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I recommend replacement, then ask if I can have it. I have an outbuilding that needs a panel and I wouldn't mind if it burned down.

Around here, Zinscos make Federal Pacific look like a Cadillac. "voted most likely to set your house on fire"

Thanks.

Yeah, in about so many words. Zinsco electrical panels are inherently dangerous. Have the panel replaced ASAP.

My preference is to just tell them it needs relacement.

What do you think of this remark in my report: · The electric panel in the condo unit is a Zinsco type which has a bad history of circuit breaker failure. I opened the panel and did not see any apparent issues. However, considering the poor documented performance of this type of panel I recommend an electrician take a closer look for any deficiencies that might cause call for panel replacement.

I think 1970's.

What is the date of the home? With the asphalt spots, it sure looks like one of the Insulite products, but there were many, many brands of fiberboard.

It looks like Celotex, a soft compressed fiber product. You can break off pieces with your hand. Firtex and Homasote are similar products but they have different textures and colors.

Does this material have a name? It was soft, something like cork board.

I recently began working as a home inspector in Kerrville, Texas after having online training and some hands-on experience to verify my knowledge. If you have any questions you can contact me at **** and I will do my best to answer them for you!

They're really stupid. In the winter, they burn natural gas because they're stealing heat from the conditioned spaces. In the summer, they make basements clammy. And as Jim stated, they're also bad at their primary purpose.

Yes, they're stupid. They cost five times as much as a gas water heater, and three times a conventional electric one. They only work under ideal conditions, and conditions are never ideal, so they are wildly inefficient. Albany's reckless energy policies are incentivizing heat pumps as the technology of our all electric future. Our mechanical code requires resistance heat backup for every heat pump installation because they don't work in our severe climate. Total cost of ownership, I'll stick with the gas heater. Even factoring for a six year service life, it's more hot water, faster, for a fraction of the price.

Yes, that's my experience too. But a heat pump water heater in one of those basements will work like an air conditioner. The 67-degree basement won't be 67 degrees after one hour, let alone one day.

Most basements back east, at least as far as I can remember, stay generally "warm" without heat, meaning the air in them is above freezing. They're built deep enough to go below frost level and gain a certain amount of ambient ground heat. Of course, in my memory they weren't placing panels of foam insulation on the soil before pouring the floors, so I don't know if that made a big difference. Ours was built from rubblestone and, with the furnace and water heater there, plus what heat radiated off the hot water pipes, which were uninsulated, I'd putter around there all day as a kid tinkering with stuff I was working on. The furnace didn't supply any direct heat to the basement but those uninsulated heating ducts, like the pipes, radiated heat. I'm not smart enough to comprehend all of what engineers imagine. I only know that if it works, it works, and that's good, and when it doesn't I'll declare it shit. Well, used to, in the days I was working.

Those basement's must be freezing cold. Where was the 67-degree air supposed to come from? I can see having them in the southern states, but they just don't seem to make any sense up here.

When these first started to appear, I had the chance to discuss them with someone involved in the development and initial trials. At that time, all data (efficiency, sizing guides etc.) were based on these systems having a continuous flow of air at just over 67° supplied to the intake. They're all installed in basements here, without any ducting of exterior air - regardless of the manufacturers' recommendation.

Is it just me, or are these things really stupid? Today's new-construction house had an AO Smith heat pump water heater in the garage. When I arrived on site, it was 42 degrees outside and about 39 degrees in the garage. The water heater was set to 120 degrees in the "hybrid" mode and its heat pump compressor was running non-stop while its indicator showed that it was also running one of the resistance heating elements. Even so, the hottest temperature that I could get *at the water heater's outlet pipe* was 110 degrees. By the time it got to the fixtures it was about 102 degrees. Even when I switched it over to pure resistance heating and checked back a few hours later, the best it could do was 114 degrees at the outlet pipe. Most of the ones that I see are set to 130 or 135 in order to get 120-degree water at the fixtures. In our climate, these are always installed in a garage because otherwise they'd be fighting with the heating system in the house. In the winter, the garage is always going to be close to 40 degrees and the heat pumps generally stop working and switch to resistance heat at 37 degrees. So are these just really stupid or am I missing something?

To fix it he would have to cut the window. He'd have to buy a special saw blade for that. I wonder why he didn't just dig a hole in the ground?😀 I know, late to the party, but we do need to stay active.

The correct light switch with a builtin dimmer should supply only your ceiling fixture. It is typical to see split outlets with one side always hot and the other controlled by a normal light switch, especially in housing where the builders never installed a ceiling fixture. It is also typical to see where Mr. Handy has messed around with the outlets and fixtures.

Nah, just about anyone is sharper than I am. I wouldn't ever think that of you Les. Remember me, the guy who can't add a column if single-digit numbers three times without getting three different wrong answers? 😵

You must never have a dimmer controlling a receptacle outlet. Doing so could fry non-incandescent or non-resistant loads plugged into the outlet. Imagine how your computer would appreciate having its power supply "dimmed." The mere fact that you have a dimmer controlling a receptacle outlet means that people who had no idea what they were doing were messing with the wiring. As Tom said, call an electrician.

Hire an electrician.

In one of the bedrooms we have a slide dimmer. On the silver backing it reads 120VAC/60HZ Permanent installed 600W max, 2 GANG 500W or Incand. Fixtures 3 or more GANG 400W It goes to the top outlet across the room. I have never heard of a ceiling and outlet on the same switch. Does that mean once the fixture is up the drive will only go to that? Meaning one is in lieu of the other, right? Maybe the ceiling has to be run on a pull chain? Remote? We want to put a permanent fixture for the ceiling.The fixture is a 2 bulb bowl style. How do you make the dimmer work with the fixture not the outlet?