Why You Don't Do What You Don't Know

LNG24

Why You Don't Do what You Don't Know
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I am going to post this in the painting sections as well, but you will not believe this, at least I didn't. As some of you might know, I just recently herniated two discs so I am just in a supervisory role for now.

I had my workers doing a simple closet tear out and remodel. Small Job.
Day One ends, I have them start to clean up. Homeowner say we can use her vacuum to do the rugs. My worked plugs it in and DAMN was it loud. Got my attention and I ran over there. Smelling something burning I tell him the belt must be stuck so I flip it over and its turning freely. Homeowner is there as well. She says she hates this vacuum. I am trying to figure it out when all of a sudden she starts to panic. She is pointing and stuttering, but not speaking clearly. She is pointing to the outlet where the vacuum is plugged in. I am trying to decipher what she is upset about, I tell my worker to pull the plug. All she can say is That’s, That, Its! Ummm! I see it is located inches from another outlet.

Suddenly it hits me. I yell, IS THAT 220? YES! she says. I immediately question her. What is that outlet doing on a 220? She explains, The painters were here and all the old outlets had Orange paint on them. So they changed them for me. I scalded her. You had the Painters Change out the Outlets?

I threw the breaker to this outlet. 220/20 amp A/C outlet it reads. I explained to her that 1) we are lucky as hell my worker didn’t get killed. 2) Vacuum is fried and 3) if her kids had plugged a cell phone charger or X Box or radio into that, they would likely have either started a fire or killed themselves.

Here is a picture of the outlet they installed. Yes that’s a 110/15 amp We will be replacing it tomorrow first thing.

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Rich Turley

I don't get it.

Wouldn't that just make the vacuum work twice as good?

Rich

shed-n-deck

Even if it's a 220, only 110 should run to the vacuum. Most vacuum's aren't grounded, so with 2 wires, either you have 110V or 0V....If both are hot, then there would be no ground and therefore no electricity, and if one is hot and one is not, then you only have 110. I think that perhaps there must be another issue.

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Shed

reveivl

You're in trouble, Shed-n-deck...

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From where does knowledge come? If you need to know what is in a box, you could ask someone (not reliable), you could pray, (not useful), you can consult with the scripture (not helpful) or you could open the box (science)

frenchsparky

Digger you are lucky sonvagunner.

whoever did replace that repectale is deep doo-doo

for myself i will double check the votlage before changing it.

really IMO the painters have no bussiness to monkey it around with this.

they are not liscensed to fix this stuff.


Shed-n-Deck,. you have no idea what you are thinking of this one the 240 volts can be line to line [ in usa ] or line to netrual [ european area ]

and the 240 volts dont care which way it run.

anything what run on 120 volts hook up to 240 volt supply will useally do wonderfull damage if not aware with this.

and Shed-n-Deck my wisdom to you is get a book or two on basic home wiring it will expain very clear.

i work much higher voltage than what you think i work on 480 volts just about everyday. so i know how powerfull it can be

Merci, Marc

shed-n-deck

Uh oh....What did I do now? And it's okay, I don't do electric....

But, if I'm wrong, then why? From what I do know about basic wiring is that anything that is 220 is 2-110 Volt hots and a single neutral...Or a neutral and a ground....Is that wrong? Oh, and don't worry, like I said, I don't do electric...

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Shed

randomkiller

Stick with what you know, if there is 240 at the outlet and you plug in a device the item will have 240 attched to it. If there are two seperate phases to the outlet that is the potential you are gonna get. And no 240 doesn't need a neutral to work.

firemike

Not trying to be mean, but you made that painfully obvious with your first statement!

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-Mike-

neolitic

This one's kinda funny, I know one that isn't.
Good friend was working for the town, part-time while finishing college. New Year's Eve he was to re-paint interior of main sewage pumping station/DPW shop. Gave him explicit instructions to shut off breakers for ANY electrical device he was painting around, and gave him a 60W bulb screwed into a 2 prong adapter to test all outlets and make sure. Of course NO ONE else working for the city was on duty that night, so he's totally alone. Well there was one 20 amp outlet, looked to him like all the other 20 amp outlets, and the 20 breakers were off, except it was 220. Bulb blew up in his face, set his clothes on fire, by the time he got outside and rolled in the snow---MASSIVE burns,6 months in the Riley Hospital burn unit, LOTS of skin grafts....
On the upside, after all of this Rick became a fireman, and it was great to hear all of the good he'd done over the years at his retirement party.

220/221

I was doing some rework in an attic and plugged my sawzall (pre cordless era) into the (120v) outlet for the air handler (240V). It DID work twice as good for a few seconds until I realized something was up. No harm, no foul.

Homeowner wouldn't pay me to change it so I marked it and left it.



As far as the light bulb???? I don't see how that could have happened. The filiment surely would have simply burned out. I'm not seeing an explosion here. I have seen 240V thru a lighting circuit several times (lost N on MWBC) and the only damage was the burned out lamps.

Maybe someone can enlighten me??




Paint fumes??? Arc from plugging it in?

Was he one of Reggie Jackson's painters?




There was a huge hi rise fire here many years ago. The painters were SPRAYING some king of laquer and an arc from something they plugged in set off an explosion.

neolitic

[QUOTE=220/221;304352]I was doing some rework in an attic and plugged my sawzall (pre cordless era) into the (120v) outlet for the air handler (240V). It DID work twice as good for a few seconds until I realized something was up. No harm, no foul.

Homeowner wouldn't pay me to change it so I marked it and left it.



As far as the light bulb???? I don't see how that could have happened. The filiment surely would have simply burned out. I'm not seeing an explosion here. I have seen 240V thru a lighting circuit several times (lost N on MWBC) and the only damage was the burned out lamps.

Maybe someone can enlighten me??
Paint fumes??? Arc from plugging it in?

Was he one of Reggie Jackson's painters?

Sorry to say, I wasn't there. That's the story he told during many ICU visits. I was home wondering why he didn't show for the New Year's party (we went all night in those days). All I know is the aftermath, and believe me that part is REAL. It was the main pumping station for the town, some high voltage stuff going on in there, but I can't see how there would be more than 220 in a normal looking 20 amp outlet. Just glad we didn't lose one of the good guys that night.
Maybe someone else has an explanation. High tech equipment supplied was, brush, bucket, roller and tray--plus the light bulb.







[

aWorkaHolic

That was just his cover up story....????

neolitic

Known the guy since he was 6, talked to a couple of the firemen that hauled him to the hospital, I've got no reason to doubt any of them.

jrclen

Stick to carpentry. Nuff said.

DaveTap

In this case think of the 2 wires as +120v and -120V (switching back and forth 60 times every second) They are 240 volts apart

220/221

Was his name Richard....Pryor?

DaveTap

Try this scenario: Light bulbs use a tungstun element in nitrogen gas. Part of the reason bulbs are the the size they are is because the glass has to allow for expansion and dissipation of the heat.
Does any one remember why you use pyrex beakers and test tubes for some experiments and glass for others? They have different expansion and contraction rates... so if you are doing an experiment where an item will be cooling quickly you use glass because pyrex would shatter but if it will be heating quickly you use pyrex... glass would crack.
When 240volts is connected to our element it heats up hotter AND faster eventually causing it to burn out... but occasionally not until after it has heated the gas and glass enough for the glass to become brittle allowing the increased gas pressure to crack it. Once this happens air and whatever painting chemicals rush inside to our tungsten element which is of course white hot and by now maybe arcing providing a sustained ignition source for any flamable material even if it would normally have a high flashpoint.

shed-n-deck

That makes sense.

Just because I don't know everything, doesn't mean that I'm not capable. If I choose to learn about electricity, you can rest assured that I will succeed.

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Shed

DaveTap

I learned a lot from my father who was a mechanical engineer and from teachers in school (we had excellent shop programs) The most important thing I learned from all of them was if you don't know... look it up or ask... even someone else who doesn't know might know someone who does. We're all here to learn... but the most rewarding job it to teach.

Oh and the exploding light bulb... just BS but it sounds plausible right?... LOL

gravtyklz

Information Technology Contractor too huh? How is that going?