Cord Protector For 12 Gauge Extension Cord/ Could I Do With 14 Gauge?

Thanks. I think I am on a good path, which I started down due to this and one or two other threads on this site.
My goal is to approach the landlady in a way where we are trying to improve situations for everyone, including her.

 

Well, if the current wiring is hazardous, it should be fixed and perhaps an anonymous call to your local "Code Enforcement" office might be in order. Yes, it could ultimately mean a raise in rent, but that's better than becoming a crispy critter.

I have no idea the horsepower. Our "motors" were totally battery operated and were rated by weight of the battery packs which we had to change each shift. The main ones on our level were 4 ton and 8 ton. These were used to haul supplies and people. The bigger motors on the lower level were 25 ton and were for hauling ore from the lines to the ore lifts.

 

Digerati, I didn't know and assumed you had a diesel running a gen to power it. Under ground, I can see why no fumes. Work decided on a contract. Ore trains. Coal hopper cars cleaned to accept ore, half filled. 120 car trains. Upper Michigan to chgo and beyond. When the lakes froze.

Had 3 units, -> locomotives married together, Around 14.000 hp. Fun at your finger tips. I was allowed 8 units married together on tons per ton allowed on tonnage behind me. 1 hp per ton. Qualified in passenger. Fun to get pass up to 70 mph and freight up to 50 mph.

Work always gave us safety awards. Coats or hats with I'm an engineer. Some one see's that., always 2 Q's. Hear ever hit any one? You made me late waiting at crossing. @ 10 mph for a broken rail, average train 1 mile @ 10 mph. takes 6 min to clear.

On the one Q. I was asked to join a peers support program. Someone had a critical insident. All for free on my time. Took training, not talking to lawyer or company official. 3 sates wide on coordinator. Not what I've been thru, but what they were going thru.

Hit one? Ehh, 23 fataility's. I remember every one. Can't steer aruoud them. Thousandad's ' of near misse's

 

Yeah, once the copper ore made it to the surface, it was loaded into normal sized hopper cars and hauled off the smelter about 10 miles away.

Our motors had no instruments/gauges, not event charge rate. So no idea how fast they went but when full speed, it seemed like we were really moving. If hauling cars with no or light loads, no way could we go flat out as the cars would jump off the track. LOL

And remember, we were always in a horizontal shaft, often with a ceiling so low we had to duck down. So when shooting through a tunnel at full speed, we were really moving - or at least it seemed so. I loved it. I would guess the 8 ton (I also occasionally drove a 12 ton) could easily go 40mph.

Another interesting point was the mine was pressurized to control ventilation. So between the main vertical shaft and the first air lock doors was the surface pressure. So we had to pull the rope while on the fly to open the first doors, make sure we were all the way in the lock before closing the rear doors then open the front doors to get into the pressurized part of the mine. It was something if you missed a rope. Depending on which door rope you missed, you had to immediately throw the train into reverse and hope you could stop before hitting the door. Or you had to immediately throw the train into reverse so you could rush back and close the door before you de-pressurized the entire mine and get some unwanted attention from the boss. When that happened you were immediately in a violent dust storm and it was almost impossible to see the rope. That got the heart pumping. I miss those times but it was hard back-breaking work.

 

tl;dr
Electrician came in and didn't do as much as I had envisioned he would do. 2 bedroom apartment now has all GFCIs in the kitchen and bathroom, and the rest of the apartment has essentially 2 prong outlets except for 2 receptacles, one of which is an outlet for the window air conditioner. On this receptacle, the prongs that are normally the ground and the neutral appear to be sideways. The electrician said that that one is either a 240V or a ~120V @ 20 amps. The other non- 2 prong outlet is in one of the bedrooms, in a far corner (meaning the corner that is further from other points in the apartment outside of the bedroom). This is a 4 outlet grounded receptacle.

details:
I was able to get the landlady to have an electrician come out. At least I think he's an electrician. He is a guy that had done a couple of things around here before, including installing a receptacles with 4 outlets, 2 connected to a 15 amp breaker, and 2 connected to a 20 amp breaker.

He confirmed that the bathroom and the kitchen have GFCIs. He says that that's all that's required, in terms of GFCIs for existing buildings.

I pointed out that I have a window air conditioner in one of the rooms and so my thinking is that that should have at least a GFCI, too. But, he didn't seem to think that that was important enough to recommend to the landlady. So, he didn't install that. Originally, I thought that that was something that he was going to do but realized afterward that that was not something he did. I do have one large air conditioner in the house, which is in the living room, which he says can cool that bedroom, too. Perhaps it can but that would waste electricity when spending long amounts of time in the one room (for example, when sleeping). Also, the built in air conditioner is rather old, and maybe not too energy efficient.

He opened up all of the receptacles in here except for the ones in the bathroom and the kitchen and the grounded receptacle. He checked and/or replaced some stuff in some of them (I'm not sure what). All these other receptacles were either two prong or they were 3 prong but the 3rd prong is just for show (it's just like having one of the converters so that you can plug a 3 prong electrical device into the outlet). A couple of these he closed off, I know that one was because some of the wiring was chewed by a rodent. With one of them he installed a new one a few inches above the one that he took out.

He also fixed ceiling fixture light that was not working and he replaced a few ceiling fixture lights with LED fixtures. I don't see a big point in that because the ceiling fixture lights that I had already had LED bulbs in them for the most part. But, I must say, it looks more fashionable.

So, dealing with multiple computers is still a struggle. I think I will have to move another desk into this bedroom, and run the coaxial cable into this room. I guess it's either that or get another grounded outlet installed in a more convenient location.

 

No. It does not need a ground fault circuit interrupt (GFCI) socket. Those are primarily for where water is present. So if sitting in the bathtub full of water and you drop a hairdryer in the water, you don't blow the breakers for the entire complex and start to stink out the neighbors in a couple days.

If a two prong out is properly wired, you really should not need to worry about ground, unless your UPS requires it - and some do. If you owned this place, I would say have it properly wired up to current code.

 

At least your curiosity did get attention! That says a lot of good for everyone involved! Congrats!

 

In doing some reading on the web, some sites were saying that it's a no no to use the 3 prong to 2 prong adapters (plugging a 3 prong cord into a 2 prong outlet). The sites seemed to be concerned about the shock hazard of doing so. Examples:
https://www.quora.com/Is-the-3-prong-to-2-prong-outlet-adapter-safe-If-not-how-is-it-dangerous
https://www.electrocuted.com/2017/08/24/grounded-plug-adapter-safety/

I guess the one thing that everyone can agree on is that you need a true grounded outlet (plus a surge protector or maybe UPS) if you want your electronics to be safe from damage (including the data on your hard drive).

 

3 prong to 2 prong adapters should be illegal.
They basically disconnect the earth/ground wire.
A current of ± 100mA (depending on other factors) can kill you.

 

Yea, that's why I'm surprised that he didn't recommend putting in at least 1 more GFCI. I mean a 2 br apartment with 1 grounded outlet in the corner and GFCIs only in the kitchen and bathroom... Instead putting in fancier lights...

 

It is frowned upon because it can give people a false sense of security. If you look at those adapters, they have that small brass eyelet that are supposed to be used to connect the outlet to the face-plate screw. But that is making the assumption (1) users will do that and (2) the outlet box is properly grounded from the box back to the service panel, and then from the service panel to Earth ground.

Those are assumptions I personally would not make.

 

Yeah, no sparks around explosives!

 

My Mom lives in a 2-bedroomed townhouse (condominium). All the electrical socket outlets (bedrooms x1 each, living room x3, kitchen x2) are grounded/earthed. Regular electrical sockets and light switches are not allowed in bathrooms.

 

It has been that way for decades. And that's kitchens and laundry rooms too - anywhere there's a chance water and electricity may meet.

However, unless the homeowner gets the required permits to make any electrical repairs or updates, there's still a chance the repairs/upgrades will not be up to code.

 

What do you mean by face plate screw? Do you mean the screw(s) that holds the faceplate to the wall? Or you mean the screws that you see once you take that off? Don't worry; I am not about to mess with anything. I'm just trying to learn.

 

Right that screw screws into the metal of the outlet itself and that metal connects to the ground connection of the outlet. If the wiring includes a 3rd wire, that center face plate screw will provide a ground. In some cases, the metal outlet box the outlet is installed is connected back to the service panel (and thus Earth ground) via metal conduit. But that assumes the metal conduit provides good continuity all the way back to the service panel. That is not a good assumption to make.

 

Is metal conduit still used in suburban houses?
Bending metal conduit using a hickey is somewhat of an art.

 

Still? No. Not with new construction. But it still exists in older buildings.

We did it often in some of our facilities. Only there, the conduit was used for cable protection and RFI/EMI isolation - not for grounding. I guess in some places it was used to prevent rodent munching.

 

Maybe not in residential, unless the owner asks for it. In commercial, industrial and a lot of city, county or government contracts, romex, mc cable and ac cable is not allowed. Any good electrician that has been thru apprenticeship training can bend conduit all day long!

As for the conduit being the circuit ground, a long time back it was determined that the conduit was not always install in a proper manner (tight!), so the extra ground (green) wire is now required in USA by the NEC (National Electtrical Code).

The 'code' as is, is incorporated in many states' bylaws. As it is here in Florida.
Florida also requires a licensed electrician, or an electrician working for a licensed electrician, to do the work. Here, working without a license is a felony! You will lose your right to vote, your right to own a gun, and in some cases lose of work activity!

 

This is a project my company is doing on overtime mostly.(weekends and evenings)
This in a Trane Mfg plant where rooftop air conditioner are made. You can see a lot of conduit is in use. This is a blast test station where the units are pressurized and then evacuated to prepare for refrigerant to be installed. The Smog Hog sends any fumes or leaks of gases out of the building.
Very little plastic (romex) or flex (mc ac) used. Flex is reserved for final few feet attaching to equipment with motors so as not to transfer vibration noises.

 

This article in wiki and the links on the page offer a good overview of requirements of the US use of the NEC. The links available go even more into situations needing more attention

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Electrical_Code

for those that are interested.

 

Actually, you just need a few scrap feet to practice on and you can get proficient. Most benders have degree markings and most bends are 90° or 45° so no big deal.

The problem (for me anyway) was getting the length just right. I cut it twice and it was still too short!

Well, it was not just about improper installation. Professionals could and typically did install it properly. The problem was the conduit (especially junctions) could easily damaged. Also untrained amateurs and unscrupulous re-modelers and repair techs would make modifications that did not provide a ground. Either way, conduit is still widely used today, but only to protect the wiring inside.