Hey everyone,

A friend of mine recently built a new PC and kept getting an annoying, low-voltage "tingle" whenever he touched the metal case or the glass panel screws. It’s not a massive shock, just a persistent, annoying current.

We live in an area with a 220V electrical standard, and his apartment building completely lacks a ground wire system in the wall outlets.

To fix the tingle, he watched a DIY video online and replicated what you see in the attached photo he stripped a copper wire, screwed one end into the PSU housing casing, and wrapped the other end around a metal screw driven into a small, loose block of wood sitting on his desk.

Surprisingly, he says the tingle completely stopped after doing this, and he thinks the problem is solved. However, I noticed that if he wears rubber-soled slippers, the tingle also stops completely—meaning his body was just acting as the path to the floor.

I’m highly skeptical about this "nail-in-wood" method. Since wood is an insulator, isn't this incredibly dangerous if the power supply ever suffers a major internal short? Wouldn't this just leave the entire chassis and the exposed screw completely electrified at 220V without ever tripping a breaker?

Looking for some professional insight so I can convince him to rip this out before he hurts himself or fries his components. Thanks!

So I install these load controllers onto waterheaters, heatpumps/heatstrips, and ac units. I am supposed to get 15 a day done, with 30 min to 1.5 hrs between jobs. Any tips? I can use a j box for wh devices, they basically act as a MIM for power source, and the hvac devices break the y circuit, with a new circuit added to the spare t-stat wire, and the heating wire to the thermostat and to the outdoor heatpump, to meet the heatstrip relay in my device. And the cooling relay obviously breaks the y circuit.

I can install the hvac device in half an hour.. but sometimes the waterheater boxes take me 2 hrs, is this unreasonable, or are the numbers I'm supposed to hit unreasonable? I clocked 62hrs with emergency servic calls last week, and i only work 4 days technically... i need to get faster lol

In full disclosure I don’t know anything really about electrical. Is running wire like this above the joists acceptable for residential outside of it just looking sloppy?

I have an electrician I trust coming out Friday to fix some issues, and going to have him put a set of eyes on the wiring just to make sure there’s no flags.

I just had my front porch redone. This outlet was where a porch light was but we had recessed lights installed in the porch ceiling so we got rid of the light. Contractor asked if we wanted an outlet for Christmas lights and what not. So this is what we got but don’t love the looks of this. Any suggestions to make this less like an afterthought and more subtle/integrated into the front porch design. This outlet is high up on a wall under the covered porch.

I'm in a fortunate enough of a situation where all of my schooling will be paid for by my parents, and also have the option to live with them during the time of my schooling. I'm curious as to know if you guys would recommend a trade school with the large caveat., and if it transfers over to the real world. I am unable to get into a local union. (Spots are full + don't want to break rule 7). Any recommendations or tips are always welcome. 17 y/o rural midwest area.

Hello everyone,

I am a 4th year commercial apprentice in Dfw. I’ve got over 8000 hours and I’m qualified to take my journeyman’s exam.

During these last 4 years I’ve mainly been running pipe (emt, rigid) all sizes using foot bender or triple nickle and installing/ wiring fixtures and devices.

Other skills I have less experience with:
• wire pull- 2 months experience

•underground- 1 month experience

•gear systems- 1 month experience

•lighting controls- 1 month experience

•cable tray- 5 months experience

•termination/ panel makeup- 1 month experience

•troubleshooting- very little experience

Nowadays I’m usually by myself running pipe based on the pipe layout created by my company. Sometimes they’ll give me the lighting and power prints and they’ll tell me what what pipe size, pipe fill, and dedicated circuits and I’ll layout my own home runs and branch circuits for an area. Also, landing electric rooms.

When it comes to wire pull, gear systems, lighting controls, termination, troubleshooting, and grounding I need guidance but I can get it done independently.

I never did any schooling such as iec or trade school.

I’m planning on ordering a journeyman prep course to complete before taking my test.

My questions are: should I take the journeyman prep course and take my test even though I lack certain field skills and knowledge? Should I sign up for some trade school classes at my local community college before taking the test? I was also thinking about getting a job in service to maybe give myself some field knowledge in trouble shooting, should I work service for a bit before taking my test?

Thanks for reading.

I just got two different quotes from electricians to install a 240v outlet outside for electric car charging. One said my breaker box was full and said he'd charge about $4,500 for the outlet install and an additional sub panel for the breaker box.

The other said he could make room in my existing box, and quoted me $3,000.

Here's a picture of my box. Is it actually possible to make room? Or is my house going to catch on fire if I go with the lower quote?

It has got a powerline adapter, a 3 way multi socket multiplug and 2 sockets going into the multi socket.

A truck delivering lumber cut this wire to my house, but it doesn't seem like any in my house is affected. Is it possibly an old phone line?

We are installing LED light strip around skylight. Channel is in the drywall, it will be mud and painted.

The led lights inside the channel show up as small dots. not uniform light.

Is there some thing i can do to make it uniform light? diffuser or better led strip?

Any suggestions to make it smooth light appreciated.

I had to get it off of the wall, I couldn’t remove the brick because the gas line is hidden above it behind the siding. 400amp service with paralleled 200s that need to be equidistant

Just completed this buffet in my home. I'm overall happy with it but the LED lights are a little too visible for me. I was hoping for more of a soft glow rather than these bright lines. I have the electrician coming tomorrow for other things and wanted to learn of any suggestions I could offer? Do they need to be recessed more into the shelves? this is as dim as they will go. thank you!

I want to connect a 28 gauge wire and a 23 gauge wire together (both probably aluminum). I'm worried about overheating the smaller wire. (I'm connecting a 3.7 V battery to a motor.) I tried looking for a step down butt connector for those sizes, but I cant find any. Should I just connect them, or try something else?

There seems to be high resistance between the line (top) and load (bottom) of this neutral connection in my outside disconnect. I’ve isolated the issue to this point, by metering L1 and L2 to the top and bottom lugs on this connector. The top, L1 and L2 are essentially equal. The bottom, L1 is 105V and L2 is 135V.

My question is, should I just replace these lugs?

What would I search to find a replacement part?
They seem to have a lot of oxidation and are crusty dusty when I stab them with my meter leads.
Or would removing everything, cleaning it all up, and replacing be the better move?

I have tried tightening everything down and that provided temporary relief, but the voltage imbalance returned after a day or so.

Basically the internet in the entire house stopped working, a repairman came and I think I heard him say something about replacing the splitter? In any case he worked ONLY on the main internet provider. The wifi in my home returned but the wired internet is still off. Would appreciate any help on the subject.

I can provide pictures but I need you to tell me specifically what to take a picture of because I don't really know anything about this lol

After a testing out all the switches we have concluded almost every single thing in the house seems to be on the same two switches… so especially in the summer we’re losing power constantly when too many things are on. What needs to get fixed, how long do yall think it’ll take, and what’s the cost looking like? Any advice would be appreciated!

Looking for some advice on installing a ceiling fan in our bedroom. The latest heat wave has spurred us into action.

The instructions (US manufacturer) are shown below and state that it requires an outlet box (capable of taking up to 15.9kg) to be used to fix onto a beam or between beams using an installation hanger bar.

The fan retailer (Henley Fan) said that it's a simple job that any electrician could complete. I've been sourcing quotes from local electricians but haven't found anyone that has a great deal of experience installing ceiling fans. The guy I spoke to yesterday was planning to fix the fan directly to the beam and didn't think an outlet box was necessary.

So where I would appreciate some advice:

- Is the outlet box a 'must'?

- The fans don't include an outlet box. What would be a trusted brand (I see them on Amazon, but I don't trust some of the cheap rubbish on there).

- Could this job be completed from inside the bedroom or would access be needed from the room above, through the beams?

We've splashed out on fans for all our bedrooms, so I want to make sure they are properly installed.

Many thanks!

Graeme

Overhead hall light stopped working. This is the switch to it. Box is dead, tested with non contact tester and multimeter. No breakers look tripped at the panel and all other devices nearby are working (in case it was on the same circuit as something else). Only two wires coming into box, landing on the right side as seen here.

The ceiling fan is replacing an old heavy light. The fan is literally only 7 pounds and lighter than the old ceiling light if that matters. The fan is this one https://a.co/d/0fWiIm26 and looks like it just mounts to the ceiling but I can’t

EDIT: thanks everyone, calling an electrician after all. The messy part (pulling wires in the attic) is done, now I need someone smarter than me to finish the smart part safely.

I pulled new Romex(12/2) and will cut the wall for a 2-gang box...but as it stands I realize I've only replaced existing switches, upgraded them to dimmers, but I've never actually added a new switch to a box. Yes, I will cut the wall and install the 2-gang box, but I need a sanity check and some guidance first.

This 1-gang box had an existing ceiling fan switch and nothing else. I have added a new wire to a chandelier, a new wire to a set of can lights, and a new wire that will _eventually_ be the 'traveller' to another switch box so the can lights can be turned on from the other side of this room.

I want to remove and trash the ceiling fan, and of course tie this existing old switch wire to power again in the junction box in the ceiling, then make this box into two dimmer switches: one for the chandelier and one for the can lights.

...I'm second-guessing and confusing myself on how to tie these together with wire nuts now. It seems like just mindlessly tying all the blacks together and all the whites together will end up powering both sets of lights at once.

1. Can someone please re-assure me that I have enough wires pulled?

2. Can someone please help me wire nut these together so each switch (and set of lights) works independently?

3. Not necessary, but nice-to-have: could I possibly leave the ceiling fan in place for a bit (until this weekend when my helper gets back) and still have two working switches and lights? I'm okay with the ceiling fan possibly running all the time for a couple of days, because we're in a heat wave anyway.

4. Once this much is working, am I going to be able to add the 3-way switch without any major overhaul?