee brace. Then use 2x8x30" long with galvanized joist hangers to attach to the existing double 2x10 which is resting in a slotted space on the piling and bolted to it And the 2x10 bolted on top the knee brace.

____________________________
        | <-- hanger      |/|
    old | new             |/|
  joist | joist           |/|
________|_________________|/|
|   |/|/|             /     /
|   |/|/|            /     /
|   |/|/| <-- beam  /     / <-- knee brace
|   |/|/|          /     /
|   |_|_|         /     /
|       |
|       | <-- piling
|       |
|       |

Do you think this would work or do you have any other ideas?

To answer some of your questions. The pilings are pressure treated wood telephone poles. They are 9" round. I have attached a side view of the knee brace I'm considering using,

That seems reasonable, but your local inspection office is the ultimate authority. You should sketch it up and meet with an inspector.

I'd be a bit concerned about drilling completely through the pilings, though (which I assume are concrete). That's a lot of rough treatment for a relatively thin structure. Instead, I'd use expanding anchors and lag screws.

You'd also have to connect the top of the knee brace to either the pilings or the existing joists to keep it from rotating outward.

In certain cases, I've had to add on to existing floor joists, because the homeowner decided they wanted a bay window. A general rule is to add two times the length of the cantilevered section to a joist. Check with your local building inspector on that. That means that if you extend 30" past the front of the deck, you would extend 60" back underneath the deck and against the existing joists. That would, of course, eliminate the knee brace.


Why do I need batteries to use solar when the grid is down? I am considering a home solar photovoltaic installation, probably 5 kW or so.   The usual configuration around here is with a grid-tie inverter and net metering.  But when the grid goes down, the inverter shuts off (to avoid back-feeding into the power grid and electrocuting linemen).
We are interested in being able to use the solar when the power goes down (not infrequent in this rural area).   According to the solar installer, the only way it is possible to do this is to also install a battery system like Tesla PowerWall.   The idea is that when the inverter loses the 60 Hz sinewave from the grid it shuts off; the inverter in the PowerWall supplies this sinewave, so the inverter doesn't shut off, and there's also a mechanism to disconnect from the grid.
That sounds reasonable.   But the cost is not.  Two PowerWalls would roughy double the cost of the installation.  During outages, we would be satisfied to only have power when the sun shines; this would keep food safe, allow us to draw water, etc.  Electrically, there is no reason this can't be done without the expensive battery system.  All that is necessary is to generate the 60Hz reference for the solar system's inverter, and to disconnect from the grid.
Has anyone been able to manage such an installation? Would it be strictly DIY (perhaps feasible as I'm a electrical engineer)?

This is an XY problem at the industry level.  Imagine some guy says "Design me a dimmer" and you design him an excellent triac dimmer, no big.  And then he goes "Cool, can you just tack on a VFD onto this thing?" Facepalm, not in any elegant or cost efficient way.

So it is with solar panels.  Everybody and their dog is selling 2007 tech, a solely grid-tied system because it's established, built at scale, and financial models are well established for sharing profits with the finance company, etc. etc.  They can build, sell and finance that all day all night. It's the cheapest way to get you in the door and talking about solar.  But they are selling system X.

Now, post-Sandy, there's the hue and cry to "bolt on" off-grid capability, in a manner compatible with dumb consumers.  They did it, but it's inelegant and pricey, like bolting a VFD on a triac.  The interlocking-for-linemen takes extra resources. I'd call it System XX.

For what you want, you want system Y.

And since you presumably don’t want to design every inch of it from scratch, we should grab out of the traditional "off-grid solar" parts bin.  That means a few minor concessions.

The inverters are simply too different

A grid-tie inverter needs to follow grid frequencies, take all its input power, and force it all onto the grid by pushing voltage as hard as necessary.

An off-grid inverter needs to generate its own AC frequency, take only enough input power to do the job, and provide only as much power as the loads are drawing.

These are dramatically different roles and one inverter doing both will be a costly engineering challenge. They do exist; there are "hybrid inverters" on the market capable of both.  Of course they are pricey and have their own system design requirements, not least batteries.  You are probably better off getting cheap commodity COTS inverters for each application.

That said,  your "No batteries whatsoever" plan is flawed.  There will be cases where you have loads simply too big for the panels themselves to carry, e.g. motors starting up.

An off-grid system, "plus"

This is where I want to raid the parts bins of the off-grid solar people.  The only thing that isn't out of their wheelhouse is the grid-tie inverter, but that's no big.

Their systems are violently battery-centric, for obvious reasons.  Because of this, there is no viable way to avoid it, but nobody says your battery can't be tiny. Last I checked, they sell used car batteries for $20, there ya go.

Now in the house, we have a main panel with the main breaker.  It has 2 breakers in it: The breaker to the grid-tie inverter, and the breaker to the subpanel.

The subpanel is where the magic happens. It has a $23 Siemens or Square D style "generator interlock" which backfeeds two breakers (one at a time). One side it's on utility, the other it's on "generator" (read: off-grid inverter).  Every load you ever foresee running off solar goes in this panel.  If you put every single load in your house in this subpanel, I won't tell :)

"Normal" operation involves the subpanel interlock in "Utility" mode, the off-grid inverter driving into nothing (shut it off), the charge controller instantly topping up the tiny battery, and diverting all solar power to "dump".  Dump then goes into the grid-tie inverter and is sold back to the power company.

"Power out" operation, you throw the interlock to "Gen", power up the off-grid inverter.   As the off-grid inverter draws to supply household loads, the charge controller diverts power to it as needed, blocking the rest of available current from the panels (since "dump" is a dead-end).  If a motor starts and pulls more than panels can deliver, then we see how good or big  your battery is.

And, if experience shows you it's advantageous to have a real battery, you can get one.

Note that in all cases, power flow is one direction only, and nothing ever reverses flow. That is a huge advantage over the "System XX" type setups, which flow power every which way, and need to "bolt on" elaborate, expensive interlocking systems to avoid backfeeding. Here, backfeed protection is a plain interlock, except for the grid-tie inverter which is UL 1741 compliant; you can't find a grid-tie inverter that isn't.

The whole system is cheap, scungy, simple, bottom-tier tech.  That's not to say "don't use good stuff" - yes, of course use Morningstar or Midnight Solar charge controllers. But we're using their standard boilerplate gear, not special-purpose exotica.

Of course, if you want to phone up one of the finance-- I mean solar installation companies, they aren't going to be conversant in a simple system like this.  They won't want to build a thing like I describe here; they've got a standard package they sell over and over that they know how to build.

As far as panels

Many panels sold today have built-in grid-tie "micro-inverters", so their output is 120/240VAC and they drop out if the grid fails. Cheap way to comply with NEC 690.12 Rapid Shutdown, but totally useless off-line.  There are other panels with smarts on board, too.  You want plain Jane run-of-the-mill DC output panels, again, the cheapest thing on the market.

There's also the law to contend with. Roofs have a super important job, and I'm no fan of compromising that with a bunch of holes. Many other places on your property would benefit from shade/snow sheltering, so I say "build freestanding racks over your parking spot etc."  But if you do roof-mount, you have to comply with 690.12:

If your panels are <30V (i.e. common "12 volt"/19V float panels), you need do nothing.
If you add a fireman's switch and relays, you can series-stack them to 80V per segment, and series-stack those segments to anything you please, but much over 80V starts putting you out of bounds for cheap, common off-grid charge controllers.  Note the relays can be powered by a <30V solar panel :)

All in, or all out

Panels aren't just panels anymore.  Many have embedded electronics (like microinverters) to "help out" the installer.  As such, there's no halfway anymore. You can't just let these people install what they please and expect to hack it later: you might, but you're relying on luck. So you really are at a courageous crossroads; you have to jump all-in, one way or the other.

Accept exactly what they install,  as a turnkey system that you won't modify ever, and pay the bill.
Take control of the process, do the research, and spec everything yourself soup to nuts.  You're responsible for the result, but you also have the flexibility to do it your way, and you get the best prices by far.  And no financing.

Not to be a cynic: Any solar powered system that requires batteries does not pay (where grid power is available).

That being said, this seems odd to me. I've always learned that the batteries power the inverter. The batteries are charged by the Solar panels (when available) or by the grid (when solar isn't available).

In a generator installation (where grid power is available), the generator only powers certain "critical" circuits, such as the refrigerator, furnace, well pump, etc. This will reduce your batter power requirements.
$0.02


Letting fresh air through a window without letting noise in I live in an apartment and it's pretty noisy outside, so I usually keep my windows closed. It does get pretty stuffy inside though, so I'm wondering if there's a way to get air through the window without letting a lot of noise in.

I've seen some portable air conditioners have a vent sticking out the window -- would something like that allow air to come in, but not noise? (presumably with the fan blowing air inside instead of outside)

I live in a moderate temperature area, so there's no central heating / cooling and it's fine to leave the window open at any time.

Short of replacing your window with a duct with several turns, lined with sound baffles, you aren't going to get quiet.

Human ear is amazingly sensitive.  30 db is a very quiet country side.  Flies buzzing, birds chirping.  Office is about 70 db  40 db difference doesn't sound like much, but it's a log scale.  That office is a thousand times noisier.

3 db is a factor of 2 in noise.  That is detectable as being quieter.  Just.

To make a meaningful difference you have to take at least 10 db (factor of 10) to 12 db (factor of 16)  This is difficult.

Windows that are designed to reduce sound are made of heavy glass, are double pane, and one pane is thicker than the other, they are mounted in a way that isolates them from each other and from the frame.

Ducts that reduce noise transmission are lined with irregular chunks of foam, and have several corners with T's so that the air has to corner while the sound goes straight.  Hard to do well.

More information:  Research sound stage building design.

What you can do is mask it.  Get a set of external speakers you can plug into your phone, and get a recording of surf, or babbling brook, or wind in the pines.

I've seen some portable air conditioners have a vent sticking out the window -- would something like that allow air to come in, but not noise?

No, because of 2 reasons:

Most portable AC don't suck air in, they pump air out.
The required opening to stick AC's vent out will allow all external noise in. Plus, portable AC units likely will make even more noise.

Typical gravity ventilation works by drawing air via imperfections in window seal, warming it up (with you, your computer and whatever is on in the room) and then letting the warmed up air thought ventilation chimney. Most buildings are literally designed for leaky windows. Stale air is typically an effect of installing new windows with rubber seals that are too airtight.

Your best course is to install a "trickle vent", an opening so small that the increase in noise in hardly noticeable, but allowing small, yet constant exchange of the air in the room. Basically, bringing the air permeability back to where it was before new windows were installed.

Forcefully ejecting air from an apartment will inevitably suck new air from the rest of the building, most likely reversing flow of gravity ventilation and drawing used air that your neighbors are getting rid of.


Why does my gas water heater have two pairs of water connections? Why does my gas water heater have hot and cold water connections on the top of the tank and another set on the side of the tank?

1 set of connections for the sinks and one set for a water-based central heating system.

These systems are kept separated because the pipes and radiators used in such a central heating system is not meant for containing drinking water. (If you ever bled such a system you'd know from the smell alone)

The second set should be for your heating, whether radiant or forced air.


Roxul Comfortbatt steel vs wood studs What's the difference between Roxul Comfortbatt for wood studs versus the one for metal studs.

Can I use Comfortbatt for metal studs on walls with wood studs? I'm finishing my basement and my local hardware store only have available the metal stud version...

Thanks

Steel studs for interior partitions are C shaped and very thin material (see picture below). This means that 16" metal studs on-center actually have room to fit ~16" of material where wood members spaced 16" on-center have space for pretty close to ~14.5" of material in between.

Per the dimensions on the Roxul site in your link, the difference between the wood stud and metal stud versions are exactly for that reason. The metal studs versions are an extra inch wider. Comparing products for 16" on-center spacing: 15.25" for wood studs, 16.25" for metal studs.

You could probably make the metal stud version work for wood studs, but you would need to either:

Compress it by one inch to get it to fit. Compressing insulation reduces its effectiveness, so you will no longer get quite the same advertised R-value.
Cut one inch off of one side along the whole vertical length of every batt. If its faced insulation and you opt for the cutting route, make sure to leave the facing intact so you can still use the facing to secure it to the studs. I haven't seen the metal stud version in person, but I would imagine that the insulation extends all the way to the edge of the facing one one side to fill the void on one side of the steel stud, so this would be the side to cut off insulation.

Personally, I would try to get the right material for the type of framing to make installation easier and/or get closer to the advertised R-value.

You don't want to use metal for wood application. I worked with both, and you would actually lose the R-value when compressing the material over its normal state!


Changing 3 way switch to a half 3-way switch half outlet, missing a neutral I'm attempting to swap out a 3-way switch for a half 3-way switch / half outlet single gang receptacle.

I've got the three way switch working (I believe it was incorrectly wired to begin with), but the outlet does not work and there is no neutral. Is there anything I can do?

Here is a photo while I was in the middle of wiring it up (ground not connected).

Most three-way switch circuits from homes of the 20th century will not have a neutral at the switch box.

The white wire should be reidentified as blue or another color. It is either the hot feed to the 3-way circuit or the switched leg to the lights.

The only way to have a receptacle at this location is to add another 2 wire cable from a source having an actual neutral.

Good luck!

This is the "switch-loop" end of a 3-way switch loop circuit.  You cannot fit a receptacle because they need hot and neutral, which are not present here.

Use a smart switch

This circuit can be rewired using smart switches to provide hot and neutral here.

In that case, white and black would be re-assigned to be hot and neutral.  The red wire would become a communication wire, if your smart switch type requires it.   Typically "smart" 3-ways are made as a master and remote; the remote would be here.

That would provide the hot and neutral which the receptacle also requires.

Wire colors

It's really hard to understand 3-way circuits because all wires are black, white and red.  They seem to do all different things.   Those colors are only used because that's how the cable is manufactured.  You can make things a lot clearer by marking electrical wires by function.  A 5-pack of electrical tape makes this easy. Mind you, if neutral is present, it must be on the white wire.  Otherwise, tape away, but mark each wire the same on both ends.  I like

black for always-hot, as to a receptacle
red for switched-hot to a lamp
yellow for both travelers. There isn't really any need to tell them apart.

Now it looks like this. Now it's clear what those wires are doing, none are hot or neutral, and that's why your receptacle can't work.

Lastly, there's a way to do this with "old fashioned relays".  It's what Tesla would do in 1910, but smart switches are easier so I'm excluding the details. If you want them, ask.


Toaster oven makes my kitchen lights flicker Today, I got a new toaster oven. When it's heating, my kitchen lights (plugged into an adjacent outlet) flicker/pulse.

What can I do to reduce the flickering?

If I get a power conditioner, can I put it on the power supply to the toaster oven, so that the appliance doesn't impact any other outlets in the household? It looks like power conditioners are usually intended to be used on the devices you want to shield, rather than on the device that's causing the problem; does it work both ways?

I'm in Canada, so my mains power is 120 V at 60 Hz.

Edit - more details:

New toaster oven: Breville BOV800XL "Smart Convection Oven", 1800W
Old toaster oven (no flickering problem): Hamilton Beach, convection, 1440W
Microwave on same outlet (no flickering problem): Panasonic Inverter, 1100W output, 1200W input

The new toaster oven doesn't exhibit the flickering problem if I'm toasting; only if it's heating on "bake" mode (both when the convection fan is on and off).  The lights dim when I turn the toaster oven on any mode, but on "toast" they don't flicker; they just dim and stay dim until the toaster oven shuts off.

The flickering happens around 8 Hz (but it's hard to tell for sure). I put a Kill-a-Watt meter on the lights (which were turned on), and got the following readings, but it only updates the display once per second:

Toaster off: 118.7 .. 119.2 V
Toaster on "toast": 117.1 .. 117.6 V
Toaster on "bake": 117.2 .. 117.4 V, flickers

The light fixture is mounted above the counter, not the main kitchen light fixture; it has three sockets rated for 50W each and a single on/off power switch (no dimmer control). I don't know what kind of bulbs they contain but I think they're incandescent:

It appears that no other lights are affected (ie. the overhead lights, the range hood light, or a fluorescent fixture above the sink).

I guess the toaster oven is doing some PWM thing when it's on bake? I don't know for sure, but the flickering is very distracting.

This is an old house (100 years this year, I think) but the wiring was updated within the last decade, I believe. I'm renting so it's unfeasible for me to do anything about the wiring and setup (but I suppose I could run extension cords).

The problem isn't within the toaster, and adding a "power conditioner" wouldn't help. It's simply drawing a lot of power from the outlet, and the wiring impedance between the outlet and the distribution panel is causing the voltage at the outlet to drop a bit.

In general, the lighting circuits and the countertop appliance circuits should be on separate breakers to begin with, so that an appliance fault won't leave you in the dark with a potentially dangerous situation (hot and/or spinning objects).

You should try to work out which outlets in your kitchen are on which circuits, and operate the toaster on a separate circuit from the one your lights are plugged into.

I suggest you have an electrician install some dedicated wiring for your kitchen.  You may be creating a fire hazard pulling that kind of current through old wiring.


How many receptacles can I place on a 20 ampere 120 volt breaker? How many receptacles can I place on a 20 amp breaker if it's a 120 volt circuit? How many on a 15 amp circuit? I'm trying some DIY on my bathroom and bedroom. Help would be appreciated.

There's no limit to the number of receptacles that can be on a circuit in a residential dwelling.  Code does specify a minimum number of receptacles required in a room (NEC 210.52(A)), based on the length of the walls. The code does not, however, limit the number of receptacles per circuit.

In industrial/commercial spaces, 180 Volt-Amperes (VA) is used when calculating receptacle loads.  This value is often used as a guideline in residential applications as well.  For example, given a 15 ampere 120 volt circuit, you could have 10 receptacles @ 180 VA.

15 A * 120 V = 1800 VA
1800 VA / 180 VA = 10

So a 20 ampere 120 volt circuit, could have 13 receptacles @ 180 VA.

20 A * 120 V = 2400 VA
2400 VA / 180 VA = 13.333

These numbers are simply a guideline, and have no real meaning in residential dwelling units.

You will have to keep the bathroom and bedroom circuits separate, and the bathroom receptacles will have to be supplied by at least one 20 ampere branch circuit (NEC 210.11(C)(3)). So you'll need at least two, 20 ampere branch circuits. One for the bathroom receptacles, and one for the bedroom receptacles.

I do see how the result of how many receptacles there can be safely on a 20 Amp at any given time... I also figured out A*V=W. Then, to figure out how many receptacles, divide your total watts by the number of amps * receptacles...  since 120 V = 180 VA *10 = 1800VA. 20A * 120 = 2400VA ÷ 180VA ={13} recepts. Alright. Got it. I have a better understanding how to wire a 20 Amp circuit.
but to be safe and you shouldn't want more than 8 receipts. on a 20 Amp circuit: 3 lamp boxes, 3 switch boxes, and 2 wall socket boxes.


Why does the blade of my table saw stop? I have a cheap, old (but, until recently, serviceable) belt-drive, table-top table saw, Skil 10" model 3400.

Last week while cutting a 2x4, the blade stopped but the motor kept going.  I finished up with a hand-held circular saw and let the table saw cool down. When I came back to it, I looked it over.  The blade is still firmly attached to the shaft.  The nuts are secure and if I manually move the blade, the shaft turns.  When I turn it on, the blade turns (though it seems to lag the motor a bit) but when it makes contact with wood, it stops.  There's a weird, rhythmic ying-ying-ying noise when it is running.  I have some weak intuition that a bearing failed.

Any thoughts on further diagnosing -- or, better yet, repairing -- my saw?  Or should just hit Craig's List looking for a replacement?

At this point I would take it apart. It's already broke you have nothing to lose. I had an older Delta saw that had a gearbox fail. The parts were more than I paid for the saw. It may not be a total loss though. Some of the older models had a router mount cast into the table. It was useless as a saw but made a dandy router table.

This is an old thread, but I'll respond anyway.  You've probably stripped the key in the output gear.  Take it to a machine shop, press it off and replace the key.


How can I put air conditioning into an apartment that doesn't allow window air conditioners I would so appreciate an answer to this question. I recently moved into an apartment that doesn't have central air and doesn't allow window units. I live in Los Angeles so this is not going be "chill" so to speak. The reason I moved in here was because it was kind of an emergency situation that I find a new place and (besides the fact that I may die in the heat) it's very nice. The building is from the 1920's and there is like a rule against anything being put out the windows. It's a weird rule, but my windows face the courtyard so there isn't any sneaking around I can do with the window stuff. I know there is probably nothing I can do but I have to ask. There is a bedroom with two french doors leading to a big living room. Is it possible to get an air conditioner with a tube and put the tube through the french doors and seal it up around it? I know that the living room will get very hot but if everything is sealed up will I be able to at least have a slightly cold bedroom for the summer months? I saw someone in here said to put the tube out of a door and in a bucket of water so it will evaporate there but I'm not trying to explode my whole building haha. Electricity cost is absolutely no issue so I have that going for me, I just don't know what to do.

A portable air conditioner may work for you. It does need to get rid of the heat through a 4” tube that will have to vent out doors somehow. There will be condensate that will go into a container that will have to be emptied every so often. Maybe you can hide the 4” pipe.

According to one thread here some apartment buildings in some parts of the country were built with short 3" or so diameter tubes penetrating the outside walls and leading outside. I think these are in the lower half of the inside wall.

Possibly these were originally for portable A/C units or were for exhaust fans that would pull in cool air through open windows, but these were not a popular appliance and so they may have been plugged and covered over inside with some design element. Look to see if your apartment has such openings.

You could approach the management of the apartments and ask about installing minisplit a/c units with the condensing unit hung on an outside wall.

EDIT Vent a portable air conditioner with a 6 inch hose through a 3 inch hole in the wall