What Most Techs Get Wrong About Wire Sizing | 2017-09-18 | Lrd12 Overload Relay

That depends on the country. I live in Europe, and people here are allowed to do basic repairs and modification with mains voltage, like adding extra outlets. All the materials such as PVC conduits, wires, outlets, lights, switches and dimmers are readily available in the hardware store. It is however not allowed to mess with anything before the meter or fuses. Some equipment like electric stoves don’t come with power cords. Instead, you open up some compartment, and attach the wires on some screw terminals.

Mains powered heated glass plates are common place in catering, same deal as a car back window, the heating wires are on the other side from the “working surface” these things can tolerate touching and even fluid spills, why reinvent the wheel, the solution is already commercially avaliable.

Sure you can say it’s cultural and you have to take this into account. It’s still bloody dishonest though! Just means their culture is dishonest. Same place where people skim fat out of the damn SEWER to cook food, and it ends up contaminated with all the industrial chemicals that were illegally dumped down the sewer.

Prior circuit. The OP says in the thread that he puts 8 foot cords on his so he doesn’t need to use an extension cord. Personally I’d go longer, also I’d keep a common “3-lamp” outlet tester handy.

I would say however that relying on the relay coil is not reliable at all, and there are a variety of somewhat more accurate methods that I would prefer to rely upon.

I’d like to say that I’m also grateful to TJ and other contributors for their contributions, inputs and replies, I did learn things and this increased my awareness of potential hazards. [I’m basically a SW developer doing 3.3V electronics, so any insight on mains operations from those who have experience is welcome.] Even though there may be some unwarranted background noise, the discussion is interesting, and dealing with mains surely is worth a few questions. Not knowing is not a problem, not wanting to learn or daring to ask is…

It happens to the best of us. We power up our project and immediately run into issues. Be it spotty communication or microcontroller reset or any number of bugs that have us mystified and picking though our code… only to find that it’s a power supply issue. Anyone who has tried doing Raspberry Pi stuff and depended on the USB power from their PC has certainly been bit by this.

After checking to make sure the outlets are wired correctly, a 220v light bulb with light up across the two hots if they are opposite phase and not if they are the same phase.

I had my poke. Mostly people saying “may” or “could” invalidate your insurance and advising caution. Which is sensible enough. Also mention of laws mandating a professional installing things like new wiring for cookers, and other kitchen / bathroom stuff. Makes sense since there’s water about. This is the UK that I looked up, since that’s where I live. Our electrical standards are pretty high, mandatory ring mains, limits on spurs and wiring length, and even our mains plugs have half a dozen safety features built in (protection against the agony of accidentally stepping on one not included).

I once started cutting into a wall which the building super assured me had no utilities in it with an old sawzall with the ground pin cut off, woke up on the floor with the saw still going in my hands. I hit a live natural gas pipe but the bad ground knocked me down before I could sever gas pipe and destroy the building, kind of like the freak accident where you get thrown clear since you weren’t wearing a seatbelt and walk away from an otherwise deadly crash. I don’t recommend using ungrounded tools but don’t take anyone’s word, verify yourself!

I use a contactor with my sonoff, 1kw pool pump. The sonoff is seriously under specced for switching a pool motor.

As someone who started playing with electronics in the days of B+ in the 350VDC range with double that across the main xformer’s secondary, I was utterly appalled at the idea of tying myself to a hard ground when working with some of the newer (for the time) solid-state stuff that was coming out. We had a respect for high voltage then that is often missing these days, this article is an excellent reminder that this is still needed.