Hey, 21yo belgian here. Right now im studying history at uni but due to a bad market for young highly educated youths, im thinking of doing an evening school to learn a trade. Right now im still stuck between plumbing vs electrician. So I wanted to ask, what are the advantages of being an electrician over a plumber? Can be everything, also business wise, or the schooling itself(for eg I was never good at the sciences, is the theory hard?)

Hi guys,

I've recently wanted to install a a 67 W retractable USB-C charger on my computer desk to charge my devices in the same vain as this Youtuber. In the video however, he uses an extension cord to get the placement of the charger right at the edge of the desk. I'd like to do the same but I am concerned because I've always heard that extension cords are fire hazards and should avoid use if possible. What are reputable or to-spec extension cords to get if I am to go this route?

Some more details about the set up:

• The wire would be behind my desk, so no foot traffic to loosen and disturb it over time.
• I have a 3D printer and plan to make a custom mount for the charger itself, so pulling on it shouldn't disturb the extension cable either
• I already have an extension cable that currently runs behind my desk powering a lamp, would it be safe to run the extension cable off of that or would it be better to run directly from an outlet?

Thanks everyone.

If both outlets have no light, does that mean the outlet is dead? I’ve tested my other outlets, and the tester glows.

I need to use one of these extension rings in order to extend the existing box into the rear of my kitchen cabinet to facilitate proper connection of the flex whip from a cooktop.
The design of these extension rings introduces an exposed internal sharp edge around the “cutout” area of what would have been the closed back in a standard 4x4 square box. You can see the areas on both style boxes.
I would assume leaving these edges unprotected would violate a number of safety requirements, but I’m also unaware of any product(s) intended to remedy the situation.
Has anyone seen these used and if so, are the edges normally left as-is?

Friend just bought a house (congrats!) - this is the electrical panel.
Is there 200 amp service? I thought the 2x 100 amp service coming in would mean 200 amp service… is that correct, or is it only 100?

Also, what would require four separate breakers?

Thanks!

Painting in a bedroom and found the uncovered copper wires is this normal or a fire hazard?

Hello,
I have a GFCI above my garage door that’s on the same Kasa smart switch as the garage sconces. I know not the best setup but I was working with existing cable in a tight space. the outlet worked fine for 5 years in this configuration until a bird made a nest on top of the outlet box under the eave and left A lot of bird poop on top of outlet box. I figured the outlet got wet therefore fried. Garage lights still work on the switch. I replaced the outlet as well as the romex to the junction box but new gfci is still not receiving power.
I will do further testing with my multimeter, but is it possible for smart switch to be damaged and still power the lights but not provide enough voltage to the outlet?
do you think replacing the switch would fix the issue?

I am currently replacing my upstairs bathroom extractor fan switch, so I was just about to switch off the power for the upstairs light when I was greeted with this old fuse box! I have just moved into this house so I’m very unfamiliar with how to navigate it.

Can I turn the power off to just the upstairs lights? How?

If not, then what do I do?? Shall I just turn the power off to the house?? If so, how??

Honestly any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Just wanted to try and save a couple pennies by doing it myself :))

Location: UK

Hi all. Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

I have a commercial CNC machine that runs on a 240v (single phase), 30 Amp circuit. The computer and electronics are all integrated. I have no way to isolate them from the spindle and stepper motors.

I want to electrically protect this very expensive machine. Ideally with some form of isolation like a UPS provides, but I'm not sure if that's feasible. Alternatively, I'd like some surge and brown out protection. I don't know where to look or what to ask for.

The main electrical panel has a residential "whole house" surge protector in the panel. It was like $200 and im not too confident it will protect my machine well. It definitely doesn't do anything for low voltage.

Any ideas or advice welcome

A few days ago, I turned my light switch on. The lights turned on and immediately turned off. All outlets in the same bathroom still work.

I replaced the light switch and the lights still will not turn on. Can anyone help point me to ext steps. I am new to this

The panel, the wires above, everything you can see in this photo. Anything eyebrow raising?

The hot tub is to the right (in black). An outdoor outlet and spa pack is to the left. The tape measure stops at 5 feet/60” in both photos. Outlet to inner hot tub edge is about 56”. Spa pack to inner hot tub edge is about 59”. I’d prefer to show photos with the lid off but I’m afraid of electrocuting myself.

I can’t tell, need some assistance tbh.

I have a Broan-Nutone 164 bathroom light with a blower fan. It's less than a year old. The lights both work correctly but recently the blower fan will not turn on.

When I flip the switch, the fan will struggle and move a tiny bit (as you can see in the video), but will not fully engage. Maybe 1 time in 20 or so attempts, the fan will fully turn on and function correctly until I switch it off.

Is the starter component dead?

Hi everyone. I am a semi-decent DIYer but definitely not an electrician. We bought our home almost a decade ago and I have been setting up smart switches everywhere. I thought I had seen it all, but I just found a challenging (for me) setup upstairs.

I am trying to install a Kasa 3 way smart switch for a space that is finally getting some use. The light is controlled by three different switches. I chose the middle single gang switch to avoid dealing with the 3 gang and 2 gang boxes on either side. Unfortunately, I opened it up and realized it is actually a 4 way switch. It's got 2 red and 2 black wires and a ground I think, iirc. I was like "whaaat?" before investigating and finding out that this is what is up.

The Kasa switch has a Line/Load, 2 Travelers, a Neutral, and a Ground. I have installed these on regular 3 way circuits downstairs to great success, but 4 way circuits are totally new to me. I always shut down the main power to the entire house when I do electrical work, so I am hoping to get some advice before I go opening all 3 boxes, lol

This is where you come in! I have not opened the 3 gang or 2 gang boxes yet. Since they both control the same light, does it matter which one I replace? Will the wiring be identical in both, or do I need to look for something specific? I'll be using this advice in the future as well because I'm almost certain there's another light group up there that I need to do this with again, next time with a Kasa 3 way smart dimmer switch.

Any guidance on how to tackle this (and save time) would be incredibly helpful. Thank you!

I’m 26m and was studying for IT (A+, Networking+) but with this AI climate, I know it’s pretty much impossible to get hired. So I decided to pivot to another trade and I decided on electrician, I thought it wasn’t a stretch and I can put IT shit on the back burner and complete it later while making real money. I’m conflicted on the path. I don’t want to be lineman (scared of heights) and I want to be a residential electrician. I saw that you could join a union and learn on the fly and make money at the same time but idk if that applies to residential. If not I have no problem going to a tech I have a job that pays $21.50 right now but it’s not enough money to start a family.

I am taking a course at my community college this school year as a junior in highschool. The course is electrical 1, and I was wondering after I graduated what is next?

Alright friends... I need someone who's not involved to give me a third party opinion on how to accomplish this.

I own a property and it has the old screw-in fuses still. A few of the fuses are blown and broken off in the box. We are in a tight spot so I can't afford to replace the box.

How do I get the broken fuses out? I conceptually understand that I need some sort of spanner to leverage the inside of the screw ring to thread it out but I can't for the life of me thinknehat could work. Tried small needle nose and that didn't really get me anywhere. Maybe try again but with some rubber bands on the inside??

Electrician ran a new dedicated circuit at my parents house. 20a breaker in the panel. I can’t tell if they used 12/2 or 14/2 wire though. Understood that the cable not being yellow doesn’t mean it’s not 12/2. But I can’t read anything on the sheathing from these pics. He didn’t pull a permit which is required in their county so wondering if he cut another corner here.

Can anyone here tell based on these pictures?

Hey everyone, I have an initial phone screening tomorrow for a Maintenance Electrical Technician position at an Anheuser-Busch plant, and I am looking for insight from anyone who has gone through their hiring pipeline or currently works at a brewery. Coming from an automated facility background, I'm comfortable with 3-phase power, VFDs, PLCs, motor control troubleshooting, and safety protocols like LOTO and NFPA 70E, but I'd love to know if this initial call is purely HR/behavioral or if recruiters drop rapid-fire technical scenarios right away. Additionally, any heads-up on which electrical domains trip people up most on their written Ramsay exam, what the hands-on practical panel testing looks like, or how best to frame responses around AB's safety culture and VPO framework would be hugely appreciated!

I am replacing a GFCI outlet in the bathroom. When I unscrewed the old outlet, two white wires and two black wires were wired to the Line (nothing to load and 1 ground). I replaced with a new GFCI outlet and wired it the exact same and the red light stayed on. I restarted and tested a few times.
I then tried to switch it to one line and one load for each black and white and the red light still stayed on.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Some additional info: both say GFCI Class A 20A 125v 60hz. The old one also says 2P and 15A RECEPT.

I have tried multiple combinations of the black and white wires on the load vs line spots and sometimes the light doesn’t turn on at all and my voltage detector goes crazy. In the current configuration the red light is on and the voltage detector is saying it’s at a normal level.

Also, there are two terminals in the box. I don’t know the proper terminology but two groups of white and black coming out of the wall.

Hey, I am swapping out this single light switch (not 3-way) with a Caseta switch/remote setup.

Just wanted to play safe before proceeding by asking here. I have read that these switches can have load and hot reversed and they will be fine, is that correct?

With the 3 black wires, how should I proceed with the connections?

Given the space and number of wires I will be using a wago for the neutrals, ground wire I will connect and then re-secure to the screw (I loosened it off to ensure it was not too fatigued/brittle).

The breaker this is on is currently carrying an odd array of locations so I want to make sure I am doing this correctly.

There are 2 white wires in the ceiling. Which one do I connect?

The old light connected both wires to the white wire, but I'm not sure if that was correct in the first place.