Milwaukee Electrician Bakes In The Hot Summer Attic — Part #2
Milwaukee Electrician Bakes In The Hot Summer Attic — Part #2
or “Attitude Is Everything – Part 2”
The homeowner provided a broom to help clear away the blown in insulation from the electrical junction boxes buried under the blown insulation, what we typically find in attics with blown in insulation. I was thankful it was cellulose insulation and not blown in fiberglass insulation – pure scratchy misery in the hot weather.
It took me what seemed like hours but I found the cable from the first floor light fixture but disconnecting the light fixture on the first floor, disconnecting the power for the lighting circuit, opening up all of the spliced hot or switched conductors and connecting a low voltage tone generator at the fixture wires. I than used the tone receiver and was able to identify the particular wire and cable. The attic was full of cables. The groups of cables almost looked like plain spaghetti.
Once I found the cable, it was easy installing another cable with a switch-leg to feed the cable feeding the first floor hallway light fixture. I installed a short cable from the second floor fixture box with the switch leg and connected it to the cable from the first floor light fixture, so now that fixture was now connected to the switch-leg.
The homeowner and his wife are both IT gurus, not electricians. Did the other electrician figure an IT expert would be able to figure out the attic three-way switching and connections? I do not know, I would not think so, that was the electrician’s job, a job the previous electrician from a year earlier did not do himself. Bad day maybe? His heart not into the work? Maybe de did not want to do any attic work, or maybe he was a prema donna, When a person loses his interest in his job, he or she is bordering on becoming worthless at that job. Attitude is everything.
Sometimes electricians get confused on three-way switching. There are nine basic ways three-way switching could be wired and probably hundreds of ways they could be wired wrong. The books you might find in the library or the big box stores only give you enough information to get in trouble. Electricians are usually writing those books from their perspective, not with the detail and basics needed for a beginner to understand the books and the codes for a safe installation.
Anyway, after I disconnected my low voltage generator and reconnected the light fixture in the first floor hallway, the homeowner energized the circuit and the hallway light fixtures were both operating perfectly from both three-way wall switches. My attic work was done and the homeowner had their lighting working properly, Hallelujah!
By the way, the picture above of the baked electrician is me enjoying my steam room like attic. The rest of the day felt very cool!
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Milwaukee Electrician Bakes In The Hot Summer Attic — Part #2
Milwaukee Electrician Bakes In The Hot Summer Attic — Part #2
or “Attitude Is Everything – Part 2”
The homeowner provided a broom to help clear away the blown in insulation from the electrical junction boxes buried under the blown insulation, what we typically find in attics with blown in insulation. I was thankful it was cellulose insulation and not blown in fiberglass insulation – pure scratchy misery in the hot weather.
It took me what seemed like hours but I found the cable from the first floor light fixture but disconnecting the light fixture on the first floor, disconnecting the power for the lighting circuit, opening up all of the spliced hot or switched conductors and connecting a low voltage tone generator at the fixture wires. I than used the tone receiver and was able to identify the particular wire and cable. The attic was full of cables. The groups of cables almost looked like plain spaghetti.
Once I found the cable, it was easy installing another cable with a switch-leg to feed the cable feeding the first floor hallway light fixture. I installed a short cable from the second floor fixture box with the switch leg and connected it to the cable from the first floor light fixture, so now that fixture was now connected to the switch-leg.
The homeowner and his wife are both IT gurus, not electricians. Did the other electrician figure an IT expert would be able to figure out the attic three-way switching and connections? I do not know, I would not think so, that was the electrician’s job, a job the previous electrician from a year earlier did not do himself. Bad day maybe? His heart not into the work? Maybe de did not want to do any attic work, or maybe he was a prema donna, When a person loses his interest in his job, he or she is bordering on becoming worthless at that job. Attitude is everything.
Sometimes electricians get confused on three-way switching. There are nine basic ways three-way switching could be wired and probably hundreds of ways they could be wired wrong. The books you might find in the library or the big box stores only give you enough information to get in trouble. Electricians are usually writing those books from their perspective, not with the detail and basics needed for a beginner to understand the books and the codes for a safe installation.
Anyway, after I disconnected my low voltage generator and reconnected the light fixture in the first floor hallway, the homeowner energized the circuit and the hallway light fixtures were both operating perfectly from both three-way wall switches. My attic work was done and the homeowner had their lighting working properly, Hallelujah!
By the way, the picture above of the baked electrician is me enjoying my steam room like attic. The rest of the day felt very cool!