Re: Home Electrical Wiring

[Hawkeye255@aol.com]

<< Don't even think of playing with the power grid, even with one hand in 
your
 pocket.   
                Alan >>

right arm! Alan.  Some real sense of the questioner's dilemma.

    1st)     The reversed polarity outlets are a likely place to get a 
shock 
with your gear.  So, get those fixed TODAY.
     2nd)     The 3-prong outlets need checked to see if there is a ground 
wire connected to the ground terminal of the receptacle or not.  If not, 
get 
that fixed.
     3rd)     Knob & Tube was and is good safe wiring.  Problems occur, 
however, when modern 3-wire conductors and old knob & tube (2-wire) are 
mixed 
on the same circuit(s).  The floating neutral of the old stuff can become 
severely overloaded--a fire hazard.
     4th)     The highest voltage I ever worked was 34,500 volts 
distribution 
power.  Perfectly safe if all the precautions are taken and the right gear 
is 
used.
     5th)     The only time I nearly got electrocuted was when assembling 
the 
buss bars inside a large 440v. 3-phase switchgear cabinet (about the size 
of 
a normal bedroom).  I had my safety padlock on the main, but a young 
electrical engineer decided he needed to show a group of state senators 
how 
the facility looked.  He wanted to turn on some overhead lights.  
(Engineers 
had master keys for everything in those days.)  He didn't check with 
anyone, 
he just unlocked my padlock and turned it all on.  Well I was sweating 
(July 
in Iowa) just pushing a 90 pound solid slab of copper buss in place when 
the 
power came on.  I was absolutely locked up and could not move, I couldn't 
even take a breath and my heart was stopped completely, since the 440 
volts 
was going from arm-to-arm for almost a full minute.  Finally, an 
apprentice I 
was working with, ran up and turned it off when he realized what was 
happening.  He punched out the EE too later, I heard!  Good lad.  I had 
minor 
burns on both arms where they were touching the buss bars.  I felt very 
strange for several days.  But, I got six months off with pay and the 
young 
EE got fired!  And no one could ever unlock anybody else's safety lock 
after 
that.  At least at that facility.
     6th)     The problem with 120 volts is that usually doesn't have 
enough 
strength to stop your heart, just enough to cause erractic fibrillations 
which will kill you in 5 minutes or so.  A heart de-fibrillator like 
medics 
use operates on between 300 and 500 volts, I believe.  But a dead short 
circuit on even a 120 volt 20 amp circuit has about the same amount of 
available power as a  locomotive engine going 60 miles an hour--if only 
for a 
fraction of a second.  I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to get 
hit 
by such a thing (again), even if it was only for a few microseconds.

     Bill "Hawkeye"