Ask the Electrician

Yes you can wire NM from one panel to the other, but why not just run some carflex/Liquid tight and use THHN. It just makes for a better install IMO. Oh and not that you were gonna forget but make sure you add some sort of interlock if you plan on back-feeding from a portable genny.

 

I had some left over 12 and 14 gauge romex so I spliced inside panel and ran it to the other panel. I will be using a Square D interlock kit so I can run my cable through inlet box and 30a breaker inside my panel.

 

Hey guys, I need help with a problem. Last week, the light switch in my bedroom burned out. The wires inside were fried. It tripped the breaker. Well, I replaced the burned wires and put in a new light switch. When I turned the breaker back on, I was able to operate the lights, but now the outlets on three of my bedroom walls have no power. I tried to reset the breakers and checked the outlets, but the wires in there are fine. Where should I be looking next?

 

Is there a gfi plug around? Or are the plugs spliced into the hot on the switch and it's a loose connection? Do the plugs work with the light switch on? I doubt that it's either of the two but you never know...

 

Nope, there aren't any gfi in this house. I'm not sure how the home is wired up. The light switch works and one wall outlet works. The other three wall outlets have no power.

 

Hmm doesn't make sense to me. The plugs should have nothing to do with the switch. It's hard to say without seeing it

 

You might have lost the neutral to the plugs when something happened with your switch, do you have a plug tester? If so plug it in and hopefully a light or 2 shines on your tester. And let's you know.

 

Neutral is the white wire, right?

 

Yessir

 

How did you replace the wire with finished walls? Was it the line or load side you replaced?

 

Just the ends that go into the switch. I used those twisting caps to connect my wires that go from the main line into my switch.

 

Did you pull new wire? Or just replace the little peices that are like 8" long?

 

Wire nuts.

Are you able to post a pic of what's inside the box where the switch is? Maybe we can spot something.

 

Hey all. Wondering what your thoughts are on Generac generators. Liquid versus air cooled. The motherboard in our old unit is fried and I've been quoted about $3k to repair it. Motor is strong but the output is low and run speed is fast. I'd like to think it has some salvage value. I've been quoted $8k for a 22kw air cooled Generac and about $13k for a 22kw liquid cooled. These prices are up and running.
Thx.

 

Yeah, I replaced the sections of the wire that was burned. Then I connected the new wire to the old wire using wire nuts.

I'll see if I can post a pic behind the new switch in little later.

 

Ok. Question for the electricians. So 2 nights ago I smell an electrical burning. I was sitting at my computer at the time, and I was messing around with it. So after searching the house I chalked it up to the computer which is older. The smell dissipated, so without finding the source there was not much to do.

Today, I just happened to being doing some work on the dryer and found this :


So what would cause this? The dryer was not on at the time. In fact it hasn't been used in a few days because the washer is broke.

I haven't had any surges that I know of. Nothing else has been affected if I did.

I know a little about wiring. Comfortable working with most stuff, switching plugs, running wire, switching out a.breaker etc...

I just don't have a clue why this would happen. And obviously don't want it to happen again or worse have a fire. Should I just change the.plug out? Dryer still works by the way.

 

Loose wire, that looks like the neutral one of the hot wires (receptacle is upside down)

 

Loose wire on the dryer?

 

Loose wire inside the receptacle will cause it to get hot and melt (in part or whole). I would meg the wires (if you have a megger) and if they are good, cut off 6" of the wiring and make new terminations with a new receptacle.

 

So I bought a house a few years ago that has 4 lights hanging inside the attic. They are all connected together. They worked for a time, and then just stopped working. I replaced all the bulbs thinking that maybe one went bad. Still nothing. I inspected the wiring for maybe a broken section, can't find anything. I checked every breaker/fuse/outlet/switch I could find that I thought might even be even remotely the one that would control them. Nothing. I found the electrical box the wiring goes to, and I know it's good, cause the attic fan gets it's power from the same box, and the attic fan works fine. Any other ideas?