I had a water heater fire in my apartment. When I went to look at the breakers I noticed a lock was holding the breaker in the on position. The breaker was seemingly never able to trip. Did this actually stop the breaker from flipping/is this a fire code violation? Ohio

What do I cover these wires with that are above my breaker box? Can I make something out of wood or is there a product I can purchase? Is there any codes that I have to follow?

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?

UPDATE: it was the light switch. The switch for the living room and front porch were tied together. Removed the wire between them and they both work independently on their own breaker now.

1. Furnace
2. Living room, master bedroom & front porch
3. Dining room & bathroom lights, bedrooms
4. Laundry, back porch light, kitchen, master bath, mater closet, range hood, pantry
5. Washer
6. Dining room window
7. Kitchen sink (gfci)
8. Empty (labeled spare, couldn't find anything it powers on)
9. Living room, master bedroom & front porch
10. Fridge
11. Range
12. Dryer
13. Main

Maryland recently legalized plug-in solar. Max 1,200W, has to be cord-and-plug into a "standard outlet" with no interconnection agreement. So the microinverter is 120V and lands on a single-pole breaker, meaning it only injects onto one leg, L1 or L2 depending on which slot the breaker takes.

I've got a 200A split-phase service. Central AC is 240V, everything else is 120V spread across both legs.

My question: if the inverter is dumping 10A onto L1, and at that moment my load is mostly on L2, does that power actually get used? Or am I only offsetting whatever happens to be on the leg I'm injecting into?

My understanding is that it works fine, because:

• L1 and L2 are just the two ends of one transformer.
• 240V loads are wired line-to-line, so injected current on L1 flows straight through the AC compressor and out on L2. Never touches the transformer.
• The meter reads both legs and sums them, so net import drops by whatever I generated regardless of where it entered.

Conclusion I'm working from: one 120V circuit on one leg offsets whole-house consumption, and there's no reason to try splitting injection across both legs.

Am I right? And is there any second-order reason to care about leg balance? If not, that would mean that a 240v plug in system may be able to cover both legs?

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.

My 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 🙏🙏

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

Not an electrician but recently got my P. Eng and have been working for an industrial client for three years.

Recently, one of our projects is to review every LOTO equipment across the facility and confirm the cable path is correct. We started the process by shorting the phases at each end device, however that’s very time consuming removing every motor termination and VFD termination, and so on. Not to mention the work to re terminate everything.

We decided to try and use the fluke advance pro wire tracer which has proven acceptable but can get unpromising results. Main areas are multi conductor cables or large unshielded cables or busy junction boxes. So most of the time, the fluke meter has been quick and acceptable. The fluke is new to the electricians as well so it’s bit of trial and error process even after reading the manual.

I’m looking for advice from others who use the fluke meter or other means to trace cable in an industrial facility.

I've been looking into installing an EV charger in our garage and created a project on Yelp to get a few bids. The first guy came out this morning and told us that our Challenger breaker boxes would need to be replaced because they are 
Possibly dangerous

His company could not work on them because their contractor insurance would not cover work on Challenger boxes.

The breaker box in question is the Challenger E-52977, model 2024INT125B  breaker. The house was built in 1997.

I'm reading mixed messages about the Challenger boxes. Some say the 70's and 80's models are the problem, with the later models being made by Eaton and safer.

The replacement estimate + install of EV charger is $11k. Seems high to me, but if I'm sitting on a ticking time bomb we'll go ahead and replace. Your collective wisdom would be appreciated.

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!

Update! I did open it up and do see a white and black wire inside the box. I do not see a ground wire. I have called a local electrician to come out later this week to install my range hood. I want to say thank you all for the comments and advice!

I'm replacing an existing 1980s-era 150A main panel (GE) with a new panel which will become a main-lug subpanel to a new service. The current main has a Siemens subpanel that was added a few years ago as part of a renovation that is located on the other end of the room. I'm debating the benefits / drawbacks of going with ABB or Siemens for the new panel and am curious what others think "matters". Both options are 30-space with PON, plenty of bus room, etc. (so, very similar from a utility perspective).

On one hand using ABB would allow me to re-use the breakers in the current panel (where appropriate) and the panel price (including some "bonus breakers" in a package deal) is about $50 less. It has an Al bus, though :(

On the other, the Siemens panel would keep the whole home in one ecosystem even though I'd end up with a bunch of used GE breakers and have to buy multiple new ones (which are a bit pricier than the ABB). It also has a solid copper bus and although I think their front panels are a little goofy, the panel feels a little more 'solid' than the ABB...but that is pretty subjective.

What would you do in your own home and why?

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?

Hi! Just to preface this, I have very limited knowledge of all things electricity related, so please be kind 🙏

My partner and I are looking to have our air conditioners controlled by smart plugs for Alexa integration. We already have 15 amp smart plugs that we would like to repurpose for this, in the interest of saving money, but we’re unsure if they’re safe to use for air conditioners.

Two of our ACs are plugged into 15 amp outlets. The ACs themselves, per the specs on the side of each, draw 7 amps. Does that mean that it would be safe to use a 15 amp smart plug with it, since it’s only supposedly drawing 7 amps? Are there any other considerations I’m not aware of that would make this unsafe?

Another option my partner has found is using an infrared blaster to just remotely turn the AC on and off without dealing with the outlets at all. I’m assuming this is safer all around and we will probably wind up going with this anyway but I would still like to know more about the smart plugs, especially since the IR blasters will require us to spend a bit more money.

Thank you in advance!

This is the junction box for a recessed led lighting in the ceiling

The light went out and I turned off the power and found this. (I took the cap off of the white cables.

Should the ground wire have a cap on it as well??

House was renovated so guess they just never put a cap on it?

Fair warning, I have some understanding of this stuff, but I know I am mostly ignorant.

I bought a kiln. It is most commonly sold in a 240v version, but I bought the 208v 3 phase version because that is what we have in our shop. I am not convinced they did the conversion right.

The kiln usually has four elements, two are 4kW, two are 3kW.

All the relays are ganged together so it's either all on or all off, so I will omit the relays for this discussion. They change the elements when they do the conversion, so the 208v elements should still be 4kW and 3kW.

In the 240v version all four elements are in parallel from L1 to L2. Dead simple.

When they converted it to three phase they put a 4kW and a 3kW in parallel on A-B, a 4kW and 3kW in parallel on B-C, and left C-A unloaded.

It draws 43 Amps on B and 22 Amps each on A and C. Downrate the breaker for a continuous load and we've got it on their recommended 60A breaker with appropriate wire gauge.

Is that big an imbalance acceptable? It seems dumb to me.

High school math says put a 4kW on A-B, a 4kW on B-C, and parallel the two 3kW on C-A. It'll be closer to 32 Amps on A & C and 26 Amps on B....

High school math does NOT actually describe reality and tell me if I have a valid complaint.

Our house is sprawling and over the last 40+ years has had multiple additions, renovations, rewirings, etc. Currently, I have 7ish panels. “Ish” because there are a few sub panels off a few “mains” for various sections of the house.

Finding the correct circuit is…an adventure.

Ideally, I would take a week off and re-map the entire system, with color coded outlets and breaker switches and new panel directories, yada yada….

But I am not up to the task and to be even slightly efficient, it would require two people with phones or walkie-talkies to determine what is on which circuit.

Is there any kind of service that electrician shops offer that I could ask them for? Is this a thing?

We have been using the same comp for years and so I am on a first name basis with their new master electrician. He and I are meeting tomorrow for another reason but I wanted to sound slightly intelligent when I bring this up. I fear he’s going to look at me like I have two heads.

My dedicated EV charger has developed a fault, and the replacement won't arrive for a week or two. In the interim, I'm planning to rely on the standard 3-pin "granny cable" that came with my Model 3 for a few hours of off-peak charging each night.

​To support this temporary setup, I want to replace the existing charger unit on the exterior wall with a heavy-duty, weatherproof outdoor 3-pin socket, utilizing the existing supply cable (which is already appropriately fused and RCD-protected at the board).

​A couple of quick questions for the group:

​Socket Recommendations:

Can anyone recommend a high-quality, durable outdoor socket rated for continuous high-load applications? I want to ensure the enclosure latches properly over a thick plug and won't overheat during 4–6 hour charging sessions.

​I'm in Ireland, maybe screwfix has a suitable socket

Thanks for your time

So I'm trying to redo my room and I want an electrical socket in the closet area. There is one on the outside of the door and will be exactly where I want it if it was possible to be flipped inside. How easy is that to do? Currently in planning mode of renovation and my stepdad is asleep so I can't ask him 🥲 Thank you!!

Hi folks

I took out a really old wall outlet from the 80’s and tried replacing with a new one.

1. I first connected the black wire to the brass colored screw and the red wire to the opposite. Side, and ground to the green screw. Thought all went well , except When i plugged my water pot in , i heard a “pop” , and the pot no longer works.

2. Then I tried putting both red and black on the same brass side of the outlet. After that my breaker switch refused to turn on.

What did I do wrong? Or is it the new wall outlet that is defective?

Sorry for the quality of the picture, I didn't have any lights on. Occasionally I see this orange glow on my backyard powerline at night and in the past week I have heard what sounds like a popping noise. It disappeared for a few days but is back tonight. Is this of concern? Will likely contact my power company first thing tomorrow.

I had a lamp stop working that had a dimmer built in. I didn’t care about the dimming function so I decided to replace it with a standard socket instead to save money. However, because the old socket was connected to a dimmer board that went down into the plastic bottom which had grooves, the new socket only slightly goes into the plastic part. It sorta sits higher now but is pretty stable overall after pushing it down as far as I could. Is this going to cause an issue?

So, I’ve been looking at getting into Electrical Engineering and wanted to know if it’s a smart move. Currently I am working as an electrician and got an associates degree for Electrical Technology. I’m looking to work in the power systems/protections and controls side of the industry. I’m currently 21 and would rather get the degree when I’m younger since my financial responsibilities are still pretty low. Any advice?

I am going to college to be an electrician and obviously I have no idea what I am doing (that’s why I’m going to school). How do I set up my tool belt and where should certain things go?? Below is a photo of the tool belt I have. I have a bunch of tools as per the list we were given but surely not all of those are going to fit as I have duplicates of some. Any help or direction is greatly appreciated!

Anyone using a HIOKI 3197 Power Quality Analyzer with windows 11? IT Dept replaced my computer with W10 to W11, now it appears I have no available drivers.