Douglas Hansen

I agree - good price, good product.

With respect to the AFCI part of the question, forget about it if you put in a Square D. Doesn't matter if it is QO or Homeline - they don't make one that will work with multiwire circuits, and most panels have multiwire circuits. Also, Square D's clunky technology for AFCIs leaves them sticking out into the gutter space and obscures the neutral bar. John - if it were my house I wouldn't consider anything other than Siemens / Murray equipment. I would also stay away from any of the all-in-one panels that skimp on wiring space. You might want to check in with the utility to see if they are going to throw any curves at you regarding the new service cable. Around here, $1,800 wouldn't begin to cover it.

Some gems in there. Thanks Barry.

If you get in series with the neutral, you could indeed be electrocuted. When you are in parallel with the neutral, even assuming you are standing barefoot in a puddle of water and you are making a great connection to the earth where the utility drove their ground rod under their transformer, the only voltage you experience is approximately the voltage drop of the neutral. It can be enough to measure on the ammeter without being at a voltage level that will even produce a startle current.

The NEC has lots of places that mandate the removal of abandoned wiring. None of them apply to residential. There are a few places where power conductors would need to be removed, though mostly the types of wire the NEC wants removed are abandoned signaling and communications conductors. The area where these create the most problems is above suspended ceilings. They add to the fire load, and can create more difficulties for workers attempting to add or relocated wiring that is not abandoned. This became a hot button issue in the codes about 10 years ago, and requirements for it started showing up in the 2005 NEC. I have no idea how it managed to get translated into inspector folklore. FWIW, I like the idea of tying all the conductors of the circuit at each end. That is a traditional way of dealing with it.

These pictures are from an apartment where someone was being shocked in their kitchen. The genius that "repaired" it decided to bond every neutral to the panel enclosures. The wiring was all in EMT. The picture with my meter shows a half amp on one of the pieces of EMT. That's the same amount of current a 60Watt bulb would draw, except in this case that energy is just being expended to heat up the conduit. In the kitchen, the client who hired us had experienced a mild shock when touching the stove and refrigerator at the same time, after the "repair." UL refers to these low level shocks as "startle current." They really can't have more voltage behind them than the voltage drop of the neutral, yet it is enough to get your attention. The inductive reactance heating of those conduits is racking up the electric bill. It will also create odd magnetic fields. If you have a high-end stereo, you will get a hum on your speakers. Even though the consequences are usually not severe, it is the first step on the slippery slope. Most electrical accidents are the result of more than one thing going wrong, and this one should be fixed. Click to Enlarge 44.81 KB Click to Enlarge 48.65 KB

Voluntary seismic upgrades to single-family residences in California do not have to be engineered as long as they do no harm. That translates into no requirement that they do any good either. Regardless, the jurisdictional inspector does not go into the crawlspace. I think the primary reason that gussets or ties would be good on those post/beam connections is to help resist uplift of the beams. They would have negligible effect on lateral movement, since that aspect is handled by bolting at the perimeter.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigation ... 06921.html

I wouldn't be as concerned about the open crawl since fire usually goes up, though if there were gas-burning appliances down there my opinion would be different. Saturday didn't meet my expectations, and my specific questions at the time went unanswered. At least I got to check it off the list of things I thought I wanted to do someday.

At that time I think the building code in your area would have allowed it. Assuming that Humbolt County was using the 1970 UBC, section 3204(b) would have allowed a common attic up to 3,000 square feet. Today it would require a rated fire partition. As to "how long has that not been allowed?" it looks like a requirement for a draft stop separation went into the 1982 UBC, and the modern version of this (requiring at least a one-hour separation) would have been in place starting in 1994. Aside from the fire spread issue, it could also be a security issue for the tenants.

You're one lucky guy to have had him in your life. Of course, you already knew that. Like Mike, I'm finding myself choked up over the news. Be well and count your blessings my friend.

A key point within that article: "One important note: Java should not be confused with Javascript. Disabling Javascript will result in a bunch of websites not working properly, and it won't do anything to address this threat." Many files (including the electronic versions of Code Check) cannot be read without first allowing an automatic javascript instruction to be executed.

I use one called PrinkKey-Pro and love it.

The problem is that they are branch feeder types, installed after that type was no longer allowed.

We have a new article on AFCIs on our site. http://www.codecheck.com/cc/articles.html (Updated version of article posted August 17) Thank you

I don't like that one Mike - Chapter 18 is basically about oil. Try this one from the chapter on gas-burning appliances: G2427.5.9 (503.5.10) Space surrounding lining or vent. The remaining space surrounding a chimney liner, gas vent, special gas vent, or plastic piping installed within a masonry chimney shall not be used to vent another appliance.

Thanks Jim - I never knew that some of these were truly 60-amp panels. Isn't that picture of the cow's derriere actually the place where FPE produced their press releases?

Even though the largest size cartridge fuse that will fit in the blocks is 60 amps, these are 100 amp panels. The left fuse block cuts power to the four Edison fuses and the two tap blocks, and the right fuse block is the range circuit. Fairly standard fare for the late 40's - early 50's.

If the gas line is properly bonded, the breaker trips, killing power to the circuit. If the gas line is not bonded, the person touching the gas line and an adjacent grounded surface will become the human bonding jumper, killing the person.

Marc does have a point here about parallel conductors. If a parallel installation looks too neat, there IS something wrong. In order to get the conductors the same length, it will end up pretty ugly. However, that isn't what we have here. Marc, your numbers would only make sense if the total length of those two pairs of conductors were so different from each other all the way back to the utility transformer. That isn't the case. One of those 2-pole breakers sees X amount of resistance back to the transformer, and the other one sees 99.99% that much resistance. It isn't enough to make a difference. Factory-made quad breaker setups always have these slight differences in conductor length. They wouldn't be listed and labeled if it made a difference. The amount of VD within those final lengths of service conductors are indeed going to be very different; they just still don't amount to nearly enough in such a short distance to have any consequential effect.

You can go here http://bulk.resource.org/codes.gov/nj_residential.pdf and download a copy of the New Jersey residential code. You will see in the beginning pages of it that no amendments were made to IRC chapter 16, and that the sections you cited do indeed permit class 0 and class 1 ducts. I suggest photographing the "class 1" label and printing out the pages on ducts (chapter 16 is only 4 pages long) and writing a letter stating your case. The city is supposed to have an appeals board for these issues. If they don't, then I would submit it to the city attorney and the town council. If the ducts were class 2 (something that hasn't been placed in houses for over 20 years now) the inspector could legitimately ask to have them replaced. If the ducts were inside an attached garage, he could ask to have that portion within the garage replaced. If there is some other documentable specific failure to comply with the rules in chapter 16, then a correction notice could be issued forcing you to comply with those written rules. It doesn't sound like any of that is the problem, and the real problem is likely to be the one that Bill suspects. You will be doing a favor to your fellow citizens by not knuckling under. Something needs to be brought into compliance in your town, and it isn't your duct system.

We had a very similar aluminum cable in the mid-1960's that was made by Kaiser. The outer sheathing was a plasticized fiber of some sort, kind of a stepping stone between the old rag-wrap copper NM and the PVC sheathing of the late 60s.

Yes. You're right. Since, in this case, the neutral is not switched, the generator is not considered a separately derived system and the the ground/neutral connection should only be present at the service panel (or before it). Aside from adding an equipment ground bar to this subpanel, the bonding jumper must also be removed inside the generator, otherwise you will still have the problem of a connection between the neutrals and equipment grounds past the service.

408.40 in the NEC requires a terminal bar for the equipment grounding conductors. The panel manufacturers do not always supply a separate equipment ground bar, since the same panel might be used as service equipment where the equipment grounds and neutrals could go on the same bar. They do make separate terminal bars that are easily added to a panel like this one. While it is not likely to have any effect on the electrical performance of this piece of equipment, allowing a thing like this to pass is the first step on a slippery slope. It is the signature of someone who did not know how to wire a panel. It should be corrected by a real electrician.

Could the wires to that receptacle also be in a channel inside the baseboard?