Your Resident Electrician for all your electrical questions!

[volcano1]

Hey guys just found this thread.
I ad a quick question, hope there is any easy answer.
During a re plumb of the entire house, when getting to the meter, we saw some arcing between the house plumbing and the meter connection. If you rubbed the two pipes together you would get some small sparks. I have an older home and it was completely rewired 10-15 years ago.Is there an easy way to find the problem? Tried shutting down each breaker individually and never could get it to go away.I remember in the old wiring seeing things grounded to the waterline, but all that was removed. Any help would be great.

TIA,

Todd

 

[aslmx]

I know this post is old but I just saw it. You need to drive a ground rod and use a number 6 bare solid conductor to bond to your water line.

 

[Zacco]

I know this post is old but I just saw it. You need to drive a ground rod and use a number 6 bare solid conductor to bond to your water line.

Water meter bonding must be a separate ground wire run back to the electrical distribution panel. #6 solid for 100-150 amp service. #4 solid for 200 amp service. You also have to jump the meter using two water pipe clamps (house supply to street supply). Your primary grounding has to be a separate ground wire from the distribution panel to 2 ground rods. Building and Electrical Inspector's are now making us bond gas lines/ gas manifold's (#6 solid) plus a foundation/footer ground in new dwelling's.

 

[Windy]

Hello,

I have a fish room in my basement. It has 4 dedicated 20 Amp circuits. The first 3 circuits have GFCI's that are about 15 years old. The 4 the circuit was a spare, but now it has a 20 amp GFCI that cost about $20.00 This GFCI will dump for almost any reason. I changed it out and the next one did the same. Some research I read said newer GFCI's are too sensitive for some motors. I know all I plugged into this circuit was a small air pump and it blows. Any suggestions or input.

 

[Zacco]

Hello,

I have a fish room in my basement. It has 4 dedicated 20 Amp circuits. The first 3 circuits have GFCI's that are about 15 years old. The 4 the circuit was a spare, but now it has a 20 amp GFCI that cost about $20.00 This GFCI will dump for almost any reason. I changed it out and the next one did the same. Some research I read said newer GFCI's are too sensitive for some motors. I know all I plugged into this circuit was a small air pump and it blows. Any suggestions or input.

Did you try to plug something different into that particular gfi? Your pump may have a fault issue. You can try replacing your gfi with a Leviton Smart Loc GFI. They seem to be less susceptible to nussiance tripping. Also may be because the gfi is not seeing enough load on such a small current draw.

 

[Windy]

Thanks, I will look at the Leviton Smart Loc GFI. I tried several other items on the GFCI. I then changed to another new GFCI and it too has nuisance trips. These were Leviton generic GFCI's All of this equipment works fine on the other three circuits.

 

[Zacco]

Thanks, I will look at the Leviton Smart Loc GFI. I tried several other items on the GFCI. I then changed to another new GFCI and it too has nuisance trips. These were Leviton generic GFCI's All of this equipment works fine on the other three circuits.

If the problem keeps occurring, you may want to look at the connections in your electrical distribution panel. A loose wire on the breaker and especially a loose neutral can cause it to trip. Also if you have a spare 20 amp breaker, replace the breaker. Current leakage or voltage fluctuation can cause a GFCI to trip.

 

[Mmsetta]

Advice on making a diy auto top off. Seems relatively easy from a couple of online youtube videos. Can you point me to or lay out a design that works and is safe?

 

[SSPReefer]

Can someone tell me what setting to use on my multimeter to adjust svr2 on meanwell driver?

 

[snoopie]

If I wantd to add an inline fuse to my led build, which fuse should I get. Would a 250v 1amp work? Or would the voltage have to be lower.

 

[Saybng]

Just ran into this thread...thank you for the write up...helped me alot.

 

[Aquaph8]

We need a new resident electrician to take over this thread. Post here if you can help?

 

[SmartChoice]

i might be able to help with some questions.

We need a new resident electrician to take over this thread. Post here if you can help?

 

[wdyork]

I can help as well. I've been lurking and leeching information I might as well give some back

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Hoping to get some input on this:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/electrical-safety-gfci-afci-ground-probes.215701/

 

[Spazzmle]

Hello electricians! I am new to the forum, and to reefs. I got a used biocube that had custom LEDs installed by the previous owner. Last night I switched off the day lights and unplugged them to swap them into the timed power strip. When I plugged them in again, they wouldn't come on right. They were dim, flickering like crazy, and the fan wouldn't come on full strength. They are not dimming, and this is the first time I have had this issue in over a month of running this tank. Only like 6 of the lights came on full strength (see the top photo). After waiting like a minute, the light came on full strength (bottom of photo) but the fan still will not come on. Any tips? I tried it in different outlets, let it sit off the tank all night in case water got inside of it, no change this morning. My boyfriend is going to look at it later, I am hopeful that he can help me fix it. I am guessing it's an issue with the power supply, which is just a 12v switch adapter brick. Any help much appreciated!

 

[Harold Green]

Sounds more like you might have a bad connection. If the leds are running at full brightness now and the fan isn't I'd see if the fan moves freely. If it does then you need to check the fan connections to see if they are receiving the right voltage. The fan could have seized up pulling more power away from the leds for a bit. I'm not sure this is an issue someone can pinpoint without getting into the fixture to actually find the problem. You can check the voltage on the load where the transformer hooks up to see if it's putting out the right voltage. The led's will often work on a wide range of voltage as will your fan. Remember the plug in transformer is putting out ac not dc current when you check it.

 

[Spazzmle]

Sounds more like you might have a bad connection. If the leds are running at full brightness now and the fan isn't I'd see if the fan moves freely. If it does then you need to check the fan connections to see if they are receiving the right voltage. The fan could have seized up pulling more power away from the leds for a bit. I'm not sure this is an issue someone can pinpoint without getting into the fixture to actually find the problem. You can check the voltage on the load where the transformer hooks up to see if it's putting out the right voltage. The led's will often work on a wide range of voltage as will your fan. Remember the plug in transformer is putting out ac not dc current when you check it.

Thank you so much! My boyfriend's dad owns a lighting company, so he has learned a decent amount over the years. I had him take a look at it, and he figured out that the fan had become disconnected. He also found that the other fan wasn't ever connected (previous owner put in LEDs) so there was only air intake without pushing any air back out. He is suggesting new fans since the cables on these have been removed, and the one that was working isn't working very well. So now I am looking for some fans! He got the lights working fine.

 

[Harold Green]

You can order fans at rapid led but I don't know if they'll fit your fixture. Meanwhile it might be a good idea to aim a fan at the light until you get the new fans so they don't overheat and burn out the led's.

 

[Damion]

First of all, thank you for the thread!
I have a kind of weird situation:
If I turn OFF my kitchen light, or when the ATO pump turns Off... My DC return pump immediately slows down, and then returns back to normal.
The Kitchen an ATO are on the same circuit, but separate from my DC return pump. I'm thinking that it may have something to do with a bad neutral?
Thank again.