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The following pictures are from a Million dollar house overlooking the Monterey bay in California. These are shots taken while up in the attic. Let's count up the violations.
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1. What you're seeing here is a partially dismantled square recessed light fixture. It has been "recycled" into a freeform j-box. The plugged-in lamp cord wire feeds down though the ceiling (no box) into a chandelier. What fun!
I count 5 here.
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2. When you're finished laughing, I'll explain this. The romex terminating in a plug connects to ready? The furnace. The other plug goes to the doorbell transformer. We'll be seeing Mr. Doorbell Transformer later in the show. You can't see it in the picture, but the receptacle was cooked. Lots of browning all around the socket and really brittle wire insulation. Definitely on the road to rooftop BBQ.
I count 5 here.
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3. Nice duct tape splice here. This isn't as rare as I'd like to believe I bet.
Two violations for this one. The splice and no blower emergency shutoff switch.
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4. Where to start? Note how convenient it is to work in this box when you leave the cover off and just wire right through the front. No more carrying heavy screwdrivers! Threading the grounding wire through the device mounting screw holes is a big time saver.
I count 5 here.
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5. That's Mr. Doorbell Transformer sitting nice-n-cozy in the insulation there. He won't catch cold that way. The open-air splice goes back up to the plug in pic #2. You might not be able to tell that there are intercom wires running all around the power lines. Makes for a nice 60Hz buzz in the speaker. Everyone enjoys a good buzz.
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6. This is the inside of the jbox from #2. Nice and busy in here.

7. (no picture) Kitchen receptacle is about a foot from the kitchen sink. Non GFCI recep, No GFCI breaker. Neutral and hot were reversed, AND the grounding wire was not connected. Nice death trap.

The good news is that none of this was done by an electrician. Looking at other non-electrical atrocities around the residence leads me to believe that this was the elderly homeowner trying to pinch pennies. This was their second home. As usual, it's the ones with all of the money that can't bear to spend it. The home inspector didn't log any of this stuff.

- Eric aka Haligan