Andrew wrote:
On 22/10/2020 17:41, Paul wrote:
Andrew wrote:
On 22/10/2020 12:45, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
On 22/10/2020 11:23, Brian Howie wrote:
On 22/10/2020 10:22, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
On 22/10/2020 10:15, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
On 22/10/2020 10:07, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmU...yCon nections

looks like a more sensible system .....
ring mains are weird...tee hee

Do you not mean "wired"

Brian

no

The bloke at the end of the video said "ring mains are wierd"
even though he did mention that immediately after WW2
metals were expensive so using 220/230/240 volts allowed
for thinner cables.

do all American houses have to have an ugly great panel in
the house like that one ?.

That's a little too neat and tidy, I'm afraid.

A 4'x4' sheet of plywood, could be *filled* with
devices. For example, you could have original-panel,
upgrade-panel (more breakers), plus granny-flat-panel.
(A house could have two kitchens.)

Plywood ?. what's wrong with OSB ? :-)

snip

Electricians frequently come in, look at your sheet of
plywood and shake their heads. But it doesn't stop them
from bodging in another circuit, putting one more wire
under a screwhead that doesn't have room for more wires,
and so on.

This article is still a little too neat and tidy,
but you can see how with little effort, you could
get carried away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_board

Paul

Are there still really old Canadian houses where the
internal wiring uses bare wires held on insulated pegs
in the void between downstairs ceiling and upper floor ?

My grandmothers house.

Fortunately, the bulldozer got it :-)

I went down the basement stairs one day there, just
a few feet (because the basement had an earthen floor
and looks like a dungeon), and I saw some wires riding
on standoffs... I turned around and got the hell out
of there. I didn't want to discover any more electrical
miracles. I don't really know what kind of fuse
box it would have (it wouldn't have had breakers).

This is one of the benefits of grandfather clauses
in regs - you can have terrible stuff in a place,
and they can't force you to fix it.

But the bulldozer made sure nobody else lived there.
After my grandmother passed at 92, the place was sold,
but it was bulldozed right after that, and something
new built in its place.

And we have older houses than that. My boss at work
had a farmhouse. One with three foot thick stone
walls for the foundation. But the inside of that was
renovated, so it wasn't a hazard. The foundation was
probably 150 years old. Some people can afford to fix
the mistakes of the past.

Paul