Replacing Elec Range With Gas

Hi all, this is my first post, so...my kitchen was just renovated and the electrical outlets are on the walls and I wanted them in plugmold under the cabinet. Why didn't it happen?  Long story, but I'm doing it myself now.  The electrical receptacles are on 2 separate circuits with a gfci receptacle on each and neither circuit has a receptacle outside the kitchen where I can put the gfci's, so I'm putting gfci breakers in the panel instead. I've run into a different problem on each circuit that'd like some advice on.



Circuit 1: this is a 20 amp circuit.  I have to plug this circuit's neutral wire into the gfci breaker, but I couldn't see which neutral wire matched the hot wire (buried in mess of wires) and I don't have a continuity tester so I just pulled one neutral at a time (tedious) until the circuit failed, but it never failed. So I did this again for every neutral...same result. This circuit shares a few boxes with other circuits so I'm wondering if the neutrals on different circuits are tied together somewhere, and if so I'm pretty sure, but not completely, that that's not going to work with the gfci breaker.  So I didn't install that gfci breaker since I'm not confident it would actually gfci (yep i verbified gfci).  What do you think?



Circuit 2:  this is a 20 amp circuit.  This circuit currently has the refrigerator, gas stove and range hood, and then a gfci in front of 3 electrical receptacles, which already sounds bad since I thought the kitchen receptacles required 2 dedicated circuits. I replaced that breaker with no problem, but it tripped after a few minutes and continued to trip every few minutes. I haven't changed anything else on that circuit yet and it's never tripped before, but now it is, so I put the old breaker back for now. The current gfci receptacle is only protecting the 3 outlets since the appliances are ahead of it. I know you wouldn't normally want the appliances gfci protected, so do you think the refrigerator motor may be a problem?  Do I need the appliances on a separate circuit?  What would you suggest I do?



Thanks, and if you're wondering "why all the effort?", it's partly because I'm meddlesome, partly because I'm bored, and partly because the backsplash tile is to be on showcase, not the electrical receptacles.
      

How do I replace a range hood for an over the range microwave?
      

My house has 240v outlet from the previous owner for a kiln of some sort. Im putting a tanning bed in its place. The plug on the tanning bed is a L6-30. I checked specs on the tanning bed and it requires a L6-30 recepticle and a 30amp circuit breaker. I went to the local home fixit store and found the correct recepticle and bought a 2-pole Siemens 30a circuit breaker. After shutting off the main breaker and using testing equipment I pulled out the 50a breaker and replaced it with the 30a..no problem. Heres where Im not sure....The L6-30 recepticle that goes in the wall has a X and a Y and a G marking on it. The G is grounding per instructions, w is white or grey, and X,Y,Z are black, red, blue or etc etc.The wires that come out of the house are red, black and a bare aluminum bradied type wire. Looking at the back from the top counterclockwise  I hooked up the red, then black, then the bare nraided to the G (has green screw) Is the black and red correct? And why doesnt it say red, black and gound?  Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks!!!
      

I have a 1960s house with EMT throughout. 



I recently replaced 2 florecent fixtures in my basement with 4 LED lights in their own J-Boxes in the drop ceiling. I did the following:



1. Rerouted the the conduit from the light switch to the main j-box for the lights. (previously it was going directly into the fixture) 

2. Ran 4 foot whips to each jbox holding the LED (metalic 14# wires)

3. Cut the old spliced wire (that was just twisted and taped) and used a wire nut

4. Replaced the switch with a dimmer



The lights work great.  Noticebale improvement and the dimmer is excellent.



The issue is that the circuit for the kitchen is now tripping.  I told my wife its just a coincidence, but she is sure I caused it.  Its only happened 2x (1 day apart.  Nothing unusual running on the circuit, only the fridge and the gas stove which as not in use)



Can my "new" work possibly impact another circuit?   What should I check?  Any way to avoid re-doing my work?



Things I noticed / may or may not be relevant:

1. Some of the EMT is directly in contact with a copper water pipe

2. The switch / dimmer isn't grounded

3. The wires in the jbox were nasty and old.  There was corrosion on the jackets and the jbox.  Looks like some water leaked down fromt the laundy above at some point in the last 40 years.

4. At some point (months ago) when I was in the basement I touched some of the EMT and something that was plugged in I swear I feld a shock. (just listing everything I can think of).  I didn't think much of it at the time, but now my whole electrical system is suspect.

5.  The tripped circuit (fridge, MW, stove) didn't appear to be tripped.  The fridge wasn't on.  When I turned off and back on the circuit the aplliances came back to life.  Appliances less than 1 year old. 

6. The clock on the range was reset at one point but I didn't think I turned on or off the circuit.  The lights for the basement were switced off but still worked with the fridge circuit tripped.

7.  We had a huge electrical storm right before I did the work

8.  We have a "stablock" panel that the home inspector got all bent out of shape about.  Other than truning on and off breakers I have never touched it.

9.  Kitchen breaker and basement light breaker are adjacent in the box

10.  I believe kitchen and basement share the same EMT in places.

11.  I think I now have too many connectors in my j-box.  Will likely add an extension.

12.  I didn't use the red "bushing" on all my whips as I ran out of them, but I was careful with the metal sheath and really don't think any wires were cut. (besides if there was a short wouldn't my LED lights fail and that circut break?)



HELP.  I am happy to call a contractor to come in, but I don't have an electrician I trust yet and I'm scared bringing someone in before I isolate the problem a little.
      

I live in an older house and the range hood over the stove came loose and fell off the wall last night. The wires are now exposed and I don't know what to do with them. There are three wires. I can post a pic if needed. Also when I cap them off should the shut down the main power to the house? I've never done this kind of thing before.
      

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 will be pulling from the breaker panel new 12/2 romex for a kitchen microwave and a 20 amp circuit, 12/2 for the garage. I might also pull some extra wire for a future add on room and to divide up existing circuits to avoid overloads in the future. I am snaking these cables through existing sheetrock ceilings and walls. Are there any code requirements about snaking through existing walls and ceilings other than drilling holes 2" from the face of a stud or beam?
      

I'm new to this site.  But would appreciate some troubleshooting.  I just renovated my kitchen, gutted and all, finished in the Fall.  I did not replace wiring to the dryer, nor tamper with it, to my knowledge.  We did have an electrician add a small fuse panel.  We did not add more appliances then before, added some lights, but mostly used the room to separate things out.  Had a mentor do the wiring, many years of experience, very tidy and careful work, though not electrician by trade.  We have a standard 200 amp box as far as i know.  The house is 100 years old, but the wiring isn't.



In October my mother in law heard a very loud bang.  The electric dryer had been running.  She smelled smoke.  At the dryer receptacle was molten plastic sprayed onto the wall, caused by overheating at that point, due to I don't know what.  I thought maybe I had knocked something loose in the receptacle when i was drywalling around it.  I can't remember now if the breaker had tripped.  The receptacle and plug were toast. 



I replaced the receptacle, I replaced the dryer cord, not the breaker.   The dryer worked fine until february, when it stopped heating.  I found a bad thermal fuse and replaced it, the very common two pronged white one. 



The dryer worked fine until early April when it stopped heating again.  I checked all the fuses/thermostats on the back and the heating element, as I had done the first time.  Nothing was bad.  I checked the voltage coming out of the wall, as I had done the first time, only this time I did it correctly and got a reading that told me to check the breaker in the panel, which had not thrown.  When I checked the voltage between the Nuetral Bus and the two terminals on the Dryer's 30 amp breaker I only got a good reading on one of them, telling me that the breaker was bad.  While at the box, i noticed that to the main breaker, from where the conduit comes into the box from outside, the nuetral wires are bare all the way up, no insulation, and at the terminal of the main breaker they appear to have all melted together, even a couple small pieces have melted off of the "bundle." 



Switched the range 50 amp breaker with the dryer, dryer worked fine, nothing was back fed either.  Bought a new 30 amp breaker for the dryer and installed it on Saturday.  Also on Saturday we were given a dryer, about 4 years old, same as ours, so i hooked it up and saved ours for a spare, which I deemed still good since it seemed the breaker was the issue.  New Dryer worked fine from saturday until today.  Now it won't turn on, though it didn't cut out mid load yesterday either.  The breaker did not trip.  I repeat, no tripped breaker.  I just checked the voltage at the wall and it seems to have that same problem where one side of the receptacle gets a reading of 120, and the other a reading of about 5.  The problem must be bigger than the breaker.  I am not an electrician, I am a welder.  I have gone as far as I could on my own.  Thank you.
      

Hello



I recently upgraded my old fuse panel with a circuit panel.  One of the circuits contains mostly lights and also my furnace.  The wire on the lights are 14/2 and the breaker is a 20 amp breaker.  Can I replace the 20 amp breaker with a 15 amp Breaker or do I need to change all the wire.



Help



Thanks
      

Our new range hood states is should be a dedicated 15 amp circuit. Is okay to put it on a 20 amp or would that violate code?