ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Stupid Misconceptions of electricity

Fact, the published List price for a Square D breaker style is the same for all amperages through 60A.
QO1P=$19.40, QO2P=$44.70, and QO3P=$165.00

In response to the first post on this thread. "Fried Chicken anyone?"

A chump I knew once made the statement:
"Aluminium doesn't conduct electricity."
My 14 year old son immediately retorted-
"Here , go and shove this in the fusebox!"
"This" being a piece of worktop trim.

His classic was to phone me at 11 one evening raving about 'Halley-Bopp', [ a new comet ] which he could see from his house.
Turned out H.B. was still only visible, at that date, from the Southern Hemisphere. He had in fact been gazing raptly all evening at Berry Hill Rugby Club's new floodlights. But I spent 20 minutes outside in the freezing cold, in a tee-shirt, vainly looking for it, so who was the bigger fool??!!

Alan

A few minor misconceptions that get on my nerve:

Whenever something doesn't work, and the problem is thought to be in a wire or switch, a customer say's there's a short, when 99.5% of the time, it's an open circuit, not a short.

Or when people think they can load a circuit to the breaker rating.

When people connect exterior extension cords together and expect that the connections are watertight.

When people buy powerful heaters, but turn the thermostat all the way down, it doesn't heat and they think something's wrong with it.

That you're safe from lightning indoors (you're safER, but there's still danger).

And last, but not least, every text book I have ever read through high school says that there are 2 hots coming to the house, and the neutral wire "comes through the ground. The ground is a great conductor." If that were true, it'd be much cheaper to wire a house; just get a plastic tube and fill it with dirt.

That is not a misconception, the NEC and UL both allow breakers to be loaded 100% non-continuous. (Three hours or less at a stretch)

I meant load them up for a longer term basis.

I once had a GC tell me that I shouldn't run up into the attic with my wire unless I had to "like, for lights and stuff", and that I should got horizontally from the panel whenever I could. His logic? Gravity would make it harder for the electricity to go up, and therefor this would cause "the house to use more electricity".

I wish I made this up...

One misconception I have heard many times over is how people think that because they changed their pool pump motor, table saw motor, "whatever" motor from 120V to 240V, "it costs half as much to run because the amperage is half of what it was".. No matter how you try and explain that you have doubled the voltage, so the current now is going to be half of what it was so you get the SAME output they still insist " Uhhhhh but the amps are less so it must be using less power"...

A.D

"I once had a GC tell me that I shouldn't run up into the attic with my wire unless I had to "like, for lights and stuff", and that I should got horizontally from the panel whenever I could. His logic? Gravity would make it harder for the electricity to go up, and therefor this would cause "the house to use more electricity"."

Zapped, you should tell him that if his speakers are upside down the sound will come out backwards.

Another common misconception out there is that if it works, it must be safe....I bang my head against the wall with people who complain that after we've changed over their fuse panel to a breaker panel they keep blowing the circuits.......but they didn't blow the fuses before. Of course, the panel was full of 30 amp fuses.

ROFL