Electrician Estimates-how Wrong Are They Allowed To Be?

Appreciate any help with this.



Background:



- new to us old house, got three quotes for an upgrade to 200A service plus addition of three new circuits in conduit with receptacles (Chicago area, conduit is code in just about every town around, I have no issue with that);



- existing service to house was overhead, opted to keep it overhead and not bury it;



- the quote says, exactly: "Installation of a 200 amp 240 volt overhead electric service complete with riser, outdoor meter socket with a 200 amp disconnect, 40 position circuit breaker type distribution panel..." etc.;



I understood from discussing the work with the contractor we chose that install overhead service meant to include the work and materials needed to upgrade the line coming from the pole at the alley to the house to handle 200A capacity; paid 50% down on quote;



- the morning the boss and tech show up for the work, boss says we already have a 200A overhead, which I seem to recall the home inspector mentioning months ago before the closing (makes sense because the overhead runs to a single room addition put on several years ago), but boss was the guy who came to the house to quote the job in the first place, didn't mention anything about the existing overhead capacity at the time;



- the work gets done, seems fine; tech left without going over anything with us but whatever.



Final bill matches the quote to the dollar. There is no indication that there were any surprises during the work.



Since the quote says installation of overhead service and they didn't need to replace the overhead lines from the pole I think the final bill should be lower than the quote. The distance from the pole to the riser is about 40 feet.



Should I expect from the wording in the quote that the final bill should be lower than the quote because they didn't have to touch the existing overhead?



About how much lower?



We didn't go with the lowest quote, didn't beat him up on price and the total bill is quite a pretty penny, so I think he would be making good money either way.



I know there is no way for someone to tell me an exact dollar figure here based on a blog post, but I'd like to get some kind of idea so I can start my conversation about the final bill.



Thanks for any help out there.
      

Electrical novice here.... I think calling myself even a novice is too much credit.

The good thing is I'm not the one that did the work....



My question is about votls/amps/wats correlations.



Long sorry short ... I have in floor heating wire that was installed - this is not the typical off-the-shelf type (have a friend in the home products biz and he picked this up for me on a recent trip to china).



I am trying to estimate usage costs come winter time... but something just does not sound right to me...



It is 18W/220V heat wire...



        Have 120/240 Volt Main Service



Is the calculation correct:



Power       18w per meter and i have 220 meters (700 Ft)   

 

- total power is 220m*18w/m, if your voltage is 240V, the Amps will be 220*18/240v=16.5A.



If correct - That means this is going to be insanely expensive to run - correct?


      

I've been the owner of a 1930s era Colonial Revival that our first major project is to rewire the house. We have a 100A main box that is maxed out, a combination of cloth 2-wire, flex, and some cracking Romex along with some downright dangerous open wiring in the basement, tapped wiring in the kitchen and study, some gangboxes that were wallpapered over in the bedrooms that we assume were wall lights (we have similar wall lights in the bathrooms), inadequate outlets in most rooms, no GFI. Etc. Etc. In addition the bathrooms are small and lack wall switches or outlets (they have two pull-cord wall lamps, with one lamp with a outlet.



Here is a floor plan with electrical represented on the ground and second floor. Still working on mapping the basement and the attic (which has a 3/4 converted finished "bonus" room.



My Father-In-Law who is a licensed electrician has promised to gracefully donate a couple months of his time to rewire everything. Also a bonus in this is the majority of outlets are mounted on the baseboard trim and not in the plaster.



My plans are to go with a single 200A main, likely double the amount of outlets in each room, GFI where needed.



While I know some basics, I want to familiarize myself a bit more on what is the best approach to rewire. For instance should I look at running conduit in just one spot of the house, or should I run two on each end of the house? I plan to do some major remodeling of some rooms in the future, especially the kitchen and bath so what are the best ways to ensure I have an easier time with these remodels?
      

what the fudge sticks man?



I am not a DIY'er or a handy man but I gave it a shot..



I replaced an old a$$ receptacle with a brand new one and I wired it EXACTLY the same as the old one..



I know this because I did it WIRE BY WIRE!! i.e. I took 1 wire off the old receptacle and installed it on the new one.. wire by wire..



Power works and all that.. BUT NOW the ONLY light switch in the room does not control the bottom receptacle anymore?



what gives? i don't get it.. what changed?



Previously the light switch gave power to this outlets bottom plug, so I had the lamp plugged into it and turned it on/off with the light switch..



but that doesn't work?



I even triple checked my work and still not seeing whats up?





any ideas?





oNe.





p.s.  HOW do you release the wires on these new fangled outlets? It says push spring in slot to release but I am not seeing it?  any ideas?
      

I'm having quite the time finding an electrician who will quote this.  Just about all of them say that what I need is to upgrade my main panel but I want to install a new main panel that is a part of the meter base outside and make my current 100A panel a sub.   Maybe you people can tell me why nobody seems to want to do this.  Here are a few shots of the existing meter (note what is apparently a 60A base here)






and a shot of the conduit headed underground.  Like most homes built during this era, the conduit makes a right turn underground to enter through the cinderblock, ending up coming into the back of the main panel.  This conduit encloses a 4 wire feed. edit: no, actually it is only a 3 wire feed which is a problem if I want to convert the original main panel a sub.






Here's the existing panel.  It's a 60's era Square-D split panel with a 30 amp sub panel for the finished basement.  Those are low voltage wires to circuit taps for my home energy monitoring system btw.






The reason I don't want to upgrade this panel are as follows:

We won't be expanding the electrical west of this panel any more.  All planned expansion (240v car charger in Garage, planned 3 season room with grid tie Solar on the roof) will be to the east.


Upgrading the panel will require major surgery to the walls.  Due to the way the original basement is engineered there, the walls have an intricate stud pattern behind the existing panel.  I'd pretty much have to rip out a 4' section and redo it to make the access large enough to handle a 200A panel.


Adding additional circuits to an upgraded panel will require an act of God due to the finished basement construction.  There are no raceways for additional circuits.






Based on this, my thoughts were to create a new 200A main panel outside based on something like the GE model TSM420CSCUP loadcenter.  Here's a shot of this panel:






This particular panel has room for three 2-pole breakers in addition to the 200A mains.  I'd add a 100A 2-pole breaker for the existing panel, with the other two reserved for the garage/solar expansions.



The issue with the contractors who have quoted the job appears to be the conduit going to the existing panel.  I'm not sure what's wrong with it but it is apparently not compliant with current code.  Obviously the bonding needs to change, new grounding electrodes need to be driven, and a water pipe ground needs to be established to the new main panel, but what else is required?



I'd like to throughly research all the code considerations here so I can approach a contractor from a more knowledgable perspective then determine the best way to perform this upgrade.  Due to POCO coordination and the need to cut household power for the duration of the job, I have no desire to DIY this one...



So what exactly is wrong with the conduit running from the existing meter base to the existing load center?  Why is everybody telling me that I can't do essentially what I've described above?  What are the relevant code sections that will apply to this job?  Should I be chatting with my AHJ about local considerations now or should I wait until I have the code requirements down pat (assuming the latter here)?
      

Hi All -



I'm looking to add some outlets in the garage (currently have only one) for my workshop. At most, I'll be using a 13 amp table saw and 11 amp shop vac simultaneously.



I had an electrician come out for an estimate and while it was a fair price, I want to do this myself to build some confidence.



A few questions: he said they would probably add 2 15 amp circuits to handle the load. Is that necessary? Or can I add say one 30 amp circuit?



2nd: my garage is drywalled (and insulated). It will be much easier to have the outlets (and wire) on the exterior of the wall. What would be the best materials for this? My breaker is located in the garage and the outlets would run directly out from the side as seen in my poor illustration.



Since it is set into the wall, I'll have to run the wire from the breaker into the back of the first box. Is that as simple as it sounds, or is there something that I am missing?



Any help is appreciated.



Cameron
      

I have a tankless hot water heater with the following requirements:

Voltage/Freq:240v/60

Wattage:21kw

Max amp load: 88

Min req circuit breaker: 2x60

Min wire size: 2x8 AWG copper (note:should be 2x6)



Amps to house is 200. Breaker box is 10 years old with space to add new breaker. The old 30 breaker will come out, new 2x60 in, and new wiring will need to be run approx 15 feet to location of old water heater.



Initial quotes from electricians via phone are all over the place and I have someone coming to house on Friday for a site estimate. In my understanding, the work is straight forward as stated above. What am I missing? Or what might the electricians be thinking I am not (besides pulling a $40 permit)?
      

I've had an on-off problems with two of my ceiling fans (different makers, one hunter and one minka). Wired differently too, the minka one is controlled by a wall remote control, and the hunter one by two wired wall switches).



Every now and then, for no reason, the fan will stop working. It may stop working for a day, a week, whatever.. then start working again for a month or even a year. When this happens, the light kit on both fans still works (on the minka, the light kit and fan are on the same line, separated in the fan by the remote control receiver. On the hunter, it's two different wires going into the fan.).



It stumps me.. I'll just turn the fan on one day, it will spin a little bit, then stop. Nothing gets it to work. I can hear a small hum in its motor, like it's getting power, but it won't spin. Then a week later I may accidentally turn it on again and it will run. Two and three years ago I had repeated on/off problems with both fans. Last year, both worked perfectly the entire year. This year one of them has started acting up again.



Any hints would be appreciated.
      

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?
      

So we just bought a circal-1930s house, and one very large project looming is redoing the eletrical. The house has a mix of BX, cotton-wraped romex, and some very cracked romex running around the house. combine that with some very odd additions for outlets, bad light switch placement, it's just going to be a large project.



My father in law, a licensed electrician, has promised to do the rewiring of the house this summer. The problem is I plan to do some major renovations in the coming years (namely the kitchen).



I am already drawing up floor plans now so I can stategically think of where to put needed outlets, but should they be installed at this time? Is it worth the headache to install new outlets now and put them in their proper locations when the reno comes?