What home improvement work did you do today?

If you need something like those 3D printed ones, let me know so I can give you some potentially cheaper options. if you want anyway.

I see a lot of answers, but I will chime in late with mine. I have a 5k that I will be getting a transfer switch for. It will plug directly into my panel area and control specific breakers so it isnt overloaded. One day, when I get my 14k propane I will do a whole panel switch so I can just run anything.

For now, I run it to a couple of cords and run the bare essentials. Thankfully power outages here are typically when we are warmer.

 

Decided to tackle something that should have been a quick job, but there is always something....

cut a hole behind my outlet to put another box in so i can hide these cords and keep things away from my soon to be toddler. Doing so, i failed to take wall depth into account. So I raised the hole and put the box in. It is ugly, but it doesnt matter since it hides behind everything and functions as needed now.

Before:



what is hidden:



after until I do the wire hide work when the baby is awake again:

 

Came here to say this!

But since I got beat to the punch, this is what I did today. Snow hit ATL again and my neighbor, who I helped replace a garage door spring for and urged him to do both sides, called me to say, “FUCK! The other side just popped, like you said it would!”

So I helped him swap it out before the snow started, and while I don’t drink much lately, unless it’s quality, I got paid in kind with one of my favorite hazies out of LA.

I cannot express to yall how dangerous these springs are. That eye hook was bent at a 35° angle, I had to shorten it with a rotary and clean the threads, I’ll need to replace later. I dunno if these pics will show how bent that angle iron is but the spring absolutely hammered it when the spring blew, and took the emergency cable with. I can only imagine what it sounded like inside.

PS - If you have this style of door, PLEASE make sure you have safety cables passing thru the spring.
. Their safety cable did its job, but was shredded in half as a result. If it hadn’t, there’s a good chance he’d be a widow today.

 

Since we've taken an electrical turn. One of the GFCI outlets in my shed failed. I went to replace it, but the electrician didn't leave enough slack in the box. I need to fire him, he drinks on the job and takes too many smoke breaks.
So, I'm going to take the wallboard off and add a junction box. Easy enough. Question is, are Wago splices OK to use? They sure seem easier than wire nuts. Would I still need to add a j-box, or can they just be left in the wall?

 

I personally won’t use them but I would defer to @bmf4069 or @RainMan_PNW

 

They're NEC approved but I don't like them.

You need a j-box for all splices, bad juju will find you if you bury a splice in the wall.

 

it was probably a few years ago now but I heard of a local guy who literally had his face taken off by one of those springs…..I swore after hearing about it that I would NEVER touch a garage door mechanism. I will gladly pay someone else who knows what the heck they’re doing and has the right tools for the job.

that said, I probably should have paid someone to wire this light since I had no idea what a traveler wire was before attempting this. I popped the breaker twice before learning that it was white (fixture) to white (box) and black (fixture) to red traveler wire (box). Then the two blacks joining from the switches get tied off together…..as GI Joe used to say “now I know……and knowing is half the battle.” Just glad I got buzzed and not fully jolted….

 

You should fire that guy…
100% need a junction box per code. Any splice needs to be contained in a box with an appropriate cover.

I’ve never used them myself, but our service electricians have been stocking them and using them for a while now in their work. They are more expensive and feel to me like they take up more room in the box (thinking larger multi-wire splices), but they are much faster and easier to install - something that makes sense when you are talking about the labor cost of a union electrician doing many many splices on a job.
For a basic homeowner, I don’t see any compelling reason not to just use some quality brand wire nuts of the right size and call it a day. You’re talking about three splices of two wires each…

 

Two types of springs: Torsion, Extension.

These are extension springs. When the garage door is up, there's zero tension on the spring and they're safe to handle. Like a rattlesnake in a K-hole. That fucker ain't gonna bite, it doesn't know its fang from its tail, as you can clearly see in my 1st pic. Limp. Flaccid. Needs blue pills. But if the door is down, and the spring extended, you don't touch that MF.

Only "aha!" with extension springs is, you need to unlock/unlatch the door, open it, and clamp it so it won't fall. In that state, no tension, no risk, and you can get to work. Undo your safety cable that runs thru the spring. Pop pulley off the spring. Swap out spring, reinstall pulley. Reinstall safety cable. Unclamp the door and relock it, you're golden.

I don't fault anyone for being worried about it. My friend next door is too, and I got a 4pk of beer that would've cost me $15 as a result of my 20min of work, altho he knows damn well I'd have done it for free.

Torsion springs? I know jackshit about them, and I like my face un-torn-off, so not messing with them w/o more experience. But I'm sure with those, you just need to respect a few fundamentals and you're fine.

 

I’ll give a few comments wrt generator backups.
My old house I installed a 6 circuit backup panel with separate switches for each circuit so you are not using the breakers. It worked fine, as it had a built in transfer switch. I had an extension cord from the generator outside the garage to a plug in the garage. It worked but did not ever get used if I was not home. When I was working there were a couple times when I was out of town(overseas) and the power was out for 4 and 5 days.
Fast forward new home. We have propane heat (and tank) and added heat pump, then added solar panels with 10 KWh battery backup. It powers partial home. But the propane furnace is still hooked up and provides heat when power is out. Other circuits are: Master bath, family room (Internet and cable box), septic pump, tankless water heater, kitchen outlets and kitchen fridge, as well as fridge and freezer in garage. Power back up is seamless with battery, and will last us about 12 hours. I also have a generator hookup for when power is out for longer than 12 hours. My sub panel has a transfer breaker to provide generator input. The generator I have is dual fuel, and have it running on propane only. We had power out for 22 hours a couple of months ago, so that was a test. My generator is electric (battery) start and about 8000 watts on propane fuel. It handles the house load with no problems. Ten days ago I had the propane company guy add a quick connect to my 500 gallon propane tank. No more moving propane tanks around for this old guy.
Getting the backup battery was a no hesitation decision from my wife. Most of our power outages are short 30 minutes to 3 hours.
Photo of my propane tank connection. I’m ok working with electrical basics but leave the main tank connection to the company.

 

Not enough to even just pigtail the wires? That would be a lot easier than adding a new box.

Wago are great, I like the lever ones myself.

 

@JMB Wagos are garbage. If you look at them, they have such a small area of contact that a decent amount of amperage will burn them up. I'd get a handful of red/tans from the big box store and add a bit of wire onto what you've got. You can for sure cut in a box to add some length, but I'd just wirenut some wire on first. If you leave joints in a wall I'll find you and punch you directly in the dick.

 

I'm only sparky adjacent, I just rewire in cabinets and low voltage.

Just for funsies I'll throw in I prefer Propress to soldering for plumbing as well.

 

I would stay away from Wago also. The wire nuts are specified with a number of wires/minimum gauge wire to number of wires/maximum gauge size. It’s on the outside of the package. I also make sure you get enough twist on the nut and wire. I now also wrap the wire nut and wire withe electrical tape.

 

I was able to add some wire to get the circuit up, but the box seems cluttered to me. I'm afraid I'd loosen the wire nuts when I secure the outlet to the box. For now I leave the breaker off except when I need the circuit.
I really don't know how I managed to connect the GFCI outlet 15 years ago it's so tight.

Good to know. It's a 20 amp circuit with only a dustbuster charger on it. I use it for high current draw items like my air compressor. I have a second circuit for lights, beer fridge and smaller draw tools.

I believe that's the route I will go. When it warms up.

 

No worries on getting dick punched. The question was specific to Wago, I'm totally not familiar with them. If I go the j-box route it will be flush and have a cover.

 

Texture, primer and paint done. Flooring next.

 

Interlock kits are cheapest at around 100$, but your box needs to be a common version that an interlock kit is available for. Then you also need a free double breaker slot for the generator (new breaker is cheap but yours maybe full). The outlet box and wire should be sub 200$. The cord is 100-200$ depending on length. A good generator option is a used Honda EU7000is or EU6500is or EM6500is if you can find one for sub 2k$, those will use about 8 gallons for 24 hours and power most things in your house.

I have to run dual generators to run my house and separate well shed and often lose power for 3-5 days at a time, makes for fun times haha. Blue dots mean I keep those on when using the generator:

 

No shit? Never heard of those.
How many watts?

 

Well, I'll be!
Pretty good looking unit

 

We installed one of these in our daughter's room this winter as well. Different brand but i really like it. I can set a schedule for it for it and adjust the temps from anywhere I am on my phone once's it's connected to the wifi. It's a pretty handy little space heater. https://www.dreo.com/products/wh719...ULAy_E35AHI0_2_U8LWHSIek2XttD2X4aAqhPEALw_wcB

 

I am looking on this site, and they do not list size recommendation on their wall heaters. How the heck are you supposed to know if it will be useful! I've got a message into support, but that's a big question mark. Not even in the faq that I can see. Do you know?


edit: at 1500w it should work for my space, same size as the one I have down there, but this one spreads the air much better, and mounted on the wall saves space on the floor.

 

all this heater stuff reminds me of this movie

 

We gave our oldest a heated blanket. Problem solved.