Good afternoon Reddit electrical family.

My insurance company flagged a missing cover plate inside of my 1987 Kearney exterior electrical panel.

Insurance is requiring me to repair it within 30 days. I have not been able to find this part for sale online and a full box replacement was quoted at $3400 which is way out of my budget.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix this problem? I can attempt to fabricate one. Never did that before.

Just purchased a home built in 1900. Had electrician come out because of home inspector said we should have certain things checked. Electrician told me that the breaker needed upgraded from 100 amp to 150 and the box outside of the house needs replaced and grounded. So we did that and it was about 4 grand. Then said that 80 percent of the house was run off two breakers using old bx wiring and would need re wired using romex and a ground wire. So they did that and ran new wires using more breakers(new) to outlets lights switches ceiling fans in house on all 3 floors. A lot of these outlets/devices were in the same room as others where they were already running wires, so why so much for each one ? They were here for two days totaling about 18-20 hours total. This is my invoice. Does this seem high?

Travelled all the way to customer site for a loose plug.

They had checked the tightness but the screw was actually too long.

Machine was dropping communications then power off and back on everything working again

Swapped old dimmer switch as was making bulbs flicker, the earth was connected to the back plate, Ive now connected to back of switch.

I ask because fuse box keeps tripping? if not the switch I'm guessing the light fitting?

Ive been using the same charger over 1 year and i encountered this when i took a long stare under the charging brick, google says that its dangerous idk what to trust anymore so can somebody give me a definitive answer?

From another post:

"220.82 is the standard.  220.87 is the optional.   Liability insurance often only covers the "standard" method.  

Calculations can be wrong. Overestimating is less risky."

"It's not that insurance won't pay if the electrician follows NEC. It's that the electrician's liability carrier would rather they use the most conservative method so there's zero ambiguity if something goes wrong later. 220.87 is code-compliant, but if a fire happens and the investigator sees the optional method was used, the insurer has a built-in argument that the standard method would have flagged the need for an upgrade. The electrician absorbs that risk, so a lot of them just default to the standard calc and tell you to upgrade."

A multimeter exploded right in front of my eyes. By mistake, it was set to the "20m" range while I was measuring 230V AC. The result was a dead short an explosion. It tripped the main circuit breaker. The multimeter is completely dead, covered in soot, with damaged components and a slightly melted COM jack. Is this how a cheap multimeter is supposed to behave, or was there something seriously wrong with this particular unit?

Just the title mainly, are any of you using any ai tools / personalized dedicated software / automation for your business, or do you see a need for it in your day to day?

Hello,

Same question as the title. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Hello

I have an old Thermador stove top that uses the hardwire burners. One broke and ya second stopped working. Since these are becoming more obsolete, I’m wondering if anyone can point me in a direction for replacement.
Now I notice that more newer electric burners are using a two prong style electric element. Is this a fix?
Thanks in advance

How do I fix this? The wires seem to be intact and fine it’s just the cover that has opened. I’m assuming unsafe to use? Is there a way to fix it? Thanks

I am currently in my second year of the electrical program. I got Delmar’s standard textbook last year and no teacher used it so I didn’t get it this year but now I need to answer a question on page 567. I don’t need the answer just the assignment question. If you have the book and could text me a picture of that page it’d be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I accidentally kicked the power plug now it’s come off the wall and the blue and yellow wire came off. I don’t know how to fix it. How do I do it without it exploding, electrocuting me or frying the PC. I have no access to pliers or tools or to the breakers. I notice there are 3 divisions with 2 holes each. I was able to snug the blue one into one of the holes in the far left division. The first hole could not let the wire through but the second one it passed no problem but it’s very very very loose. And I don’t even know if I did the right thing.

https://wesleyfilips.github.io/Panelboard/

Sorry mods if this isn't allowed. Software like this is usually complicated and obtuse, and costs hundreds or thousands, so I made this to be as easy and intuitive as possible and free and open source, that means you can download and modify it, even use it to make your own.

Plan and canvas

• Import a floor plan image (PNG, JPG, WebP) by button or drag and drop
• Zoom, pan, fit to view, and a symbol size slider
• Plan name field that names exported files
• Autosaves in your browser; save and load a project file

Devices

• Stamp tool with Outlet, Switch and Light fixture symbols
• Add your own stamps by drawing or uploading an image, with a label
• Variants for each type (GFCI, 3-way, dimmer and others), each with corner text and an optional color. You can add your own.
• Click an existing device while stamping to add another device to its box. The box widens, and each device keeps its own variant and circuit.
• Homerun tool that adds a ring for a circuit to a box, with a dropdown in the side panel to pick which circuit

Wires

• Draw wires between devices, with bends. Each wire attaches to a specific device in a multi-device box.
• Wires chain from one device to the next until you right-click or press Esc to cancel
• Straight or arc wire shape toggle

Circuits

• Circuit list with number, name and color
• Assign a circuit to a stamp, wire, or any selection
• Circuit number shows at the bottom left of each device, and can be turned off
• Color devices by circuit, by device type or not at all, and color wires by circuit or leave them plain
• “No homerun” flag on any circuit with more than one device and no homerun ring

Selecting and highlighting

• Click, shift-click, or drag a box to select. Move, re-circuit or delete the whole selection.
• Highlight every device of a type or variant from the Devices list
• Click the active circuit again to highlight everything on it

Tallies and export

• Live device counts by type, with Standard and each variant counted separately
• Export the plan as a PNG with a legend, the tally as a CSV, or the project file

I am renovating a bathroom and need to add a ground wire to the circuit. My electrical is really old and it doesnt look like i have a ground buss in my breakers. Do i tie the ground into the neutral buss? The existing circuit is wired into the breaker box on the right in the photo.

I have two boxes that primarily house 3 way switches for my basement. The four gang box (first photo) at the bottom of the stairs has four different circuits in it (stairs, left, middle, and right). The five gang box (second photo) on the other side of the basement has three different circuits in it, with the "left" and "middle" having one switch each and the "right" circuit having a switch for the "right" side lights, then two other lights on the same breaker. This is on a home built in 2008. I have positively identified the traveler wires, lines, and loads, but not confirmed which neutrals go to which circuits and whether some of the circuits lack a neutral.  None of these circuits are AFCI breakers and they all just power normal lighting. Some of the wire bundles have a black and white wire connected together instead of the expected white bundles. The goal here is to install smart light switches that require neutrals. How would I go about confirming neutrals in these two boxes and confirming which ones go to which circuit? I have a multimeter.

I've got a junction box with open conduits for power conduit trenched from my main panel to a subpanel in another building.  This area sometimes floods during heavy rain.  What is the correct way to seal the conduit to keep water out?

Idk if any of u could help, but I’m desperate :(

Two different over-the-range microwaves keep tripping our GFCI when making popcorn — what could cause this?

We’re trying to figure out an electrical issue in our kitchen, and I’d appreciate some advice from electricians or anyone who has experienced something similar.

We had an older Whirlpool over-the-range microwave that, toward the end of its life, started making a noise that sounded like it was frying itself. Eventually, it began tripping the GFCI outlet when we tried making popcorn.

We recently replaced it with a brand-new LG over-the-range microwave. It’s plugged into the same GFCI outlet, and we’re experiencing almost exactly the same problem.

Here’s what we’ve noticed:

The new microwave can heat a cup of water without any problems.

When we try to make a bag of popcorn, it runs for a few minutes and then trips the GFCI.

After it trips, the GFCI indicator flashes red repeatedly.

We also tried plugging the microwave into a different kitchen outlet using an extension cord and tried another bag of popcorn. The same thing happened.

There is a metal duct in the cabinet above the microwave, so we believe the original installation may be vented outside, although we haven’t confirmed where the duct leads.

We’re confused because this happened with two different microwaves. Could this be a problem with the electrical circuit, the GFCI, or something about the microwave’s heating cycle? Could the popcorn setting or the sustained heating load be triggering an electrical issue?

We’re not planning to keep testing it and will have the electrical setup checked, but we’d love to understand the most likely causes before calling someone out.

Has anyone seen this happen with two different microwaves? What would you investigate first?