[PLUG-TALK] House wiring

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Fri Apr 7 20:30:40 UTC 2017


On Thu, Apr 06, 2017 at 04:50:55PM -0700, Tom wrote:
> I used to be certified for home and industrial installations
> up to 2kV, so I feel that I need to step in here.
...
> This discussion is a proof that the good inspections and
> good codes are necessary and positive for the society at
> large - Unless of course we accept personal responsibility
> and require "free" home owners to isolate themselves from
> harming the society and posting demolition and insurance
> bonds used to remove their houses when abandoned and
> recover the cost of harming others by their original builder.

Ditto, double plus agree.

In 2010, before we moved into our 1960-built home, I rewired
a large portion of it.  I characterize the original wiring 
job as "Jekyll and Hyde" - Electrician Dr. Jekyll did a 
fabulous job, and his partner Mr. Hyde did a terrible job.

For example, all the grounds in the garage were connected
through a wire nut in an outside light fixture by Mr. Hyde.
On the other hand, many of the connections in main house
were beautifully twisted together and soldered, and neatly
wrapped in durable black tape.  Although all the fixtures
were two-prong when I started work, the metal boxes were
grounded, and there was enough extra ground wire to
properly ground the box and the fixture. 

The house originally had a Federal-Pacific Stablok load
center (circuit breaker box), referred to as "arc-welders"
by electricians.  Stablok breakers had a regrettable
tendency to weld closed over time, meaning that a branch
circuit in the house could draw as much current as the pole
transformer can provide (why are the lights dim and the
wall glowing?).  Federal-Pacific was sued into bankruptcy,
and the company that bought their "assets" was sued into
bankruptcy.  We (the electrician and I) replaced it with
an Eaton-Cutler-Hammer box.  

The power feed from the transformer on the pole on the
street was essentially a big bundle of cloth-shielded
wire.  That was the kind of crap that 1960s inspectors
waived for a suitable donation.

I paid $$$$ to a professional electrician to replace the
feed and the load center.  He took a picture of the old
setup to share with his colleagues - he thought it was
hilarious.

I installed new Romex for the new circuits (many new
circuits in the basement), and (to the slight consternation
of the inspector) installed medical grade isolation
transformers for my electronics workbench and computers,
on a switch so I could "simulate" the usual neutral-to-
load-center-grounding.  

The transformers add some inefficiency, but if the house
or the pole feed is hit by lightning the computers will
not get zapped, nor will I if I am working on the
primary side of an electronic power supply circuit.

In Washington County in the 1960s, inspections mostly
consisted of counting the cash in the bribe envelope, and
the campaign contributions to the politicians from the
large subdivision contractors (my father was an independent
architect, and had to deal with this).  Organized crime
was involved.  The county is somewhat less corrupt now.

But all is not rosy.  There are seven code inspectors for
all of Washington County, and they typically make twenty
home inspections a day.   Three of them are busy at Intel,
making sure that vast collection of megawatt equipment
and toxic chemical pumps isn't going to burn down and
poison the region with clouds of phosphine and arsine. 
I'm glad those inspectors are there, but I would love to
have more than 15 minutes with the inspector the county
sent to look at my work (failed first time, I did some
box grounding wrong).  I paid $1600 for those 15 minutes.

So, I found ANOTHER electrician with some inspection 
experience and paid him $500 for a two hour inspection,
and cleaned up what he found.  He was amused that I put
nailing plates on the sheetrock side of the holes I
drilled through the studs where I installed new romex
( "Hey, if somebody puts a nail through the stud and
shorts the romex, it will trip the breaker and they'll
pull the nail back out.  Whaddaya worried about?").

PS - I used some staples ... plastic sheathed ones.

These open basement studs being load bearing in Cascadia
subduction zone country, I sheathed them with 5/8 plywood
before I put sheetrock (for fireproofing) on top.  When
the big 9.0 RIP comes, the whole house may go sliding
down the hill like a big concrete-hulled tobaggan, but
it will be intact and livable when it stops.  Maybe.

The National Electrical Code (NEC) is enormous, but not
too difficult to read for the sections relevant to single
family dwellings.  Be sure to use the latest version, you
can find it at the library, and photocopy the important
parts.  Ditto "latest version" for those do-it-yourself
wiring books at Home Depot or the bookstore; recent
changes like tamper-resistant outlets and AFI requirements
for living areas invalidate the older books.

The NEC is designed to keep you alive, based on thousands
of tragedies where people died from electrically-caused 
fires and electrocutions.  The NEC is a compromise
between safety and cost, and if you can afford it you
should increase safety beyond minimums where possible.

Even if your life isn't worth it, someday you may sell
the house to a family with children, and perhaps one of
the children will grow up to do something wonderful.
By doing a good job, my work may help save the world,
long after I am gone.

Keith

P.S.  I'm amused to imagine what medieval peasants would
think about a tiny metal wand that could kill them, with
fire or with terrible heart-stopping pain.  Witchcraft!

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com



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