Doug Miller wrote:
In article , wrote:

The real problem is that this device was not installed by a
professional electrician.


Utter nonsense. The real problem is that it was installed by someone who
didn't know what he was doing. You don't have to be a professional electrician
to install a receptacle correctly.

[snip]


Besides that, tampering
with electrical things will void your homeowners insurance.


See if you can find the clause in your homeowner's policy that says that.


A general rule of thumb is this: A homeowner should only flip light
switches, and plug UL Approved electrical things into outlets. That's
ALL you should do, except to turn off a circuit breaker in an
emergency. You should hire a Union Electrician for all wiring. Hire
an electrician to change light bulbs, and hire an electrician to turn
ON or OFF all circuit breakers in non-emergency situations. Also, if
you have the old fuses instead of breakers, DO NOT touch them even
during an emergency. They are extremely dangerous and can explode if
handled by an inexperienced home owner. Even light bulbs are capable
of exploding and killing people. Thousands of persons die every day
as a result of electricution and fire caused by non-certified people
tampering with electricity. Just last week an entire family
consisting of three adults and seven children died as a result of an
inexperienced homeowner attempting to change a light bulb, which
exploded and released toxic gasses, killing the entire family, and
causing one of the worst fires in U.S. history


Uh-huh. Riiiiiight.

Did you forget to take your meds this morning?


Learn not to burn.

John Walters
Professional Electrical Consultant and Union Certified Electrician
1030 Market St.
Los Angeles, California



Well, isn't that interesting.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Doug
I'm not trying to be quarrelsome when I say that when any home owner
does anything in their home that violates the law that act is not
covered by the homes insurance. An insurance contract is a "contract of
utmost good faith." The parties to the contract are required by the
nature of the contract to scrupulously obey the law. It is considered a
legal absurdity to try to insure against the consequences of your own
unlawfully act.

The upshot of all that is that if the local or state government has
adopted an electric code and requirements for permits and inspections,
and the insured violates that law, and that violation results in a loss,
that loss is not covered by the insurance because it would be
insurance on a deliberate and unlawful act on the part of the insured.

Just as there are basic elements to any contract that are required to
make that contract enforceable at law there are also basic rules about
an insurance contract that are not written into the contract itself.
Expecting your insurance carrier to pay for a loss caused by your own
unlawful wiring is just as ridiculous as expecting the insurance to pay
the loss caused by a meth amphetamine cooking operation that burns down
the cookers home. "For he who seeks equity must do equity. You must
come before the bar with clean hands."

It is true that many such losses are paid because the insurer never
learns that the cause of the loss was the insureds unlawful act but if
they do discover it they can, and indeed have, walk away from the loss.
I am only one of many thousands of firefighters in the US and I was
deposed in two such cases. IN both cases the home owner had to absorb
the loss. The violations of code in both cases were very obvious and
had been noted in the fire cause and origin report.
--
Tom H