Space heaters are more practical, portable and safer (and darn cheap).
Q: Why do several breakers in my electrical panel (1-year-old house) have little metal levers, looking like little arms to lock the breaker on or off?
A: These metal clips are used by the electricians during construction to ensure their safety. When several people are working in a home, not all are necessarily communicating with one another. When one circuit needs to be "locked out," the electrician literally puts a tiny padlock on the breaker to make sure he doesn't get juiced.
That fear of getting zapped every time you move is a nasty occupational hazard these poor guys must contend with.
That continuing paranoia must really wear on these poor guys and mess with their minds, for I have never seen a worse group of spellers in my entire life. I am being totally serious here. Take a look inside the electrical panel cover at your own home: Kitchin, jakuzi, londry, microwav, lites and on it goes.
Q: I've got an enclosed fireplace in my new townhome. A set of switches operates it: One turns on the flame and the other the circulating fan.
I've noticed something odd with the fan switch: When I turn the fan off, lights plugged into a neighboring outlet will receive a surge of electricity visible as a brief brightening of the bulbs, even if the lamps are turned off.
Why does this occur, and what can I do to correct it?
A: Somewhere in that circuit, the neutral and hot wires are crossed. Have your builder get the electrician to the house immediately to repair this. Even with his own crossed spelling wires, he should be able to find this flaw fairly easily.
Q: Regarding your column recently about dielectric fittings, I am seeing many local plumbing inspectors wanting to see brass unions instead of dielectrics when connecting copper and galvanized steel fresh-water lines.
A: Hey, I am all for that! Personally, I never thought those dielectrics worked so well, anyway, and ironically, they required a jumper wire to keep the electrical bonding intact, eliminating the capacity of the material to do its job.
Dielectrics are good in theory, but not so good in practice — kind of like roof ridge vents. But contradictory codes are not new, so we soldier on.
I digress. For those not aware, steel is sacrificial (anodic) when connected directly to copper (cathodic), as the latter in close proximity to the former increases its rate of corrosion and rusting.
Brass is between the two metals on the galvanic table, and its presence helps slow the rate of deterioration. The closer on the scale to each other, the less corrosion on adjoining metals. This holds true for fasteners such as screws, as well.
Here are some common metals and their respective relationships, starting with anodic metals: magnesium, zinc, aluminum, steel/iron, cast iron, lead, tin, nickel, brass, copper, bronze, silver, platinum and gold.
Darrell Hay is a local home inspector and manages several rental properties. |
