Hi,

I'm new to the group but you guys are great! I have 20 years of
experience in residential and commercial eletrical projects of all
sorts.

Worked in the theatre for some time and have seen it all. If you need
a reliable person for your project and or are interested in learning
more contact me.

Ideally would work with someone on an existing project who wants to
learn some basics.

Keep the repairs going. Nothing like an educated consumer!

FYI - There are electrical questions on the following groups...

alt.home.repair
alt.building.construction
and sometimes...
misc.industry.utilities.electric


"solo" wrote in message
Hi,

I'm new to the group but you guys are great! I have 20 years of
experience in residential and commercial eletrical projects of all
sorts.

Worked in the theatre for some time and have seen it all. If you need
a reliable person for your project and or are interested in learning
more contact me.

Ideally would work with someone on an existing project who wants to
learn some basics.

Keep the repairs going. Nothing like an educated consumer!

"solo" writes:
Hi,

I'm new to the group but you guys are great! I have 20 years of
experience in residential and commercial eletrical projects of all
sorts.

Thanks for joining the fray!

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

"solo" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I'm new to the group but you guys are great! I have 20 years of
experience in residential and commercial eletrical projects of all
sorts.

Worked in the theatre for some time and have seen it all. If you need
a reliable person for your project and or are interested in learning
more contact me.

Ideally would work with someone on an existing project who wants to
learn some basics.

Keep the repairs going. Nothing like an educated consumer!

Okay, I'll throw out the first dumb question for the Experienced
Electrician- I have to move a couple of basement ceiling lights, to make
room for a new duct run, before the furnace guy gets here Tuesday. While
examining how the cheap florescents fixtures were attached to the joists,
and to see how much slack there was in the romex feeding the box, I happened
to notice that distinctive 60hz tingle as my fingers touched the outside of
the fixture. Something is leaking somewhere. Is this likely to be trivial,
like a bad ground, that I could fix while I have the fixture down to move
it? Or does this indicate a damaged or flawed fixture, and I should trash
it? And since I don't know exactly how far over I need to move things,
would I be better off just nailing up 4" octagons to the joists and hanging
porcelin base fixtures, or just nail up handi boxes and convert the existing
lights to outlets that I could plug typical cheap florescent shop lights
into? How big a sin is it to lightly nail up the boxes with plenty of slack
on the feeds, and fine-tune later? I'm no electrician, but have done basic
wiring and fixture replacement before, where no theoretical knowledge was
required- just replace item for item.

aem sends....

...While examining how the cheap florescents fixtures were attached
to the joists, and to see how much slack there was in the romex
feeding the box, I happened to notice that distinctive 60hz tingle
as my fingers touched the outside of the fixture....


This is a *very* dangerous situation! With a properly installed electrical
system, this should not happen.

I would call an electrician and tell him you were shocked when touching this
fixture. Have him check...
-The wiring to the fixture.
-That the fixture is grounded.
-That the fixture is not defective.
-That you have a properly grounded main service panel.
-That there is not another electrical device elsewhere leaking to ground.

It could be the fixture has a loose wire touching the case and the fixture
is not grounded.

It could be you don't have a main panel ground or it became disconnected and
there is something elsewhere leaking to ground.

Or it could be that the fixture is faulty and not properly grounded.

Again this should not happen. Have all wiring installed to code and this
will not happen. Codes are there to protect life (you and your family) and
property (your house from fire).

"Bill" wrote in message
...
...While examining how the cheap florescents fixtures were attached
to the joists, and to see how much slack there was in the romex
feeding the box, I happened to notice that distinctive 60hz tingle
as my fingers touched the outside of the fixture....


This is a *very* dangerous situation! With a properly installed electrical
system, this should not happen.

I would call an electrician and tell him you were shocked when touching
this
fixture. Have him check...
-The wiring to the fixture.
-That the fixture is grounded.
-That the fixture is not defective.
-That you have a properly grounded main service panel.
-That there is not another electrical device elsewhere leaking to ground.

It could be the fixture has a loose wire touching the case and the fixture
is not grounded.

It could be you don't have a main panel ground or it became disconnected
and
there is something elsewhere leaking to ground.

Or it could be that the fixture is faulty and not properly grounded.

Again this should not happen. Have all wiring installed to code and this
will not happen. Codes are there to protect life (you and your family) and
property (your house from fire).

My short tern fix was to rip the things out and replace with properly
grounded porcelin bases on nailed-up octagon boxes, till I get around to
redoing the previous owners idea of a 'finished' basement. Fixture was born
as a corded shop light- they ripped the cord off, and ran the skinny
internal wires out through a screw hole, into the grounded but non-attached
old box. No ground connectivity at all. I'm no electrician, but I can do
simple stuff like this. And yes, I did verify that the ground on the string
was good. This is about the third example of hillbilly wiring I have found
in this place, all after a licensed electrician 'inspected' it and reported
no problems. What I am putting in may not be expert-quality, but it is
better than what I have been ripping out.

aem sends...

Sounds good!

I'll bet one of those wires going through the screw hole had its insulation
pierced and was shorting to the case.

I would be sure to check your main service panel to be sure there is a good
ground as well. The best ground is one ground wire going from panel to two
ground rods spaced 6 ft. apart and a separate ground wire going to a cold
water pipe ground (beware of plastic pipe run underground). Also if rubber
grommets used on water meter, a grounding jumper electrically connecting in
and out pipe at water meter. And a grounding jumper at the hot water heater
connecting the hot and cold water pipes. Warning: There may be live
electricity present in a main service panel even when the main breaker is
off. Best to have electrician check these grounds.

Also I would put it on your "to do list" to pull covers off of electrical
boxes and take a look at everything you can. Who knows what additional
surprises you may find?


"ameijers" wrote in message
My short tern fix was to rip the things out and replace with properly
grounded porcelin bases on nailed-up octagon boxes, till I get around to
redoing the previous owners idea of a 'finished' basement. Fixture was
born
as a corded shop light- they ripped the cord off, and ran the skinny
internal wires out through a screw hole, into the grounded but
non-attached
old box. No ground connectivity at all. I'm no electrician, but I can do
simple stuff like this. And yes, I did verify that the ground on the
string
was good. This is about the third example of hillbilly wiring I have found
in this place, all after a licensed electrician 'inspected' it and
reported
no problems. What I am putting in may not be expert-quality, but it is
better than what I have been ripping out.

aem sends...

snip

The Tomes is wondering where Mr. solo is in all this discussion.......

solo wrote:
Hi,

I'm new to the group but you guys are great! I have 20 years of
experience in residential and commercial eletrical projects of all
sorts.

Worked in the theatre for some time and have seen it all. If you need
a reliable person for your project and or are interested in learning
more contact me.

Ideally would work with someone on an existing project who wants to
learn some basics.

Keep the repairs going. Nothing like an educated consumer!

Well handled, Mr. ameijers, or Mrs.--if you are one--for handling that
one without fear or fire! Maybe someone can answer this .....?

Have placed three new romex feeders in service running between basement
panel to main floor overhead lighting (fastened on attic side of
ceiling)-- everything works correctly. However, wondering about
meeting code to protect romex running vertically up the sides of studs
(standard 16"). Romex is already fastened to studs with standard
plastic fasteners, but what if later someone nails through the dry wall
I'm about to install and punctures insulation on the 12/2?

I'm aware I can nail metal sheating over drilled studs and I know of
the 1 1/2" (or is it 1 1/4"??) depth requirement, but this wouldn't
protect romex fastened vertically to sides of studs from nails entering
the cavity.

er, ... SHEATHing

"Dr. Friendlyhouse" wrote in message
oups.com...
Well handled, Mr. ameijers, or Mrs.--if you are one--for handling that
one without fear or fire! Maybe someone can answer this .....?

Have placed three new romex feeders in service running between basement
panel to main floor overhead lighting (fastened on attic side of
ceiling)-- everything works correctly. However, wondering about
meeting code to protect romex running vertically up the sides of studs
(standard 16"). Romex is already fastened to studs with standard
plastic fasteners, but what if later someone nails through the dry wall
I'm about to install and punctures insulation on the 12/2?

I'm aware I can nail metal sheating over drilled studs and I know of
the 1 1/2" (or is it 1 1/4"??) depth requirement, but this wouldn't
protect romex fastened vertically to sides of studs from nails entering
the cavity.

Short answer- don't lose sleep over it. It happens, but not very often. Most
of the time, the round edge of the romex and the pointy end of the nail will
get out of each other's way. If the wire does get pierced and shorted, the
breaker usually kicks in rather quick, and you usually hear a zap at the
point of shorting. But that is why you don't use extra-long drywall screws.

aem sends....