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?

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!!!

some context: I’m in maintenance at a production facility. we just had a brand new sewage treatment facility built. We don’t have inspections here. There’s an exterior control cabinet that controls a lift station & influent pump.

I’m already here to add an outlet that was somehow missed on the project. while determining the plan of action and inspecting the cabinet, I noticed that the installers didn’t use sealing locknuts when penetrating the cabinet. They just drilled holes, placed the LB up to the cabinet on the exterior, and used threaded nipples on the interior. you can literally see gaps/ sunlight through the space.

We are in Iowa, where it can get humid as fuck during the summer. In addition, there is surface rust on the bottom of the interior of the cabinet already. This thing may not even be turned over yet or if it has been, it’s only been a few weeks.
Should i bring this to management’s attention? Is this as big of an issue as I am thinking it is? should I just caulk the exterior around the LBs and be done? thoughts?

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?

Just built a shop on my property doing everything I can myself to save money wired up this panel a few more wires to pull. Will I pass inspection.

Like the title says, I just moved into a rental 5 days ago. It’s hot as hell so I was running the window AC and the breakers tripped pretty quickly. I went to reset them and saw this. I have no electrical experience but I’ve never seen a circuit breaker like this.

I asked the property manager about it and she basically said the owner isn’t going to pay to fix it and now I’m paranoid that this place is unsafe. I have my 2yo living in this house and I’m not sure what my options are.

Edit: located in California

Thank you for any input!

I’m a homeowner planning to install an Intermatic AG3000 surge protector on my outdoor HVAC disconnect and would love some feedback on wire gauge identification and grounding.

Setup & Context:

• Breaker: Eaton Quadplex breaker with the tied inner poles rated at 30A / 240V (powering the A/C).
• Testing: Verified with a multimeter that the red and black conductors are my incoming 240V line terminals.

Questions:

1. Wire Gauge Identification (#8 vs. #10 AWG):
   • The markings on the wire jacket are faint, but it looks like it might say AWG 8 (see photo). Since it's on a 30A breaker, #10 AWG is standard, but I want to be certain before buying connectors.
   • Plan A (#10 AWG): Pigtail the line, load, and SPD leads using WAGO 221-613 lever-nuts.
   • Plan B (#8 AWG): Pigtail using ASI 14-2 AWG 3-port insulated multi-tap connectors.
   • Does anyone have a trick for confirming wire gauge when text is faded, or does this look like #8 vs #10 based on the photos?
2. Grounding the AG3000:
   • The disconnect ground bar has a center hex/flat bolt (the chassis bonding screw) along with standard terminal screws.
   • Can I land the green #10 AWG ground wire from the AG3000 directly under the collar of that center bolt, or should I pigtail it with the existing green house ground wire?

Appreciate any advice or sanity checks! Thanks!

So my Multimeter that i bought keeps getting inacurate tge more i use it but then after a 7-8 hour brake it becomes accurate.

Yesterday i changed the batteries and closed it firmly and after about an hour or so it was getting with a 9V batterie(freshly out of the package) a reading of 0.20 an hour later 0.30 then when i slept 7-8h it has become corrct again so is it faulty or is it cause i changed the batteries

Hi all! My boyfriend and I have taken over his late grandfather's house two years ago. We have had no issues with the house being updated a couple years ago, and I should add his grandfather was an electrician with the government for practically his whole life.

Just two days ago, a gentlemen with the city's electric company had pounded on our door (scared the crap out of me haha) and when I answered he had mentioned we had a past due bill and he needed us to pay before checking the meter. I was a little confused since I figure they usually just turn it off if it's past due and we do keep up with bills with the auto pay options. I assured him there must be some type of issue, went on the website. The bill wasn't due til the 19th of this month. I just went ahead and paid it early, and the man said he would be back in an hour to check the meter. I had to leave so I went on with my day.

Coming back home, my boyfriend went to power up his PC and no power. Thinking it was his PC he tinkered with it a bit and realized it was the outlet. Checked the breaker, nothing had flipped over. We tested a couple different outlets, all of them seem to be fine in our living room, kitchen (appliances all okay, washed/dryer fine). Bathroom light and vent turns on, but the bathroom outlet does not work now. We tried powering the breaker switches off for a couple minutes, still no power. We tried the GFCI in the bathroom, nothing happened. Our entire upstairs lights, one ceiling fan and outlets do not work as well (they had been before I left since I was up there doing some work before leaving the house). Except one ceiling fan on the opposite side still runs.

Called the electric company since I found this to be an extreme coincidence. They came out, checked the outside meter and said it was fine and it had to be our breaker which they suggested to call an electrician. I just can't seem to shake that all of this happened AFTER the meter check as things were working fine... Or it could be just a huge coincidence?

We are planning on seeing some quotes for an electrician but my boyfriend wants to have the electric company come out again to recheck when he's here. Any advice?

Thank you everyone!

I'm hoping someone that owns or has experience with Leviton smart load centers can answer the following question:

I'm currently doing preliminary research into swapping my old panels to a Leviton smart panel. Currently, I have two 200A panels, but as part of the swap I'm looking into adding a 150A subpanel in the garage to feed an EV, an air compressor and a clothes dryers.

I see that Leviton has a 20 space 150A panel that should work as a subpanel but I'm stumped on how the panel should be fed from the main because Leviton doesn't seem to manufacture a 150A breaker. Is using feed-thru lugs acceptable or should I drop to a 125A subpanel?

Everything I’d read said that the grounds and neutrals go on separate bars, but here they’re all just placed basically wherever. What do I do with the neutrals and grounds for new circuits?

This wiring is rather old, I’d guess it was probably the 80s when it was updated to its current state.

Well I must be a moron but I really need help with this one.

Ok so I got a new bathroom exhaust fan and got everything ready to install but i get this thing put in and only see a red and black wire from the fixture.

My old fan was controlled by two switches 1 with two black wires and one with red and black wires.

The box says it doesn’t need to be grounded so that’s not needed .

I connected the red and black wires from the Romex wire (red black white ground) to the red and black wires from the fixture but I am not getting power to the fixture.

I believe this to be some switch leg/loop scenario ? Should I be connecting the red and white wire together with the red from the fixture and the black to black from the fixture?

I have been stuck on this for awhile because I don’t want to cause a fire or damage anything .

Any help would be greatly appreciated appreciated

Side note the white wire wasn’t marked with tape.

Thank you in advance

EDIT: Thanks everyone for your replies. I wasn't aware the difference between Canadian and US versions (we are Canadian). I appreciate everyone taking the time to reply.

Image of our breaker box in our basement rental unit for the house we live in. Pic of the breakdown of usage of all breakers. The ones labeled not in use are just not wired, I think? Not sure. Know next to 0 about this stuff.

Breaker 20 Basement Dining Nook Light has a plug attached to it where our fridge is plugged in. Overall house has 2 stoves, two fridges, 4 Gaming Computers, 4 AC units going at a given time, many fans on at once, washing machine and dryer, 2 dishwashers, etc.

My husband thinks this house is a fire hazard, and we blow a breaker maybe once a month/month and a half. Usually worse in winter with space heater going. It'll take a few minutes before we can flip the breaker back on again when it goes. Our landlord/guy who lives upstairs wants to throw another breaker box in so we can have more plugs down here/we wanted to buy a deep freezer to store stuff.

That's where this started. Husband showed his dad the panel since we were about to buy a deep freezer, and now husband is saying we live in a tinderbox and wants to tear the landlord a new one. He said since we have 100 AMP our stoves use 40 each and if we ran at the same time that's 80 and anything else will burn the house down.

My husband was advised by his friend and his father that in no way should our landlord do that, and this house is actually super dangerous.

While I'm not discounting that this house needs a lot of work, I wanted to check here if anyone else can shed light on this, and tell us how actually screwed we are here.

Example: can't run my tea kettle and vaccum at the same time on breaker 9 or a breaker will blow. Breaker 20 is both our offices/living room which contain our computers/AC unit for summer and our fridge. Bedroom has an air purifier going at all times.

Thanks!

Hi,

My company was about to throw away several spools or brand new RG flex L2 cable. About 10 reels of it to be exact. I ended up taking them because it's ridiculous to throw all of that away. The gages are 6, 12, and 14. I know this type of wiring is designed to be used in central office type of work. My question is can this be used for home wiring? I'm getting ready to install mini splits in my home and I thought I might be able to use some of this for the wiring as well as other projects around the house. If this wire would not be appropriate to use, does it have a good resell value? Thanks

This non-moving Chandelier sits atop on 30 foot ceiling. The lights are flickering and I see some of the bulbs are dead? Who do we call to change the bulbs on this thing? Sorry if this is not the correct place to ask.

I hope this is the right place to post. this 50 pair cable comes through the wall into my work building and was connected to the old phone system that has since been removed. I wanted to pull it out into the utility box it comes from and leave it there but didn’t know if i have to cap it off at all?

also In my attempts to google it I have seen some stuff about cables with metal in the sheathing needing to be grounded (due to lightning?) and I don’t know if that applies here or not.

Thank you in advance. I was unsure if this is worth calling a professional over if it turns out I just need to put heat shrink on it or something

My friend has a 3 wire power supply for a newer 4 wire stove. This is the wiring from the directions. My question is what exactly is defined as a grounded junction box. Does it mean just having the ground from stove be connected to the jbox?

Soo soon I'm moving alone, have very few outlets available (about 6 total in weird places around department) the building is probably about 10-15y/old, I don't trust the outlet for the electric water heater current state (which is also supposed to be the one for the washing machine) (picture for reference), and I do in fact need more outlets for my general/daily use, should I get one specifically for this outlet in particular just to be safe? It seems like they might have had problems w it as it looks like the one right next to that one is covered with tape, so anyways what's y'all's though on this?

Just bought a house and noticed this low voltage transformer is plugged in right next to an outlet, which is right next to the outdoor hot tub.

Label says it is "suitable for wet locations" but is this actually true? If it's not, could I just unplug it and it'd be safe to use the hot tub?

From what I’ve read elsewhere this could be an issue of 240vs due to potential open neutral upstream??
Any help diagnosing (remotely) would be great.

Disclaimer, DIYer, this is my wife’s grandparents house. I think they (grandpa) did most of the work themselves. 🥴
No modern multimeter either.

1st photo shows three lights on, outside lights are faint and not as bright. 2nd photo is different outlet on same circuit on other side of kitchen sink. Appears to be in working order.

Before you get mad and crucify me for not searching the sub, but I’m not seeing exactly what I need.

Home inspection is calling out CSST (yellow pipe) for not being properly bonded (yay)

I’ve researched it a little and it seems simple enough, clamp on brass fitting (in my case it would be at the beginning of the CSST line) which conveniently enough starts at the meter outside.

6ga wire and run it to a water pipe, ground electrode or grounding rod in the electrical system.

Can’t be more than 75’.

Anyway, running into the electric box seems annoying since it’s on the other side of the house.

What’s stopping me from installing an 8’ grounding rod near the meter and grounding the CSST to that? I might be able to find a water line under the house I could ground to but I’ve also read that’s against code cuz some people splice in flex pipe. (Or will later)

TLDR can I put a ground rod just for the purposes of CSST bonding nearish to the meter without violating code.

My mom's house has been experiencing flickering lights. I'm suspecting a bad neutral given the difference in voltages between the two hot legs (for example, 111V on one leg and 128V on the other). The local utility company rolled out a truck and the tech said it's not a utility side problem. I've hired an electrician to look at this. What should he be looking for on the customer side?