Bad Main Breaker

OK, here is my problem.  I live in a newly constructed house.  They are building a new house right next door.  I am seeing a power flux (dimming) in my lights whenever any of the following occurs:



- I turn on the A/C in my house

- I turn on the washing machine in my house

- the compressor next door kicks on (for their nail gun and/or other tools)



The compressor next door is hooked up to a temporary post on the street.  I have had my electrician come look along with the utility company.  The utility company says that the house is getting plenty of power.  So now, short of getting another electrician in here, trying to figure out what the problem could be (and if my electrician, who is the one who did the wiring during construction, doesn't know what he's doing).  Most of the lights in the house are 60W if that matters.



Any thoughts on what the problem might be?  I would think that given the proper wiring that I shouldn't see any kind of power flux.



Thanks for the help in advance.
      

Hello All,



I'm a DIY'er for most things except things that I want perfectly done and I know my limits. My brother is a licensed Master electrician but has really only dealt with Commercial last several years - his company are commercial electricians who setup new building contruction etc..

Anyway, my wife and I are getting Central Air from our tax money this year. That project starts in two weeks. My brother is going to tie everything together for me (electrical) but I had to do the research and buy everything. The HVAC installer said I need a 30A 2P GFI breaker to a 30A disconnect on the side of my house. I have the breaker specific to my panel, 10-2 wire and PVC conduit, etc.



Question:

I did purchase a 30A fusible pull-out disconnect box and 2x 30A NOS type H fuses. Will this work? The condenser is a new Trane XB13 and I can't find any documentation stating it needs fusible over non-fusible.



Thanks,

~S
      

Hey all, new to the forum and had a few questions about the electric I plan on installing in my basement I am working on finishing.   Here is what the plans call for...



- Bathroom

  - 2 Lights, one GFCI, vent fan

- Home theater

  - Projector, Sound system, various other electronics

- General Lighting throughout

  - 14 Recessed lights approx 60 watt bulbs

  - 14 outlets

  - Mini bar fridge

I will have to run the line from the garage to the basement and my question is should I go 15 or 20 and will I need more than one line to support this?  Any info or direction you guys can give would be greatly appreciated!!



Tom
      

Hey guys,

we have a 4-plex in San Diego that we bought several months ago that was built in 1950. According to inspector's report, we needed electrical upgrades. One of the electricians told us city is under a project to underground all the electrical lines, and if we do not do upgrades the way city EXPECTS us, once our neighborhood is due for undergounding, we will have to REDO the whole thing again (like changing the location of the MAIN electrical panel from where it is now).

Can they FORCE these upgrades to the owners? I am talking about a 15000-20000$ that will be required... It is not cheap...



What we wanted to do is the very minimum, but to make sure our tenants are safe: just replace fuses in each unit with BREAKERS and leave it in the closets as we "grandfathered" them in and replace the main panel fuse with a breaker.

But according to the advise of an electrician based on the city undergrounding requirements, we will have to RELOCATE the fuses from closets to the OUTSIDE of the building AND RELOCATE the main panel from where it is now to an opposite direction (closer to the main street).

Can the city ENFORCE us to do this?
      

I was in my attic today doing some work when I noticed a bare twisted copper wire that ran along a ceiling joist.  All along it was charred wood and charred  fiberglass insulation.  Luckily the fire it caused did not sustain itself and I was able to find the problem.  I then traced the wire and figured it originated in my breaker box (although I could not determine exactly where in the box).  It then ran across my attic alongside a ceiling joist and down into a wall ending up connecting to my water meter.

  Several months ago,  the electric company was restoring power to my area and ended up sending a power surge into my house taking out an oscillating fan, a toaster and a GFI outlet.  Last winter, I also had to have my electric meter pole replaced by an electrician after a tree branch took it out during an ice storm.

  I was wondering if one of these events could have caused the ground wire to heat up or something else entirely is going on?  I am suppose to have a company blow in  insulation soon and I need to figure this problem out.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.
      

Hi, I'm wondering about the following. I have a hood fan at a fast food restaurant and for a while now there's been a situation where some days I go to turn it on in the morning and it goes out a few times. Some days it happens, while some days I flip the switch on and it runs normally. When it goes out I have to go to the circuit breaker box to trouble shoot it in order to get it going again. Is an issue like this a fire hazard or is the trouble shooting saving it from a fire while still indicating there's something going on?
      

So I recently bought a home.  There was an old rusted and rotted lamp post out front.  This past weekend it blew over in the wind.  Not kidding.   I turned off the circuit on our breaker box, i unscrewed the caps connecting the main wire to the lamp head. I removed the poll lamp head, can I just recap the single wires and roll the wire back into the ground?  Will just capping the wires be safe?
      

I have a 1960s house with EMT throughout. 



I recently replaced 2 florecent fixtures in my basement with 4 LED lights in their own J-Boxes in the drop ceiling. I did the following:



1. Rerouted the the conduit from the light switch to the main j-box for the lights. (previously it was going directly into the fixture) 

2. Ran 4 foot whips to each jbox holding the LED (metalic 14# wires)

3. Cut the old spliced wire (that was just twisted and taped) and used a wire nut

4. Replaced the switch with a dimmer



The lights work great.  Noticebale improvement and the dimmer is excellent.



The issue is that the circuit for the kitchen is now tripping.  I told my wife its just a coincidence, but she is sure I caused it.  Its only happened 2x (1 day apart.  Nothing unusual running on the circuit, only the fridge and the gas stove which as not in use)



Can my "new" work possibly impact another circuit?   What should I check?  Any way to avoid re-doing my work?



Things I noticed / may or may not be relevant:

1. Some of the EMT is directly in contact with a copper water pipe

2. The switch / dimmer isn't grounded

3. The wires in the jbox were nasty and old.  There was corrosion on the jackets and the jbox.  Looks like some water leaked down fromt the laundy above at some point in the last 40 years.

4. At some point (months ago) when I was in the basement I touched some of the EMT and something that was plugged in I swear I feld a shock. (just listing everything I can think of).  I didn't think much of it at the time, but now my whole electrical system is suspect.

5.  The tripped circuit (fridge, MW, stove) didn't appear to be tripped.  The fridge wasn't on.  When I turned off and back on the circuit the aplliances came back to life.  Appliances less than 1 year old. 

6. The clock on the range was reset at one point but I didn't think I turned on or off the circuit.  The lights for the basement were switced off but still worked with the fridge circuit tripped.

7.  We had a huge electrical storm right before I did the work

8.  We have a "stablock" panel that the home inspector got all bent out of shape about.  Other than truning on and off breakers I have never touched it.

9.  Kitchen breaker and basement light breaker are adjacent in the box

10.  I believe kitchen and basement share the same EMT in places.

11.  I think I now have too many connectors in my j-box.  Will likely add an extension.

12.  I didn't use the red "bushing" on all my whips as I ran out of them, but I was careful with the metal sheath and really don't think any wires were cut. (besides if there was a short wouldn't my LED lights fail and that circut break?)



HELP.  I am happy to call a contractor to come in, but I don't have an electrician I trust yet and I'm scared bringing someone in before I isolate the problem a little.
      

Hi, we drove past a triplex we are considering for purchase tonight. When we got out of the car to have a look around a bit, one of the tenants saw us and came out. He was telling us what he knew of the house and said the fuse box is on the outside of the house. This is a concern for us, because a) it is fuses and not breakers, which is preferable and b) we live in MN, which has extreme weather of all type. I have never heard of an outside fuse box before. Is it common? Will it pass an FHA inspection if we do decide to buy it? How difficult is it to relocate the panel to inside the house? Will it need to be moved? Thanks in advance for any advice.
      

Hello.

my electricity bills have been sky high for as long as i have been keeping track of them (less than 2 years).   i finally decided to try to track down the culprit.  I bought a watt meter to find phatom loads.  I found some and took care of them



However,

The electric hot water tank has got me thinking.  Could this be the cause of high utility bills?  The tank itself is ancient (RHEEM).  By the way it is rented from the utility company.  it is hard to tell the age because there is no date stamp, and the model number does not come up on the internet at all.  If i were to guess, maybe 25 years easily.  It functions in that I get hot water no problem



1.  Is it possible that the electric  HWT consumes way more energy than it should?, and how?

2.  Is there a way to track the usage?  My utility company installed a smart meter last year, and required an upgrade to get a new circiut breaker panel from old fuses

thanks