Recent content by 1HandyWoman

Yes Afjes I agree and understand what you are saying. With your analogy one can see that if the electricity, after being "cleaned", was not returned somehow back into the house the entire 240 V would be "used up" and sent into the sewer (in your analogy). Slownsteady, that certainly would...

Excellent explaination and was my basic understanding of how residential elec services worked (except I never knew ground and neutral could /would be bonded together). Now is this filter company lying to me? IDK but they have been in business for many years and have a good reputation so, why...

Ok but if they are both bonded together than they can not go to separate places. Anyhow, it doesn't really matter (other than I have learned a thing or two) because I finally talked to the tech support of the filter manufacturer and he assured me that YES it is because the neutral and ground...

Whats up? EMFs harm everyBODY. I am maybe more sensitive than you are. I am willing to do something to reduce the harm. That is why I have no smartphone, no microwave, no wifi, etc. Who do you think would spend money for an emf filter but one who knew they were being harmed by them?

Well I never knew this site to be highly censored but I guess that is just the way things go now a days.

There can NOT be a grounding wire or rod outside, it is impossible. If there were, since the neutrals and grounds are both bonded together in the panel box and therefore leave the panel box bonded together there could be no way to ever separated those paths on the outside? Impossible. So...

You do not see any such grounding wire because as I stated earlier THERE IS NO GROUNDING WIRE! This house is NOT grounded. But Wyr says that it is code to bond the neutrals to the grounds and both the neutral wires and the ground wires are all connected to the aluminum wire (shown in the pic...

Wyr, Yes the panel has a bonding screw and it is very difficult to see in person so a pic would be difficult to see it even if I had a better quality pic. Yes the enclosure is metallic. So bottom line I guess is that this configuration is correct, and code, and may or may not be the cause of...

That last pic is pretty darn clear to me, or maybe I am just blind, IDK. Yes this is my main panel (and my only panel). So bonding neutral and ground is code? Then why have two "paths"? Yes the horizontal bar is a connector that is what throws me off as I though neutral and ground were...

Ok Update. I installed the new filter and new circuit breaker yesterday. And I did NOT electrocute myself :). I took the cover off the filter I installed and saw that a blue light was on (tells me the unit is on). But, and this really confounds me, I tested all my circuits in the house and...

Wyr you the man! Great Idea. Will do. I also read the entire panel wiring instructions that are glued to the inside of the panel box door and it says that I can put two or even three grounds to one screw if the wire sizes are in the correct range 14-10 AWG. I don't know the size of the wires...

Wonderful discussion on total loads. Thank you all very much for your thoughts. Not something that I was even considering. However, I am not worried at all about total loads and here is why... One, there is a 60A circuit that is wired for an electric laundry dryer and I have a gas dryer...

OK I THINK I follow what you are saying. So then my followup question would be (if I am at all understanding what you said) .... can I replace one of the 20A breakers on the left side with a smaller (half sized) 20A breaker (to supply the existing 20A circuit) and a new half sized 15A breaker...

OK I finally got the cover off the box. Here is what it looks like inside. Again not the clearest pic but the best I could do with the camera I have. I can now see that the bar running horizontally at the bottom (blocking the two punch outs) is definetely a jumper tying the neutrals together...

Ok well I do not know the lingo of breaker boxes so my bad. What it is or what it does I do not know but it is a bar that is connected to both sides of the box that has "buss bars" or whatever those bars are that run vertically and which the breakers are latched onto. So the horizontally...