Search results

If your town is already on 2011 NEC they'll want a neutral in the switch box (for running fancy gizmo switches), which would complicate Oldwizard's best & simplest answer. However, if your wall isn't drywalled, there's an exception that you could wire it with 12/2 (no neutral) now and add a...

Did you mention how low the ceiling was? If it's 8-9 foot the lights will go dim-bright-dim while you're walking and you'll have your own shadows darting all over the place as you move... adding to the annoyance. If you have light painted ceilings and want to keep it looking nice I'd work on...

Also remember if you have a couple % voltage drop in your heater's extension cord... it's being converted to heat! That's the ultimate goal, right? :D There may be a difference between "safe" and "High performance" in cord ratings, IOW, and your goal is merely to be safe.

Off topic, but is your current panel really maxed out insofar as maybe you could use a double breaker? (if the panel allows it yadda yadda) Is it logistically better like a shorter distance to use the pool subpanel?

Yeah my power company is pretty arrogant. They literally don't have a contact for trouble that is not an outage. If I call the 800 number for outages I get a robot that wants to know where the outage is. I once flagged my meter reader to show him an obvious branch stretching wires like a...

Do you have magnetic ballast T12s per chance? Mine flicker a bit and do that "milky dance" for a second when my 6 amp buzz box charger starts up. I'll have to have a radio on next time to see if it's RF interference.

Usually when you run into this problem it's because the switch bleeds a little load through the incandescent filament to run its own stuff. I see enough wires that shouldn't be an issue: eg there's a neutral hook up. What if you have a bunch of CFLs and one 15-25 watt incandescent?

I like the idea of two lights: you can use dimmer bulbs to make the energy use about the same. Shadows will be softer and you'll better be able to judge how far away you are from the building by having two points of light.

You could make some "flower boxes" or troughs or whatever along the sides of the walls and put hidden flourescent tubes in that reflect up and out, indirectly. They make tubes in 18", 24", and 36" if you want to avoid the obviously typical four footers. My parents have a (fake) log cabin with...

Get one of these guys (horribly overpriced right now btw-- aim for $200) and it installs downstream of your main box, so you won't need the power co to come pull your meter.

Walmart has some nice-ish LED bulbs for $7; they are night light small but have the full edison base. 2 watts but 25 watt output; I use one as a "night light" in the bathroom and it'd be perfect, if it doesn't vibrate to death.

1/2 hp is around 400 watts, 30+ amps at 12 volts, plus inefficiencies. A running car can handle this, barely. Your alt makes around 35 amps at idle, but it has to run the fuel injection etc too. If it's smart it might bumps its idle up for low system voltage. If you have the ubiquitous HF 2...

You also want high CRI (color rendition index) bulbs. The higher the CRI the less the degrees Kelvin matters as the less the color is tinted from "perfect". FTR I like both 5000 and 6500'K in their place. You can have a white card look the same under a good and bad CRI bulb of the same color...

See if you can run a 1x2 or 1x3 strip under the joists and staple the wire to that. They want the wire protected, and they don't want you using it for a clothesline, tempting as it may be. PS your box is in the center of the house? Where does the service come in?

For all I know your guitar amp is grounded to cut the 60 hz "buzz". That would be a good test of how clean your grounds are, actually, if you can get it to buzz reliably. To be pragmatic, if you don't put grounded outlets in, some jerk may come along later with a "cheater", of course not hook...

A good start would be to snoop around new construction in your town... I don't mean it literally but see what a neighbor did and just know what to look for. Did they use conduit, GFCIs, subpanels, metal or plastic boxes, naked studs or sheetrock, fire walls? What is the inspector (if there is...

That's purty. If you look waaaay up in a home depot their store lights have similarly shiny reflectors.

If it get seriously hot in there plastic conduit can melt and sag. You can sort of fix this by clamping it every foot. They do make that surface mount C-channel stuff for romex on top of cinderblock walls but it reminds me of schools, dorms, and other institutions. +2 on finding a way into...

Maybe canada is worried that the little pigtail coming from the fixture might melt down if the fixture itself goes berzerk and the hookup wire is too skinny for too big an incoming feed/breaker?

If you keep blowing them, put a GFCI inside in the feed line if you can, and protect the outside one downstream. Then at least you're only out 29 cents at a time. ;) Bonus would be an extra outlet on an underused breaker.