Recent content by SDmark

  1. SDmark

    Replacing cast iron pipe in garage - where to cut?

    @Jeff H Young, thanks taking a look and for your reply. If I remember correctly, the plumbing was exposed when I replaced the p-trap (1999?). An inspector checking electrical didn't like that the open garage ceiling due to risk of carbon monoxide rising into the dwelling. So I "sealed" the...
  2. SDmark

    Replacing cast iron pipe in garage - where to cut?

    My 1950s home in San Diego has a 2" cast iron drain pipe running across the ceiling of the subterranean garage. It comes out of the slab on one side and connects to a toilet drain just before going through the cement wall on the other. The exposed cast iron leaks rusty goo onto any car in the...
  3. SDmark

    Electrical wire above open-beam ceiling, below roofing

    Talked to a city inspector. For re-wiring lamps to switches, Romex is okay. For possible future expansion, he suggested a 1" EMT conduit.
  4. SDmark

    Electrical wire above open-beam ceiling, below roofing

    @wwhitney Thanks for the reply. Yes, solar electric is planned but so far, vendors have never mentioned wiring chases; I guess they just use conduit above the roof. As for the mount points, the company I'm probably going to use does everything in one day; they won't come out to install...
  5. SDmark

    Electrical wire above open-beam ceiling, below roofing

    Thanks for the reply. Yes, I want to rewire the existing fixtures if possible. I'm pretty comfortable with electrical work but as you say, a pro will probably work faster. California and San Diego generally follow the NEC so I'm curious if there are code standards for this situation. I may try...
  6. SDmark

    Electrical wire above open-beam ceiling, below roofing

    Hi, I live in a 1953 San Diego home on a slab foundation with lovely open-beam 2x8 tongue-and-groove ceilings. The low-slope roof was rock and tar, then in 1991, they got rid of the rocks and added a hot-mop tar layer. I'm about to have both layers scraped off, add 3" of PolyISO rigid foam...
  7. SDmark

    43v in circuit when breaker switched off

    On a 240 ganged breaker, it should be black and black or black and red, right? White still goes to the neutral buss bar. I don't follow. "That box" (the photo in post 27) has two red, two black, and two white wires. The wire nuts are off and the wires are separated so I can test voltage without...
  8. SDmark

    43v in circuit when breaker switched off

    Those pesky decimal points ;). I will try to remember to test this again after a good rain. Would be interesting to see if there is more than ghost voltage. At the first junction box after the panel. Same as shown in post #27. Yes I did. The white was on one breaker and the black on another...
  9. SDmark

    43v in circuit when breaker switched off

    The Fluke 117 is here. With the Fluke set to "Auto-V LoZ" (with 3K ohm anti-ghost resistor): Both circuits Off B+W 0.0 V R+W 0.0 V B+R 0.0 V Multitester not touching any wires: 0.0 mV Only # 3 On B+W 0.1 V R+W 119.5 V B+R 0.3 V Only #13 On B+W 120.1 V R+W 0.2 V B+R 0.2 V Both #3 and #13 On...
  10. SDmark

    43v in circuit when breaker switched off

    That's one issue I don't have in this 1953 house. All supply pipe is copper. However, at some point after Cox buried a grounding rod, the main panel is now grounded to the grounding rod, with water main tied to that. And I was wrong what I said a few pages ago about grounding rod for the pool...
  11. SDmark

    43v in circuit when breaker switched off

    Some outlets are three-prong but as best I can tell, they are "locally" grounded--the ground wire does not feed back to the main panel. I just ordered a Fluke 117 which has a built-in "Low-Z" function. Hopefully that will take one variable (untrustworthy meter) out of the equation.
  12. SDmark

    43v in circuit when breaker switched off

    I was asking whether you are assuming I have a ground wire. I don't. Maybe I can jerry-rig an extension cord to wrap around the house and test directly to ground at the main panel. On the meter, there is no change with new batteries or unplugging the probes.
  13. SDmark

    43v in circuit when breaker switched off

    Yeah the meter may be buggy especially at millivoltages. With no resistor, it's jumping around from 10 mV to 300 mV or more, only briefly settling on 0.0L. It's like the auto-ranging is constantly trying to figure out how to read. The resistor stabilizes it at 0.4 mV. Doesn't that assume that...
  14. SDmark

    43v in circuit when breaker switched off

    I used a new resistor. Had more trouble this time getting the temporary leads to stay in the multitester with the resistor, so this time I wrapped the resistor around the tips of the leads and re-ran all tests. Both circuits Off B+W 21.1 mV R+W 21.0 mV B+R 0.4 mV Multitester with resistor but...
  15. SDmark

    43v in circuit when breaker switched off

    Folks here have been recommending a 10K to 100K resistor shunt for the multimeter to reduce impedance and "kill" ghost voltage, but I saw that Fluke's $70 SV225 shunt is only 3K. So I decided to start small and bought 3.3K 1/2 watt resistors at Radio Shack (5 for $1.49). With one of those...
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