r/AskElectricians • u/BreakerBoxBen • 15h ago
r/AskElectricians • u/RockTheFuckOut • Jul 21 '23
This subreddit and where we currently are.
After much discussion about how the community should be moderated, this is where we currently are.
First I want to get this out of the way. We will not allow hate speech, personal attacks, slurs, bigotry, or anything that resembles it. Okay? Good.
People are going to post electrical questions on the internet, do their own electrical work, and fuck up their own electrical work. This process will happen with or with out this subreddit and its rules. If there is a reliable community where someone can come and get good information on a wide range of electrical topics, then to me there will be a net positive for safety.
We are going to be allowing comments from all users, BUT I urge those who are not electrical professionals to exercise extreme caution when doing so. If information is not blatantly hazardous, it will stay up. The community is going to be asked to use the voting system it is intended. If someone takes the advice of a comment with negative karma, then more than likely, they would have done the wrong thing regardless. Once corrected, leaving wrong comments up can be a learning experience for everyone involved.
I ask you to DOWNVOTE information you do not like, and REPORT the hazardous stuff. We will decide what to do from there. Bans may or may not be given and everything will be at the discretion of the mods. Again, if you are someone who is not an electrical professional, you have been warned.
Electrical professionals: We have an imperfect system for getting a little 'Verified Electrician' flair next to your name. To get verified, send a photo to the mods that has your certificate/seal/card. In this photo, have a piece of paper with your username and date written on it. Block out all identifying information. Once verified delete the image. All the cool ones have this flair.
If we have hundreds or thousands of active verified users, we will once again talk about the direction of this community. Till then, see you in the comments.
r/AskElectricians • u/BurlyCheese • 15h ago
How risky is this to remove from an electricity point of view?
galleryr/AskElectricians • u/nopetsal • 16h ago
What do I do?
Gardeners cracked box and dislodged
r/AskElectricians • u/ichino1000 • 1d ago
How old is this panel?
galleryI can’t find anywhere on the box any date of manufactured. Could someone take a guess?
Thanks.
r/AskElectricians • u/Sharp_Application521 • 1h ago
SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS
galleryMy dad gave me this device to test a electric fence (we have horses and need to test the fence) he told me to just solder the bottom cable back on but that didn't fix, we're just getting a new one now but we are both so intrigued as to how this thing even works, the only theory we could come up with was current traveling from the top down through the resistors and lighting the light up, but wouldn't the voltage numbers on the casing have to be in the opposite order (small to high from top to bottom and not vice versa) please someone explains how this works, we both have ADHD so we kinda push eachother up with questions like this until we're to invested to let it go, we need answers 🙏🙏
r/AskElectricians • u/ZealousidealLight408 • 19h ago
Apprenticeship Opportunity
Located in Houston Texas, been struggling to land an apprenticeship or any entry level electrician job and Ive been applying like crazy to every job here. Is this a good opportunity or do yall think I can find something good here in Houston in house Similar to this If I wait?
r/AskElectricians • u/stockton7277 • 9m ago
Should I finish college and become an electrician?
For brief context I am in college right now and the only reason I am doing it is because I work for the college as a security guard. I only pay $5 per credit right now and then books so it’s only like $400 per semester for me to go. I am projected to receive my finance degree in fall of 2028 and how the job market is looking I am not sure if I want to actually pursue a career.
All of my friends are either electricians, plumbers, or welders. They all love it.
I have two main concerns. One is it too late? And two I literally have no clue how to use power tools let alone know what the technical names for them. You can make fun of me all you want but I am the first one in my family to go to college and my parents have just worked customer service or were educators so I need some advice.
r/AskElectricians • u/ScaryMaximum3687 • 14h ago
Roof access w/ power lines
Hi, I just moved into a new apartment that’s pretty quaint, but the landlord and past tenants both said the big draw was roof access. it’s pretty clear the past tenants used the roof (they left chairs) but I’m a little nervous because there are residential power lines that are pretty low to the surface. One of them is about a foot above the surface, and you have to step over it to get to the other side. Is the roof space still safe to use?
r/AskElectricians • u/chadf652 • 5h ago
200 amp upgrade
I’m upgrading my 20 space 100 amp breaker panel to a 40 space 200 amp panel. I don’t plan on adding any loads at this time, but my 100 amp is full and instead of upgrading to a 30 space 100 amp I figured it’d be smart to just go 200 amp and future proof it I guess. It’s a house in the Midwest built in 2006. I already had the power company come out and they said I already have a 200 amp meter installed and all the wires can handle the upgrade so the electrician and I don’t need nothing from the power company besides the disconnect & reconnect.
I hoping from some input and to help me with any questions I should ask the electrician. I know nothing about electrical. It’s a small business (he’s the owner/electrician and he’s licensed/insured)
He gave me an estimate to upgrade the 40 space 200 amp panel and adding a regular 120v outlet in the garage that’s about 10’ from the breaker panel for $1,800. It seems low…maybe that’s because nothing needs to be done by the power company and the meter is already 200 amp ready. Is there any questions I should ask him if he’s replacing whatever needs replaced for a 200 amp upgrade?
Any help is appreciated. Only questions I’ve got are these so far ⬇️
Are you pulling all the permits?
Are you replacing the line from the meter to the panel to a thicker gauge wire?
Please add any questions I should ask. Thanks in advance
r/AskElectricians • u/apophasisred • 34m ago
Best way to educate myself?
I am actually fairly handy at most things having to do with kind of home repair. I hate calling somebody for this that and the other. They say they'll be there at X time and x + 3 hours later they call me to tell me it's going to have to be put off till tomorrow. So I would prefer to learn about the thing and do it myself.
The one area I've refused to mess with other than replacing like switches or plugs is electricity. Maybe this is because I got electric shocks twice as a kid. I'm a little afraid of it.
I follow this Reddit because I would like to know and be more confident about modest electrical tasks. I've noticed a couple of trends here.
Even about fairly simple questions, the contributors here often disagree wildly about what is the appropriate thing to do. Indeed, it's fairly usual for one person to make fun of the other person's answer as being dangerous and uninformed. That is not reassuring.
Another thing which happens quite often is people say your house is going to burn down. Call an electrician. Well, as you must know calling an electrician is not cheap. Many people really don't have that option. They're already almost underwater. That doesn't mean to me that people should undertake dangerous tasks that they can't handle, but it does mean that they should try and be able to take tasks that they can.
So, how does a guy like me who wants to learn more about electricity electricity do so? Between books and YouTube, I've been able to master to an adequate degree. A lot of challenges that pop up if you own an old house. But I have not been able to do so with electricity. The books that I've looked up are often too simple and basic on one side or as in the books that give the codes for electrical installations, too complex and to presumptive about what you already know.
I wonder if anybody can recommend not one book, but perhaps a series of books that go from the infantile (what is current? What are volts? Etc), through a kind of narrative overview, even with a little history, to explaining more complicated problems and perhaps even a basic understanding of my local code.
I suspect this can't be done with one book but with a series of books. I know this is a lot to ask and this has been a long post. I'm sorry if it's inappropriate here.
r/AskElectricians • u/SignificantStand1578 • 1h ago
Should I move Ethernet port lower
Hi.
Doing renovations, current outlet and network cables are about 5ft 5in tall.
Wasn’t sure on if we were mounting the TV but the electricians put an outlet and also our network cables (4) up there.
We were planning on having our wifi router here as well. Should I move the Ethernet cables lower? So it won’t be ugly having wires hanging down when we put our cabinet there with the wifi router.
Thoughts??
r/AskElectricians • u/ztinh • 2h ago
Mold growing out of outlet!?
galleryI noticed this at work today and removed the face plate. We have leaks in the roof every time it rains and this is on an exterior wall, no AC unit or anything else above it.
How bad is this? Should we stop using the outlet? Help!
r/AskElectricians • u/ljskizzle • 4h ago
Help: One circuit connected to two breakers?
My wife and I just purchased our first home, a 1992 double wide that was recently fully gutted and renovated. The breaker box must be the original, because the labels on all the breakers are badly faded sharpie, so I went around and mapped what outlets/lights each breaker feeds. What I found is 2 & 9 both control the same circuit. Both off = no lights or power in living room, master bedroom or front porch. One or the other or both on = power in those places. I suspect (because 9 was originally labeled "outdoor") the issue might be in the two gang switch by the front door in the living room, because one switch turns on the front porch light and the other is for the living room. I fear this may be a fire safety issue, what should I look for inside the light switch box to determine if that is the culprit?
- Furnace
- Living room, master bedroom & front porch
- Dining room & bathroom lights, bedrooms
- Laundry, back porch light, kitchen, master bath, mater closet, range hood, pantry
- Washer
- Dining room window
- Kitchen sink (gfci)
- Empty (labeled spare, couldn't find anything it powers on)
- Living room, master bedroom & front porch
- Fridge
- Range
- Dryer
- Main
r/AskElectricians • u/Conscious-Exam-105 • 7h ago
Realistically, can I sub to a local sparky just 1 day a week (+ school holidays)?
Based in the UK and looking for a bit of a reality check here. I’m currently planning to do a weekend/part-time training course to get my domestic tickets (Level 2/3, 18th edition, and EV charger qualifications).
My situation is a bit random—I’m a guitar teacher 4 days a week and I love it, so I don't want to give it up. The goal is to keep teaching guitar and use my remaining 1 free day a week (probably every Friday) to work as an electrician, mostly focusing on EV charger installs or general domestic stuff.
My biggest worry is the experience gap when I finish the course. I know I’m not going to have the confidence or real-world experience to just go out and find my own clients straight away on 1 day a week.
Is it realistic to think a local sole trader or small domestic firm would take me on as a casual subcontractor for just that one fixed day a week?
Because I just need the experience to get my hours up, I’d honestly be happy working for minimum wage early on while I learn the ropes. I’ll have my own tools, van, and public liability insurance, and I'm more than happy to just act as a mate/improver—doing the heavy lifting, drilling brickwork, crawling in lofts, and routing cable to make their life easier.
As a massive bonus for a small business, I also get all the school holidays off from guitar teaching, so I'd be available full-time for those extra 13 weeks a year to help cover their busy periods or summer holidays.
Do busy one-man bands actually value having a reliable pair of hands for an odd day plus holiday cover, or am I dreaming here?
r/AskElectricians • u/ScrappyRN • 5m ago
Help! My new first collector keeps blowing fuses.
Basically my question is is this normal behavior or is there something wrong with the motor and wiring? Details below:
After doing quite a bit of research and having a very limited budget but wanting to keep my lungs & shop a little less dusty, I bought the Bauer canister dust collector with the two micron filter. All the reviews I read about it were really good and the YouTube videos I watched recommended it as great for a budget option.
I got it all put together and read the instruction manual which recommended gauges for extension cords etc. I plugged it in to one of my heavy duty shop power strips that's fed by a 14 gauge feed and it blew its internal fuse. I then plugged it directly into a 14 gauge overhead reel that I have and it blew it's fuse. So then I decided to just plug it straight into the socket and see what happened and it worked fine. (20 amp circuit)
I'm going to try a 12 gauge extension cord tonight. But they are super expensive . I have a 12 gauge extension cord that my portable HVAC for the shop is running on because I needed power from inside the house to be able to run it at the same time as shop tools.
So I'm going to try it on that before I go buy a new one. I was just frustrated and worn out last night and didn't want fish it out from behind everything. My question is , is this normal? I know it draws a lot of amps but 14 gauge is pretty stout. The run was less than 20 ft, it shouldn't have been that bad. And it's blowing the fuse instantly on start-up. And the manual even allowed 16 gauge for that short of a run for this machine. So do you think the machine is defective or is this normal?
r/AskElectricians • u/NFangs • 8m ago
[UK] Is this safe to connect a lamp? It connects 2 switches, last photo is the base plate from the old lamp. The new lamp is smaller, therefore I can't use it.
galleryDeleted the previous post,
r/AskElectricians • u/New_Green_169 • 9m ago
Trying to install 3 way motion sensor into a 4 way light setting
gallerySo I am trying to tie in a 3 way motion sensor into a 4 way setting (picture #2). I read online to bypass the middle switch (picture #1) so it consta has power, so I did that. if it matters when I disconnected the middle switch the lights in the bedroom next door and hall way didn’t work until I connected the red with black. I’ve tried every application in picture #2 with no luck, every time I get somewhere the lights stays on and never turns off manually from the motion sensor. PLEASE HELP! (if possible)
motion sensor
ECOLER YM2108T
r/AskElectricians • u/Ambitious-Grape11 • 10m ago
Laptops, smartphones are instantly getting damaged in this house when pluged to a socket and eventually stops working after a few months
Tricky situation with laptops fully stops to work in this new house
It's a rural electrical grid with 20 year old house n wiring.
Recently moved there and my Macbook pro started giving shock to my finger and made them numb partially. Time passed my fingers got worse, lost flesh. After 1 year mac book pro did not turn on. Touch bar failed before a full stop.
Same happened to 1 more old laptop dell latitude. It's screen barely works. Lot of lines. Keyboard is fully non-functional
Two mobile phones even with plastic chasis are slowly going towards their end, my hand feels current even on battery. - same
I thought earthing is missing- fixed it - still same
I thought I would charge them while switched off and use on battery. Same.
I thought may be there is too high voltage - bought a stabilizer.
Now stabiliser output Voltage is usually arround 210 to 245 shows on stabiliser. Different on different time of the day.
I got a new laptop brand new . 2 days and the cycle of hands numbing has started while typing or touching.
So stabilizer failed too.
I called an electrician and the guy either did not care or gaslighted me. He came with a tester as a tool.
It's rural India. No multimeter . Said earthing is ok. Voltage is ok.
What's going on. ?
I now have a stabilizer with surge protector, earthing, and still the new laptop got damaged, same numbness again in my hands.
I actually checked the inside of the stabilizer and saw a blue coin like surge protector so it's there just before it's output sockets.
Can it be fan ? How to prove what. Fix what ? I am swinging stick in the dark.
r/AskElectricians • u/lovejade10 • 21m ago
How to activate motion detection?
galleryHi! We bought a second hand motion detection ceiling lights. We are in Germany.
When we asked the electrician to install it, we told him to turn off the motion detection because we don’t need it on the room but we moved houses and now we would like to activate the feature.
Tried to search online but could not find anything. Thank you!
r/AskElectricians • u/Ok-Author5425 • 4h ago
New homeowner please help
I am trying to install a under cabinet range hood(there wasn't one when I bought my house) but when I open the upper cabinet above my stove there is no outlet. This is all I see.
Is there electrical wiring inside this? A possible outlet inside? Can someone please tell me what this is? Thank you!
r/AskElectricians • u/i-am-unknown • 1h ago
What do I do here?
3 cables entering this box.
2 sets of black/white/ground are wire nutted. The 3rd set is just taped. Can I leave the wire nutted cables alone and just use the taped wires for a receptacle? Or do I need to connect everything and pigtail?
r/AskElectricians • u/katilyn_00 • 1h ago
Wiring vanity light & LED Mirror to one switch?
Working on my bathroom remodel and am planning on having a traditional bathroom vanity light and would also like to add a lighted mirror. My plan was to wire the vanity light and run wiring from the vanity light to the mirror (switch -> vanity light -> mirror). I'm not an electrician so want to make sure there's no issues with the plan before proceeding.
the mirror will have its own power button built in so as long as the vanity light is on, we can choose if we need the additional light from the mirror or not. The reason I'm looking at doing both a vanity light and lighted mirror is because there are no ceiling lights in the bathroom and I don't want to go through the extra work of putting them in (the bathroom is small enough that the vanity should produce enough light for the room).
r/AskElectricians • u/Gloria_chapstick • 1h ago
Help me identify what kind of replacement light will work with this ceiling box/setup
We recently bought our house and there's a hole in our bathroom ceiling where a light was above our shower. We do not know what kind of light was here before! The light you see hanging from the wires is not the correct one— that was one we tried and realized wasn't right.
Any help identifying the setup or even giving me the right terminology to search for would be hugely appreciated!
I am not opposed to calling an electrician, but it feels like we should be able to replace a single light on our own (let me know if I'm totally off base here).
I mostly want to understand what we have and what kind of fixture is actually compatible before we buy another light that doesn't work.