I think the NEC wrote that type receptacle and light switches out of the code several years ago because of this type of problem. Bob PDQ 36 Peace
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2011 9:43 AM To: A LiveAboardList Subject: [Liveaboard] A Disaster Avoided Last week in Jan's condo the outlets in the guest and master bedroom went dead. I checked the breaker box and found that the line to the guest bedroom was live. It went to one box in the string then all the others followed in two series strings, one for each room. I started opening boxes and discovered that I had an open neutral. The first outlet I opened in the master bedroom revealed the problem when lights plugged into the outlets came on as soon as I moved the receptacle. The duplex outlets used in this installation have both screw terminals and "push-in" connections. The "push-in" connections consist of little holes in the back of the receptacle into which one inserts the bare copper wires for neutral and hot connections. A spring finger holds the wire. There is a square hole into which one can insert a jeweler's screwdriver to release the wire. This connection was flawed and the insulation on the two white wires involved was black from overheating. We opened every box in the circuit and moved every wire from the push-in to under the binding head terminal screws. We were fortunate to have had no heavy loads, such as a space heater, on this circuit as this situation could have easily escalated into a deadly fire as often happens in houses across the country every winter. Use of the quick connect push-in connections should be banned as it is an obvious safety hazard used to save time (money) in house wiring at the expense of people's lives. You have been warned... Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek FL N30 07.68 W081 38.47 _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
