Electrical Supplies Cost a LOT!

[sberry]

I know the difference between the green and white wire and enough not to overload it.
As for my hackness I am not above digging a ditch or running a new wire to a new appliance, if it needs service it gets it. Cords are restricted to incidental or off circuits.

 

[sberry]

I agree. What is pulled comes pretty evenly and when I get a minute am going to hop a leg on the toaster oven to balance the micro on the rental house. It isn't the equipment in the house which is short but the strung out service.
Its free and about the only thing that throws it off, its minor and overlapping only a little.
Ok, back to a forum, I remember some of it started to kick in when I had a new pump in to old steel well and I ask the well man who don't know sheet, finally it dawns on me to ask Keis at ETF and duh I get it.
I follow up a little where it interests me or I have application. I should follow heating for a while, I do so much wrong there. I am still working on simple AC single phase service.

 

[bczygan]

sberry,
I love your ramblings.

I bought some commercial grade 20A stuff for the garage circuits. But everything else in the house, except the kitchen, gets the cheap HD stuff. It just doesn't get used enough to warrant the difference. You could also argue that there isn't that much of the stuff (It's a small house), so why not go a step higher. But I just grabbed what was in a contractor pack.

 

[sberry]

Some failing piece isn't usually a surprise. Most recent we had was a charger cord in a blind connector short to itself. In another pass will have everything I own serviced in my lifetime.
No obsolete 3 wire on my property, outdoor gfci, appliances 4 wire. Picked off big violations first. Even backtracked on occasion to simplify.
I have my bench on 15A, today wouldn't wire it the same but use a commercial power strip. We recently reconstructed a portable and one of the things I did was remove the old cord from when I built it 25 yrs ago and move up a size to a 12 and feed the outlets with 12 to allow this to feed multiple outlets without further overcurrent protection. Clear as mud?
As it stands the bench is currently wired to a 15A circuit but should it be removed and powered from another source would be similar to a power strip without the breaker. The reality is nill, got a 12 cord but 14 wire in pipe, cant really overload it with 15A loads from separate duplex, all moot but not exactly legal at the same time either.

 

[sberry]

A commercial landscaper, janitorial on occasion, builders supply an outlet thru a big enough wire there can be some load share and combinations cannot overload it. Worse thing happens is a breaker trip. With some proper design there are some 120V 30A apps but always more ocpd at the user level for available outlets. Think a bit how an rv w/air is wired.
2 breakers, a 15 and a 20 on a 30A circuit. 15 dedicated to air that operates on 10 and 20 to a general circuit.

 

[sberry]

Like a lot of farmers I was guilty of modifying cord ends. Use a whole bunch of range ends. Its been bonded at recept and treated as 240 w/g and a couple outlets piped to main service panel. Am ridding them as we go. By the time I retire it will be code compliant.
I was thinking how I might not have a legal cord on the 300 synch but the breaker is off and havnt used it in 10 yrs.

 

[sberry]

When I try to plan everything I might ever need I end up with 2 or 3 of something I don't use and lack 1 I do need. There are not the same types of layout codes, I have 24 outlets in 12ft and a couple places they are 20 ft apart. I did as much over as under on my last building. Mostly due to forward planning.
In my shop I knew where the panels went and simply started with a quad box and some cords and at the panel and went as needed.
I didn't need hardly any secondary welder wire, its all at panels and most of the 120 is close. Some of it has been there a while, I would make a few design changes were I to do it again, not worth an immediate redo.
Most of it is legal but a bit guilty of poor design.

 

[Slowgsr]

I personally install thousands of residential grade receptacles and switches in retail stores.
Never had a callback, work is quoted bottom line so customers get bottom line.

I've never had a callback for a failed outlet/switch.

Most important is pig tailing to your receptacle and not pushing the wires in the back but rather going around the screw.

Except for when I do residential, (new construction). I push in everything, no pigtails. For the price I'm getting for the house there just isn't time