OT - Grumpy Old Man Thread

[847badgerfan]

My pool sub-panel is outside, but that makes sense. The main panel, the AC sub-panel and the sub-panel I put in for kitchen, bath* and lanai are in the garage.

The spare bath has a 20 amp circuit now. It used to share a 15 amp circuit with two bedrooms (including the master BR) and master bath*.

* The master bath outlets are also now on a 20 amp circuit. That circuit runs from the pool sub-panel outside, because it was easy to drill a hole in the outside wall and run it into the bathroom, which shares that wall. The other things in the master bath (lights, fans) still share that same old original 15 with the two bedrooms.

My office (BR3) is on its own original 15 amp circuit.

Something else that really got me was the GFI's here. Every f'ing GFI outlet in the house, including outside, were all on ONE single 15 amp circuit, with the only actual GFI outlet being in the garage. 

All of the outlets (kitchen, baths, outside, lanai) downstream from that one were regular outlets. That was a shit-ton of work to fix most of that mess (I couldn't do them all - eventually I will hire an electrician to finish the job. What a f'ing pain.

Grumpy, but I'm glad I know how to wire stuff.

Made/makes me also wonder about the level of building inspection around here. As in, is there any?

[utee94]

Florida doesn't love government regulation that's for sure...

[betarhoalphadelta]

Well now I know two people.

Where you live, it probably doesn't matter much, except if it's dark....that'd be a pain in the butt.  Here, where it's monsoon season like 9 out of 12 months, it frequently sucks if I need to get to it. 

Kinda like how there was a pergola on the back porch when I moved in.  It was pretty, and I'm sure in SoCal it'd be awesome.  It was all kinds problematic here, so I tore it down and put a tin roof up.  Some things just don't belong in SETX. 

I think for here, it's more for ease because the electrical service comes to the front of the house on the opposite side of the house than the garage... So I'm guessing in the 70s they cheaped out on it to put it closer to the incoming service line.

Something else that really got me was the GFI's here. Every f'ing GFI outlet in the house, including outside, were all on ONE single 15 amp circuit, with the only actual GFI outlet being in the garage.

All of the outlets (kitchen, baths, outside, lanai) downstream from that one were regular outlets. That was a shit-ton of work to fix most of that mess (I couldn't do them all - eventually I will hire an electrician to finish the job. What a f'ing pain.

That was an odd thing about my old house, too. There were a couple of GFI-protected outlets with the only actual GFI being in the garage. One of them was on the outside wall in the back of the house (garage on the front), and with the long run it would trip sometimes if I tried to connect anything that drew too much, especially if I used an extension cord coming off it to get to wherever I needed in the backyard. That was annoying. 

[OrangeAfroMan]

Made/makes me also wonder about the level of building inspection around here. As in, is there any?

Florida doesn't love government regulation that's for sure...

Just have those hurricane clips in your roof!!!
Asked where they were in a Home Depot in AZ, had no idea what I was talking about.  Don't know what other people call 'em.

[847badgerfan]

Florida doesn't love government regulation that's for sure...

I do like that about Florida - to a degree.

We have hurricane clips.

In fact, we have full hurricane mitigation certification (by a private licensed engineer/inspector, of course, since there are no public ones) so our insurance is about half of what our neighbors all pay.

Getting to that level of mitigation made me grumpy at the time ($$$ windows, doors, garage door, roof, generator, etc.) but we have no fear of riding out a hurricane.

[847badgerfan]

That was an odd thing about my old house, too. There were a couple of GFI-protected outlets with the only actual GFI being in the garage. One of them was on the outside wall in the back of the house (garage on the front), and with the long run it would trip sometimes if I tried to connect anything that drew too much, especially if I used an extension cord coming off it to get to wherever I needed in the backyard. That was annoying.

Did you run new circuits, or just live with it?

I couldn't live with it for the rest of my life - I'll be leaving this home feet first someday.

[Riffraft]

Admittedly, I would've known that had I only gone to the trouble to actually remove them and take a better look.  But that would've involved cutting the breaker, and I was just trying to get a quick look to see what I needed to buy. 

Which reminds me.....what's weird about my house (and has made me grumpy before) is that my breaker box is outside on the South wall.  I've never lived in another home that was done this way.  Or even known anybody who lived in one.  Breaker boxes are always in garages or a hallway....or something inside.  It's weird to me that the thing is outdoors.  Even my grandpa's house has an indoor box, and he built out the newer portion of that house where the box is in about 1950.  My house was built in 2006.....it's not even that old. 

My dad tells me this isn't as unusual as I think, and that it's a thing that happens.  I've just never seen it.  And it's a pain in the butt if I need to get to it and it's raining, or has been raining, or it's dark out. 

I asked a friend of mine who moonlighted as an electrician in his earlier years how much he thought it'd cost to get that thing moved into the garage.  He said "About two."  I said "Two what?"  He said "Too much," with a laugh.  His way of saying leave it where it is. 

Never seen it before I moved to Arizona. Every house I have owned or rented here has had the breaker box outside and outside of the fence area.  I just assumed it must be a code thing here. Nothing like having to have a lock on your breaker box so friendly neighborhood kids can't just randomly shut off your electric

[betarhoalphadelta]

Did you run new circuits, or just live with it?

I didn't run new circuits. Had I stayed longer, I might have. But my kids were a lot younger in that house, I was more busy, my income was significantly lower, and I was married to a spendthrift. There were too many other things going on in my life for the annoyance factor to outweigh the apathy towards changing it.