All Forum Posts by: Loren Thomas

Listen to all the podcasts. There's useful knowledge in each one.

I would focus on automation. Occupancy sensors and LED lighting would be pretty maintenance free, and last a long time. Also consider timers, one for a whole house fan to keep air circulating a few hours a day, and one for outside light(s), so they don't get left on all day.

These aren't really wiring solutions, they can be added to almost any home's existing wiring. And as far as landlord benefits go, the more "hands off" tenants are, the longer things will last, enter home automation. 

Seems to me you don't get much of a return in rent on fancy lighting.

Look like an older Square D QO panel? As far as old panels go, it doesn't get much better. 

That said, I can't real the main breaker size well, looks like 150A, if it is, then you might be overloading the panel with all those tandem breakers. If its been like it is there for years and only recently has been issues then I wouldn't worry about that.

Looks to me like you're losing a phase, notice how its always the right side of the breaker. The left side of the tandem breakers is one phase, the right is another. Your main breaker could be going bad, but its difficult to troubleshoot. If I were you, I'd call the utility. At the very least, they'll eliminate some possibilities. They won't check outlets and that sort, but they should pull the panel cover off and test the feeders coming in to the main breaker. 

For what it's worth, there a few minor code violations I see, but nothing unsafe so I'm not going to bother listing them unless you want me to.

Your electrical panel has 2 phases, lose one, and literally half the panel stops functioning. How old is your electrical system? If it's newer than I would point at the utility. 

I just reread it's a lot of circuits, sounds to me like you're losing a phase and literally half your house shuts down. You don't notice your range might be getting half power... water heater, dryer... anything 240 volts. If any of those are operating during these times they are being damaged. 

 First off, kudos on using electrical terms properly. That's an odd problem. I've seen something similar before, it turned out that a few of the neutrals in the electrical panel weren't tightened down well enough on the ground bar and walking around in the house literally vibrated the wires enough to separate the connection. I would start there, open up the electrical panel and make sure every single wire is tightened down where it's supposed to be. This includes on all the breakers, and all the neutral and ground wires on the ground bar(s). If these circuits are on a sub-panel then there is more to know, but I'm going to assume this is not the case. The best way it to just give each wire a solid tug and wiggle and see if it comes loose. If the panel is newer, there will be a main breaker that shuts the panel down. The feeders to the panel will still be live, but at least the breakers will be de-energized. You should also make sure that the main wires feeding the panel are snug, including the ground and neutral. This has a degree of danger though as the wires will be live unless you pull the meter outside. 

If that doesn't solve anything, it could be a loose connection pretty much anywhere in the electrical system. Any receptacle, switch, light fixture, or junction box. But before you conclude this as the problem, call your utility, I once owned a house that did this sort of thing and it was actually the utility's transformer going bad. They hooked up some sort of monitoring device to the electrical system of the house and left it there for a week. They concluded it was their transformer and replaced it immediately, like same day, because it was leaking fluid into the soil.

So to conclude, 1) Make sure there are no loose wires in the panel. 2) Make sure the utility comapany isn't at fault. 3) Start checking in random places of the troublesome circuits and look for loose wiring. 

I wouldn't work with that agent unless there's more info to be told.

 The "training" is your job. 40hrs/wk is where the 4000 and 8000 figures come from. so it would be your full time job.. pay increases depending on hours. Why do you want to be am electrician? 

Costco. For sure.

 If by do what I do you mean be an electrician, it varies by location. In a lot of places you just have to get the license from the local authority, easy as the license fee.

Where I am, you get a trainee card (for a fee), then you need to acquire 4000 hours (2 years) working under a residential journeyman, during which you have to take 48 hours of classes ($750), then you get an affidavit of hours worked from your employer to file with the state (for a fee). You can then apply to take the journeyman test (for a fee). If you are approved you can go take the test (for a fee). If you pass they'll send you the journeyman license (for a fee). If you want a commercial license, all the previous info applies, but it's 8000 commercial hours under a commercial journeyman.