Home repairs?
- Thread starter Ne Obliviscaris
- Start date
I do them all the time. I've saved my room mates a ton of money. I repaired the hot water heater (damaged thermocouple); pg&e came out and said we needed to replace a huge part that was $400+. I think we spent $15 on the thermocouple. I repaired the heat pump (capacitor), the dryer (heating element) and the air-handler (hot-surface igniter). I've done a number of other small repairs as well. Saved well over a thousand dollars. Basically, this is what I do for a living; maintenance/engineering. It's a good trade to know. Shit, a 42" plasma tv at this place I worked started smoking and took a shit on them. They told me to get rid of it. Of course, I took it home, took it apart, found a blown fuse and two melted capacitors. I had my friend come over and resolder the capacitors and I ordered a new fuse online. Now I have a dope plasma tv that works great. I also get a good amount of side-work.
I'd still rather have the skills of an auto-mechanic, though. Maybe because I've dumped so much cash into fixing the cars/trucks I've owned.
If you want a forum that is good for this type of stuff, go here. You can usually get pretty good insight on troubleshooting and directions on where to order parts.
I'd still rather have the skills of an auto-mechanic, though. Maybe because I've dumped so much cash into fixing the cars/trucks I've owned.
If you want a forum that is good for this type of stuff, go here. You can usually get pretty good insight on troubleshooting and directions on where to order parts.
I'm re-finishing part of my basement, theres only a single outlet in what is now a bedroom, and I'd like to put in a bunch more as well as run electrical to the adjoining room that I'm finishing. The problem is that those two rooms are going to have a lot of equipment in them and so are going to need to be able to support a fair amount of power. since right now theres only one outlet its obviously only one channel (i dunno if thats the proper term) on the fusebox, and I think if i ran everything off that one it would trip a lot. Can I install a second fusebox in the new room running off that single channel? or do i need to run other 'channels' off the existing fusebox into the two rooms.
I'm not an electrician but I do know some. First, by channel I believe you're refering to the breaker. The breakers are rated by AMPS, usually (for residence) they're 15 or 20 amps (give or take). Your washer and dryer, along with any other major equipment are probably running on larger rated breakers.
Simply adding another fusebox/breaker panel in the basement from the existing power source will not be any better than splitting the lines and just running them to other receptacles. If the power is insufficient you would have to install a new breaker inside the main box and run all new lines to the basement.
Aside from that single receptacle in your basement you need to find out what else is running off that breaker. IF that receptacle (and probably the basement light) is the only thing, you might be in luck. But there is a chance that other outlets/lights on the main floor are running off the same one, in which case, adding two more rooms of electrical will in all likelihood overload and pop the breaker. To find out you'll have to turn off the breaker and test the electrical in all surrounding areas.
Keep in mind that while each breaker supplies power to a number of outlets, and overloading the breaker will cause it to pop, you also have a MAIN breaker (it's reffered to as the MAIN) which can also pop if the accumulated power from ALL the breakers is overloaded. This would be the product of adding a new breaker and running new lines when the MAIN was not equipt for that. If this is the case, you will be screwed. Because I believe the next step up from the MAIN is the transformer which is run and operated by the city, and you will not be able to mess with that. The chances of this happening, although low, might depend on when your house was built. As you can imagine, older houses are not as likely to be set for this.
What I've told you are not necesarily facts, rather what I believe to be the case. I could be wrong so dont take my word for it. My intent with providing you this information is to give you a greater starting point and help you to know what to look for and which questions to ask.
Last thing I will say here is this: It is in your best interest to consult an electrician and maybe even have him do the work for you. You dont want to fuck around with electrical if you dont know what you're doing. You can do damage to yourself and/or your home if you dont do everything properly. If you don't at the very least have a multimeter I can already tell you to STOP and call an electrician.
Hope this helps.
Simply adding another fusebox/breaker panel in the basement from the existing power source will not be any better than splitting the lines and just running them to other receptacles. If the power is insufficient you would have to install a new breaker inside the main box and run all new lines to the basement.
Aside from that single receptacle in your basement you need to find out what else is running off that breaker. IF that receptacle (and probably the basement light) is the only thing, you might be in luck. But there is a chance that other outlets/lights on the main floor are running off the same one, in which case, adding two more rooms of electrical will in all likelihood overload and pop the breaker. To find out you'll have to turn off the breaker and test the electrical in all surrounding areas.
Keep in mind that while each breaker supplies power to a number of outlets, and overloading the breaker will cause it to pop, you also have a MAIN breaker (it's reffered to as the MAIN) which can also pop if the accumulated power from ALL the breakers is overloaded. This would be the product of adding a new breaker and running new lines when the MAIN was not equipt for that. If this is the case, you will be screwed. Because I believe the next step up from the MAIN is the transformer which is run and operated by the city, and you will not be able to mess with that. The chances of this happening, although low, might depend on when your house was built. As you can imagine, older houses are not as likely to be set for this.
What I've told you are not necesarily facts, rather what I believe to be the case. I could be wrong so dont take my word for it. My intent with providing you this information is to give you a greater starting point and help you to know what to look for and which questions to ask.
Last thing I will say here is this: It is in your best interest to consult an electrician and maybe even have him do the work for you. You dont want to fuck around with electrical if you dont know what you're doing. You can do damage to yourself and/or your home if you dont do everything properly. If you don't at the very least have a multimeter I can already tell you to STOP and call an electrician.
Hope this helps.
I do not have a multimeter. I understood everything you said though, and yes, I did mean breakers. So, tell me if this is something you think I could do:
There are actually two breaker boxes (please just ignore me using the wrong jargon) both of which have a bunch of 'blanks' where I can install switches. What if i Just ran new lines from a couple of new switches, would that be able to handle a bunch of stereo equipment, probably several thousand watts-ish?
EDIT: I forgot to say thanks.
There are actually two breaker boxes (please just ignore me using the wrong jargon) both of which have a bunch of 'blanks' where I can install switches. What if i Just ran new lines from a couple of new switches, would that be able to handle a bunch of stereo equipment, probably several thousand watts-ish?
EDIT: I forgot to say thanks.
You have the right idea, running new lines from the box. If you wire everything correctly the worst that should happen is you pop the main, in which case you'll know it can't handle the load. You should be okay because even though your main might be just enough to handle what it is already supplying, your not going to be running everything in your house at the same time, so it shouldnt be a worry. By the way, running a bunch of shit at the same time with new breakers installed is obviously going to increase your chances of popping the main. If you know for sure you're gonna do the work yourself, I would at least have someone come out and look at all your breaker box and verify that you're gonna be okay.
Cool. I definetely am going to have someone come check it out before I do any of the work, Its an older house and I don't know when the current electrical got put it so I want to get it all looked over. I also have friends that--kinda--know what they're doing who I'm gonna make them hang out while I do the work. But part of the reason I'm doing this is to learn, like I'm said I'm not terribly handy, and I'd like to start to pick up some of these skills.
EDIT: Forgot to say thanks, again. It always amazes me the knowledge thats chillin in the cuts on the sicc.
EDIT: Forgot to say thanks, again. It always amazes me the knowledge thats chillin in the cuts on the sicc.