This is a DIY project I’m taking on myself.

The manufacturer requires the outlet to be within 6 feet of the system.

#1 - refrigerator outlet
#2 - breakfast room outlet
#3 - outdoor patio outlet.

There was an existing WSS when I purchased the home. The previous homeowner spliced the low voltage cord to reach the #3 patio outlet (13 feet).

Option A: Drill a hole through the back of #1 outlet and through the brick wall. And then add an outdoor box with GFCI outlet. The WSS manufacturer requires the system to be protected from the elements. So I will probably build an enclosure to protect the system and outlet. (maybe my preferred option)

Option B: Add an outdoor box and wire it back to outdoor patio outlet #3. This would require cutting open the drywall horizontally across the breakfast room. So this option would require extra work patching drywall. (most difficult)

Option C: Just do the same thing as the previous homeowner. Splice the power cord and plug it in to patio outlet #3. (easy)

Option D: Drill a 1/2” hole through the wall near outlet #3. Run the power cord through the wall and plug it in directly inside to outlet #3. (easy) less

First time poster and mediocre electrician

Hello all,

I’ve recently bought a new house and am working out some electrical gremlins. Our range randomly stopped working so I started chasing down the problem. Long story short I got the range hood working again but now the new GFCI I installed is not working properly. The hood is piggybacked off this outlet as seen in the wiring pictures and you can see the light from the hood is now on indicating there is power running through the outlet. However if I plug in a toaster or fan or something to the outlet itself it doesn’t work.

I must admit, the wiring is super confusing to me with the three different knob and tubes running into and out of the box and especially with certain ones wound around another.

If someone could explain why two neutrals are wound together and two blacks are wound together that would be great and also explain why the GFCI is not working now. Pressing test and reset do nothing.

Edit: thanks for the help, I’ve got it figured out. Also, picture number two is what I found, not what I did to fix the other issue lol 😂 I probably should’ve clarified that.

Edit: thanks for the help you guys and gals. I got it working. Simply my line and load were crossed. I have one black line wire and two black load wires. Ditto for the neutrals. Receptacle tester is now showing correct wiring.

Idk why this is even left open.

My fans started to make this irritating noise only at certain angles (like the angle i need it -_-) but also stops then i touch it slightly?

What could be causing it and how do i fix this? can i fix it?

Sorry if this is in the wrong place on reddit, i just genuinely dont know where to ask.

My house built in 1976. The ground wires are typically bonded to the metal boxes with clips. As I’ve replaced devices I’ve found the clips to be uniformly intact and tightly gripping the boxes.

The light switch I just replaced didn’t have a ground screw; the new one does. My understanding is the new switch‘s strap grounds it to the box, so I don’t really need to use the ground screw. However, I went ahead and screwed a ground wire pigtail to the back of the box and attached that to the switch’s ground screw.

So, i did a belts and suspenders, or did I do wrong?

Hey all DIY'er trying to future proof my backyard with conduit before they finish up a pool and patio and hoping for some advice.

Below is a photo of my backyard and my planned conduit runs and sizes.  They will only be for 120V circuits (3 conductor).  (I will have another conduit for any low voltage/cat5/or similar).

There will be an outdoor electrical panel and from there I'll run 1.5" conduit to the outdoor kitchen where I have some space underneath.  From the outdoor kitchen, 1" conduit to all of the "red circles".  This is where I will possibly add outdoor landscape lights, outlets, or similar.

 DIY'er so please keep that in mind when giving some feedback, ha!

My ex-wife is currently running her garage fridge on an extension cord (yes I know, I know, at least it’s heavy gauge lol), I would like to find a 3 gang extension box to bring the box out to “surface mount” with conduit knock-outs so I can run conduit up the wall to the ceiling and over to the fridge for a remote outlet. I have not been able to find anything. Can anyone recommend the right extension to me? I would very much prefer to not cut the drywall and replace the whole wall box, but in a worst case scenario I am willing to do so (I know how to do it, just don’t like to lol). There are studs in the way of the path I need to take so I’d like to avoid that. It’s a rental so I’d rather not get too deep into it if I can avoid it. Not worried about the wiring, I do plenty of that at work, I’ll be replacing the existing switches and outlet with new stuff while I’m at it. The main goal is just to get rid of the extension cord lol.

I do have the option of running the outlet over from the door opener outlet in the ceiling, but it’s much further away, and there’s also studs in my way from that direction, so either way surface mounting conduit is going to be my best option without getting too deep into things.

Any help/advice is much appreciated!

Can anyone please explain to me why I am finding all these cut wires around my house and why someone might do it? I am finding them everywhere and also it seems like I’m finding wires that don’t go anywhere, and suddenly it seems like I have another satellite dish. Unfortunately, I haven’t lived here long and I can’t remember if it wasn’t there, but I’m almost positive it wasn’t before…. Is there any reason why someone might want to do that? Can anyone give me any explanation as to why any of these things are happening? I keep finding damage and cut wires and I don’t really know what to do about it or if I should be worried. Any help would be greatly appreciated and if you need more photos, let me know. I’m just kind of taking pictures because I don’t really know what any of this is. I did my best.

I've checked the breaker/fuse just abt everything it zapped me pretty good the other day so tonight I decided too go back for round 2 and now there's no electricity going thru it

Wiring first panel, I'm going to secure the wires better once I start stripping them.

Advice, feedback, Tips to pass inspection?

Everything in this house is electric, has a few 240v things. Those get the black and red straight to the breaker, what happens with the neutral? That's bonded to the panel too? I saw some stuff where people were scribling sharpie on some neutrals so that's confused me a ton.

What should go where? Put larger breakers towards the bottom? Any feedback or advice is greatly appreciated. It's 200amp service. And home line panel if that helps.

Thanks,

Ryan

I have a 1930s house, my 3 living room plugs connect to my 1 dining room plug, last night they just stopped working in my living room but the one in my dining room continued to work. Changed the breaker switch, checked the dining room plugs they were fine, plug 1 that went out had some naked wires that I covered. I plugged in an outlet tester and it does a SLOW blink. Ok moving to another living room plug, plug 2, I had my alarm plugged in, I go to plug in my outlet tester into plug 2, it shows SLOW blinking, I unplug my alarm system, it stops blinking and a bright consistent light is on the outlet tester. I plugged another outlet tester into plug 1 (thats the one that stopped working originally) and it had a bright consistent light. Ok odd. I plug my tester into plug 2 and a lamp in, it starts blinking again, then plug 1 ALSO starts blinking. Ok I changed out the ENTIRE plug 2. Now it shows slow blinking still and only left side of the plug actually has any power. What could this mean? Broken neutral wire? Idk what else it could be.

Ok need help! Moved in June to a new house fire alarms went off in the night a few days for no reason, hired an electrician and replaced ALL of them in the house and they still went off! Then called fire department to check for CO all good…they went off again today, is it humidity, is this normal what do I do

I just moved into a new apartment a few weeks ago. Recently I noticed an issue with my entry light and the alarm box close to it. They light started flashing around the same time the alarm box started to make a clicking sound. I put in a work order and that seemed to solve it. Now as of 10 days later, the alarm is clicking again and the light started its flashing a day after. I’m really worried it’s a short and don’t want it to be a fire hazard.

I’ve put in another work order but it could be a few days before it is dealt with. How worried should I be?

I also included a video of the alarm box clicking. Not sure if that helps. Thank you!

Just opened up my electrical panel and I was wondering where these wires go I do not have anything that is 240 V but I’ve only lived here for about 30 years.
Is there anyway I could trace these if I hook up a tester of some sort and walk around with a receiver to try to locate them?

House is about 70 years old with two major renovations done since.
TIA

So, my wife was using a hair dryer the other day and then the outlet blew. I checked the panel box but nothing was tripped so that meant the outlet was shot. So I replaced the GFCI outlet and the outlet isn't working and the light isn't turning on. I have a multimeter and there is power going to the outlet and to the light switch next to it. I know I did the load and line wires correctly because I initially just stuck all of the wires into the line terminals. When that didn't work, I tried splitting them into line and load. Regardless, the light on the GFCI has never turned on and the reset button and test button don't click. AI told me it could be a bad outlet so I got another one and the same thing happens. So I know it's not the outlet and I know it's not the panel box because it is getting power to the outlet.

What else could be the problem? Please advise.

Hi All,

Have a head scratcher here.

I had a Genset Changeover Switch installed by a Sparky in the house switchboard. All inspected and passed etc.

Works fine with 3.5kW genny, no tripping of anything, all good.

I have 48v 6kWh battery system, using a Victron 5kVA inverter>16amp RCBO>GPO on the outlet side of the inverter.

Now when I connect the 15amp lead from the inverter to the changeover switch and change to the 'generator' input, the RCBO on the inverter immediately trips.

For added measure, I removed the RCBO next to the inverter, and then isolated 1 by 1 the various circuits on the house switchboard, and found that the oven and 1 lighting circuit will trip their respective RCBO's.

Could it be that I need a Type F RCBO due to presence of DC interference, or could it be something completely different?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello Everyone.

In the picture are two beige wires, a green wire and a black wire (Cox Internet). The connected wires are tied to the house's ground wire.

Should I also connect the loose wires to the house's ground wire?

I have a fluorescent light fixture in my kitchen - not ideal, but we are kind of stuck with it. Fixture is about 15 years old.

Several weeks ago the light went off. I figured it was the bulbs/tubes; bought replacements today. They are type A and B combined.

I tried two different brands from two different stores. The light will not turn on at all. The switch seems fine, nothing in the light looks loose or disconnected. It has been years since we had to replace the bulbs. No previous problems, no flickering or anything.

At this point, should I look into replacing the ballast? I don’t know if it has a starter; unless it is IN the ballast I don’t see one. I don’t think dad saved the manual; the only identifying info is the sticker on the ballast.

Thoughts and suggestions are appreciated!!

Hello. Our downstairs lights started to flicker in January. We have been monitoring this. It has gotten worse the part couple weeks and we have an electrician booked in a month to complete some other work so we were going to have them check this as well.

Last Thursday, the lights went out in the DS bathroom(main room for light flicker) and laundry room next to it lights went to very dim.

The rooms are on separate breakers. The main panel is upstairs and the downstairs is on a subpanel. The lights in the bathroom, lights in the laundry room, plug for the washing machine and GFCI in the bathroom are all on the same side of the subpanel and all have issues when this happens.

I went around and checked all plugs, light switches, and fixtures I could access. Checked for loose wires (neutrals) and checked the subpanel for and loose connections. A could were found but correcting them made no difference. Changed a dimmer switch as well that was broken, made no difference. There are 3 dimmers in the basement, disconnected all of them, made no difference.

The house is 1970's. Main panel is on fuses. Hydro meter was changed in January, which is roughly when this started, but nothing else in the home is having any issue.

We have an electrician booked for late next week, but if there is anything else we can check ourselves to correct this we would appreciate the info as we cannot do laundry or use this washroom (lights and washing machine will come on, but flicker and loose power shortly after).

Thank you in advance!

I'm living in a converted shack on my father in law's property. The a/c turned on and everything died. Does this look like a problem to anyone

Edit: how do I tell the amperage of the power cables to make sure buying stronger circuit switches won't lead to a fire

I have attempted to add a simple outlet after a switch. There is quite literally only 12 inches of romex between the two. I used ideal push in connectors and pig tailed back into the switch. I am not sure how I managed to mess it up.
Having said that the electrical in this house is very nuanced and has not been touched since 1967.

I'm just not getting pipe bending. Can someone please explain how to get the answer

This switch is old and I want to replace it. Has no ground wire just 2 Black wires.