Generac Generators

found a crazy deal today as im a 'picker' and have been doing this since before it was a tv show. heres what i found, generac backup generators that the output is 90 volts of DC current. they run on nat gas or propane via a switch. my question is how can i use these generators to run stuff on my catering mobile taco/food truck or backup power for my house? i need AC current and according to literature on the web, the generators are 14kw and some are single phase and some are 3 ph.  i know that i can just drop a leg on 3 phase to get single ph. but how to get ac i dont know.



im guessing the engines would be kewl on a go cart and use a propane tank for a gas tank, right? any help on elec conversion would be appreciated.
      

I'm planning to add some deck stair lighting this spring/summer to our newly finished deck, and knew I was going to go with low voltage. Then it had me thinking...I would also like to run low voltage in place of where we had originally planned to place solar lights along our sidewalk that's beside the deck (lights here will be embedded in river rock). Anyways, I know to steer clear of the HD and Lowe's brands, but I don't really know where to begin for quality lighting. I want the transformer to be rather large since it will have to handle larger runs, and be able to handle additional lights that may be added on down the road. Plus I want a timer/photo sensitivity built in. I was curious if anyone had any specific brands to recommend? I did see Kichler recommended in a few searches I made here, but any others?



Any general recommendations would be appreciated as well (i.e. buying a kit vs buying the transformer, wire, lights, connectors, etc. separate).
      

Greetings all.



This is my first post here, I hope it goes well.



My name is Joe and I have searched Google. and this forum for my answer but have not been able to find a definitive answer to my question.  I have seen many replies talking about getting a tone generator or a line tracer but my experience is that tone generators are for Data and phone cables rather than electrical cables and the line tracers I've found online all seem to be about tracing the line back to the breaker panel so without knowing more I'm hesitant to purchase a line tracer in case it cannot do what I want.

My dilemma is very likely very simple to anyone with electrical experience so I hope it's not too trivial for this crowd.

I have recently purchased a house that is over 120 years old and have a motion sensor light on the porch that is supposedly connected to a switch inside but does not turn on.  I've opened the wall plate and used a voltage indicating pen to see where the electricity is.  In this case there are two light switches, one that has lines that have been spliced and another that supposedly leads to the porch light according to a long time tenant in that unit.  It all looks like a bit of a mess and the connections don't make sense.  In this scenario the black cables have the electricity and the white cables complete the circuit.  The switch to the porch light has a black cable coming from the top of the box going to the switch and a white cable connected to the other screw that comes from splitting the white cable from the other switch.  What I would like to do is know which cables in that wall box correspond to the cables to the porch light.  Can anyone give me an idea what I should do?

Do I need something like the Amprobe advanced wire tracer (http://www.professionalequipment.com...0/wire-tracer/) and can it do what I need, or is there something simpler I can do?

All help is appreciated.

Thanks



Joe
      

I have a light switch in my kitchen that is not being used.  I plan to use it for a new light that will be installed over the counter.  The switch box has a 3 way wire that is live. I have a basic current tester that lights up "110 V" when it detects a live circuit.  When I use my circuit tester to test for current in the black wire (with neutral), it barely lights the tester.  When I test the red wire (with neutral), there is no current.  When i test the red and black together, the tester lights up nice and bright.  So I am a little confused.  I do not need it to be 3-way, this switch will only control one light.  Any advice on how to wire this?



Thanks!
      

I am installing a new shed and redirecting an existing electrical line from an old shed to the new shed.  There is a GFI receptical (non-outlet type) in a weather-proof metal box attached to the house that is fed by a dedicated line from the circuit breaker box.



I never paid much attention to why the lighting in the old shed never worked until I decided on getting a new shed.  This weekend I went out with my multimeter to test the line and load sides of the GFI recepticle and measured only about 12 volts on both sides. (I did test the multimeter on some inside outlets and measured 120 volts).



I tried many times to reset the GFI without success.



Is the GFI bad?  Is it normal for a bad GFI to measure such low voltage on both the line and load sides?



Thanks for your help.
      

In my older home i just founf out that all the upstairs ( 2 bedrooms) outlets are installed on the same 20 amp circuit breaker for my kitchen. which might be a reason that when too many things are running this breaker trips. My question is I want to add a 15 amp breaker and isolate all the upstairs on this breaker so the kitchen stays seperate. i Found the romex that is installed to a downstairs outlet that is connected to all the other outlets upstairs but since it is hidden in the walls and i narrowed it down to 3 possiblities upstairs, but i am not sure. How can i test to see which one of the romex wires it could be so i can attach my new romex from the new breaker and just abandon the old wire all together.

PS. when i disconnnect the romex from the outlet downstairs in the kitchen all the outlets upstairs stop working, that is how i know that is the one that brings the electriity upstairs.
      

Going through a crazy heat wave here in SoCal, and one of my tenants called to tell me that the electricity isn't on in some of his rooms. He turned on his portable AC unit that he has been using all summer and something may have happened.



Downstairs:The dining room light switch, downstairs light switch do not work. All outlets around them do work though, which is odd cause I would have thought they'd be on the same circuit.



Upstairs: The side bathroom light switch does not work, but outlets all work. In the master bedroom (where the AC unit is located), the master bathroom light switch does not work, nor does the master bedroom light switch. All of the outlets do not work either. I used my outlet tester and it gave me the hot/ground reversed lights. I think this means that the white/black wires are reversed on the outlets (has not changed recently).



I went over, checked all of the breakers. Switched them to off, then back on, did not fix the issue. All breakers stay in the on position without tripping, so no shorts?



Checked all GFCI's, hit test, then reset, did not solve the problem.



We unplugged everything from all outlets, and retried, but it didn't work.



I checked continuity between the main power lines, and the output of the circuit breakers, and all were fine. I did NOT check the voltages though, and will do so in the morning when I stop by again.



Is there anything else I should check?
      

I'm trying to fix a problem with a track light installment over the a bar I've just put in. I've done it before. never had issues. but this particular problem is driving me nuts. It just defies logic.  The electrician who actually installed the associated dimmer switches with this dining room area was called as it seems it may be a flaw with his wiring, but he's blown us off and I have to try and solve this myself.



This is how it's all set up. I've been rehabbing our home from top to bottom, and converted our old kitchen into a dining area. Within this dining area are four sets of lights, all controlled from one box containing four dimmer switches. I set up all the new wiring and installation of the lights in the ceiling, and we paid an electrician to come in, check everything out, set up the multiple switches, and connect it all to the board. It's all new copper wiring from beginning to end, as I didn't want to connect or splice in to the old aluminum wiring that was in place. All the new wiring and lights are on a dedicated 15 amp breaker. Three of the sets of lights were set up to be available from the day the electrician came around. The fourth, for the track light over the bar, was left hanging from the ceiling capped off and with the switch off, as I still had work to do installing an overhead wine rack, under which the track was going to be set.



Two days ago I finally got around to putting the track up, but after setting it in place and connecting the power up the lights wouldn't work. I took the lights out to our kitchen, where I installed another track light system some time ago, plugged one of the lights in, and it worked just fine. I then went back to the bar area and used a spare track, then a spare connector, to see if I could isolate the fault, yet neither of the items provided a solution. Now here's the weird bit - every time I tried checking the system out, I'd get 120 volts showing from the wiring and from the track when I'd test with the multimeter. But the second I'd put a light into the track, the multimeter would drop to zero on the voltage reading on either the wiring or the track. Take the light fixture back out, and the voltage would pop back up. Inserting the light was thus completing some kind of odd loop. It wasn't just one light - I double checked by grabbing working lights from the kitchen track and inserting them into the other track - the same problem would pop up. Finally, having come to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with the track at all, I took the whole assembly over to a nearby wall outlet, used some spare electric cable to connect up to the appropriate slots - presto, the light came on! I even double checked all this by grabbing another light fixture destined for our bathroom, and tried connecting it to the wiring over the bar. Nothing. Yet as with the track light, the minute I took it over to the wall outlet and connected it, the light worked.



So everything logically points to the fact it has to be something to do with this individual circuit, right, because a) the light fixtures work when plugged into another circuit and b) the other three dimmers and lights hooked up in the same box work fine and draw power from the same wire cable/breaker combination. The only things left that I can think of is that the electrician has either wired the dimmer switch up incorrectly or that there's some kind of flaw inside the switch itself. Does this make sense?



A friend also told me to double-check to make sure that the black wire feeding power to the light was indeed the hot wire, and it is.  If I touch it with the black test lead from the multimeter and put the red one to the neutral I show 120 volts. If I keep the black test lead on the black wire and put the red test lead to the ground - I also show 120 volts.



A final point. I know I'm not overloading the circuit - not even close. With all four dimmers maxed and every light on - including the test light on the track - I'd only be drawing 8 amps on a 15 amp breaker, besides which I'm only using one set of lights while I'm working on this problem anyway. This is a dedicated circuit, so there's no additional power being drawn away by something else.



So how am I getting 120 volts from this wiring, according to my multimeter, yet it won't light up ANYTHING and keeps giving off the indication that some kind of loop or short is being created every time I actually plug a light into the track? It's got me totally stumped.



Anyone have any ideas?
      

I currently have a shower light and fan wired downstream from a GFCI receptacle. I am pretty sure they are wired into the load side of the GFCI. I will make sure again after work today. My problem right now is the light and fan does not trip when the TEST button is pushed. Only the receptacle will trip.





What did I do wrong?
      

Is it a violation of code to run exposed NM in a residential detached garage?  The wire is spanning through studs at about 8.5' and then ran closely down the stud to each receptacle and/or switch at 48" from the floor, back up the stud to the 8.5' and on to the next recep. or switch.  Is the wire ran through the studs at 8.5' considered unprotected???