Electric Ghost Buster
Are my long, long days of frying electronic components finally over?
Long-time readers (Hi, Mom!) know that I go through computers, computers, hard drives, hard drives, hard drives, stereos, monitors, laptops and even high-end surge protectors the way I go Frosted Flakes — an entire box at a time.
So, about 6-9 months ago, we paid the Louis Pearson electric company to investigate. Their diagnosis: I needed two new 20-amp lines pulled into my office. That required replacing the electric panel we’d put in 10 years ago. A thousand dollars later, the situation was still SNAFU: Situation Normal, All Fried Up. Plus, my new, soon-to-be-fried uninterruptible power supply tells me that I’m actually pulling well under 10 amps in my office, and thus didn’t really need the 2 new cables.
Yesterday, Walter Nowicki, Master Electrician came by. Here’s his report:
Investigate voltage issues. Findings:
No ground at phone or CATV
Loose ground at offset nipple customer panel. 24-22 volts from ground to neutral
Broken coupling at grounding electrode conductor
No house side bond
No supplemental grounding loose node
Loose ground at tenant panel
After tightening the offset nipple (ok, so I don’t look in the mirror that often), the voltage differential went waaaay down. (Please do not ask me questions. I do not know what I’m talking about. I can’t even read Walter’s handwriting precisely.)
Here are thumbnails of my new hero, Walter Nowicki. Why, I’m even tempted to give him a wiki! (Click on the photos to see them full-size.)
Main panel – disconnected strap from neutral
Loose ground connection – “nipple” between panel and meter
Tenant’s panel – no bushing on power coming in
Main cut off – Ancient as Capone’s vault
Current where there shouldn’t be
Walter J. Nowicki, Master Electrician
Categories: Uncategorized dw
It is surprising that none of the other electricians detected that you had “24-22 volts from ground to neutral”. That would have taken about 10 seconds to check,
You must feel great about this transformation … and a bit electrifried about the bad advice you’ve gotten in the past.
Hi,
Nice to see Walter’s doing his usual high quality work. Not that I would expect less,
However,when he was a kid you should have seen the…..
Well better not go there, always nice to have
it public that he is GREAT, not that I didn’t already know!
jAN
(WALTER’S MoM):)
jAN, you done good : ) He was professional, friendly, educational, and obviously cares about the people who work for him.
Three cheers for Walter Nowicki, or anyone who rescued you from the Electric Gremlins.
I have only one word to describe the poor shape of the good doctors’ home elctricity – MISCONDUCT.
Hey
Thanks for the broadcast- I can certify that with Walter you do have a superior connection!
Caren(Walter’s girlfriend)
Congrats on exorcising the electrical demon! Dad’s been too busy with both hurricanes to be of much help on this; bugs me more that my spouse was correct with his passing observation that it was a ground problem. It does seem quite odd that the guy who installed the new circuits this spring didn’t catch on to this…here’s hoping you are now altogether bug-free!
It’s silly- but from time to time I’ll type in “N-O-W-I-C-K-I” into Google and see what I come up with- your’s is newish and one of the best “interweb” contributions from one of our kin to date. Keep up the good work!
~K8 Nowicki
so weird i just did that and came up with this! birthday today so in mood to indulge narcissim by googling self on internet.