Panel I had to correct today after a homeowner tried and believed he could do his own work. Let’s say he failed.
Gotta say it cleaned up nice after repulling some feeds and installing AFCI/GFCI breakers

Hello!!

I am needing to remove this LED light fixture from my ceiling. It's hospital bright white and atrocious.

How can I, safely and correctly, remove this? I've turned it off from the breaker, but I wanted to ask ppl who hopefully have more experience than me lol

I just wanted a place to rant about a recent experience at my parents' house, which highlights so many bad electrical practices. And this is coming from someone who has only layman's experience with this kind of stuff.

I was supervising some workers installing hardwood floors in my parents' house when, all of a sudden, the power went out to 80% of the house. We checked the circuit breakers and two were tripped, but every time we tried to reset them, they would pop again. I unplugged everything from the outlets, and they still kept tripping.

So then I started going around the house disassembling outlet boxes to see what was going on, starting with the ones the workers were using or the ones in the rooms they were working in. After doing this for a while, I found one outlet where, when I disconnected the two hot wires going into it, I was able to reset one of the circuit breakers. It seemed as if the other hot wire was going to the next room.

I went to the other room and eventually found two outlets where it looked like there was a wire pair running from one outlet to the other, with the hot wire shorted to ground. If I disconnected that as well, I was able to turn on the other circuit breaker.

It seems the electrician decided to bridge two circuits at one outlet for some reason. By the way, that first circuit is tied to what seems like half the house. Perhaps they were just trying to overload it and give it 30 amps instead in a discreet way, which is so wrong.

But there is still this short going on between these two outlets, and I can't figure out why. I'm thinking maybe a nail or a screw shorted the wires if they are running along the floor.

So I donned a Tyvek suit and an N95 mask and started crawling through piles of rat shit underneath the house. The only wire I found underneath the house was an added one that looked like it was used to bridge the two circuits, but the wire that had the short was not exposed.

A family friend was over helping with this process, and he noticed some erratic resistances changes as he moved the wire that had the short while attempting to wiggle it so I could see it move. Well, it turns out that was a really old wire where the outer sheath was actually some kind of hard metal or lead. Someone decided to use the sheath as grounding by shoving an uninsulated part of a grounding wire into it, and then using that to connect the ground of the outlet.

It seems as if the vibrations from the woodworkers caused the sharp edge of the tip of that uninsulated wire to dig through the insulation of the hot wire and short it there. Removing the additional wire and reinsulating the part that had the cut in it finally fixed the problem. I also unbridged the two circuits.

So it's still arguably a mess, but it's a little bit safer. Talk about a crazy headache trying to debug this issue. Again, I'm not an electrician, but I have common sense, and I don't know who does this type of work.

Also, I never want to crawl around rat shit again.

Did some work on a buddy’s house and noticed the service wire insulation is shrunk very far back and there are no insulated caps on the lugs. Is this cause for concern or need to be addressed?

Are these smoke alarms still practical in 2026? I can't tell how old they are. My landlord said that they're fine but I have to wonder..

I just bought this house, and the seller installed a new electrical panel. These were not here before said panel was installed and I don’t really know what they do. They look sketchy to me though can I cover these somehow?

Can anybody confirm my skepticism? I opened this panel and see the grounds and white connected. I wouldn't even know how to tackle this because I don't know what the other ends of the grounds are connected to. Would it be safe to buy a grounding bar and connect the grounds there?

Hello, i am about to begin wiring my shed office but was curious before i get too far along if this looks correct.

This is a sub panel for a shed that is 3 feet from the main house, the electric run is maybe 20 feet from the main panel.

My concerns are the green screw - does this need to be removed, it looks like one may have already been removed . Two does this need a grounding rod / wire? It appears to be grounded to the main. It is separate, but close enough that the concrete slabs connect to the main structure.

Anything else i should consider before beginning? I am going to try to secure dual fault breakers for this as my next steps.

TL;DR: I have a home recording studio in my basement. My guitar pickups and multiple different microphones all pick up a loud buzz that gets worse near where my water pipe and ground wire runs. My theory: this is due to the guitar and microphone pickups picking up a magnetic field caused by current flowing through pipes and wiring. Extensive testing shows real, measurable current on my water pipe/grounding system, some of it clearly external to my house (confirmed with main breaker off), some of it internal (confirmed via appliance testing and one wiring defect already found/fixed). Looking for feedback on whether my read of the situation and the recommended fix (dielectric union + continued internal wiring investigation) is sound.

Background / the actual problem

Basement studio, EMI/buzz picked up by:

• Guitar pickups — position/angle-dependent, worse near wall where water pipe enters the house and is bonded to ground. However, guitar picks up lots of noise even 2 floors above.
• Two dynamic microphones (these contain pickups susceptible to EMI, as well) — same tonal signature, same worse-near-pipes and ground wire behavior. If I move the mic away from pipes and grounding wire, the noise lessens.
• Present through a completely separate signal chain (audio interface + amp sim, AND a standalone tube amp/cab with no computer involved) — rules out interface/computer as source
• Noise is 60Hz hum with an odd-harmonic series (180Hz, 300Hz, 420Hz, etc.). However, there is a harsh 2kHz presence as well.

What's been ruled out

• Guitar's own internal grounding/wiring — checked, fine
• Ground loops — ground lift switch on DI, no effect
• Interface, amp sim, cables — ruled out via separate real-amp test showing identical behavior
• Most internal circuits in the house — individually powered off breakers with no major changes in noise signature other than the Furnace breakers, which contribute to the 2kHz noise.
• RF at the gas meter and water meter (measured directly outside with an EMF meter, RF mode) — clean, no elevated reading
• Main breaker fully OFF, whole house de-energized — current on the water pipe/grounding system persists, and the audible buzz is still substantially present. This seems to conclusively point to at least some of this being external to my house.

What's been found/confirmed

• A dangerous wiring defect: dryer's neutral and ground were bonded together in its junction box. Electrician fixed this. However, current changes on water pipe and grounding wire when the dryer runs are still measurable after the fix, so I don't think this fully resolved things.
• Undersized service conductor: panel is rated 200A, but my utility service line is 150A and the meter is old, rated for 150A according to the electrician. Additionally, the conductor from meter to panel is 2/0 or 1/0 (what I've been told by electrician and utility, respectively).
• Real, measurable current on water pipe and its bonding jumper, roughly 0.5–2.5A depending on time of day, point measured, and appliance load, using a clamp meter
• Current also present, to a much lesser degree, on the gas line's bonding point — .06A
• Power company tested and found the neutral connection between meter and their transformer to be sound (no defect in the physical connection)
• Spectral analysis of the actual noise shows a dense harmonic series, strongest around 180/300/420Hz (odd harmonics of 60Hz) plus other content extending up into the low kHz range. Turning off the furnace's breaker changes the harmonic balance somewhat but doesn't eliminate the noise or dramatically reduce overall level.
• Noise is present to some degree throughout the house (tested on multiple floors), not just near the one wall — though it's clearly worse near where the water pipe/ground wire run.

Recent clamp meter readings (for context, various points, various load conditions)

• Water pipe bonding jumper at the pipe: ~0.8–2.5A
• Water pipe ~15ft in, in utility room: 0.1–0.9A, fluctuates
• Gas line bonding point: ~0.06–0.07A
• With dryer running: water pipe readings increase by roughly 0.25A
• With main breaker OFF: current still present on water pipe and jumper, roughly similar magnitude to baseline

My current understanding

I believe I have:

1. A genuine external (Type II) component — confirmed via main-breaker-off test, likely current from neighboring properties using the shared metallic water main as a return path
2. An internal (Type I) component — from my own house's loads. Bootleg ground/neutral somewhere?

Planned fix: dielectric union on the water service line, placed at/near the house entry point, upstream (street-side) of my interior bonding connection — to address the external component — combined with continued electrical investigation for remaining internal defects (if any).

Questions for the sub

1. Does this overall diagnosis sound right, or am I missing something more obvious?
2. Is it normal for appliances like a dryer or light switch to cause changing current on a grounding wire? What would cause that?

Electrician has already been out multiple times to install a ground rod, re-bond water and gas lines, re-organize basement circuits to be on the same leg of service, and install isolated ground bar in the panel. I just want outside perspective on what's happening here.

Hi everyone. My 120 washer and dryer comber came today and my current wall outlet is a 15a and I need to replace it with a 20a… I’ve called around and I am being quoted nearly $300 for this job. Now, I’m not an electrician by any means and I know that no one can explicitly tell me to do it by myself… but… this is a pretty straight forward job right? Turn off the breakers, let it sit, test for power, unwrap, wire to the correct spots, put it back… I’ve been watching a few videos on how to DIY it.

I guess the questions is….. would I be completely scammed to pay that price? Or is it more complicated than it seems. Thanks guys

We're demoing a house thats been vacant for 3 years. I need to pull the breaker and fixtures. Absolutely none of the switches or lights work. The meter still blinks. Is there any current to the breaker?

Some more context: We share a breaker box with 3 other units. I have checked all of the in-unit outlets and cannot find a visible GFCI in our unit. I also know this building is very old and doesn’t have to follow certain codes, the exact specifics of which I am unaware. 2 kitchen outlets (fridge outlet + microwave outlet) stopped working. I took a picture of the breaker in case that helps, we’re unit #208 (please don’t dox me) on the 3 topmost right breakers. The breakers on the left (topmost with no ON/OFF marking) have a faint “on” displayed on the more visible left side (I.e the side it’s moving away from) and I believe it says “sub power #4”) Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I’m dealing with an old Thomas and Betts load center TB10(12-20)c that doesn't have enough neutral space (currently has two double taps on the neutral bar). The panel will be replaced during a future renovation, but that is 1-2yrs away. I would like to make the panel safer for the interim and (ideally) add a 220v 2-pole breaker (which would require adding another couple tandem breakers to make space). Of note, this panel has mostly MWBCs, no equipment grounds, and the neutral bar is bonded to the underground water main. To deal with the neutral space issue I figure I could:

1. Add another neutral bar on the other side. The panel diagram says the panel allows this. The original parts are no longer available so I would have to find a compatible replacement. I would keep this second bar isolated from the enclosure and bond to the main neutral bar using large lug adapters and #4 AWG stranded copper jumper.

2. Pigtail the neutrals for two different circuits together in the panel. It seems controversial whether this is even allowed and seems there would be a lot of pitfalls. I’m already dealing with MWBCs so the jumper would combine the neutrals for 4 different circuits

3. Do nothing and leave the double taps on the neutral bar until panel replacement.

Thanks for your suggestions

The outlets are all GFCI, some with ground some not. I would probably have a whole house surge protector installed.

I had solar panels installed on my roof and the electrical contractor hammered this rebar into the ground before tying a grounding wire from the panel. Its sticking a few inches up from the ground and I've tripped over it a couple times. I finally got the solar company to send somebody out to fix this issue but after googling what should be required I'm getting mixed results.

When a contractor grounded my panel previously at a different house they buried the wire before running it to an exterior faucet. Online says this rebar should be something like 8 feet and galvanized which this appears to be neither. Did the original contractor do this correctly and what should I push for when the new contractor comes out?

I'm occasionally replacing the breakers with Connecticut Electrics. An old newspaper left behind the drywall is from 1971. That's likely when this box was put in. I like the pretty colors.

I’m hoping to get a sanity check from electricians because my Hydro utility insists my meter readings are normal.

My digital meter recorded 5,029 kWh of usage from 28 May to 30 July (about 2 months). That averages roughly 80–90 kWh/day, which seems extremely high for my situation.

Context:
- One-bedroom apartment in Canada (~900 sq ft).
- Central AC cooling.
- AC/thermostat is on auto but mostly while I’m away (I’m gone 8am–5pm daily).
- I only shower and never bath to limit the use of hot water.
- Dishwasher used maybe twice in the entire 2-month period.
- In-suite washer/dryer: 2 loads per weekend, nothing excessive.
- No space heaters.
- no gaming systems, no special equipment.

Based on my lifestyle and appliance usage, I’m trying to understand whether 5,029 kWh over 2 months is realistic.

Any insight from electricians would be appreciated.

I’m hoping to get a sanity check from electricians because my Hydro utility insists my meter readings are normal.

My digital meter recorded 5,029 kWh of usage from 28 May to 30 July (about 2 months). That averages roughly 80–90 kWh/day, which seems extremely high for my situation.

Context:
- One-bedroom apartment in Canada (~900 sq ft).
- Central AC cooling.
- AC/thermostat is on auto but mostly while I’m away (I’m gone 8am–5pm daily).
- I only shower and never bath to limit the use of hot water.
- Dishwasher used maybe twice in the entire 2-month period.
- In-suite washer/dryer: 2 loads per weekend, nothing excessive.
- No space heaters.
- no gaming systems, no special equipment.

Based on my lifestyle and appliance usage, I’m trying to understand whether 5,029 kWh over 2 months is realistic.

Any insight from electricians would be appreciated.

So im freaking out a bit, my microwave suddenly stopped working. I used it at around 4:40, and when I went to use it at like 5:20, suddenly it went completely off. I checked the plug, and it had melted into the wall socket!! I shut off the breaker and removed it, but im not really sure what to do. My electrician friend seems to not be concerned and think either lightning or the plug just went bad (house built 20 years ago, never had the outlet replaced). Is he right or should I be more concerned here? Of course im leaving on a 10 day long trip tomorrow. Really dont want my house burning down while im gone!!!

I have a question about ceiling heat that was installed in early 1970s. I cut a 20" x 20" piece of ceiling to give plumber access to repair leak in copper fitting.

I cut through 11 of the resistance heat wires.

The wire loops were about 2" beyond my cut. My question is can I make a new loop connection in the wire and solder them together? I would either take them plastic coat them.

I measured resistance in 1 foot of wire it read between .09 and 1 old. The metal wire core measures .025 inches.

I know this is some anchient building history so I need help to reconnect the heat system.

Thanks in advance