New Electrical Work

Overcurrent devices cannot be doubled up for higher voltages.

You need breaker designed for 220V. While you are technically correct, you need the 220V breaker because it is designed so that you always get 220V from the two phases (as opposed to 0V from one phase) and so both "breakers," so to speak, always trip together. Don't just use two 110V breakers you have lying around, it is not safe.

The approved method is to obtain a 2 pole breaker of the right amperage to run your 240 volt appliance. Also approved but not used as much is a common tie bar that incorporates the two breaker toggle handles into one. The reason for this is safety, if just one breaker trips there will still be 120 volts to ground on the un- tripped breaker. Anyone working on the appliance thinking that the power was off could get a severe shock. This holds true also with switches to turn off 240 volt loads, don't just use a single pole (SPST) switch which just shuts off one leg, use a double pole single throw (DPST) switch which isolates the load completely.

No, not directly. You can buy Halogen bulbs that are made to be used in a standard light socket. They are for sale at the standard outlets. I have a number of these in my house, and I use these in some of my light sockets. Just for you information I have one in my lap as I am typing this it is a Philips Master 120 Volts 60 Watt bulb. The only condition is that you have to get a specific bulb for dimmer circuits, a standard halogen does not work with dimmers. The bulbs have ceramic insulator protecting a balast circuit, the dimmer bulbs have a rather large ceramic end, that is sometimes enclosed inside the standard light globe. All the standard bulb manufacturers should sell these. You just cannot use Halogen bulbs in enclosed lights unless they are made for this purpose, as is the dimmer variant I wrote about.

You will need an electrician.

No. That dryer draws a maximum of 7200 Watts. The regular 120V outlets around your home can supply 1800W. So any type of converter will not work.

If you have an electric range, the outlet for that is the only outlet in the apartment big enough for this. You can make an adapter if you really want to go down that road. How to do that has been answered a number of times on this site. Keep in mind this will involve pulling the oven out every Tim you want to do a load. If it is gas you are out of luck.

Really you have two good options:1) Have the correct outlet installed. You shouldn't do this yourself for liability reasons (Burning down apartment complexes tends to be pricy.) Your landlord may install one for you if you are nice, and, more than likely, will let you have one installed if you pay for it.

2) Sell your old dryer and buy one that matches the hookups. You'll have to see which is fiscally wise.

Call the Electric Company to observe this. They probably will want to replace the meter. On the other hand I can't think of an easier way to lower your electric bill. But dangerous, I wouldn't think so.

You could, but if you're going to do that then why not ground the entire service entrance panel? ...and you need to drive (if I remember correctly)...about 7 feet into the ground to be effective.

A little.

First off, most modern dimmer switches aren't rheostats. Those have been supplanted by TRIACs (triode for AC), and later, IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors). For both of these, their mode of action is to change the duty cycle of the AC wave (duty cycle is time on versus cycle time) such that less power per cycle is put through the bulb. This is more efficient than a rheostat, in that, there isnt as much resistive loss across the dimmer.

The resistive loss is where the "a little" comes in. For all three types, a small amount of the power put through the dimmer is dissipated as heat - however, this is significantly less than the reduction in output power to the bulb, whatever the type.

An ideal dimmer would have 100% efficiency - that is, for a given setting, it would dissipate no heat, and the bulb would be the only thing on the circuit consuming power. However, no component is ideal, and modern dimmers typically consume under 1% of their power throughput (so if it's passing a total of 1W, it'll consume less than 10 milliWatts).

First of all, does this mean that the light is permanently on?

Basically what a switch does is interrupt the current flow going to the light. When you turn it on, it makes the connection that is already there with plain wire.

So, installing a switch involves finding the hot wire that goes to the light, cutting it, and connecting each end of the switch to each section of wire. YOU MUST DISCONNECT POWER BEFORE DOING THIS, OR YOU WILL ELECTROCUTE YOURSELF.

Also, completing a project like this in a manner that is up to code is quite a bit more complicated than my explanation. The code is there for your safety, following it is common sense. You must use an approved switch, in an approved box, mounted securely in an appropriate manner, etc. If you aren't completely sure you know what you're doing, don't do it.

Wires could be disconnected from the main fuse box. Check to see if you have any Ground Fault Outlets installed and ensure that all have been reset. It sounds like they may all be on one circuit and if so, You need to check that all outlets nad light fixtures have good connections and are tight. Its possible that you have a GFI outlet in bathroom that is tripped or is bad the bedroom outlets are possibly wired to same circuit It just may be that the fault that tripped the breaker also broke the circuit to the other points. Look into the boxes of the outlets and switches. If there was a fault you may see carbon where an arc broke a wire to the remaining points in the string.

My initial reaction was "absolutely not". The lighting circuit will only have a maximum feed capacity of 3 to 5 amps. For a garage opener this will be more than that. If you did manage to convert it, then you would almost certainly blow the circuit breaker and at the worst you may cause the wiring to set on fire due to overload. Basically, it's all about the maximum current that the opener draws when operating. I'm sure that it would exceed the capacity of the circuit. Additional question...I saw something at Home Depot that screws into a light socket and provides an electrical outlet. Would this work? I did a little research and found garage door openers ranging from 1.6 to 6 amps. Seems a little tight, but could it work?

Those should both be hot (black) wires to two separate circuits. Electricity flows into the breaker from the bar that they snap onto and the grounds (white and bare) all go to one grounding bar on the side of the box. If you don't know what you're doing inside the box, please put the cover back on and call someone who does know.

The NEC allows connection of ungrounded, 3-prong outlets if there is a properly installed GFCI "upstream" of the ungrounded outlet.

As long as everything is working as designed, nothing will happen, but that third connector is a safety feature to protect you. It is connected to the frame of the appliance and if there is an internal short, leads the electricity back to ground. Without that connection, the operator may become the ground, i.e., crispy critter.

No, it is not safe. Ground is a safety line, without it the appliance is not safe. It may work, and you probably will not be harmed, but it is not safe.

No, for a 50-foot run from the breaker box, 10-3 wire is not heavy enough for a washer-dryer combination. It is recommended to use 8-3 wire for this distance to ensure safe and efficient electrical supply for the appliances.

No, number 2 conductors are not sufficient to carry 200A. You would need larger gauge wires to safely handle that amount of current. It is important to match the wire size to the amperage rating of the panel to prevent overheating and potential hazards.

This depends upon the circuit breaker capacity. You may never load a circuit to greater than 80% of it's capacity. So you may load up to 12 Amps on a 15 Amp circuit, and, 16 Amps on a 20 Amp circuit.

The National Electrical Code requires you to calculate each receptacle at 180 VA.

If the circuit is 120 volts and 15 amps, you would have 1800 VA, divide by 180 VA per receptacle, equals 10 receptacles per circuit (minus the wattage of each luminaire or light fixture added to the circuit, before dividing by the 180 VA).

If the circuit is 120 volts and 20 amps, you would have 2400 VA, divide by 180 VA per receptacle, equals 13.333 receptacles per circuit (round down to 13 receptacles),(minus the wattage of each luminaire or light fixture added to the circuit, before dividing by the 180 VA).

There are lots of ways to wire 3-ways. Since I can't see your setup I'll just give you the basics. Each switch has a common . Between the switches, you have to have the traveler wires. You can use your 14-2 for this. On the common screws, you have either a feed, or a switch leg . Now how you get those there is up to you. Your light has to have a neutral and should be from the same feed source not from another circuit. Another option is to install an "RF" based 3 way switching system when travelers are not available. All you need to do then is hook up the "master" switch like a normal single pole switch and the install the "accessory" switch at another location and just supply power to that switch and you have yourself an easy installed 3 way switch.

A -dim- "hot/neutral reversed" indication means that there is -some- voltage, but less than 120V, on the neutral line, referenced to the safety ground. Ideally, the ground and neutral should be at the -same- potential, but a loose neutral connection "upstream" of this outlet will cause measurable voltage between ground and neutral. No need to swap any wires; just tighten neutral connections at all points (including outlets AND breaker panel) on the same circuit as this outlet. My guess is that whoever pulled the wire swapped the white/black wires from the point prior. Trace back the wire to the previous outlet and check the hook up. Try to swap your white/black line on the outlet and retest. If it checks ok, then the wire have been swapped from the previous point.

I'm going to assume that the switch that's getting warm is the dimmer. Even when a dimmer is working correctly it gets warm and that's just the electronic parts of it. The face of a dimmer is actually a heat sink to help remove excess heat.

If you swap out the dimmer you will likely find your problem is resolved. Remember to de-energize the circuit by turning off the breaker before working on it.

If in any doubt, consult a qualified electrician.

Andy

Be aware that a dimmer for lights does NOT work for fans (though it may sometimes appear to work, you can end up with noise, problems such as the light attached to the fan not working, the dimmer getting overheated, etc). So even though it might seem to work at first, you'll have problems, and it's against code to put the wrong kind of dimmer there. You can purchase a dimmer which is rated for ceiling fans at Home Depot or Lowes, but they are more expensive than light switch dimmers.

Of course, if there is a single on/off switch at the wall which controls the fan and its light, then you might be better off buying a remote control unit to install in the fan - it will allow you to dim the fan and light separately (and safely). Or purchase a new fan with a remote... ceiling fans are cheap enough now that if yours is old enough, it might be a nice time for an update.

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AMP (part of Tyco) manufactures the COPALUM system. It's a form of pigtailing, but the electrician uses a special machine that applies (IIRC) over 20 tons of force to the crimp. When it's done, it is as safe as you can possibly get with the notoriously unsafe aluminum wiring.

12-gauge aluminum and 14-gauge copper both handle 15 amps, so that's okay.

The proper way is to get a licensed electrican with aluminum experience to "pig-tail" all the aluminum wire in the entire house. This way you wind up with only copper wires to work with. I live in an area with a LOT of aluminum wiring and made a nice living for awhile doing pigtail work. You use the anti-oxidant compound and al/cu connectors. But the important part is to make sure that the connection is made correctly--something a lot of inexperienced electricians might mess us--and that the wire is skinned back so that it had not been abraded or oxidized in any way. It costs a few dollars, but unless you are ready to have your house burn down, it is worth it.

electrical supply stores carry a wire nut made for cop to alum connections

I very strongly do-not recommend the use of two dissembler metels in wiring. You are asking for TROUBLE big time! When two metels are put together they set up a reaction called electrolysis which causes currosion. This causes the junction to heat which is a major cause of electrical fires! Aluminum may be cheap but better forgotten. Aluminum also has more resistance than copper and therefore requires a lot larger wire. If you don't mind dim lights, hard starting motors that heat because of the lack of available power ect. Well I hope you got the idea. Aluminum is better to make pop cans out of!

I'm sure the guy meant "dissimilar," but I agree - DON'T DO IT!

When connecting aluminum and copper wiring together you must use devices marked CU AL which are designed to keep the 2 wires from touching each other. Best advice is to absolutely not use aluminum wiring!

Don't forget that if you have to use Aluminum wiring you should coat all your connections with an anti-oxidizing paste to lower the fire hazard. 3M also makes a crimp type tool and connectors that can be used with it to make a aluminum to copper connection (IF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY). It works better than the AL-CU nut type connectors.

3M also makes a handy little wire nut specifically designed to connect aluminum and copper wires that already contains an anti-corrosion compound probably the simplest and easiest method.