Careful With Those Wires, Please!
It’s been a busy few weeks here. Along with work, my wife came down with a case of MRSA. So up until last week it had been work, work, work, then come home and take care of her and the house and the puppies . . .
Yes, puppies. Our old labrador had the last litter of puppies she’ll ever have. But in doing so she gave us a gift: A pretty little girl puppy that we named Anniel ("Gift"). Unfortunately, the puppies came at the same time as the Staph infection, so it just added to the stress.
Anyway, on to what’s been going on at ABS.
It’s been busy and hectic, but up until yesterday (Saturday, even) all has been pretty routine.
Then yesterday I got a frantic call from an older fellow living in an old double-wide mobile home. He’d gotten himself into a spot. He tried to melt down the wiring in the place. Totally fried a 50 amp circuit breaker! Worse, he did it trying to wire his new electric stove onto the same circuit as his electric dryer. There were wires everywhere, plugs that here hanging out of the wall. It looked like he was trying to do a do-it-yourself remodel.
Note: Major electric appliances (i.e. 220v appliances) must be on individual circuits.
This guy was trying to put a 70 amp load on a 30 amp circuit on a box that was only wired for a total of 50 amps. That he cross wired the connection and had to call me is probably the only thing that save him from an electrical fire!
220 wiring is a bit different than 110. With a standard 110 setup you normal have to conductors: Black is "hot" and white is "neutral". If the wiring is relatively modern, you’ll also have an "earth ground" that may either be a bare wire or colored green.
220 has two "hot" wires: One is black, the other is usually red. But on older homes, like this mobile, both "hot" wires were black. Now, different things will happen depending on how you put those wires together:
Red + black = 220 volts. (Or black + black)
Red (or black) + white = 110 volts.
Just make sure you don’t connect the green (or bare) wire to any of the others! (That’s how he melted down his system.) Green (or bare) is earth ground. At your mains box it should be connected to an "earth strap" of some kind. It could be an underground water pipe, or a metal rod that’s been driven into the ground. Again, older homes may not be grounded, but with the sensitivity of today’s electronics, should be.
Another thing I discovered when I entered the house was that the fellow had remove 12 feet of bearing wall from the center of the double-wide mobile. Now, today you can buy a mobile home that’s built almost as well as a house. (Not that you should ever remove a bearing wall without blocks and bracing!) But back in the 1960s, when this unit was built, they were still building mobiles out of the lightest wood they possibly could. One good snow storm this winter and the roof was going to come down on him!
Then I looked under the cook-top counter and found a standard gate valve being used as a gas shutoff valve, and only masking tape covering the flair fitting. The smell of gas was fairly strong.
I recommended he fix that problem immediately if not sooner! I also recommend he brace the ceiling until he could either get the wall replaced or put a timber of some kind up to hold it up.
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