ProSoundWeb Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: 1 [2]  All   Go Down

Author Topic: camp ground wiring  (Read 5667 times)

Stephen Swaffer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2672
Re: camp ground wiring
« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2017, 06:33:50 PM »

I have to say each time I see one of these type situations posted here, it amazes me. I'm never as shocked when it is in a country like India but in a country as litigious as this - wow!

This is not meant to be disparaging-simply factual as I respect people choice to live and set priorities as they see fit.  Most of the people doing work like this do not have enough assets to interest a lawyer.  If they are not a licensed contractor that is obligated to carry insurance, they have no insurance coverage-so no money there either.

Too many people are content to get the AC working or the lights on as cheaply as possible.  Honestly, most of them just simply do not understand, unfortunately-so they just figure if someone can make it work they know what they are doing.
Logged
Steve Swaffer

Mike Sokol

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3361
  • Lead instructor for the No~Shock~Zone
    • No~Shock~Zone Electrical Safety
Re: camp ground wiring
« Reply #11 on: August 17, 2017, 08:09:56 AM »

Too many people are content to get the AC working or the lights on as cheaply as possible.  Honestly, most of them just simply do not understand, unfortunately-so they just figure if someone can make it work they know what they are doing.
Electricity is such a big mystery to most people, that if someone can hook up a 3-way light switch and make it work, they're an expert.

Next week begins my first classes at Shenandoah University, and I'm teaching basic audio electronics again. I'll spend multiple classes just teaching the concepts of what voltage and current are and how resistance makes it all work. After that it's capacitors and inductors and filter circuits.

Most people confuse voltage and current, as in "turn off the current", or "there's no current in this outlet", instead of using the word "voltage". I'm still convinced that if you don't understand the basic relationships between, voltage, resistance and current, you shouldn't be wiring or measuring anything. As I've noted here before, my dad has a drawer full of Harbor Freight meters that he's blown up because he pokes the probes in a 120-volt outlet and spins the selector switch around until he measures something. Of course it's going though DC volts, Current, and Resistance on the way around to the AC Volts section, so most of the time it just takes out a fuse. But he's had a few of them "smoke", and I'm sure if you put one of these cheap meters on a high-voltage circuit with significant current it would turn into shrapnel. And yes, dad has rewired plugs on his RV before, one time creating a hot-skin voltage condition.

Jonathan Johnson

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3209
  • Southwest Washington (state, not DC)
Re: camp ground wiring
« Reply #12 on: August 20, 2017, 01:43:37 AM »

Electricity is such a big mystery to most people, that if someone can hook up a 3-way light switch and make it work, they're an expert.

I guess I'm an expert.

Back in the 1990s, I had created a web page that described how to wire three-way switches. I referenced it on some Usenet (remember that?) newsgroups.

It would get several thousand hits a week.

(Sorry, the page no longer exists. There are plenty of others now, so no need to resurrect it.)

And, yes, I can properly wire a three-way switch without looking at a diagram. I could even add in a four-way switch if I needed to.
Logged
Stop confusing the issue with facts and logic!

Frank DeWitt

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1010
    • LBP DI Box
Re: camp ground wiring
« Reply #13 on: August 20, 2017, 02:44:46 PM »

I guess I'm an expert.

Back in the 1990s, I had created a web page that described how to wire three-way switches. I referenced it on some Usenet (remember that?) newsgroups.

It would get several thousand hits a week.

(Sorry, the page no longer exists. There are plenty of others now, so no need to resurrect it.)

And, yes, I can properly wire a three-way switch without looking at a diagram. I could even add in a four-way switch if I needed to.

I built a display for grade school science fair demonstrating 3 and 4 way switches using knife switches (and low voltage.) 

BTW There are wrong ways that work.
Logged
Not to Code

frank kayser

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1655
  • Maryland suburbs of Washington DC
Re: camp ground wiring
« Reply #14 on: August 29, 2017, 04:26:46 PM »

After all this time with Mike relaying horror stories about campground power, and I wondered how basically an entire industry of independents all could have such electrical problems.  It just did not make sense.


Enter the "workamper".  That explains everything.  As long as he didn't die doing the repair, it must be OK work!
Logged

Tim McCulloch

  • SR Forums
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Online Online
  • Posts: 23743
  • Wichita, Kansas USA
Re: camp ground wiring
« Reply #15 on: August 29, 2017, 08:45:58 PM »

After all this time with Mike relaying horror stories about campground power, and I wondered how basically an entire industry of independents all could have such electrical problems.  It just did not make sense.


Enter the "workamper".  That explains everything.  As long as he didn't die doing the repair, it must be OK work!

Considering some of the "work" I uncovered back when I flipped houses with a partner, much of the campground stuff we've seen here is relatively benign.

How about a home sub panel where every wire is red?  Hot?  Red.  Other hot?  Red.  Neutral?  Red.  Ground?  Red.  How about we put the in-wall electric oven on the sub?  Check!  Oh, and the electric cooktop?  Ditto, and put the rest of the kitchen on the panel, too! And then we'll feed that sub panel with a 60 amp breaker and all-red #10 wires.  I couldn't rip that out fast enough... and this was some of the higher quality work I encountered.

Mike has far more observation of campgrounds as I'm pretty new to RV camping (and my tent camping never had electricity unless we generated it somehow) but I suspect the main problems come from grandfathered practices/materials/methods and lack of maintenance, presuming the design/work was up to Code when it was installed.

Logged
"If you're passing on your way, from Palm Springs to L.A., Give a wave to good ol' Dave, Say hello to progress and goodbye to the Moonlight Motor Inn." - Steve Spurgin, Moonlight Motor Inn

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: camp ground wiring
« Reply #15 on: August 29, 2017, 08:45:58 PM »


Pages: 1 [2]  All   Go Up
 



Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.036 seconds with 22 queries.