"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
WhiteTea77581 wrote:
I thought it might be entertaining to see posts of your favorite
experience with someone else's "Handiwork."

Two of my favorites.

1. My brother and I found voltages of 33 and 66 volts at a house that
someone was fixing up to sell.
2. Telephone wire used to wire up a fluorescent light in a restaurant.

Andy

1. 33, 66, and almost anything else is believable if you don't know how to
use a voltmeter. Just poking the leads in the outlet will easily get
bizarre readings.

2. Telephone wire may very well be sufficient. Depends on the power
requirements of the florescent lamp. I've used bell wire to power 9 watt
porch lights. Works swell.

Actually, "telephone wire" should not be used for 120 volt wiring.

The "protection scheme" for US wiring is that the entrance panel circuit
breakers server to protect the WIRE against a fault.

In the worse possible scenario, you could have a long loop of #22 'telephone
wire' that developes a fault at the far end.

The fault would only create, say, a 15 or 20 Amp current which isn't enough
to 'trip' a breaker but is enough to nicely heat up the 'telephone wire' and
set adjacent wood on fire.

It might be marginally safe to use "telephone wire" if the wire is protected
by a fuse or CB to a reasonable current on the order of 1 amp or less.
Otherwise, the "textbook" solution is to power the load from a 24 or 12 volt
transformer that contains within some current limiting feature.