house electric question

[markct]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If you look closely, you may have some improperly installed wiring that's letting the electricity leak out onto the ground.

Also, sometimes, if the wire takes too tight a turn, the electrons don't make it around the corner and fly off into the conduit and go banging around a finally they pop out through the boxes (which sounds remarkably like mosquitoes) -- more leakage.

Finally, watch out for that "full circuit" gag that the electricity companies play on unsuspecting consumers. You should have a meter on the electricity going into the house, but you should also ask for a meter on the electricity going out so you only pay the difference, that is, for the electricity you actually use.

Cliff
)</font>


well the first part of your statement is definatly true, we had a pole barn that the whole outside metal became slightly electrified, i didnt know it till i was putting up fence and leaned on the building while holding onto the metal fence post i had just driven it, got a bit of a zap! turned out a pinched wire was the problem. however the second part of your post is just rediculous, electricity will not "fly off" the wire from making too tight of a turn, wires make turns all over and nothing flys off, if it did we would have codes saying how tight of a radius the wire could make etc. the third part of your post doesnt make sense to me, but since i dont fully understand it i wont say its wrong, i just dont understand where this electricity "going out" would be coming from or how it would go out so to speak, for example, i know of a guy who has a small hydroelectric setup on an old mill pond. when he makes more than he uses it is sold back to the power company, it simply goes the other way thru the meter, the meter runs backwards then so i dont see what you mean by electricity going out, when it goes out it would turn the meter the oposite way, ya wouldnt be charged for it

 

[KubotaSteve]

When I was checking out generators, I was looking at Lowes website and they had a little section by the generators that told what different household appliances use as far as watts go. It included the startup watts as well as the constant. That might give you a better idea as to how many watts each item costs.
My wife does the same thing. I came home from work last evening and she had almost all of the lights on in the house.

 

[OkeeDon]

Eh, I have the opposite problem. I consider myself thrifty, but my wife is a downright miser. If I come home after dark, I'm lucky to find the house in the dark. She'll have one tiny light on, only in the room she's occupying. If I'm working in a room and leave for 30 seconds to get a tool or whatever, she will have somehow sensed it , materialized in the room long enough to have turned the light off, and disappeared without my ever seeing her. I get really frustrated when it's a flourescent light -- I've always heard they take more electricity to start up than they use burning for a minute or so, and I've tried to explain that to her, but no light can remain on for more than 15 seconds if no one is there.

Once, when I had something bulky to carry into the house, I carefully went along the route and turned on lights so I could see where I was going. By the time I got the item out of my truck and started towards the house with my hands full, every light had been turned out.

I finally figured out a good use for this quirk. After I use my gas grill, I let it burn for a while to clean it. But, I've been known to forget that it's on. Now, when I sit down to eat, I simply turn on the patio light. Even in broad daylight, my wife will sense that it's on and repeatedly ask me every 2 or 3 minutes why that light is on. All I have to do is associate the light with the burning grill in my weak synapses, and there is no way I'll ever forget to turn it off.

In our home office, we have two desks. I had two high-hat flood lights installed in the ceiling to shine down on the desks. Unfortunately, I had them both put on the same switch. When I'm working in there alone, it drives her nuts that both bulbs are lit. I won't make that mistake in our new house...

To be fair to her, I have to mention that I have a quirk about drawers and doors that are slightly ajar - I like them shut tightly. So, we prove our love for each other in a simple way. I know how much she enjoys turning out lights so I leave them on for her, and she knows how compulsive I am about pushing drawers and doors shut, so she kindly leaves them ajar for me. Both of us are happy.

 

[Bird]

That's great, Don. I have the same quirk about cabinet doors and drawers myself. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif But we're different on the lights. I raised two daughters and neither they nor my wife ever figured out that those light switches work both ways. They could turn them on, but never figured out how to turn them off. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[billbill1]

The NEC does state how tight of a radius you can bend wire. I found this out in a class I took.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Sorry, markct, my whole post was intended to be in jest. I apologise if it sounded too legit. None of it was intended to be accurate or useful beyond a chuckle. I should really use more smilies, I guess.

Cliff

 

[rambler]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">(
my electric bill is usually in the $200.00 to $300.00 a month.
i have propane stove,hot water heater.
oil heat.
i am just trying to make sure i still have some drinkin' money at the end of the month. ha ha ha

i hope i dont sound like a miser.

thanks all
scott )</font>

I am a miser. My wife puts up with me.

I run a small crop farm with 30-45 head of cattle, deep well, oil heat, and an electric water heater, electric stove. Welder, shop tools, a few grain handling augers & plugging in tractors in the cold MN winters....

My eyebrow raises the couple times a year my bill goes over $50 a month for electric.... Wow over $200 for a house???

I pay more for phone & internet service than I do for electric....

--->Paul

 

[JimR]

You sure are not living in the NE if your paying $50.00 a month for electricity. Especially with an electric water heater. Our bill is around $160.00 without an electric water heater or electric heat. I do however use my welder and dust collectors alot. Plus we have 3 computers, 2 printers and a fax running fulltime. I don't plug my tractor in either. I did the night of the blizzard just to make sure it started up.

 

[markct]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Sorry, markct, my whole post was intended to be in jest. I apologise if it sounded too legit. None of it was intended to be accurate or useful beyond a chuckle. I should really use more smilies, I guess )</font>

sorry i took it seriously, the way it was written gave no indication that you were not serious, the stuff ya said while it is terribly silly i have heard people say things stranger things on disscusion boards, and in person too!

as for the bend radius i was never aware of any spec on this, and my boss who is a licenced electrician said the only spec he knew of was for conduit, where your pulling wire thru, and that spec has nothing to do with electrons its just for ease of pulling the wire without damaging it, could ya elaborate a bit on what the spec refers to, im curious now, even tho now knowing the original post was just a joke so it realy doesnt matter in that aspect

 

[slydog]

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I almost bit on that one myself! I know I've never seen two meters on the back of a house. Then I't dawned on me you wuz yankin our chains.