Recent content by jsbeckton

The pipes are to a sink on an exterior wall. It's in a location where there is a bumpout so no basement underneath. Wonder if there is some kind of heat trace that can be insalled to make sure they do not freeze?

I think there is a little misunderstanding. My boiler is not leaking water or losing pressure. I am concerned about some pipes freezing while we are away (nothing to do with the boiler system) so I want to shut off the main water valve in case there is ever a break. My question is would this...

We have a boiler for hot water heat (in addition to our hot water heater) and I wanted to know if isolating the water when we leave every day is ok? (We have some pipes that are suceptile to freezing). I would imagine that the boiler might needed to be topped off every now and again due to minor...

I removed a wall between 2 rooms to combine them. For some reason one of the rooms had 2 layers of the drywall type backer board for the plaster while the other room has just one. Obviously I now have 2 different ceiling heights (about ½ inch). Any suggestions for making the transition look as...

So basically you are saying the open neutral is no longer grounded ands thus retains the voltage when the switch is closed because there can be no current flow back to the ground? So there would be no reason for the breaker to trip if there is an open neutral? Thanks

If the com was not open wouldn't you still have an open path between the hot and the com? Why does it read 120V if its open but ~0 if it is closed. So would there be any reason for the breaker to trip?

He is not a licenced electrician. I still am having trouble understanding how a open neutral can cause it to be at 120V? Also, should the breaker have tripped?

Correction, this is possible. Apparently the digital multimeter is subject to reading phantom voltages due to its high impedance. Phantom voltage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Maybe you should get a cheap analog meter to check.

Ok, sorry I misunderstood what you were saying. I did mention that it was working for over a month so that couldn't have been the problem because it never would have worked in the first place. If somebody accidentially puts a hot on a receptical ground they should be banned from further...

When you say that you have good voltage do you mean ~120V between the hot and the ground or between the hot and the neutral? If there is contact somewhere between a neutral and hot the neutral line will be at 120V as well. Then you could still get a 120V reading between the hot and the ground...

Are these false reading right in the 120V range and if so how is this possible? I have never had this happen to me.

The hot being attached to the ground woudln't make the neutral line 120V. Also, I couldn't have had a 120V potential between the hot and the ground if this were the case. Thanks anyways.

*** UPDATE *** Found the problem! It turns out that the contractor didn’t mount the lighting wires far enough away from the surface of the joists. When he installed the drywall one of the screws missed the joist and punctured through the wires insulation. After a month it finally tore...

Hello everyone, I have been remodeling an old house for about 4 months and this will be my first post. A contractor moved a wall and the wiring in it, while adding some new recessed lighting and an outlet. He said that the old power supply was in the ceiling which he ran over to the wall where...