Electical question

[mike hide]

[Swingman]

Around here there are many who may well have trouble reading English.

[mike hide]

So no doubt your house is wired to the mexican electrical code ,which is fine until you open the circuit breaker box and start trying to figure what all the in spanish breakers control

[Doug Miller]

Blank labels read the same in any language.

[Puckdropper]

[e-mail] (Doug Miller) wrote in news:cyO2i.8352$ [e-mail]:

I'm labeling mine as we blow breakers due to excess current. There's power to the garage that also includes the kitchen in the next room, 90% of the house on breaker 15, I guess when they installed the heaters in the bathrooms they got their own circuits... and there's a bunch of breakers that I don't know what they're for yet.

Well, this is what happens when your house wiring "evolves".

Puckdropper

[rolsonDesign]

That's what I was thinking. It seems as though I will have to cut an opening in the back of my bookshelf for a new box and then snip the old wires that go into the old box and re-join them in the new box.

I meant to have the junction box accessable in the first place. I even went and bought a box -extender for remodels, but when I placed the two bookshelves together on the wall...the "joint" of the bookshelves rested right down the middle of the socket. So I removed the socket, spliced the wires (I twisted them), and screwed the nut on and pushed them back into the box. No it doesn't make me comfortable that there are wires behind my built-in, but at the time I didn't really know what to do.

[rolsonDesign]

That's what the problem is...there are two bookshelf components that join each other right over the place where the outlet or junction box is.

I think my fix for this would be to cut a new hold in the back of the built-in and through the wall, Then find the wires that lead to the old junction box and snip them (with the power shut off of course). Then re-route new wires to the new j-box in the back of my built-in.

[Swingman]

Perhaps this has been asked already: Interior wall? What's on the other side?

[rolsonDesign]

Then isn't up to the people who come up with the National Electrical Code to properly make it known to the people who are planning on doing their own work...I mean, through some sort of PSA can't they say something like."If you going to do you own electrical work, be sure to understand and comply with the National Electrical Code."

[Doug Miller]

Not if you just bypass it as I outlined above, and abandon it. I'm not sure I understand where you're going with this.

[Doug Miller]

In many jurisdictions, it's illegal to do your own electrical work without getting a permit -- and in some places you can't a permit unless you're a licensed electrician. The PSAs you suggest could be seen by local enforcement authorities as an inducement to violate the law.

[Doug Miller]

As it is right now, you have a splice in an inaccessible junction box. Let's call it Box A. There are two cables in that box, right? Each one goes to another box somewhere else. Call those Box B and Box C.

Now locate those two boxes. Shut off the power. Disconnect and remove the cable from Box B that connects to Box A, after taking careful note of exactly how it's connected to the other cable(s) in the box. Do the same at Box C.

Now run a new cable from Box B directly to Box C, connecting each end exactly as the old cables were connected.

Turn power back on, and verify that each of the cables you disconnected is dead.

Done. It no longer matters that Box A is inaccessible, because it's not connected to anything and therefore is no longer part of your electrical installation and therefore not subject to the Code.

[Tom Watson]

Here is what I know about elektricity:

Volts X Amps = Watts.

Watts/Volts = Amps.

I = V/r.

P=V X I.

I=P/V.

For everything else I go to the NEC.

I think that you should go there, too.

Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[Renata]

My solution to that problem was to... rip out the kitchen, and redo all the electrical circuits (in the kitchen), ripping out the BX, replacing it w/grounded romex, adding a few circuits, rearranging and exchanging breakers, and in the process figuring out what each and every breaker served. Minor problem that ensued was a few outlets in the basement are suddenly dead, due to feeding off one of the old, as yet untraced, disconnected kitchen lines.

'Course, that may be overkill in your situation...

I delayed figuring out all the circuits until I had to. Surprisingly, in spite of a rather small # of breaker slots (~18?) I managed to find enough space in the panel to get in all the circuits I wanted, including 7 -8 for the kitchen.

Renata

[Puckdropper]

Renata wrote in news: [e-mail]:

*trim*

*snip*

Actually, that's underkill. To solve this house's problem, it really needs to be knocked down and rebuilt. (Blown up... hm... what fun. Too bad the neighbor's so close. The owners could charge admission for the event and maybe offset new construction costs.)

Puckdropper

[Renata]

Well..., maybe not. What shape's his house in? Maybe you could make it a two-fer? In fact, how 'bout the neighborhood...? ;-)

Renata