About PASCACK VALLEY ELECTRIC Bob Mossman Expertise Licensed Master Electrician (29 years) 6165B Contractor in Closter New Jersey with 38 years total experience in Residential - Commercial - Industrial work. Emergency Service - General trouble shooting and repair work - Paddle fans - Kitchen & Bath exhaust fans - AC lines - Smoke detectors - Telephone lines - Cable TV lines - Computer network cabling - Exterior lighting - Recessed lighting - Security lighting - (200 - 150 - 100 amp service up grades) - Electric Heat - New circuits - New appliance hook ups - Back up generators - and more ! FREE ESTIMATES 201-358-1552 www.pascackvalleyelectric.com
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Experience Licensed contractor in Closter New Jersey.
Education/Credentials "The Frank Williams School of Electrical Construction". My dear old boss is 96 and still going God Bless him. I started working for "Tenafly Electric" right out of high school at 19. He was tough but I learned more working for him in 8 and half years than most guys. We did mostly industrial work while doing some commercial and residential so I was fortunate to be exposed to all 3 areas of electrical construction. The guys I worked with were all good guys and I stay in touch with some of them still. Most of us went into our own buisness's which says something about the caliber of the guys I worked with. We had some interesting clients : Wella Corp. of shampoo fame, Farah Fawcett etc, I didn't buy shampoo for 10 years, it was a great place to work. Pan Am the X airline just before they went under, another great place to work, nice clean environment. C&C Metals, the largest button manufacturer in the US, a not so clean environment but a very interesting place to work, lots of machine's cranking out buttons of all kinds but you had to be on your toes, it was a potentially dangerous place to be . All kinds of action going on around you.
Question QUESTION: I have been rehabing a barn on my property and decided the next step was to change out the poor wiring job that had been done prior to me. I have Ammcoflex 10/2 600v wire running about 150ft to the barn all on a 20 amp breaker/Cutler Hammer panel. I have gotten most of the wiring completed when I started to close up the boxes when a ground wire tapped the hot side of a switch causing it to smolder for a second until I pulled out the switches. I went inside to check the breaker and nothing had tripped. I manually tripped the breaker, even the main and upon my trip back to the barn nothing was on. I did some investigating and noticed one of the new wire I had installed(16-4)3 wire, had looked different. I went ahead and changed out the 16-4 with fresh wire still no action. I then removed everything from the main line(inside the barn) coming from the panel and still no current inside the barn. I checked to see if I was getting current at the breaker and I am but not at the shed. It was working right up to the spark, Is there a chance that the wire is now bad between the house and barn? I inspected the main wire to see if anything looked out of the ordinary and it all seemed normal, no heat marks, cuts,etc. I am looking for some lights and a couple of plugs nothing over the top for the barn.
thanks for the help
Jesse
ANSWER: Jesse,
You didn't say if the 10-2 runs underground or over head and if it is direct (without splice). It sounds like its running over head when you say that you inspected the main wire but I can't be certain of that.
Bob
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QUESTION: Hey Bob.
The main 10-2 runs underground about 2 ft. from what I can tell. Where I inspected the wire was inside the barn from the point at which it comes up through the slab . I am hoping to have a locate done tomorrow which will atleast tell me where to dig. Also not sure if it is spliced. I would assume that the wire is direct since it is underground, but can't guarantee it.
thanks
Jesse
Answer Jesse,
It does sound like you have a break underground but just to be certain of that, free the main line (10-2) on both ends completely so you can continuity check the wires in the cable. You'll need a volt ohm meter to do this set on "Ohms". On either end connect the bare ground with either the black or white wire then go to the other end
and put the prods on the bare ground and the wire you chose. If you get a reading of 0 , in other words no ohms then those wires are OK. If you get no reading then at least one of those two wires is bad and possibly both wires. Continue checking continuity till you have completed all possible combinations, for instance bare to white, bare to black, white to black. This will tell you whats going on with each wire in the cable. High resistance readings along with no readings at all are bad news.
As far as your loads in the barn are concerned your right in that the 10-2 should handle it with no problem. The only thing I would recomend you do and code required is install a small sub panel in the barn where you will install a 20 amp breaker which legally allows you to down size your wiring from 10-2 to 12-2 or even 14-2 if you used a 15 amp breaker. Code wise you can not go from 10-2 to any size lower than that with out putting the appropriate sized breaker in between. Also on the end where the 10-2 is powered from the main panel you would change the existing 20 amp breaker to a 30.
About Electrical Wiring in the Home
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