OT: AC wiring, grounds

[Ken G Kopp]

My house ... built mid-60's ... had "modern" 3-wire receptacles throughout
... and was wired with single conductor "knob and tube" wiring.  To add to
the difficulty, the boxes were mounted halfway between the studs on 1 x 3
boards.  Terrible rework required!

No idea how it passed inspection for the loan!  (;-)

73

K0PP
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[Alan Bloom-2]

I recently have been having extensive electrical renovation done on my
early 60s era house.  We found wires spliced in the middle of a wall (3
different places), wrong wire sizes, a dead bat in the main meter panel,
and my favorite:  a 220V circuit with each phase on a separate single
breaker, which weren't even the same amperage!  :=)

Alan N1AL


On 09/20/2016 08:43 AM, Ken G Kopp [hidden email] [KX3] wrote:

>
>
> My house ... built mid-60's ... had "modern" 3-wire receptacles
> throughout ... and was wired with single conductor "knob and tube"
> wiring.  To add to the difficulty, the boxes were mounted halfway
> between the studs on 1 x 3 boards.  Terrible rework required!
>
> No idea how it passed inspection for the loan!  (;-)
>
> 73
>
> K0PP
>

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[k6dgw]

Perils of an old house.  Ours in Auburn CA was started in the mid-20's,
added onto by everyone who lived there, including us ... twice.  With
sheetrock gone, we found the reason why doors wouldn't close and windows
were stuck--headers over them were spliced in the middle.

Barn out next to the pasture had 120V outlets with exposed wiring.  Feed
from house was 2 aerial wires, 240V between them.  Finally figured out
that the neutral was "ground," as in dirt.  The two "phase" conductors
were spliced into separate 120V breakers in the service entrance.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Sparks NV DM09dn

- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2016
- www.cqp.org

On 9/20/2016 9:24 AM, Alan wrote:

> I recently have been having extensive electrical renovation done on my
> early 60s era house.  We found wires spliced in the middle of a wall (3
> different places), wrong wire sizes, a dead bat in the main meter panel,
> and my favorite:  a 220V circuit with each phase on a separate single
> breaker, which weren't even the same amperage!  :=)
>
> Alan N1AL
>
>
> On 09/20/2016 08:43 AM, Ken G Kopp [hidden email] [KX3] wrote:
>>
>>
>> My house ... built mid-60's ... had "modern" 3-wire receptacles
>> throughout ... and was wired with single conductor "knob and tube"
>> wiring.  To add to the difficulty, the boxes were mounted halfway
>> between the studs on 1 x 3 boards.  Terrible rework required!

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[Edward R Cole]

My previous house was a homestead house built in 1955.  It had three
different foundations, a nearly flat roof, and the back half of the
house wired with two conductor wiring (no U ground outlets).  I
bought it in 1996 and FHA gave me a waver on the wiring and also a
non-standard indoor door opening.  I did got thru the house to clear
ground faults and found one dead outlet with wires burned away.  I
trimmed/taped them and place a blank cover on that outlet.  Bathroom
had no ground-fault outlets (another code violation) which I disabled
to get wiring to pass inspection.  We sold it and moved in 2006.

Its because of these potential (no pun) errors in wiring that I do
not recommend connecting your antistatic devices to the green safety
ckt of the house wiring.  Absolute ground is not necessary; only that
there is not voltage potential between components being
installed.  Why I also suggest unhooking dc power leads to any PS
during sensitive component work.

If you start checking outlets you may be in for surprise how few are
correctly installed.  A simple plug in the outlet ckt tester will
show ground faults (from Lowes or Home Depot for $12).  Best purchase
for determining if outlets are hot.

73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
     "Kits made by KL7UW"
Dubus Mag business:
     [hidden email]

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[Jim Brown-10]

On Tue,9/20/2016 9:24 AM, Alan wrote:
> I recently have been having extensive electrical renovation done on my
> early 60s era house.  We found wires spliced in the middle of a wall
> (3 different places), wrong wire sizes, a dead bat in the main meter
> panel, and my favorite:  a 220V circuit with each phase on a separate
> single breaker, which weren't even the same amperage!  :=)

On Tue,9/20/2016 12:51 PM, Edward R Cole wrote:
> My previous house was a homestead house built in 1955.

The house I owned in Chicago was built before 1900 (after the great
Chicago fire).  It was a "2-flat" with an undeveloped attic. When I
bought it, it had knob and tube wiring, and pipe for gas lights, some of
which was still active (connected to gas lines). Other gas lines were
used to carry wiring to overhead lighting.

I hired electricians to bring the wiring up to code, installing a lot of
EMT (steel thin-wall conduit), with separate conduit systems for power
and low voltage wiring.

The house I bought in W6 had multiple wiring errors, some quite serious.
I found only one bad outlet, but grounding for the main electrical
service was a nightmare. "Ground" for the service entrance was a #14
wire running 40-50 ft to a hose outlet, which was connected by PVC pipe
to the water system. In other words, no ground at all. There's a
detached garage with a "mother-in-law" apartment that is fed from the
house. 240VAC with neutral and ground were carried to a panel in that
building. A #14 bare copper ran up from the panel to the attic, across
the building, then down to a ground rod, with the cable zig-zagging down
the wall to tuck closely into a window frame and seams in the siding.
I'd guess this wire was at least 60 ft long.  That was the only ground.
In that second building, 240V was fed to a well and to appliances; 120V
convenience outlets were wired between one leg of 240 (good) and ground
(BAD!). BTW -- NONE of these problems were noted by the "inspector" we
hired before buying the house.

It's worth studying my power and grounding tutorials, then carefully
poking around your home. http://k9yc.com/GroundingAndAudio.pdf

73, Jim K9YC

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