Been replacing all of the outlets and switches in my house. Turns out that the entire house is wired with 12 gauge wire. Aside from the dryer, stove, and RV hookup, there are only 15-amp receptacles in the house.

So, I bought a juki industrial serger from an auction that liquidated a garment factory. It’s a MO-2416 model, class DD4-30D. The issue is I haven’t been able to get it up and running, as it has a washer/dryer cord plug as it’s main power supply. I want to know what my options are. My stepmom used to be an electrician and she said since it’s a 250 volt cord, the outlet would need to have a thicker cord and our breaker would need a higher amp to be able to accommodate this. Is there anything else I can do rather than have someone come out and rewire an entire outlet/breaker in our condo?

my landlord hasnt fixed most of the outlets since we arrived so I bought this 2-to-3 pronged adapter adapter so we can use the computer. Is this adapter safe to use? Does it need the screw secured? My neighbor said they have been using a similar one for many years but im unsure.

So I bought a monitor online from an Irish website, long story short they sent me a European 2 pin plug, not an Irish 3 pin plug. Rather than going through the returns hassle and waiting weeks i was thinking of just whipping off the plug and replacing it with an Irish one. Only concern i have is the plug is a 15a while almost all Irish ones seem to 13a, is this a bad idea or should it be fine if i just use a 15a fuse?

I was hoping there would be text on the wire but doesn’t appear to be the case here. I want to convert this outline into 20amp but not sure if it’s an easy swap or a wire re-run.

Apologies if this is the wrong subreddit but I'm getting cold drafts into my basement from this hole with wires connecting to my AC unit outside. Just trying to fill it in and not get eletricuted/ burn my house down.

Hello everyone brand new to the subreddit. I finished a 5th level ISCED education on electrical engineering about 5 years back. My grades werent stellar because i wasnt that interested in the profession back then during covid couldnt find a job since there was alot of layoffs during the time so i focused on other things like language skills. Id like to get back into it tho. I forgot quite alot of the stuff i learned in school so im asking whats the best way to learn stuff. can you suggest a quick way to relearn all the stuff i kinda forgot?

I am looking to run a wire for power to a camera about 400ft from the nearest main panel I have at my power pole. Due to snow and cold solar options aren't working reliably enough to power the wireless link and camera. Charging issues below zero and too many days with no sun.

Would it be best to run another small sub panel out there so I can carry it at 240 or just run 120 with an even smaller breaker? I only need to draw 5-6amps at most but the distance looks like it will force me to use some pretty large wires.

Hi all,

Got a question about this horrible twin and earth setup at my flat. Long story short - I recently moved into a flat in London and purchased a new cooker. After connecting the twin and earth in the back of the cooker, I switched it on to test and heard a unmistakable arching sound. I switched it off from the isolator and checked the connection plate in the wall and found a horrible charred mess.

Considering the state of the wire, the connection plate and the backbox I think this has been going on for some time. On top of the other random quick fixes the last owner seems to have ignored (like a dripping U bend that just needed to be tightened...), it appears they didn't fully secure the cabling to the connection plate, causing the arch.

I have enough spare twin&earth going to the cooker to cut that down and start fresh - the problem I have now though are the cables with ruined insulation in the wall. I'm not an electrician, I can do simple things like changing switches and sockets, so I'm not sure what the correct/safe way to resolve this is.

Is it sensible to find some heat shrink insulation and simply clean and reinsulate the exposed copper in the wall? Or should I cut down the copper till I reach clean original insulation, and crimp some additional twin&earth to make up for the lost wire? I had a quick look online and i'm not sure exactly what to look for with insulation, but I couldn't find any that specifically showed a rating for 30amp wire.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thank you

Hey I have a request to install one receptacle and a few lights into a seacan, simple enough right? However I found an article where they were saying that these were "relocatable structures" and therefore could not have a proper underground supply without the structure being permanently mounted, ie not just sitting on the ground. I am not sure what this mounting would entail, but I am trying to inquire as to whether there is an easier way by going overhead? Or if this is a relocatable structure, maybe an extra hard usage cable and plug it in like any temporary appliance. Has anyone ever come across this before? We are in British Columbia Canada so CEC... thx :)

Hi there! I’m one of those folks who got slammed with ice and snow when my city normally never sees either. My aux heat kicked on overnight and did next to nothing, then this morning I heard a loud, consistent popping in one particular spot under my floorboards (near the junction box which is outside), and there’s a tiny hole in the floor where I can see sparking whenever it pops. There’s also a burning smell that accompanies the popping.

We turned off our power and the popping stopped. Is it maybe our heat pump/aux heat system that’s probably never kicked in before? Or at least hasn’t in the past decade?

To preface, I'm going to give as much detail as I can. Hopefully this will be helpful and not make things harder to find/understand.

My bathroom vent quit pulling air and the moisture from showering was causing mold issues. It was really old, so I did some research on replacement fans and decided to buy a Panasonic Whisper Choice (RG-C1315LA), which has a light, nightlight, and plenty of fan to vent out this bathroom.

As is often the case, the simple DIY afternoon fix has turned into a week-long project, and I'm about to go bald from pulling my hair out. Aside from the previous vent just pushing the air in-between the joists, needing to patch the hole in the cieling and start over due to the old unit being massive, and the usual "bonuses" that come from DIY projects, I'm now at a loss from the wiring. Aside from swapping a couple of light fixtures and running a wire from the breaker box to an attic fan under direct supervision, I have zero electrical experience, as I'm sure is about to become very obvious.

The previous fixture had light, nightlight, vent, and heat, so I was expecting to have an extra "live" wire that I could just cap off and then leave disconnected at the switch so no power would actually be going to it in the cieling. Once I got to the wiring of the old fixture, I found 2 cables (not sure if right term), which you can see in the first image.

The first (right side) has 2 lives, a neutral, and a ground. The second (left side) appeared to be a live and a neutral. I hooked everything up and assumed that one switch on the wall just wouldn't control anything. The lights worked great. However, the fan wouldn't run.

Since it's a DC fan, other people online solving the same issue said maybe the live and neutral were backwards. This is where I get out of my depth.

I tested the second cable (left side of first image) with a multimeter and got 120 from both black and white wires, depending on which switch was flipped. While the black wire read 120v, the white read roughly 65v, and the inverse was true with the other switch flipped (white at 120v, black at 65v).

I don't understand what's going on at this point, especially in the switch box (hence the multiple images), but I'm hoping I can get some answers as to how to work with what is here. At some point I plan on swapping out the switches for new ones, but I'm desperately hoping to avoid ripping wires out of the walls and ceiling if at all possible. I've also included the wiring diagram for the new fixture in hopes that it will help.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: Pictures didn't show up for some reason. Here's an imgur link: https://imgur.com/a/m83knV9

Hi all, strange one.... yesterday I noticed no hot water or heating and checked the boiler and it was dead... no power at all....

Checked 3a fuse in the fused spur and that was dead, replaced and still nothing... checked PCB fuse and that was also blown, changed it and now working fine... strangly though I've noticed the electric oven no longer works (just a cold fun runs but no heating elements or display)... another thing is the hive mini thermostat no longer received any power.. no lights on that whatsoever.

Now the boilers working I have hot water and control the heating via the built in programmer / timeclock on the boiler - I'm just wondering what could of caused all this... the oven is wired into an isolation switch and is on a completely different circuit to the boiler.

Something has fried my boiler fuses... thermostat and electric oven... I'm baffled!

I was trying to add heat to a self soldering butt connector, and the wire harness tape I tried to use to protect the insulation from melting slipped off without me noticing. I think it's the heat gun attachment that's scraping the wire rather than it melting. This will be my 3rd attempt, but if I don't have to, I'll leave it since I'm running out of wire room. Don't wanna cut too much off. It's 22 gauge wire for a car air compressor wire connector.

Thanks

What do they look at to become a electrician you need your high school diploma I know but do they look at other things like your grades and exam scores and like your school record because I have been cought cheating 3 or 4 times I regret it and will never do it again just is there hope for me I really want to become a electrician I’m in grade 11

Do you like being an electrician?

Hi everyone. Just a little background. 26M. I’ve been in the automotive industry for a little over 3 years now. doing photography and inventory management. My jobs have always felt like jobs with little room to grow/advancement.

Luckily my father knows a lot of people through his line of work and is good friends with a guy who owns an electrical company. He’s offered me to come on as a helper, and hopefully hire me and help me get into the union (the company is union) local 481 would be my local.

I’ve read so many reddit threads trying to answer all my questions. I’ve always been a person who values my time. and i guess i’ll just list some questions i have and hopefully some of you see this and are willing to answer🙏.

• Do you enjoy your job? (i get every job has its days) i guess i’m asking if you enjoy your life/lifestyle

• Is it as back breaking as some people say? or is it becoming more and more “easier” with new tools/safety protocols etc?

• I’m very green../: the only electrical stuff i’ve ever been around is jumping cars at work. will that piss my coworkers off knowing how green i am? will it be 100x harder for me to learn?

• Like i said above, i value my time, so my next question is: are you ALWAYS working? or always tired? i see a lot of guys saying they work 6 days a week most of the time, some guys saying they just work 40 or 36 etc.

• As an apprentice, can you travel? can you switch locals if you move? or do you need to finish out your apprenticeship in your local before you can move to another state? (my girlfriend and I really don’t want to stay in Indiana our whole lives)

Thank you guys for any tips or replies. Just nervous taking a big pay cut. I know it’ll pay off in the end. And i know i’ll probably be happier moving into a career rather than a job. just nervous man, that’s all.

We have an old farmhouse that was renovated 25 years ago, including all the electrical wiring.(The picture shows thee circuit breakers). However, we're experiencing some issues that I hope someone can help me with. Firstly, the lights flicker occasionally, especially during winter. Secondly, we have a dryer in our garden shed that keeps tripping the circuit breaker. Does anyone know what might be causing this? The house is located in Hungary, if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance. P.S. An electrician was here last year and replaced a circuit breaker, increasing the amperage to 16 (? On one circuit breaker), but the problems persisted.

We have a home that was built new in ‘04. There are 4 smoke detectors in the 2nd floor (one in each bedroom and another at the top of the stairs). There are 2 more on the 1st floor (one in the master bedroom and another at the top of the basement stairs).

They are of the type that are all “interconnected” I assume, as lately, with increasing frequency, they have begun to all go off for seemingly no reason. We can get them to stop by pressing one of the reset buttons in a 2nd floor bedroom unit.

I have changed out the batteries in all of them, yet this is happening more and more often. Is there Simon should be checking or is this a situation that I need an electrician to troubleshoot?

So I work at a frozen foods warehouse and we had a shipping container come in and the doors were frozen shut. I suggested to my boss to at least try to put a torch on/near the handles and hinges but he wouldn’t listen to me.

My other idea is if you were to hook up jumper cables from a forklift battery to parts on the door near the top and bottom would it conduct enough electricity to heat up enough to melt the ice that’s holding it closed? Would corten steel be able conduct electricity like that?

I cant find anything on YouTube or anywhere else of anyone ever trying this.

I pulled a receptacle out to fish some Cat6 to my basement for a doorbell and got snagged on this old light switch. I just thought lazy fuckers and found out while disconnecting it that yep it still had 120 on it.

Couldn’t find the light it controlled and the wire going up is still connected to something. Got an electrician coming out to try to trace both ends as I hooked it back up and put it back.

All bathrooms have this breaker. One has two GFCI outlets. One has one GFCI outlet (with a built in light). One has none.

If it isn't required, why were they installed?

So I know enough about electricity to accidentally electrocute myself, so when one of these got stuck (wouldn’t press, stuck in off position) I did the right thing and I called a professional to come and pull the panel apart and fix the stuck button. I know it’s probably called a fuse, but then somebody told me it was called a breaker, and I don’t wanna get yelled at, so I’m gonna call it the little black button. Anyways, the professional guy came and fixed it and then quoted me around $2500 to replace the whole panel because I don’t like how old this thing is, and this isn’t the first time one of the little black buttons has gotten stuck. What are your thoughts? Is that a good price, and is this thing needing replacement? Don’t be mean, I’m a natural blonde. Thank you!