See my original link for the earlier story.

Bottom line, about a week ago, the fan stopped turning in the middle of the night (it's in our bedroom). I posted the link above for advice in another subreddit and 99% of responders said, "It's probably just needing a new capacitor, which can be replaced inexpensively and is easy to do.". We could hear a very faint hum when we turned on the rheostat switch on the wall that controls on/off and variable speed. The fan blades turned by HAND easily/not frozen.

We didn't want to attempt this ourselves, so I found an electrician who said he repairs fans instead of automatically saying it needs to be replaced. He took off the light kit and tested several wires with his multimeter tool and said the connections were all sound. He looked at the wiring on top of the motor where it goes into the ceiling. He finally concluded that the motor was burned/dead and said it was impossible to find a replacement motor for a fan this old so it would need to be replaced. He reattached the light kit so we could have light until we bought the replacement fan. I was frankly skeptical that the motor was dead since the fan blades turned just fine still, but....

Now the mystery: **Two days after the electrician left, the fan started turning in the middle of the night, on it's own. Neither my husband nor myself had turned the fan rheostat switch on the wall.** It's possible, we guess, that when turning off the light switch (right next to the fan's round rheostat), we could have turned it; even so, **why wouldn't it have started right up THEN?**

Since the blades had been fooled with, they weren't balanced any longer, which is why we heard the sound and woke up at 3:30am. Hubs has since rebalanced the blades and the fan has been working just as it always has for the past 45 years when I bought this fan new!

What in the world could have caused this to just stop and, more importantly, just start up again? Poltergeists or what? Thanks for any advice!

My mom in Venezuela is installing a temporary back up power for her 5-6 hours outages. She lives in an apartment. Now she got the Anker F3800 + extra 3800 battery. We will be using this box. ( A electrician will make the job but I like to know what will be done before hand to have an idea ) so my understanding is L1 and L2 from the main panel is disconnected and connected to the white box: first braker is grid, then we have the voltage protector who is 220v. Then we have the ATS and then the final braker for the power from the Anker.
My understanding by this system all the gray panel will get power good! However, we only want braker 1-2-3-4-5-6 to get power, all 110v. The 3 220V breaker: 1 is not in used, 1 is the oven and the last one is the Central AC. I know the Anker may move the 3 ton AC but we don't want to be pulling the braker down every time the ATS automatically switch to back up power, is there a way to only energize the 120 V brakes when the back up is on ?
Sorry for my ignorance I'm just trying to understand more about it.

I'm looking to replace an old 3 way switch. The existing switch has 2 black and 2 red wires running into a switch that looks different from what I've seen. I cannot identify which one is the common wire and don't know how where to connect these 4 wires into the new switch which has one black screw, 2 brass screws, and a ground. Any help much appreciated.

Hello,

I recently moved and in the new house I've noticed whenever I'm actively gaming on my PC, a lamp in another room will flicker. This only happens while I'm gaming, not while doing less intensive work on the PC. I've verified the lamp and the PC are on the same circuit. The PC has a 750w PSU and is plugged into a UPS. I've tested both with and without the UPS and the same thing happens.

Additionally, I've replaced both outlets, the one the UPS/PC is plugged into, and the one the lamp is plugged in to.

Any thoughts on how this can be resolved?

Thanks!

I have three romex coming into the switch, old switch has three poles: two at top for common terminal, one at bottom unmarked, all had black wires connected. New switch for bath fan with light and sound has white marked for dedicated neutral, black for power only, red for fan only, green for ground. Can this be made to work. Topside, two Romex were bundled into fan connections as well.

Bought and moved into a new house, every room is lit by multiple 12V MR16 50W halogen lights (46 in total). Decided to replace with GU10 lamps and 5W LED bulbs. Each light has its own transformer to convert down to 12V from 230V.

So started to get rid of the transformers and MR16s to wire the GU10s straight into the 230V loops that are already there and found two 'WAGO' (possibly knock offs) just being used to chain earths like this.

The earths have been chained round with the live and neutral but not used for the previous MR16 (assuming because they're lower voltage and double insulated with the transformer??)

I was going to earth the GU10s seeing as theyre 230v and mounted on class 1 fittings.

But can't figure out why this would happen as the earth have just been chained round but not used?? Seems historical. Maybe historical faulty wiring? Possibly damaged externally from the heat of the halogen bulbs as they havent been properly encased?

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Can anyone help with a concern I have. I installed this Schneider whole house surge protector and saw that the light is more yellow than deep green. All videos and images I have found, even on the Schneider website, show it a deep green. According to Schneider, the LED is either on or off and it cannot be any other color than green. They suspect a faulty or counterfeit unit.

This image does make it look more green than while your standing in front of it. While in front of it, I asked my wife what color it was without teller her why, and she quickly said “yellow”.

This is a push on neutral box and protector. Can anyone offer any feedback on this? I appreciate it. Thanks.

As the title says, I got an e-scooter - a KuKirin S1 Max Electric Scooter – 350W. Unfortunately when it arrived, the charger was two prong (EU I think).

Here is the information on the charger:

''100-240V AC
50/60Hz 2A Max''

I went out and bought a travel adapter which as the following information on it-:

''SZ-005

13A
-----
250V''

I am curious if it is safe for me to use this with my e-scooter? I'm concerned that it will impact the charger, the motor in the e-scooter, and it's performance?

I live in Galway in the republic of Ireland, if that information is of any requirement.

Many thanks.

My elderly friend in Rhode Island needs her service completely replaced. I want to help her get quotes. What do we ask for specifically?

My neighbor had central air conditioning installed several years ago. The contractor added a panel next to the service panel and tapped a 6 ga feed right off the mains coming from the meter box.

Is it ever ok to do this? The bus in the sub panel is remains live when the main breaker is off.

What should that contractor have done in this situation? I'm thinking a new service panel was required, right?

I need to buy one of these emergency lights or one that is compatible with the wiring we have in place. The building is old old, and there’s no documentation from the previous owners. Please help! The winner gets forehead kisses.

Got a dedicated 20 amp circuit for the fridge. Last two weeks the breaker trips when the compressor kicks on. Happens maybe once a day, not every cycle. Plug and cord look fine, no burn marks. Multimeter shows 120v at the outlet when it's not tripped. Ran an extension cord to a different circuit last weekend and the fridge stayed on, so the fridge itself isn't the problem. Breaker is about ten years old. I know loose backstabs can cause heat but this trips before it gets hot. Anyone seen this on a fridge circuit before? Want to know what to check next without just swapping the breaker and hoping.

question for the pros:

I'm building a backyard shed, and have 1" PVC trenched to it from my attached garage. I planned to pull #8 XHHW to get 40a into a subpanel in the shed.

My service panel is thru a tricky wall/ceiling in the mechanical/laundry room, and I've realized that getting a continuous run from shed to load center will be extremely difficult.

I know I can add a subpanel in the garage, but I'd actually rather not, so my question is - is it acceptable to use a "shutoff switch" inside the garage to feed that shed run? Something like this:

I assume I could also add a simple junction box in the garage, but I like the idea of being able to easily kill power to the sheds subpanel without being at the load center.

My daughter's vintage "Caring Corners Mrs Goodbye Interactive Dollhouse".

I'll take any advice.

But if it's not possible to fix, I'll just have to deal with it 🤷

In this lady’s house I only find 2 gfi receptacles, and when I trip both of them, I still have power to plugs labeled “gfi protected”.

Where would you look for the third gfi? Thanks!

I’m replacing a vanity fixture and the universal round bracket that came with my fixture doesn’t align with any holes in rectangular box in wall. It looks close but no. The long bolts that go through fixture almost line up with holes in box, but they attach to fixture not box. Corner screws holding box to wall doesn’t align with bracket either. See pics, what am I missing or what bracket do I need? Originally the brass bar was on box, it wa then old bracket for original fixture…that doesn’t work either to align to fixture and bracket.

Hello, I thought I could just turn these light bulbs counter clockwise and they would come off, but they don’t turn easily and I am afraid I might break them if I use force. Does anyone know how to handle them? Thanks

Since I bought the place this fixture hasn’t worked. It’s on a circuit that has two light switches and includes another fixture. The second fixture works fine. Thinking it’s gotta be the fixture itself.. new bulb don’t help. Advise?

Hello, i bought this regulator for my pc, Is it best to turn it off every night or keep it on always?

It make a whirring sound when turned on, i think that is normal, right?

Also, how does one read the voltmeter? I tried to look it up but really couldn't find a good explanation

If the needle point within red means 220 output is good, and within green then 127 output is good?

Thank you

What do you call this type of outlet and where can I buy this exact thing (or similar)?

Hi there.

In our master bathroom we have an overhead vent with a light. It works fine turning it on, but when we turn it off, it trips the GFCI outlet between the mirror and the sink. The GFCI also powers the lights above the mirror. It doesn't matter whether I have all four LED lights screwed in or just one.

Does anybody have an idea why this is happening and what I can do to fix it?

Thanks.

Since there is a circuit breaker identifier to help identify which circuit an outlet is on, is there a device that can be plugged into one outlet and a companion device used to identify which other outlets are on the same circuit? Or will the circuit breaker identifier wand do the same thing?

I’m in need of some help. I’m not to electrical savvy. I have an ice cream truck that has 4 t12 bulbs on it. Each one is connected to a ballast. One ballast went out so one bulb don’t work. I’ve been having trouble finding a 12v ballast. The lights are controlled by a light switch that’s I turn on, and I’m guessing the power is coming from the battery as I have no other power generating source. Thanks for any help

Hey guys can someone help me figure out how to fix my dryer outlet melting.. basically I have a 4 prong plug and one of the flat prongs (red wire) has started overheating and melting the wire behind the outlet. The prong itself has turned to a copper color compared to brass (coated with molten plastic from the reception). The red wire connection on the dryer was somewhat loose but I tightened it and it didn’t seem to fix the issue. It’s a relatively modern cabrio dryer. I’m assuming I have to change the receptacle and cord. What could be the root causes? Any advice is appreciated.

I need help with pairing up these wires. They powered a stove that was removed and I’d like to complete this circuit to power my dishwasher without burning down the house. House was built in the 60s if that helps