Home ownership
Maybe I missed a thread similar to this, but that's ok. I have been in my home for 10 years now, and there are some thi
Project for the day:
The ready bulb for my warming drawer burned out. Since they no longer make the part, I soldered a new bulb into the old fixture.
Old bulb:
New bulb:
Done:
Welp, didn't end up buying a third house today after all.
We came close to buying a fixer in the town we're looking to retire to, so it would be ready when I pull the eject handle on my Air Force career. But my parents went and checked it out for us, and we decided it wasn't quite the right fit.
It needs as much updating as our house in Indy did, but I'm not afraid of that. But the layout just wasn't very functional. It made the house seem cramped, even though it had plenty of square footage on paper.
Oh well. We have time.
Fun with timers for my mom's outdoor lights. They were on a 3 way switch. Shoulda called Mark 2 hours ago. Finally got it to where the switch by the front door doesn't do **** anymore in case somebody accidentally turned it off. Timer in the garage works great.
Not that bad only a 4 beer job.
I don't do electricity.
There is enough beer to make me dig into a switch with a screwdriver. There is no number of beers to make me accurately confident of what I'm doing.
I solve such problems with smart light bulbs and/or Alexa. Not the cheapest or the best method, but it keeps me above ground with my original number of fingers.
Fun with timers for my mom's outdoor lights. They were on a 3 way switch. Shoulda called Mark 2 hours ago. Finally got it to where the switch by the front door doesn't do **** anymore in case somebody accidentally turned it off. Timer in the garage works great. Not that bad only a 4 beer job.
Clean up that shiner.
Clean up that shiner.
Cowboy only said, "4 beer job," didn't specify Shiner.
Though I approve of that choice.
Clean up that shiner.
Thanks for your concern. Those wire nuts were too small for the job, but that's all I had in my toolbox. After I confirmed it was functioning the way I wanted, I golf carted over to my brother's house and pilfered the correct size and cleaned everything up before stuffing it back in the box.
I hate wire nuts. Never use them. Wago lever nuts all day every day.
I hate dealing with electrical gremlins. Woke up this morning with one circuit in the house down and its circuit not tripped. When the electrician showed up, I hit the garage door opener to give him access to the breaker box, and the circuit in the house came back on, but the garage circuit tripped the breaker. He said I have the neutrals doubled up in the breaker box, and tightened the neutral screws on that breaker down. Everything worked, so he left with a promised of a quote for a panel replacement. As I went to reprogram the garage door openers, that circuit started acting screwy again, tripping the breaker several times, and with inconsistent power when it isn't tripped. garage door openers only work on the middle door, which doesn't want to close all the way, and the wall switches for the other doors sometimes work, sometimes don't but also don't trip the breaker, and sometimes do trip the breaker. Meanwhile, hitting them causes power fluctuations in the circuit that was dead this morning. I'm at my wit's end.
Gremlins respond to a technicians aura.
I have it with computers, they all behave much better whenever I'm around.
I love a panel replacement here. Who doubles a neutral.
Loose neutrals can cause the weirdest ****. Panel replacement is overkill (and may not even solve the problem).
If a circuit is out but breaker not tripped, try resetting it anyway (turn off, then on). Check it with a meter if you have one.
Do you have breakers with little blue or white buttons on them? (AFCI or GFCI)
Is the garage and the other problem circuit actually on the same circuit? Maybe they share a neutral (three wire cable with one white as neutral for two circuits, usually a red and a black wire in the same cable jacket).
Meanwhile, hitting them causes power fluctuations in the circuit that was dead this morning.
Yeah, this sure sounds like a shared neutral on two circuits. Totally fine thing to do, but if the neutral becomes disconnected, either in the panel or along the circuit, you basically have 220v across two circuits in series. Things will seem normal if you have a nearly equal load on both circuits. But if you run something like a garage door opener and the circuits become unbalanced, you will have a higher voltage across the circuit with the heavier current draw, and lower voltage across the other.
I would turn off both circuits until this is resolved, as it could be dangerous, and could damage your devices. It's also possible you could have a loose neutral connection that is arcing and burning somewhere.
solid advice
It's also possible you could have a loose neutral connection that is arcing and burning somewhere.
Bing, bing, bing! Electrician came back and found a loose connection with a very mild arc in, of all places, the 100 amp breaker in the main that feeds the sub-panel. All seems to be better now (fingers crossed).
I do suspect that those circuit share a neutral too, though. The rest of the circuits on that panel seemed to be acting normal, but those were the top left and top right.
Bing, bing, bing! Electrician came back and found a loose connection with a very mild arc in, of all places, the 100 amp breaker in the main that feeds the sub-panel. All seems to be better now (fingers crossed).I do suspect that those circuit share a neutral too, though. The rest of the circuits on that panel seemed to be acting normal, but those were the top left and top r
Unlikely, unless you have a super old Pushmatic panel. Circuits with a shared neutral should be on two different phases. On modern panels the top two breakers would be connected to the same phase, or "leg" of the 100 amp breaker. Probably that loose connection was feeding those two, as well as every odd circuit down both sides.
Huh! Just got lucky that none of the other circuits had much going then, I guess.
Man I would never share a neutral to help with diagnosis issues later. Since rewiring my house from aluminum to copper I only have a few boxes where two separate circuits reside and the neutrals are not connected but the grounds are.
Glad it was resolved! loose neutrals cause some really weird ****.
Yeah, I had a house with knob and tube wiringthat had only one return that went from outlet to outlet before coming back to the box, in order to save wire, I guess. When we rewired that, I just threw a ton of Romex at the problem, because trying to figure out the routing was impossible.
I have an asphalt driveway that was cheaply laid over gravel about 30 years ago. I just noticed that it is starting to develop a crack across it near the road. It is almost certainly in the right-of-way, but I didn't think to confirm and I'm a bit lazy atm. I am guessing that the dirt underneath has settled quite a bit on that slope over 30 years.
If it is in the right-of-way, is there any chance the city will assume the responsibility to repair it even though we paid for the driveway to be extended a bit beyond that point? Or do I just need to start calling folks for estimates?
if you are in an incorporated area, they typically have pretty clear definitions of where their responsibility ends and yours begins. you could always try calling to complain about it and make them prove to you it's not their problem.
if you are in an incorporated area, they typically have pretty clear definitions of where their responsibility ends and yours begins. you could always try calling to complain about it and make them prove to you it's not their problem.
This could become interesting. I'm pretty sure when the driveway was laid I was not in the city limits and it was a state highway, but now I am and it is not. The guy across the road with less of a slope and a concrete driveway recently had an asphalt repair made across his driveway in a similar spot to what I'm seeing on this side. It looks like hell, but I didn't pay enough attention to see if it was a city crew or private.
Now I want to ask him about it, but his wife has 24-hour home health care for problems with Alzheimer's complications so I don't want to walk up and just ring his doorbell. He still works some and is tough to catch outside, but I may start to stalk his front yard when his truck his home 🙄
On some day when you're not going anywhere, get out the pickax and put a pothole in the highway. Then, when the crew comes, "Hey guys, while you're patching that, how about throwing some asphalt over this crack, please."
I mean, show up with a cooler of beer, ofc.
This could become interesting. I'm pretty sure when the driveway was laid I was not in the city limits and it was a state highway, but now I am and it is not.
snip quote
always on the look out for once in a mirror chance in motion vehicles with all those reflective surfaces may be larger than they appear in real life to be able to have another laser focus on the level of beams together toward continuously helping reconstructive editing of words much more poignant towards the worlds we all mutually hope to experience before eventually settling among worms and dirt after the perpetual counting of time
