This is the house I lived in for 37 years in Florida. The red minivan is mine. The entire neighborhood is flooded as there is a drainage canal behind the house that I was standing in when I took this picture. When a serious rainstorm comes the drainage canal not only doesn't work, but the overflow from the everglades flows back up the canal and floods the neighborhood. This happened once or twice a year and anytime a hurricane or tropical storm dropped several inches of rain in the 'glades. Flood insurance was subsidized and cheap $150 / year.
Despite the flooding, the mailman ran his route.
Here, I have had the creek overflow and flood much of the back yard, but no water has gotten into the house.....yet.
Despite the flooding, the mailman ran his route.
Here, I have had the creek overflow and flood much of the back yard, but no water has gotten into the house.....yet.
Attachments
George -- I think we are getting used to it. I had our gutters reinforced last summer as the verocity of the rain up here in CLE is beyond historical
Is that a Mercury Comet?
I haven't seen one of those since, since, since... the early 80s... wow...
Yes, that's a 1977 Mercury Comet. The homeowner's boyfriend was a Ford fanatic. It started up and drove after the water subsided. The brakes took a while to dry out. The cars with bags over their heads are all 1960's Mustang convertibles. The two grey covers house an immaculate 1964 original restoration and a 1968 daily driver. There was also a 1970 mustang in a state of partial disassembly out of the picture to my right. The car under the blue bag is my 1966 convertible.
Oddly all the Mustangs were clean and water free inside after the storm, but the green 1999 Pontiac Sunfire convertible hiding behind the minivan was flooded despite being shielded from most of the wind and rain. Water ran out of the car when I opened the door. That car was such a POS that we only put 4000 miles on it in the two years we had it, because it was always at the dealership dead. We traded it in on a used 1999 Mustang convertible which went trouble free for 9 years until I sold it.
Attachments
Using metal boxes?
Most stuff I see nowadays is a blue plastic box, they don't ground the box at all.
Most stuff I see nowadays is a blue plastic box, they don't ground the box at all.
Metal buildings almost exclusively use metal and Armorlite around here. Some will go to EMT. Boxes can mount directly to the steel structure, and the purlins can be used as cable trays. The shop could have used a hybrid approach, but it was easier just to be consistent. And once you get used to doing it that way you won’t go back to NM-B and plastic - ever. Far too easy to rip the plastic jacket off - up in a hot attic. The conductors in NM are rated 90C, but that plastic jacket gets gooey. You see that stuff up in attic spaces, running every which way, with 15 pieces bundled, stretched tight to save inches - and have to walk across it. You wonder about it’s long term safety. With the anchoring requirements of AC, you actually have to think about where you are running what. You end up with something serviceable, should it ever need it. Steel boxes will typically contain a small fire or short well - and self extinguish. Should a real fire break out in the attic, metal jacket cable will buy TIME before the electrical system fails.
Yeah, the stuff is more expensive. But in the grand scheme of things it’s just not that much. If you were to hire an electrician, it would turn a $12,000 job to a $23,000 job between the retail-on-retail pricing and the extra labor (it IS more time consuming). But doing all this myself it might add up to $1500 extra.
Yeah, the stuff is more expensive. But in the grand scheme of things it’s just not that much. If you were to hire an electrician, it would turn a $12,000 job to a $23,000 job between the retail-on-retail pricing and the extra labor (it IS more time consuming). But doing all this myself it might add up to $1500 extra.
Around our area, metal electrical boxes are much cheaper, since they are locally produced vs the plastic versions, so we used all metal boxes in our build. I did discover that Siemens breakers in Canada are different than the US versions. During Covid breakers were in scarce supply, we bought a quad breaker off amazon and it would not fit our distribution panel, had to send it back
Those “Quad” breakers are typically for mains in the GE residential panels.
Around here, the branch circuit breakers for GE (ABB), Siemens, and Squared D Homeline are all interchangeable. The mains are NOT. Except those half size GE’s which don’t fit anything except some of theirs. Not all GE panels will even even take them. Square D’s commercial stuff has always been different, and there are two different Eatons.
Everybody want to use the plastic boxes (and NM) because it goes in fast. Blow and go. No terminations required at the boxes. Slap in a couple staples and holler “Next”. Need a 5 gang box for that many switches? No problem here it is…. By the time I need more than 3 switches in a location they end up on separate zones anyway and not on the same breaker. So I need 2 metal boxes.
Around here, the branch circuit breakers for GE (ABB), Siemens, and Squared D Homeline are all interchangeable. The mains are NOT. Except those half size GE’s which don’t fit anything except some of theirs. Not all GE panels will even even take them. Square D’s commercial stuff has always been different, and there are two different Eatons.
Everybody want to use the plastic boxes (and NM) because it goes in fast. Blow and go. No terminations required at the boxes. Slap in a couple staples and holler “Next”. Need a 5 gang box for that many switches? No problem here it is…. By the time I need more than 3 switches in a location they end up on separate zones anyway and not on the same breaker. So I need 2 metal boxes.
It is now c-c-c-COLD in the electronics shop. Too bad there are still too many clothes racks in my way. But enough space to do some power supply load testing. Got some new acquisitions from Antek to power the “biggest tube amps ever” - they now have 120/480V industrial control transformers up to 4kVA….
I did promise my wife that I’d finish the house before building any more amplifiers, but hanging dummy loads off a power supply to measure sag, and adding turns to transformers isn’t really “building an amplifier ”. Just a necessary step before you do.
That upstairs room in the house got framed some time ago. About a months worth of wiring so far. So far just pulling cable. I’ll be out of cable this week and need to get more. There are about 10 more circuits to pull.
I did promise my wife that I’d finish the house before building any more amplifiers, but hanging dummy loads off a power supply to measure sag, and adding turns to transformers isn’t really “building an amplifier ”. Just a necessary step before you do.
That upstairs room in the house got framed some time ago. About a months worth of wiring so far. So far just pulling cable. I’ll be out of cable this week and need to get more. There are about 10 more circuits to pull.
Attachments
That "room" in the picture?
Here in California we're supposed to have two points of egress... meaning a room needs at least two doors or a door and a window...
I guess that's classified as "storage"?
Does your property tax reflect the difference?
Also, you pulled your own Romex? 15A then? 14 gauge? I had 20A capable Romex (10 gauge for the kitchen, computer closet, audio/video homeruns... and 12 gauge elsewhere) put in my house and it took two guys to pull that. Even though most of the circuits have 15A breakers. At the time I figured it was cheap enough to do.
Hey, I wanna see the glamour pictures of the panel... That's the garage huh? 100A?
Three ton AC?
Do you have a drain for the mini split?
I was at the Home Depot the other way... did the orange buckets get smaller?
Here in California we're supposed to have two points of egress... meaning a room needs at least two doors or a door and a window...
I guess that's classified as "storage"?
Does your property tax reflect the difference?
Also, you pulled your own Romex? 15A then? 14 gauge? I had 20A capable Romex (10 gauge for the kitchen, computer closet, audio/video homeruns... and 12 gauge elsewhere) put in my house and it took two guys to pull that. Even though most of the circuits have 15A breakers. At the time I figured it was cheap enough to do.
Hey, I wanna see the glamour pictures of the panel... That's the garage huh? 100A?
Three ton AC?
Do you have a drain for the mini split?
I was at the Home Depot the other way... did the orange buckets get smaller?
Last edited: