David wrote:

Hello all,

A couple of months ago I started a website that features pictures of
bad/lethal home repairs. I'm an electrician by trade, and took a couple of
photo's of some bad work I saw whilst doing a house rewire and started the
website. The intention of the site is to amuse & horrify those who would not
dream of indulging in bad practices.

At the moment most of the examples are electrical, but there are others as
well. Some of the examples of bad practice include a two-way lightswitch
where the faceplate screws becomes live when the other switch is turned off,
wires buried just beneath the plaster, an electric shower that actually has
the mains switch IN the shower cubicle amongst other examples.

Currently the content has come from the UK, but I'd really love to feature
American examples as well. The site isn't limited to electrical, I'd like to
feature other trades. The site has examples done by householders and
professionals alike.

If you have any contributions you'd like to submit, you can either email me
at this address, or do it via the site.

David
www.dodgy-diy.net




Feel free to grab this photo of a fused disconnect switch on an outside
wall of our home adjacent to the heat pump/AC compressor-coil unit it
services.

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/box1.jpg

and:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/box2.jpg

When that heat pump was recently replaced with a new one, the low
voltage control cable wouldn't reach its connection terminals in the new
unit. The HVAC installer (Not a licensed electrician.) routed the old
control cable and a piece of new cable into the disconnect switch
through a knockout in its back, spliced them with wirenuts and said.
"All done sir!"

Putting 230 volts and low voltage control wiring in the same box is
against code here, as confirmed to me by our town's electrical inspector.

This genius also used wirenuts to connect the new 230 volt cable he ran
to the unit to the cut off stubs of the old wires he left in the
terminals of the switch. Maybe he couldn't find his screwdriver to undo
the terminal screws? G

I made the HVAC company come back and do the job properly before I paid
them.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"