Ugly Cablevision Phone Cables Everywhere!

I want to run a Cat 5 line from my phone box outside to a jack inside to connect my phone and DSL. Right now I just have a regular phone line for both and the phone company recommends running a new line because the internet is always slow and I can't call out on my phone.



How do I know which wires to hook up outside?



Kevin
      

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
      

Do you guys use standard blue electrical box for phone/cat5 and coax? I am planning on using the plug that has one of each on them and want to know if I should put them in a plastic electrical box. thanks
      

Each time someone drives by my house using a cell phone it seems there is a one-time clicking noise coming out of several of my electrical outlets.  It may happen in all rooms at the same time but of course, the only ones I notice are in the room I am in currently.



Any ideas, and thanks!
      

I'm currently working on a house built in the 1930's. The electrical is a mess with a combination of a switch panel  and a fuse box with most of it still being knob and tube. I'm running a new electrical line to the air handler in the basement. This is due to it currently being tapped off a light circuit which also feeds an outlet in the kitchen, a bedroom, and half the outlets upstairs. (There's no rhyme or reason to the current electrical setup). 



  My main question is I'm running  12NM through bored holes in the studs to the air handler. Once I get to the handler and run it down to where it enters the appliance and switch box will I run in to codes problems. Should this run in the basement be inside a conduit or is NM cable okay? 

  Any guidance would be appreciated. 
      

I'm trying to figure out how exactly this should be redone... right now there is a NM cable going from the panel though the rim joist and outside straight down into the ground and out about 2 ft into the sump well then it jus dangles there with a female plug end connected to that which the sump pump then plugs into... well this actually shorted out the other night and created a wonderful noise and sparks...



how should I redo this? right now its not even GFIC... just straight into a 20 amp breaker...



I was thinking put an outside receptical on the side of the house run that straight thorugh the back of it into the rim joist and to the panel... have the outlet on that a GFIC outlet then run a underground line from that to the pump using UF cable with a similar female plug end inside the well (the well is about 11 ft deep and the plug is about 1 ft from the top right now... then that would just plug into the GFIC outlet on the side of the house... that outlet would of course have one of those clear enclosures around it that is water tight...



suggestions? comments? code violations?
      

I'm not sure this is the best place for this post but it certainly applies here. I'm looking to purchase a wire tracer. I'd like it to have these options, which I'm pretty sure they all do from what I've seen so far. Obviously, energized the wire and then trace its whereabouts; some type of decent sized pencil (item used to trace the wires itself) so you can get into smaller places; be able to do A/C, D/C and maybe phones lines too? I've seen the small cheesey one at the big box stores (I think it was made by GB) and wasn't really impressed. I'm leaning towards the Textron unit for phone lines only because the use and somewhat reasonable price. I know the high speed ones are what I'm looking for but I'm not willing to spend $500 on it- I don't think I'd use it enough to justify it. Are there any others ideas/items that I've missed? Any information will be appreciated. Thanks.
      

Hello everyone,I have a question about a forklift battery charger i bought. Ok,its an exide forklift battery charger 36 volts. It weighs a ton so i am having to run a 25 foot extension cord to it. My question is,my 220 wall outlet has three holes so i went to lowes and made a 220 extension cord. Now i get to the ac cable coming out of the charger that hooks to the extension cord(plug was cut off),there are 4 wires coming out of the cable green,white,red, and black......the guy at lowes said i could buy a 3 prong plug for it to plug into the female end of the extension cord because one of the 4 wires is probably neutral and i wouldnt have to hook up but the green,white and either the red or black.....is he right? Inside the charger the red,white and black all go to big fuses and green to ground. Also above the fuses it says "factory set to 480 volts ac". I guess my question is,will this charger only work using a 4 prong wall outlet(mine only has 3) and with 4 prong plug hooked to cable coming out of the charger itself or is the guy at lowes right in saying that only the red OR black wire has to be used? Sorry if this is confusing but ive searched and searched online for 3 days and havent found anything. Thanks in advance for any help-Kevin
      

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)?
      

QUESTION:  can I run (2) 14-2 romex wires in (1) 3/4 BX Armored cable?



SETUP: I am finishing my basement and a few main floor circuits are intermingled with the basement lights and outlets.  In finishing the basement, all basement electrical will be on its own circuit. Therefore, I need to rewire some main floor items.



For instance, the main floor living room outlets go through the den area below in the basement. The 3/4 BX cable goes through the ceiling to the outlets.



PLAN:  I plan to cut the armored cable shortly after it comes out of the ceiling (main floor floor) and just connect the first floor outlets in a series using the proper bushing and BX cable ends. I will strap the BX cable ends down and the romex as soon as it comes out.



The electrical inspector already gave me thumbs up on doing this for the electric oven and cooktop (bigger wires of course).



I searched and couldn't find anything to this specific question.



Any input?



B