Blerg, Tuesday.

banana468 · March 2021

Also, my other electrical story:
-DO NOT be an idiot and wire your electrial heat in your basement to the same circuit that runs your well pump.

Years go when we had no power after Superstorm Sandy we were running on generator power. It was enough to power our fridge and chest freezer and we could take hot showers and microwave as needed. It wasn't perfect but we made do for those nearly 6 days.

One night in the middle of the power being out DH came in while I was feeding Chiquita who was all of 2 and dining in her high chair and some circuit tripped while he was running the generator. He got to the basement with his headlamp on to see that it was FOGGY (not something that a basement should be at the end of October in CT). He then realized it was foggy AND smelling like an electrical fire and realized that the thermostat for the electrical heat was smoking.

Cut to DH grabbing a fire extinguisher, cursing under his breath and pulling down ceiling tiles in the basement drop ceiling to make sure that our house wasn't going to go up in flames all while we had no power, were running a generator and the neighbor's tree that fell in the storm blocked the path of emergency vehicles in one direction.

The crisis was averted and he ultimately just removed the basement heat from that circut short term and then over Christmas it was rewired.

But that night he was beyond pissed off at the "handiwork" of one of the prior homeowners who clearly cut corners and was the living definition of knowing just enough to be dangerous.

short+sassy · March 2021

banana468 said:

short+sassy said:

banana468 said:

@short+sassy is there anything in the lease that you can put in saying, "Should your use of the electrical power require servicing deemed to be your fault, the bill will be added to next month's rent."?

When I accidently let something fall into my toilet 15 years ago I had to pay for the plumber. It was my fault and I owned that it wasn't my landlord that should pay for it.

@ei34 I had no idea and I'm sorry.

I have something like that for plumbing and pest control, but not other maintenance issues.

With that said, it doesn't have to be in a lease for me to tell them something like (if it comes up again), "I have already had two different electricians verify there is nothing wrong with the electricity for this house. I'll call another one if you want me to but, if they don't find anything different, you all need to pay for the service call."

I will always have my H go look at things for no additional charge. The majority of the time he can fix it or at least eliminate the easier answers we could fix ourselves, before having a "pro service" come out.

Generally speaking, overloading the circuits even doing it repeatedly, doesn't damage the electrical system. We've explained the basics of what is happening and shown them how to flip the circuit breaker back and none of that is dangerous or a big deal, they're still absolutely convinced something is wrong with the electricity.

Your electrician will need to tell them this too when he's there. My experience with most electricians and those like them is that they aren't shy about telling you, "The problem exists with the user."

The gripes that I have seen are when a desktop computer shuts off unexpectedly and programming or a game wasn't auto saved. It didn't ruin the devices but it did ruin the afternoon.

They do know where the circuit box is now and how to flip the circuit. But they hadn't done that yet before calling both my H and myself.

On a funnier note for the same topic. We have a main tenant (M) we rent out the other side of our personal duplex to. But he often turns around and rents it on AirBnB. A couple years ago, he had a group of 4 who had come to NOLA for a gaming convention. He called me panicked because they had complained to him the power had gone out in the living room. Technically, we don't have anything to do with his guests. But if we're home and they have a problem that's easily solved, we'll take care of it.

So, we knock on their door, introduce ourselves and sum up the problem M told us about. They invite us in and, lo and behold, they had used power strips to hook up four tvs with four gaming consoles. All drawing off the one circuit tied to the living room!

We pointed out the problem and suggested they use extension cords to run two of their set-ups to an outlet in the first bedroom (a different circuit). A couple of them knew exactly what we were talking about and knew that was what had happened, but didn't know where the breaker box was and didn't want to mess with it, without permission. We told them we would flip the circuit back on and offered that, if they wanted to see where it was, we'd show them and they could do it themselves if it happened again. Two of them did come out to look. But, overall, a pleasant experience. We weren't upset and welcomed them to town. They were friendly and laughed at themselves.

short+sassy · March 2021

MissKittyDanger said:

@ei34 oh jeez, sorry to hear. Hopefully everything is smooth process

@short+sassy I have an airfryer and I'm always anxious because the plug is the same as microwave, but M keeps assuring that I'm not using at same time so it's not going to fuck anything up.

@banana468 *raises hand* also electrician's daughter!

Me three! And my maternal grandfather was an electrician. He was the one who got my dad (his son-in-law) into the industry.

Though both of them only did commercial work.

missJeanLouise · March 2021

@ei34 ((hugs)) I am sorry it came to it but proud of you for the courage it must have taken to do it.

My favorite electrical story: I rented the MIL/ guest house behind my friend's house for a few months back in the day. I scheduled the internet to get hooked up and the poor guy came in a snow storm to do it. He was up on the roof (the cables were coming the main pole) for a long while before coming down saying he couldn't hook up the internet because he kept getting shocked and that I needed to have the electric company come out to see what was happening. A week later the electrician came out, climbed out and found the neutral wire was rubbing up on the internet cable causing the guy to get shocked. The best part/worst part came while he was fixing it though. My friend who lived in the front house stopped by, we smoked a huge bowl, and then she went home. Right after she left, the lights got super bright, the ceiling fan started spinning like crazy and I felt like I was in a spaceship, lol. Dude combined the (only) 2 circuits in the house and sent 240v down one line and blew out all the electronics I had plugged in that circuit at the time. Luckily it was just an old alarm clock and maybe a CD player, nothing important, and well worth the spaceship experience, lol.

short+sassy · March 2021

banana468 said:

Also, my other electrical story:
-DO NOT be an idiot and wire your electrial heat in your basement to the same circuit that runs your well pump.

Years go when we had no power after Superstorm Sandy we were running on generator power. It was enough to power our fridge and chest freezer and we could take hot showers and microwave as needed. It wasn't perfect but we made do for those nearly 6 days.

One night in the middle of the power being out DH came in while I was feeding Chiquita who was all of 2 and dining in her high chair and some circuit tripped while he was running the generator. He got to the basement with his headlamp on to see that it was FOGGY (not something that a basement should be at the end of October in CT). He then realized it was foggy AND smelling like an electrical fire and realized that the thermostat for the electrical heat was smoking.

Cut to DH grabbing a fire extinguisher, cursing under his breath and pulling down ceiling tiles in the basement drop ceiling to make sure that our house wasn't going to go up in flames all while we had no power, were running a generator and the neighbor's tree that fell in the storm blocked the path of emergency vehicles in one direction.

The crisis was averted and he ultimately just removed the basement heat from that circut short term and then over Christmas it was rewired.

But that night he was beyond pissed off at the "handiwork" of one of the prior homeowners who clearly cut corners and was the living definition of knowing just enough to be dangerous.

Yes! Electricity is one of those things we don't mess with, unless it is super basic, because doing something wrong can potentially cause a fire hazard.

My H and I have always had a policy that, when we buy a new property, we have an electrician check it out. Since we usually buy distressed properties, there are usually at least a few minor/medium electrical problems to fix anyway.

We avoided what could have been a horrible fire with a foreclosed duplex we bought about 6 years ago. It was a reno, decent amount of work needed. Our usual MO, lol. I don't remember the exact details, but our electrician found two live wires in the attic very near to each other and they shouldn't have been. He didn't say it "could" cause a fire someday. He said it WOULD cause a fire at someday. He fixed it when he found it and told us after the fact (phew).

kvruns · March 2021

hugs to you @ei34 on being brave and taking that first step! I hope STBX starts to handle it ok around you and the kids

Blerg, Tuesday.

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