ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Alarm Guy from Hell

..On a normal renovation..I usually leave one receptacle,and a switch hot,tape the heck out of it,and a pigtail lampholder...the feed thru's at the receptacle are not connected,so nothing downstream gets energized...they ask for power,so I give it to them..but I also caution them about the hazard involved..I usually work with the same GC,so his guys know how to handle the potential hazard...

Our new builds, the first run we normally pipe after we install the main is 4 12's, (to a single 1900), which feeds 2 duplexes on 2 GFCI breakers for the first floor, and (if the run follows), we've been known to run a third circuit to the second floor, also on GFCI. We either pull it out during our finishing (once other circuits are in place), or use it as part of a branch.

We've also installed a "temporary power point", basically a 2'x 2' piece of plywood nailed to the studs, with a bunch of 20a receptacles in exterior boxes on it, all wired to GFCI breakers @ the main panel.

We usually box & pipe, pull the wire, tape the boxes, let the finishers in, then install the fixtures / receptacles / switches, and then the breakers.

Keeps "little fingers" outta our panels.

I remember one GC who would turn on every breaker in the panel every morning to make sure all the lights were on. He was encouraging the trades to get to work. He would ignore our cautions about doing this, as some circuits were not ready to be energized. He had his own key to the panel, and he would use it. We gave him a scare one day by removing the fuse from a cherry bomb (large fire cracker), inserting two wires into the fuse hole in loose contact, one to the breaker and one to neutral bus. Next morning, in he came and started flipping all the breakers, I thought he would die from a heart attack when the "bomb" went off in his face! we could only say, "We told you so", and mentioned the backcharge to "repair" the damage. Kept him out of the panels the rest of the job!