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mapsedgeSo, here it is 10:53 on Thursday night. The kids are asleep upstairs, I'm in my office downstairs, and Michelle is at the emergency room, being seen for what we think (read: hope) is a UTI that was getting measurably more painful with each passing quarter-hour.
I should be sleeping, resting up in case I have to pack the kids off to the grandparents, but I wouldn't sleep anyway. Not until I know what's happening. Late Edit: 11:56, and M is on her way home. UTI, with drugs prescribed.
So, here to share an interesting story before going up and getting my shower and trying to relax.
Last weekend, I replaced yet another drafty jalousie window with Pella ProLine Double Hung Dual Pane replacement windows. Since the wall I was working on had eleectrical wiring somewhere inside it, I endevored to find the circuit and shut it off. I tried every breaker in turn - there are about twenty of them - to no avail. The circuit stayed live.
I finally had to turn off the Main - a big-ass 200AMP breaker that sounds like dropping a box of anvils when it closes. I verified that the wiring was a safe distance from the work area, turned the power back on and installed the window. (Thanks again to my father-in-law for his help and fearlessness on ladders.)
Tonight, I decided to find out why this circuit - comprised of several wall outlets in the family room and two light fixtures in the garage - wouldn't shut off except from the Main. The natural assumption, of course, is that there is no intermediate breaker, but that's not possible anymore, not since we had the old boxes replaced with modern service two years ago.
I shut off the main, and cut the feeder wire. I separated and isolated the hot and neutral, and taped them off. I turned the power back on and went upstairs to find out what outlets I'd lost.
Every outlet was still "hot." Okay, so add this to the list of things that make you say, "What the fuck?" I've cut the wire between the breaker box and the outlet, and it still works. Back downstairs, I untape the outlet side of the cut wire and apply my tester to it: it lights up.
Now, for those of you who don't know, circuits usually end somewhere along the way, in a light socket or outlet: you feed from the breaker box, out on black, back on white - positive, neutral; in, out; hot, not; Kirk, Spock; Kent, Kevin. Ok, that was too far. It's late.
MY circuit was wired in a loop: out from the box b/w, back to the box b/w (in phase, if you care to know, which kept it from blowing up for all those years), so interupting it anywhere along the way had no effect: if breaker 1 was turned off it was still getting power from breaker 2, and vice versa. I went back to the breaker box, started flipping breakers: BINGO. With just one power source, I can turn the circuit off now.
The denoument is pretty simple. I'll be putting the other side of the loop (which is now a whole other circuit) into a junction box, and probably use it to power the garage - I've been wanting to put a line of outlets along the workbench and was wondering if I'd have to run another circuit. Turns out, there's one I'm not using just now.
I should be sleeping, resting up in case I have to pack the kids off to the grandparents, but I wouldn't sleep anyway. Not until I know what's happening. Late Edit: 11:56, and M is on her way home. UTI, with drugs prescribed.
So, here to share an interesting story before going up and getting my shower and trying to relax.
Last weekend, I replaced yet another drafty jalousie window with Pella ProLine Double Hung Dual Pane replacement windows. Since the wall I was working on had eleectrical wiring somewhere inside it, I endevored to find the circuit and shut it off. I tried every breaker in turn - there are about twenty of them - to no avail. The circuit stayed live.
I finally had to turn off the Main - a big-ass 200AMP breaker that sounds like dropping a box of anvils when it closes. I verified that the wiring was a safe distance from the work area, turned the power back on and installed the window. (Thanks again to my father-in-law for his help and fearlessness on ladders.)
Tonight, I decided to find out why this circuit - comprised of several wall outlets in the family room and two light fixtures in the garage - wouldn't shut off except from the Main. The natural assumption, of course, is that there is no intermediate breaker, but that's not possible anymore, not since we had the old boxes replaced with modern service two years ago.
I shut off the main, and cut the feeder wire. I separated and isolated the hot and neutral, and taped them off. I turned the power back on and went upstairs to find out what outlets I'd lost.
Every outlet was still "hot." Okay, so add this to the list of things that make you say, "What the fuck?" I've cut the wire between the breaker box and the outlet, and it still works. Back downstairs, I untape the outlet side of the cut wire and apply my tester to it: it lights up.
Now, for those of you who don't know, circuits usually end somewhere along the way, in a light socket or outlet: you feed from the breaker box, out on black, back on white - positive, neutral; in, out; hot, not; Kirk, Spock; Kent, Kevin. Ok, that was too far. It's late.
MY circuit was wired in a loop: out from the box b/w, back to the box b/w (in phase, if you care to know, which kept it from blowing up for all those years), so interupting it anywhere along the way had no effect: if breaker 1 was turned off it was still getting power from breaker 2, and vice versa. I went back to the breaker box, started flipping breakers: BINGO. With just one power source, I can turn the circuit off now.
The denoument is pretty simple. I'll be putting the other side of the loop (which is now a whole other circuit) into a junction box, and probably use it to power the garage - I've been wanting to put a line of outlets along the workbench and was wondering if I'd have to run another circuit. Turns out, there's one I'm not using just now.
dayum, you're handy...
Date: 2006-04-21 15:35 (UTC)Gentle hugs to
Re: dayum, you're handy...
Date: 2006-04-21 15:50 (UTC)It's one of the perils of living in an old house that's been touched upon over the years by people with more enthusiasm than skill. I'm CONSTANTLY fixing stuff. If you look around the house and see something done right, it's probably because I did it, probably within the last 10 years or so.
I'll let M know you're thinking about her. She's down for the count just now, though we're not sure if it's because of the UTI or the meds. The docs said to expect 48 hours, and we're in the middle of the first 24.
Re: dayum, you're handy...
Date: 2006-04-21 16:20 (UTC)My front doorbell doesn't work when the front light is turned on :)