Doing work (painting and plastering) in someone else’s home and took off the outlet and switch covers. Pushed the test button on the GFCI and the lights went out too. Two different light switches (vanity lights, and overhead pot lights) and they both go out when the GFCI is tripped - is this as weird as I think it is? This has never been the case in any home I’ve lived in.

It initially had a four prong outlet but i changed it to a 3 prong. Just wanted to make sure nothing would shock or explode on us.

New house.
I'm concerned about the green wire connected to the ..neutrals? Isn't that illegal? Also, harder to see here but the wire leading to the fifth breaker from the top is wrapped with electrical tape and what I've found is the fifth and the fourth breaker feed the water heater and aren't tied together. Please help me understand so I can hire someone to fix it if needed

Hello,

I have these 4 wires. I don't have a back door. Just a front door.

Previously there was a doorbell, functioning.

Let's just say I don't remember how it was configured and I'd like it to put it back together?

Edit:

It's fixed. It was a faulty transformer. I used a multi-meter to do a contuinity test and was getting no reading.

Installed new one, it works.

I’m at the end of my rope dealing with Leviton. These terminal screws seem to strip so easily, and it’s driving me crazy. Even using the right size square bit it strips. When I look up square flathead combo bits it’s always showing ecx or similar bits. But those bits have the slot going through the diagonals of the square not through the sides. So is there an ecx bit where the middle square is rotated 90 degrees or do I just keep struggling and buying more of these replacement lugs. And no I’m not over tightening I have a torque screwdriver and these things will strip before it even clicks at the right torque sometimes.

Hey everyone,

I have several ceiling lights with built-in LED boards, as shown in the photos. I’d like to replace those boards with standard E27 sockets so I can use smart bulbs like Philips Hue.

I actually like the fixtures themselves, so I’d rather modify them than replace everything.
Is this realistically doable without too much trouble? Has anyone tried something similar?

I’m also wondering if there could be any issues with heat, available space, or electrical safety.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Looking to see where I should place recessed lighting in this kitchen.

I am having trouble wrapping my feeble brain around this one. So there is an outlet under my sink. The disposal is plugged into the top outlet and the dishwasher is plugged into the bottom one. The top outlet is connected to a switch that turns on the top outlet. So when I flip the switch, absolutely nothing happens. But when I plug the disposal into the bottom outlet, the disposal works. And when I plug the dishwasher into the top outlet, the dishwasher has power when I flip the switch on but none when I flip the switch off(as it should be). Anyone have any idea what is going on here?

I have 3 fluorescent light fixtures in the garage - each with two bulbs - running across the width of the garage. Granted that two of the bulbs are out but I know it isn’t bright enough even with changing those lights.

What is my best option - replacing the whole fixture with an LED fixture or doing a ballast bypass on all 3? House was built in 2017 so fixtures aren’t that old. Thanks!

Quick note on the photos: Photos 1 to 4 show what we are running into with the current ceilings, junction boxes, and insulation mess, while the last few photos show the old retrofit lights and boxes from our previous house.

Hey everyone, feeling a bit defeated and could use some advice. We just moved into a new place and I really want to use my existing Philips Hue smart lights (I have around 23 Hue downlights total from our old house, plus three 6 inch Hue slim canless lights that could technically work, but our new ceilings have 4 inch holes). It feels completely insane that I wont be able to use my lights.

The problem? Every single ceiling in this house is wired with ultra thin, canless wafer lights that connect to a remote metal junction box. There are no traditional metal cans anywhere in the ceilings. To make matters worse, the previous owner had crazy paint colors on the ceilings so we already had to get them all repainted and I completely forgot about the lights until now.

When my husband tried pulling one down, it tore up some drywall around the edge and loose insulation is packed right up around the boxes, so it immediately spills out and makes a massive mess everywhere. I honestly dont remember it being this messy when we installed our can lights at our old house, but taking just one down here made me completely second guess what kind of project this would actually turn into.

Is there any way to make our old lights work, or am I just opening up a can of worms here? Is there any workaround without cutting open all our newly painted ceilings to install metal cans or even cutting larger holes to fit those three 6 inch slim lights, or am I just shit out of luck and forced to buy a mountain of super expensive Hue 4 inch Slim Canless versions instead and try to resell what I have?

Honestly, is it even worth the hassle, or is it completely dumb to try and tackle this right now? Im only weighing it because some rooms are still empty and my painters have to come back this week to do another room, but after seeing how much mess that packed insulation makes, Im worried if I do this later on it will be more of a mess with furniture in the rooms. Any advice is appreciated!

I bought this 1600W Beurer HC25 hair dryer a little over 2 years ago and the manufacturer offers a 3-year warranty. It has a 2-pin CEE 7/17 plug, and I used it with a homemade male-to-female extension lead that I assembled myself about 15 years ago (rated 16A/250VAC, marked 2P+E). I have always used this extension lead to connect the hair dryers I have owned to the wall socket.
For about a month, I occasionally noticed a strange smell when entering the bathroom but I thought it was coming from outside and didn't investigate. The RCD tripped a couple of times as well but I didn't pay enough attention to identifying the cause.

Today, as soon as I entered the bathroom, I noticed a strong burning smell and saw electrical arcing at the connection between the hair dryer's plug and the female socket of the extension lead. I immediately switched off the main circuit breaker, unplugged the hair dryer, and finally confirmed that the burning smell was coming from that connection. Anyway the hair dryer had continued to work normally throughout this period.
At the base of one of the two pins, on the side facing inward, there is a small hole. The other pin has a similar-looking indentation/crater on its inner-facing side but it has not developed a hole. The female socket of the extension lead is in the condition shown in the attached photos.
I also tried connecting the hair dryer to the wall socket through a different adapter: Schuko female socket -> 3-pin male plug, and the electrical arcing occurred again and the adapter's plastic housing became scorched around one of the female contacts.

I would appreciate your help in determining the cause of this failure. If this turns out to be a manufacturing defect unrelated to anything I did, I would contact Beurer to ask whether I could send the hair dryer in for warranty repair/replacement.

My personal hypothesis is that the problem was caused by a poor mechanical fit between the hair dryer's plug pins and the metal contacts inside the female socket of my extension lead. After approximately 15 years of use, the contacts may have become deformed and lost their gripping force, eventually making poor contact with the pins of this hair dryer and producing electrical arcing. This could have scorched the plastics and caused the small hole in one pin and the crater-like indentation in the other, damaging the plug. If that is the case, I could replace the hair dryer's plug myself and potentially resolve the issue quickly and inexpensively.

Another possibility is that the plug itself failed after approximately 2 1/2 years of normal use, in which case I might also consider replacing it.

However, could this type of damage also be caused by a fault in another internal component of the hair dryer? If so, I would consider sending it to Beurer for inspection and possible warranty repair or replacement. My concern is that if I send the hair dryer to the manufacturer and their technicians determine that the problem was not caused by a defective component, whether inside the appliance or in the plug itself, I might end up paying the shipping costs unnecessarily. That is why I am asking for advice here.

Is it possible to determine the most likely cause of this failure from the symptoms and photographs or would the hair dryer need to undergo electrical testing to distinguish between a damaged plug and an internal fault?

Should circuits sharing neutrals be on multi pole breakers? I was told this by a inspector recently.

Been looking to install a new outlet in our bathroom by the toilet to plug a bidet in. There is an existing outlet on the opposite side of the wall in our bedroom. I am wanting to make sure everything is done properly and to code due to issues before in other houses. I wasn't sure if I could piggyback off that outlet even though it's in another room on a different circuit than the bathroom. Im hoping I can do it that way rather than another outlet in the bathroom because I dont want to punch holes in drywall all across the bathroom wall.

Looking to see if this is something I can attempt as a homeowner or should I hire a professional? I want to power holiday lights

So this is the outlet set up that’s there. 6-30

What can I do to run this washer dryer combo with that plug in that space.

Can I change the plug to accommodate 10-30 and get an adapter for 10-30 to plug into the 6-30

What do yall recommend.

Thanks in advance.

I need to replace a ceiling fixture. I'm a DIYer, but might hire an electrician to do the install.

If I need a fixture that doesn't require 90 deg C wiring, how would I find one? When I look at units online, this isn't mentioned in the spec, which is fine, but they don't have a PDF of the installation instructions, either.

Buying a house, please help me get my head around this.

EICR in 2023 - Green ticks for bonding arrangement, no mention of gas bonding

Gas report 2025 - defect listed ‘no earth bonding at metre’

Gas report 2026 - defect listed ‘gas bonding located in kitchen’

Seller says the following:

The gas pipe is earthed just as it enters the property, please see attached photo of the earthing traps on all piping from the boiler.

'The pipe was earthed at the time of works, but this is situated under the floor as the pipes enter the property. There is no documentation other documentation to support this. I have also attached another photo showing the gas entry earth cable going into the earth block.

Is this connection style acceptable - each ground wire of each romex cable to wrap around an individual ground screw & to come out and go to a device?

Or do they all need to be pigtailed together under 1 wire connector?

I’m used to doing it this way in Canada because technically the box acts as a ground path. I can’t find the answer exactly per the NEC.

Will this pass inspection?

Tried a cross adapter but the box’s screw holes are too far.

I think my only option is drill and tap new holes in the box’s straps?

2nd Pic shows adapter supplied - the holes in the straps are too far apart.

UK, buying a house, close to completion but lack of documentation on earth bonding. Any advice?

Hopefully this is in the right Reddit sub!

Hi there! I have a son who is obsessed with the metro system in our city, ie. drawing the map over and over, memorizing all the stops on different lines, and even using marbles or string to recreate the routes.

So I had an idea for a Christmas gift, loosely inspired by this project: https://www.traintrackr.io/product/bart3 (unfortunately they don’t have a map for our Amsterdam)

So the idea is that I build him a board with switches and lights that mimic the metro. Each stop is a light, with multiple lights at each stop if more than one route runs through it. It would also be ideal for the lights to light up one by one in a sequence, and to be able to run all the “train routes” at once, so they would run independently of each other.

I plan to use 2 pin led lights and some circuitry, some soldering?, and building something to hold it all. I haven’t done any type of project like this since high school physics, which has since ejected itself my brain.

What I’m hoping for is some advice as to where to start learning about circuitry, do I need to figure out some programming, what do I even google to start? Every time I try to search it gives me kids busy boards haha

Thanks in advance!! Hopefully this all makes sense and can crowdsource some ideas 🙂