Pier Wiring Leaking

Hello All,



I'm about to "re-locate" some existing breakers and wires into a subpanel and have a few questions.



1) My existing hot water heater is wired with 2 conductor w/ground wiring (30 amp, #10 wire). Is this still Code compliant or do you have to have 3 conductor now as with dryers?



My existing dryer also has 2 conductor w/ground wiring (installed in 1999).



If I relocated it or the hot water wires/breakers to my new subpanel will they require me to upgrade to current code (3 conductor, if applicable)? The subpanel will attach to the Main Load Center which is where those breakers/wires are currently attached.



Main question is will I be grandfathered with existing wiring in only relocating the breakers/wires to subpanel?  I'm not relocating the appliances or recepticles themselves.



2) I have 3 conductor w/ground wires for my cook top. It only requires 2 conducter w/ground however. They wired the ground/neutrals together but has flexible metal conduit running to the cook top itself. Should I remove the ground and bond it to the metal conduit?



Thanks, Ralph
      

Today I was fixing the water valve to the washing machine, and to get access to the water line, I had to disassemble an outlet. To my shock (no pun intended), I discovered that some moron bootlegged the outlet by connecting neutral and ground together.



Now I'm concerned that I may have this elsewhere in the house. What is the best way to test for this? Obviously I will see 120 V from hot to ground in any case, so that doesn't work. Continuity between neutral and ground is normal, because they are connected at the main panel; I measured the resistance between neutral and ground at an outlet close to the main panel, and it was virtually zero. But that doesn't meat it's bootlegged.



I don't really want to take each outlet apart. And even if I do that, how would I know that the moron didn't connect ground to neutral somewhere inside a wall?



Thanks,
      

Tearing out a wall cabinet uncovered a hole in the wall which I think I can install an outlet on.  The problem is that the ground wires are to short to pull out far enough to attach to the outlet.



However, the box in the wall is metal, so there should still be an path to the ground from the outlet right?  Or is there something special about the green screw on the outlet which makes that the only safe spot to attach the ground to?



box I uncovered:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...s538/photo.jpg



fuzzy picture of the inside of the box showing the ground being attached to metal box:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B...303_154810.jpg



The outlet I want to install... (although I dont know how to pick the right outlet based on the limited info on the wiring I have, so any help with that would also be appreciated):

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-...&storeId=10051
      

First off im in So Cal. and a few months back my pool equipment stoped working after a rain storm. I have an underground conection that is accseible through a plastic box in the concrete. There is a water proof box there that housed the wiring as it runs from 220 breaker underground to the pool equip., I opened it to find it full of water. The short burned the wiring some where under some 60 feet of cement. I forgot to mention the wiring in existing conduit will not pull through have tried several times even as despreate as a come-along.



Ive had an electrician and Genral contractor both look at it and both said wiring is fried, but im looking for advice on my two options.



1st is cutting a trench in the cement about 60 to 70 feet from circuit breaker to pool equipment. Then using conduit the whole lenght like it was previously but no under ground box. Just two connections breacker & pool Equip.



2nd option the breaker is near my atic. run power from breaker through the house atic to where pops out on the other side of the house. would be about 50 feet through atic and about another 50 feet of conduit 25 above ground attached to eves and 25 below ground to pool equipment. This is a similar route as the gas line to pool equipment they will come out of atic about 20 feet apart then eventually follow similar path is this a problem?? I was told to use 12-3 Romex?? Suggestions on which route to take would be great. Atic is clearly easyer but concerend with closeness to gas line. Thanks before hand for the help
      

Our pool was installed 10 years ago and we need to change the 3 underwater lights because they are leaking. The cable for each light box goes through a conduit and up to a "deck Box" or junction box per code so water from pool can't run up to the box. In order to change the lights we need to locate the box and pull the wires out, then feed the wires through for the new light. The problem is that one of the boxes seems to be missing. That light sits under a stone waterfall and there is a planting area behind the waterfall. Ive searched under all the bushes and even done a bit of digging but cant find the box. I'm wondering if there is some smarter way to locate it.



I tried a metal detector but there were too many false alarms from every metal scrap the work men left behind. I was wondering if there is something that could be fed through the conduit to junction box that would send a signal allowing it to be located. I know the cesspool guys use something like that and thought maybe an electrician might have a similar tool.



The new lights are completely different than the old ones so we can't just change out one. if we can;t change this light we can;t change any of them and the whole project goes down the drain. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
      

Hi, I recently moved into a 1954 house with a  20amp electrical system, not the old fuse type, but there are no ground wires.



I removed an old light and replaced it with a light fan combo. As I removed the old light (after turning off the breaker) I noticed from the ceiling that there were 2 white wires tied together with a wire nut and 2 black wires, one attached to the white wire in the light and the other attached to the black one from the light. Feeling this was wrong and should be black to black, white to white, (even knowing full well the light was working fine before I disconnected it) I wired the fan the way I've always wired fan lights,  white to white, blue and black to black.  (again, knowing full well the light was working the other way). Turned breaker on then powered on switch. POP at the switch, breaker switched off. I reworked it back to the way it was before with whites tied off, black to white, black and blue to black, turned it back on and  viola, things worked fine. (I know, duh... Right???)

2 questions from this experience...

1. Why would the 2 whites be tied off with only black wires used?

And 2. It seems that one of the light switches in the same circuit as the blown one is now working soft. In other words, it used to make the normal click noise when turned on/off but now it just moves softly up and down without the click. Could I have damaged something when I mis-wired?
      

I had posted a week or so ago about random afci's tripping aroung my house that is a year old. I am fairly convinced that it's a interference problem or something in my ground system. Outside my house there is a meter and next to it is a small breaker panel with a 200a breaker that feeds the panel downstairs. Outside there are 2 big black wires going to the ground bus. They go inside and one goes to the water pipe that comes in from outside. O can see where the other one goes. Is it important for me to put in a ground rod and run a big wire to the outside box? My las two new houses had them. I'll try to upload a pic of the outside box. Thanks
      

I have a small 19 gallon water heater in a small garage space, that was installed by some questionable handymen a few months back.  I just had the plumbing and septic finished so tested the hot water, only to find the element was already burned out.



I noticed however, that this 120v unit is wired via 10 gauge wire to a 30 amp double breaker.  This is questionable because I thought a 120v appliance would be wired to a single pole on the hot wire and run neutral to the neural panel area.



My question is, can I run the hot wire out of one side of the double breaker without safety issues, or should I definitely replace it with a single pole breaker?



I would normally not question the work, but everything these guys did already had to be adjusted, so I'm only naturally assuming this may need to be also.



If its safe, I would like to simply things and just connect the one hot and leave an open space in the other half of the double pole... Is this possible?



Thanks for your advice-
      

Hey,

I'm located in Ontario/Canada and I'm in the process of installing some recessed lights in my uninsulated basement. I was going through the electrical code and noticed that in an 8in^3 electrical box, it is only permitted to have 2 wires and 2 wire nuts.



I have 3 wire nuts (ground, neutral and hot) and two wires coming into each switch.



It seams odd that the light box would not be sized correctly considering its CSA approved. Have any of you come across a similar problem ?



As a side note, I'm also finding it hard to jam 6-8in of cable and 3 wire nuts in this small box !
      

I am new to the forum so kindly bear with me.  I live in Mesa, AZ and have just had a PEX repipe done to bypass my copper hot water lines.  (God don't ask!  A real problem here with slab foundations.  I already had my kitchen jack hammered once.  It is NOT pretty!).

It seems really odd to me that just because it is a dedicated circuit  that code would not require that circuit to be GFCI protected.

I have a dedicated 20 amp duplex 12 AWG wire outlet under the sink and it is within a few inches of the water lines.  The outlet serves a switch for the garbage disposal and serves my dishwasher which is always hot. 

  Now that I have all my maple cabinets pulled out I thought I might change the outlet to a GFCI just to be safe.  I have a ground wire, a red wire, a black wire and a white wire.  As it is dedicated I think I should use the LINE sided instead of the LOAD side but I am not sure where the wires should go.

Could someone give me info on this?  It would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.