(electure)

Wow, FMC cord caps, much better than extension cords.

From the looks of the meter ring somebody had tampered with the meter in the past, and in regards to working space somebody got Rheemed.

PIC #2 YUCK!

Hello electure, nice pictures.
Perhaps I shouldn't write this but...the reflection of you in picture #1 reminds me of an e-mail I got with a guy trying to sell a tea-kettle on E-bay. It was a chrome kettle and reflected him taking the picture. The bad part is the guy was 250 pounds+ and totally nude!!!

Ryan,

Too much information there, really ...

Did you buy the kettle?

Ooops, well at least I was dressed for the "photo shoot".
Something that you're not able to see in the picture is that all the EMT fittings used are of the set-screw type.
That meter ring is of a tamper-proof design.
The work (damage) was done without a permit long before it was installed....S


[This message has been edited by electure (edited 08-24-2003).]

Is that a raingutter downspout, or...? It appears to have some sort of piping entering it below the recp, and some kind of wires sneaking out from under it next to the panel.

The open box for the missing porchlight is good too, lol.

Central air systems that were retrofitted often use downspouts to route the freon pipes from the compressor to the cooler units inside the house, usually in the attic. They may pass low voltage control wiring that way too. I doubt that the code would permit power cables, though. Downspouts look prettier than exposed pipes, and offers some physical protection to those pipes as well.

As for the second picture, I think that there is a common mis preception amoung the public that materials listed for use in house wiring would also more than qualify for use for making extension cord sets. As if the requirements for anything that plugs into a wall socket are less stringent than for wiring installed inside the walls of a house.
As Joe T. points out in that picture of him holding a homemade extension cord at a hotel conference, that's not true. A metal box intended for house wiring isn't designed to be tossed about like an extension cord is likely to see. The knockouts getting dented in, for example. Also the constant flex the cord applies to the clamps on the box will make them loose. This doesn't happen inside walls with house wiring. The requirements are different, not less stringent.

Is that a board on the wall below the meter in the first picture?

Any idea what it is made out of and how long it will hold up?

Bill

The board is just a piece of 3/4" plywood. My guess is that it covers a horrible hole beneath the service where the branch circuits enter the enclosure. (It also made a handy mounting surface for the quad outlet, not GFCI protected, with the vertical-use cover turned sideways).
Its longevity is anybody's guess. :eek
BTW, this is an example of an all-in-one service for you that are not accustomed to seeing them. The branch circuit C/Bs are located in the section on the right, and the utility side is on the left. This particular one can be used with either an overhead or underground feed...S

It's also obvious to all of us (but probably not to most end users) that BX-type cable sheaths leave a very sharp edge that has to be covered up. This is not the case with the pictures below.

The wires enter the cord caps but the sharp edge of the armor is still prone to rubbing against the two or three conductors inside. Eventually the insulation will be sliced up and the installation will go out with a bang...ahem....