electrical

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Lightning

Tuesday, June 25th, 2013

As much as we love the thunderstorms here (especially during the monsoons), we have come to view them we some concern. Twice now we’ve had damage from a strike. This seems a little funny as the strikes were not really that close. They are delivered to us via our phone lines. Ugh.

The first time this happened we lost a couple of phones, a fax machine and a DSL modem. When we replaced the items I ordered a surge protector for the incoming phone lines and I installed it outside next to the phone box.

The recent strike destroyed the surge protector. Though it is possible it protected something, quite a bit was lost. 2 phones, a DSL modem, a WIFI access point, a small computer and a couple of controllers for the solar equipment. Ugh. (The solar has continued without interruption despite the damage.)

This time I’m going overboard on the surge protectors. I’m installing three in a row outside and inside, one before and one after the DSL modem. I will also connect the solar equipment wirelessly so it has no electrical connection with the phone lines. I really don’t want this to happen again. I’d like to find a simple disconnect for the phone lines that I could throw when it’s looking bad, but have not seem on. Or better, a electrical isolator,,, perhaps a wire to fiber to wire device that could prevent any electricity from coming in through the phone lines.

If anyone has thoughts on the problem, I would be very interested.

Wires everywhere

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

I’ve been doing a lot of electrical work the last few days…so much that even I’m wondering if I’m qualified to do this! :) Seriously, electrical is serious stuff.

Pulling the Romex (the big yellow cables with electrical wires inside) through the ceiling and walls required no particular skill.

After that, I started making pigtails, wiring electrical sockets and switches. Wiring these was not too difficult and was actually fun to do once I got the hang of it.

We will have something like 60 outlets. I think it will be the first house I’ve ever lived in that has enough outlets and network ports.

manyoutlets

Then, today, I got to start hooking the outlets into the wiring coming out of the walls. This was not only difficult, but seemed like serious stuff. You have to strip all the Romex coming out of the wall and then connect the similar colors (e.g. the black wires from all three wires) into a push-in wire connector. These are new things that you use instead of wire nuts. They are much more reliable, because once a wire goes in, it can’t come out. However, it is very difficult to get all those wires into their little tiny holes. And God help us when we have to stuff all this into the socket boxes!
outlet

After I got a half dozen or so of these wired up, Brad said he wanted to test them. Prior to this, we didn’t have any electricity “live.” I was not eager to to this. Since we haven’t pulled the cable from the battery house to the house yet, Brad had to rig up a power cable into the main power box, where he turned on the breaker for the first circuit I wired. Then we went to plug the tester in. The moment of truth… Success! Yay!

success