American/Canadian Electricians

[Pete999]

Just been watching Holmes on Homes (Canadian) any how sparky boy turns up to seal off some redundant outlets in the Garage, takes the cover off disconnected the receptacle ( see got all the names right) right now what does he do? well twists the hot, neutral and ground together puts on a screwit and says "that's OK now if anyone livens it up back at the panel it will pop the breaker" sure I saw him tie his horse up outside. Any one else got any horror stories from across the pond, without ruining the Special Relationship lol

 

[Rockingit]

Plenty! The best one is when you turn up at a venue (me wearing my old hat) and discover someone's forgotten to order the 110>240 tx's so you ask the house lads to give you two phases out of three and use the third leg as a neutral....always guaranteed to keep them scratching their heads!!!

 

[Besoeker]

Just been watching Holmes on Homes (Canadian) any how sparky boy turns up to seal off some redundant outlets in the Garage, takes the cover off disconnected the receptacle ( see got all the names right) right now what does he do? well twists the hot, neutral and ground together puts on a screwit and says "that's OK now if anyone livens it up back at the panel it will pop the breaker" sure I saw him tie his horse up outside. Any one else got any horror stories from across the pond, without ruining the Special Relationship lol

Not a screwit.
A wire nut.
Or, maybe in this case, just a nutter.

 

[Engineer54]

Plenty! The best one is when you turn up at a venue (me wearing my old hat) and discover someone's forgotten to order the 110>240 tx's so you ask the house lads to give you two phases out of three and use the third leg as a neutral....always guaranteed to keep them scratching their heads!!!

That had me scratching my head too for a bit!! ....lol!!

I just know someones going to ask.... lol!

 

[Knobhead]

This was after the "electrician" had tidied it panel up! God knows what it was like before. It's 230/115V split phase.

 

[Pete999]

Not a screwit.
A wire nut.
Or, maybe in this case, just a nutter.

I thought screwit was a daft name but wire nut beats that one hands down, theybeven flog em over here now

 

[Engineer54]

This was after the "electrician" had tidied it panel up! God knows what it was like before. It's 230/115V split phase.

America normal domestic/commercial supply system is 240/120V split phase. Has been for some years now, but our cousins still call it 110/115V. They still have numerous 3 phase supply types though, including high leg delta systems....


To be honest, that's a pretty tidy domestic installation compared to some that i've seen, most are a complete rats nest, and that's for cables both inside the DB and outside....

 

[Knobhead]

I’ve done write up on Delta high leg elsewhere.

I found some pictures of an absolute beauty. An ungrounded Y feeding a factory, both the HV and LV are a death trap.

 

[Engineer54]

I can well believe it, i've come across some really weird and wonderful TX MV/LV hook ups that i've wondered, ....no stumped, as to how they have ever worked let alone lasted!! A couple of them were underground, in spaces that just about accommodated the TX's let alone the dressing of the supply and outgoing cables.... I remember one MV underground road cable room (4 X 4 X 2m high) with MV tee joints on two of the 185mm 13.8KV cables that was literally underwater for 3 to 4 months of the year. Lasted almost 5 years too before one of those joints finally gave up and went bang underwater!! lol!! Cost an absolute fortune and a good couple of months to put everything right!!!

 

[Pete999]

Makes you wonder how they got to the moon, or did they?? best go talk to agent Scully yes please

 

[Besoeker]

I thought screwit was a daft name but wire nut beats that one hands down, theybeven flog em over here now

I seem to recall that Scruit was a trade name - a branded product.
In my early days, probably when I was still in nappies (diapers), I think I saw ceramic versions.

 

[Pete999]

I worked in Canada for a while and we used "Home Depot" B&Q the guy that was in charge of eh Electrical side and I became friends I needed to join some, I suppose it would be 10mm and he tried to tell me I wasn't a high enough grade Electrician to use these "special connectors" basically the inside of a UK connector without the plastic covering with some heat shrink, I convinced him and that's how we became friends, nice bloke as well, nothing like some of the divvies we get here in the sheds. I got a lot of time for the Canadians.

 

[Bobster]

I seem to recall that Scruit was a trade name - a branded product.
In my early days, probably when I was still in nappies (diapers), I think I saw ceramic versions.

I've come across ceramic versions before.

Both types are down right dangerous.

 

[VoltzElectrical]

Yet i have seen threads on here where people recommend connecting all three ends of a disconnected circuit together to prevent accidental re-energisation??? Or am I wrong?

 

[davesparks]

Yet i have seen threads on here where people recommend connecting all three ends of a disconnected circuit together to prevent accidental re-energisation??? Or am I wrong?

Ooh, that might have been me!

If it was then it would have been about a circuit which had the L and N been disconnected from the source of supply and earthed at the supply end.

Very different to the above where they are suggesting joining all three together at the far end without disconnecting from the source, just switching the mcb off.

 

[Andy78]

Yet i have seen threads on here where people recommend connecting all three ends of a disconnected circuit together to prevent accidental re-energisation??? Or am I wrong?

As Davesparks says, earthing all conductors at source is the best way of decommissioning a circuit that is not to be stripped out.

I have also seen plenty porcelain scruits. Usually on VIR or stranded twin cable, and usually in a lighting junction box/wiring centre.... although I did find some the other week wrapped up in string and tape....

 

[Pete999]

We have had threads on here castigating people for fault finding by repeatedly switching on the cb to see if they had found the fault, thus putting the cb under constant pressure under fault conditions. I would not recommend the Canadian/American way, the only way to safely isolate a length of cable, would be to identify it, disconnected it and remove it from any possible source of electrical energy.

 

[bossian]

Plenty! The best one is when you turn up at a venue (me wearing my old hat) and discover someone's forgotten to order the 110>240 tx's so you ask the house lads to give you two phases out of three and use the third leg as a neutral....always guaranteed to keep them scratching their heads!!!

We have some American machines at work wired this way.....when you look at the drawing you understand how I works....but it don't look right when you looking at it! And the funny thing is there's 2 ACME transformers in the panel......beep beep

Will try and get some pix tomorrow

 

[mache]

Not a screwit.
A wire nut.
Or, maybe in this case, just a nutter.

I'm sure I've heard of these referred to as 'fire nuts' in the past. Probably on this very forum

 

[Robotstar5]

Just been watching Holmes on Homes (Canadian) any how sparky boy turns up to seal off some redundant outlets in the Garage, takes the cover off disconnected the receptacle ( see got all the names right) right now what does he do? well twists the hot, neutral and ground together puts on a screwit and says "that's OK now if anyone livens it up back at the panel it will pop the breaker" sure I saw him tie his horse up outside.

I watched it today and thought exactly the same!.

Another one that I don't understand is why all the drains from sink, bath etc. have to be vented, we don't do that in the UK and don't have any problems.