Sometimes the Project Picks You

On By JohnIn electrics/electronics, home improvementLeave a comment

I had quickly pulled all of the receptacles to tackle later, but stumbled into this little gem just before I left for the week.

<sarcasm> Gosh, I have no idea why electrical at this end of the house is wonky. </sarcasm>

Count the number electrical issues this single modern receptacle:

  • That corroded (1) wire is meant to be the ground wire for the 14/2 cable.
  • It’s connected to the push-in neutral (2) side of the receptacle.
  • It’s aluminum, into a modern copper-receptacle (3).
  • There’s a neutral wire not connected (4).
  • There’s a hot (black) wire that’s connected to the grounding bus (5) for the receptacle.

At least the wires that I can see are routed the correct way round the terminals.

I think I have my Friday project selected.

Pondering, Still

On By JohnIn human conditionLeave a comment

Here we are in the midst of something of an unknown for the future of society, and yet I find that I’m pondering, again, buying another bicycle.

My list has evolved a bit from what it was. Previously, I had considered:

  • Salsa Journeyman Apex
  • Aventon Pace 500
  • Rad Runner

I’ve disregarded two of them because one was somewhat impractical for my current locale and lifestyle. I’d end up adding racks and baskets front and rear and likely go as far as to attach a pair of my ammo cans. Yes, it would look cool — but it’s just not going to be meaningful for me presently.

Another wasn’t quite what I’d prefer. Sure, I could swap out the Café bars for flat or drops, but the cost would become somewhat limiting. Off they’d go.

A straightforward and seemingly obvious answer: Salsa Journeyman Apex — to which I’d upgrade to tubeless, add pedals of choice and Bob’s your uncle.

Seemingly.

But I find that I rather like the idea of an eBike.

Why?

Because I’m not going to live forever. And having a bit of extra power for the lengthy uphill climbs seems like it could be quite helpful.

A gravel bike, yes. I mean, I already have a touring-class bike. Quite heavy for casual riding and rather purpose-made for carrying substantial loads long distances.

Right, so I removed two, then added two alternates. Both additions are eBikes. Of course, one holdover from the previous list. So, now it’s changed to:

*Why the holdover? Alternative question: won’t an eBike just make you lazy?

For my needs, a 650B is more agreeable — not “balloon” tires, so to speak, but certainly more comfortable.

…

Electrical-fire waiting to happen…

On By JohnIn electrics/electronics, home improvementLeave a comment

Turned on the power to all of the circuits in the house and was seeing some strange behavior in a couple of places.

Porch light didn’t work. Wasn’t just a burnt-out bulb. Lower priority. I’ll get to it when I can.

The yard lamp (flood lamp) didn’t work. No idea if it’s a failed sodium bulb, which I’ll eventually replace with an LED. Its receptacle at the base of the pole was a GFI-variety that had no power to it. Hmm… higher priorities, but seeing both lights out suggests that the switches to each of them may be an issue.

Higher priority, though, is to get power to the outlets in the house. Spot-checked a few outlets in the house and discovered that all of the receptacles in the main living room were, uh, rather odd.

Typically, in North America, you’d see about 120VAC on a household receptacle. And I did see the expected 120VAC… on one outlet, then its other outlet in the same receptacle was rather representative of the rest of the receptacles in the living space.

Instead of the expected 120VAC, it was… 8VAC. Huh?

Another receptacle registered about 15VAC.

Okay, now it’s getting damned odd…

Seven or eight receptacles in the main living room were horribly (dangerously) under-voltage. After I threw all the breakers then removed all of the outlet and switch covers in the living room, I discovered an omen… a bad omen…

Hmm… that’s a red wire-nut… which would be rated for use on up to four 10-gauge wires on a 20-amp circuit. And it’s binding together only three (!) 14-gauge (!!) aluminum (!!!) wires. And it’s over-effing heated to the point that it’s melted.

The only way to overheat a circuit is to draw more than 80% of its rated capacity for a prolonged period of time — more than a few minutes. I’d wager that the previous owner (occupants?) had multiple electric space heaters plugged in round the room that they ran constantly. And, seeing the kludge of cobbled-together electrical add-ons, they were probably chasing problems that were entirely of their own creation.

I’ll just plan on putting in new receptacles and just replace the wiring with some proper 12/2 cable to all of the points known to be bad.

Dear God, I just had a realization — knowing that the previous owners cobbled things together, it’s occurred to me that the entire circuit is very possibly not connected to a breaker at all. I certainly hope it’s not as bad as I image it to be.

It’ll have to wait until next Friday when I can get out there again and dig into it.

Son of a…

—

Reminds me of something that I saw in one of the data centers I managed several years ago where teams expected a 20A circuit to have 20A of load all the time. This is what happens when you run a 20A circuit regularly between 16 and 20A.