There is something seriously wrong with my house.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

I lived in a place built in the 1930's for a while.
Had the knob and tube crap going on.
It was driving me nuts trying to figure out why a different fuse blew every time the coffee pot and microwave were used at the same time.
Come to find some moron wannabe electrician (way before I moved there, probably in the '50's or 60's) did some rewiring, added a sub-panel with screw-in fuses, and managed to put the whole house on ONE circuit with four 30 amp fuses in SERIES.
.

[Bookworm]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

I _think_ you can still use aluminum - but it's only for exterior ground, because of the thermal expansion/contraction issue.

Mainly, you use aluminum there because the oxidated cable is less resistant to current than oxidized copper - But you have to screw it TIGHT.

The house I'm in now had similar wiring problems. Idiot electrician replaced all the two prong, ungrounded, outlets with three prong grounded outlets - claimed that he couldn't GET the two prong outlets. (I found three boxes in two minutes at the local Home Depot).

Anyway - the bulk of the wiring in the house has been replaced - I did the sheetrock repairs myself

[pentium]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

Yeah, you need to secure aluminum wire properly or it likes to fail at the ends.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

In the states it hasn't been legal to install aluminum wire (in new construction) for over 20 years but there is no requirement to remove it if it's there.
That makes for problems in remodeling and repair because connecting the new (legal) copper wire to existing aluminum wire is sometimes unavoidable. (Short of tearing the house down.)
-
They have come up with this chemical you put into regular twist-on connectors that prevents the copper to aluminum reaction/connection problems.
I wasn't too sure about that idea at first but it's UL listed so happy days.
.

[zandrax]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

I think the real concern is metal corrosion due to coupling metals with different electrochemical potential: aluminuim (used in cables) acts as an anode and copper (used in outlets and most connections) as a catode, corroding the former.
Perhaps this special paint should conduct electricity while blocking any contact between metals.

Zandrax

[Bookworm]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

PCBonez - what makes you announce that with finality? As far as I know, we have no nationwide electrical requirements. National Electric Code isn't a _National_ electric code. that's just the name of an organization that charges for access to their recommendations.

I _know_ you aren't supposed to use aluminum _wire_ in houses down here, but even new construction often has aluminum grounding wire. (not all. I think it's just easier for people to take the 'easy to corrode' copper route)

Zandrax - it might be a connector filled with an anerobic gel, which will seal off any oxygen. Most corrosion requires chlorine or oxygen in order to advance. (I've been cleaning silver with potash and aluminum foil, so I'm aware of some of the corrosion issues )

[Krankshaft]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

Bookworm:

They replaced 2 with 3 prong?

No way my house has that too. All three prongs even on the old BX outlets.

It was built in the early 50s and has BX wire man that stuff is horrible the insulation will crack if you even look at it wrong.

I've replaced more of it then I'd like to admit. There is no way I'd ever replace it all too much wall cutting.

It seems like I'm ok in my situation though since the outlets are grounded to the box and the BX sheathing is grounded to the outlet box which grounds out at the service panel.

Not sure if the electrical code thinks thats ok though. But I didn't do it.

I hate wall patching I just ruptured an old galvanized drain pipe while using a manual hand snake in December .

I had to tear out the wall and replace from the sink to the threaded cast iron fitting with PVC. A huge chisel and a 3 pound hammer to cave the old galvanized pipe in onto itself to get it out of the threaded cast iron hub threads that haven't been moved in 50+ years aren't going to budge without some heavy coaxing.

Patching was a mess its easy if you have sheetrock walls I have sheetrock with plaster on top . So I had to reuse the original pieces and don't get me started on sanding .

[Bookworm]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

Yes - originally 2 prong non-polarized, replaced with 3 prong polarized.

Once I did some ground testing, and got some WEIRD results, the landlord had them come out and replace the wiring itself - now I have good grounds

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

If your radio acts that strange (the power blips often) and you continue to use it without rewiring, there's a good chance of a house fire!

I saw news on a newspaper about a major house fire recently, because of what likely is a wide electrical system problem. It said an elderly woman was experiencing a light switch acting strange then sometime after, heard something and went downstairs and to her, appeared an oven was on fire, thus called to report an oven fire, but after the fire department came, someone of the fire department said that the fire is coming out of the basement and the panel was on fire. Also, the transformer on the power pole was on fire, too!

[pentium]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

It seems that the radio issues are isolated to the area I live.
For some reason, radio waves simply can not enter the valley even though the surrounding hills are the same no matter where you are in town.
We have a cell tower less than three kilometers from us and from my room I can't get a signal unless I lay it flat on my table.

[hardwareguy]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

There are a couple ways to deal with aluminum wiring..... remove the aluminum or use hydraulically crimped on pigtails (The AMP Copalum system).

AL/CU devices are a joke but better than stuff rated for copper only.

Be CERTAIN to follow instructions EXACTLY..... connections must be very secure and special preparations to the conductors, including sanding the oxide layer off and adding antioxidant compound should be done carefully.

The general way to make a somewhat reliable connection between Al and Cu wire (or Al and Al) when specialized connectors are not available is to do the following:

Strip the wires normally.
Sand the oxide off the Al wire
Coat the Al wire in antioxidant compound. (Penetrox A is recommended)
Tightly twist the wires together in such a way that they will be further tightened when the wire nut is applied.
Fill the inside of the wire nut up to the end of the metal threads inside with antioxidant.

For more info visit http://www.inspect-ny.com/aluminum/aluminum.htm

[Wizard]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

Yes, don't scoff. House fires is what you don't want.

My minimum: PULL ALL aluminum wirings out apd put copper in.

Cheers, Wizard

[arneson]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

They started digging up every street on this poor little island here.
Putting in sewers.
Company came down this main street to mark underground utilities.
Then the crew came in to start the dig and pipe laying.
This is a street with about 300 large mansions, most with yachts in the backyard.
The first shovel hit the dirt
and imediately crossed the power line phases to the entire neighborhood.
It was mismarked.
The result was 240 into every house on the 120 lines.
Not only did everything in every house blow up, but each of the yachts plugged into shorepower were also blown.
People were actually running out the front door carrying smoldering appliances.
It was better than a lightning strike.

[Wizard]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

LOL poor them, what the reason to keep yachts landbound plugged in?

One note, don't continue using aluminum wiring even have used "appoved" wirenut to copper stubs and aluminum wiring. Must have this done with AMP copalum system and I have read that you cannot simply get them, you have to call trained tech to do this as AMP will not allow anyone to use it unless AMP-trained techs to use it.

One apartment we lived in was alum wiring and I had to fix a bad connection because the outlet was warm because of this.

The easiest way is simply pull out the alum wiring and put copper wiring in instead.

I can't stress this enough, if you don't know the house well, get wirings CHECKED OUT. I counted about 3-4 houses burned in 40KM drive and I have seen about 4-5 fires caused by electrical faults in nature all right here in our city within and around it.

And in late 1980's there was 2 BIG fires that razed historic 3 floor buildings in the downtown, both were electrical issues. They were very unique in nature. Sigh.

Cheers, Wizard

[willawake]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

LOL poor them, what the reason to keep yachts landbound plugged in

yachts at the marina are plugged into shorepower to keep the batteries charged (at least). otherwise if people are on board can run everything of shore power. running generators pisses people in next boats off.

[arneson]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

True Will.
The gen set is about the only thing that didn't blow.
Shortly after seeing this happen I came home to find my front yard all multicolor spraypainted and twenty colored flags posted.
Yes the power in my neighborhood is underground, and checking the main panel, it's copper except for the main ground, in a thirty year old house.
I keep large APC UPS's on almost everything in every room.
When the power goes out, half my stuff stays on.

[willawake]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

there should have been protection at the shore power box. they can sue the marina (hmmmm.....is that possible or is berth space availability so limited nobody dares)

anyway insurance should cover

large yachts have all sorts of stuff like frequency converter
maybe there is small units for the small yachts which usually have zilch.

[kc8adu]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

got a weird one to troubleshoot.
a steel plant in town has a crane that has killed 4 vfd's on the same motor.
they are always killed the same way.
shorted rectifiers on r.
i suspect a loose connection somewhere.
these are not cheap to fix as everything is in a fuji igbt/rectifier brick.

[arneson]

Re: There is something seriously wrong with my house.

Design deficiency?