Fixing Home Wiring: A Tale of "Surprise" and Gratitude

[turbo]

OK, it wasn't all that fun. A few days ago, my kitchen light fixture over the sink started acting up - not working or working only intermittently. The box over the sink contains a two-up receptacle and a switch. I figured that the switch was toast, so I prepared to wire in a new one. Imagine my "surprise" when I had killed the breaker that fed the receptacles only to find that the light switch was hot. I've had hand-to-hand AC jolts before, but I don't recommend it for entertainment. Anyway, I found only 100V from hot to neutral, 20V from neutral to ground, and 120V from hot to ground. I was getting flummoxed, so I called my brother-in-law who is an electrician, and is a good troubleshooter.

We identified the breaker that controlled that light switch, and the lights and receptacles in the bathroom, and started tearing into those boxes. Finally, we found a cluster of neutrals, wire-nutted in the ceiling of the bathroom, re-connected them, and solved the problem. The circuit to the kitchen sink light was losing the reference from neutral to ground, due to an inadequate connection to neutral in the bathroom ceiling.

Today, I took a gift card from a filling-station chain to my brother-in-law as a thank-you. He protested, but accepted. I don't know what I'd do without him. I have built and repaired tube-driven amplifiers for years, but when I get into home wiring with everything hidden in boxes and behind walls, I lack the imagination to troubleshoot effectively. Plus, I make stupid mistakes, like not putting a multimeter on a switch when the double receptacle was cold. Dumb!

 

[Lacy33]

Great start on your adventures in wire land. But why don't you contact that guy who is working on a solar highway and give him a hand too. I'm trying to get DH involved in that one.
Nice gift to your brother.
How long will you be sleeping in the back yard before you feel safe enough to move back in the house?

 

[turbo]

How long will you be sleeping in the back yard before you feel safe enough to move back in the house?

I feel safe now that the poorly-connected neutral phase has been re-referenced to ground. This house was well-built, but very poorly modified by a previous owner, so I have to tread lightly and double-check stuff all the time.

The previous owner that made some very ill-advised modifications has a son who is an "engineer". After seeing how the "engineer" added a 240V receptacle to the living room for a large in-window AC unit, I started reviewing everything that had been done recently.

 

[Evo]

My Dad was an EE and he re-wired our house. The best thing he did was a "command central" right outside of their bedroom in the hall one dial could turn off or on any light inside or out. That was great, you didn't have to walk around the house checking and turning off lights.

 

[rootX]

Don't you need electrician license to perform home wiring? I think in Canada even engineers cannot do home wiring if they don't have the license.

I like those plug and play systems that let you control lights from internet/smart phones.

 

[Astronuc]

My Dad was an EE and he re-wired our house. The best thing he did was a "command central" right outside of their bedroom in the hall one dial could turn off or on any light inside or out. That was great, you didn't have to walk around the house checking and turning off lights.

Very cool! He was ahead of his time in that regard.

I'm sure your dad would have disapproved of me.

 

[turbo]

Don't you need electrician license to perform home wiring? I think in Canada even engineers cannot do home wiring if they don't have the license.

In the US, you can perform wiring in your own home. That is a good thing if you have access to some talented advisor. It is a really bad thing if modifications were made by a clown.

 

[Danger]

Plus, I make stupid mistakes, like not putting a multimeter on a switch when the double receptacle was cold. Dumb!

I can't say as I'd do that either, a few years ago. It really is counterintuitive. I learned the hard way, however, in a rented apartment that sometimes the two parts of a duplex outlet are fed by different breakers. There was no injury involved in the discovery, but it sure scared the living **** out of me. Now I take nothing for granted.

 

[Proton Soup]

as an engineer, i got the dubious honor of helping my friend's mom by installing a new closet light fixture once. it was close to the bathroom, and had the same type of wire-nut megacluster. further inquiry revealed a 120V light fixture above the shower in the master bath.

and this was also done by a guy who was an electronics tech, so naturally thought he knew what he was doing.

doing your own wiring is pretty variable in the US, i think. i think in my municipality, it's legal to do whatever in your own home as long as you live there for 6 months after. but the service wiring has to be done by a real electrician. i think you'll see less freedom on this as you get less rural.

 

[Borg]

Fun things that I've found in my houses:

Two single wire electrical lines strung like clothesline across the backyard to the garage. It even had an outlet spliced into it at the halfway point. Needless to say, that was the first thing fixed when I bought that house. During the removal process, I found that the circuit consisted of a three wire Romex from the fusebox to the attic where it connected to the two wire circus in a metal junction box. Of course the ground wire wasn't connected to anything. I was told that the owner that installed it was an electrician.

My current house has two separate breakers supplying the power to the kitchen light. I found this out when dealing with a toilet overflow from an upper floor that was draining where the light was. I tried to turn off individual breakers one at a time to kill power and work up there but, the light wouldn't go out. I eventually had to kill every breaker and turn them on one at a time to figure out what was going on. I now keep one of the breakers off at all times. I'll get it fixed if I ever have some electrical work done.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

You might appreciate these photos from the electrical work when I converted the barn to an office. I ran a 1" water line at the same time, which is the pipe seen in the first photo. Before the installation, I only had about a 10 amp, 120 VAC service in the barn. Now I am good for up to 200 amps at 240 VAC if needed. So far I've never needed more than 50 amps.

THAT was a lot of work! I rented a 50hp riding trencher and gave it a serious workout. Coming down the hill, and also behind the office, there huge rocks [up to about 100 lbs] which had the entire trencher bouncing about six inches off the ground! I thought for sure I was going to have a $1K or $2K trencher repair bill, but it came through without a hitch.

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9738/img00276a.jpg

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6441/img00283p.jpg

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/5043/img00290i.jpg

 

[turbo]

That third pic looks like a serious mole problem. ;- 0

 

[Ivan Seeking]

That third pic looks like a serious mole problem. ;- 0

Heh, that was one of the roughest parts. Both large rocks and big roots from the old growth tree made it all but impossible to get through.

Funny too, I almost couldn't get back up the hill with the trencher! The dirt mound next to the ditch kept running the trencher [balloon tires] over to the side, which then wanted to flip and roll down the hill to the left. I finally had to go and buy four 1" pieces of plywood sheet to lay in front of the trencher as a track; lay the plywood out, move the trencher eight feet, and then reposition the plywood for the next eight feet. What a royal pain! But we finally made up.

Running the wire in the conduit was another treat. Without a puller, trying to manage 00 wire by hand [whatever it was... a 200 amp rating over 600 feet with no more than a 5% loss] was also all but impossible. I finally had to slide each piece of conduit over the cable, one by one, and assemble the pipe as I progressed, rather than pulling the wires through an existing assembled conduit. And even that way it was barely manageable.