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Stephen wrote:
>
> I know what you mean about RCCBs (that's what we call them here). Especially
> when they are in lighting circuits they seem to increase the rate of failure of
> incandescent light bulbs. In the UK all changes to domestic circuits need to be
> checked by an independent inspector.
>
For some reason switching power supplies and inductive loads are prone
to tripping them, I can't understand why (inductive maybe because of
power factor, switching supply, who knows...) All I know is my freezer
has a tag on the plug that says never plug into a GFCI outlet (truth:
parents did this, and noticed soon enough the freezer stopped working
before everything thawed, then it kept happening. The motor that runs
the compressor draws a lot of current, and probably doesn't have power
factor correction)
On the other hand, it was quite irritating to have the GFCI
spontaneously trip on the circuit my computer was plugged into. I
finally resorted to buying a long high-grade extension cord and finding
an unprotected outlet on the other side of the apartment (in a different
room, mind you) to plug my computer into.
Ironically, the outlet on the porch isn't GFCI protected. :-D
--
~Mike
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On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:21:59 +0100, "scott" <sco### [at] scott com> wrote:
>> A common misconception especially amongst graduates. Most of the
>> electricians
>> that I've worked with could turn their hands to repairing a whole range of
>> equipment from instruments to power generators including the prime movers.
>
>But that is exactly what causes disasters when they don't fully understand
>something. Most of the time, sure, it will be fine, but one time they will
>try to turn their hand to something that they are not trained in "because it
>looks the same" and the result will be at best a broken device and at worst
>fatalities.
>
>The list is endless of Engineering disasters that were caused by people
>working outside of their specialist field, for example when a construction
>engineer decides to change the design of a structural engineer:
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse
>
I can't agree more but we were talking about repairing things, I think. There is
a world of difference between design, construction and maintenance.
>> On
>> the other hand I wouldn't let most EEs loose with a multimeter never mind
>> a
>> screwdriver.
>
>True, the problem is when people don't realise they are out of their depth,
>most of my EE friends wouldn't even attempt to rewire a house.
>
Nor would I because most often you don't know what you don't know ;)
--
Regards
Stephen
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Stephen wrote:
> I can't agree more but we were talking about repairing things, I think. There is
> a world of difference between design, construction and maintenance.
And *I* was talking about normal people not appreciating this
difference. ;-)
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Invisible wrote:
>>> But hey, I'm sure people probably think that a car mechanic can fix
>>> any imaginable device as long as it's purely mechanical too...
>>
>> No, but a mechanical engineer might be able to figure it out ;)
>
> Now, see, most people would think a car mechanic *is* a mechanical
> engineer! :-D
better yet
when a car mechanic believes that he *is* a mechanical engineer...
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> I can't agree more but we were talking about repairing things, I think.
> There is
> a world of difference between design, construction and maintenance.
Of course, but if you start to try and maintain something that you are not
trained to, you never know what special things you need to worry about.
Real life personal experiences: 1 year old car goes to authorised dealer
for first service, mechanic who is not familiar with new car design does the
service, next day the brake pedal goes to the floor as we are trying to
stop. Turns out with this new car design there is a special procedure for
bleeding the brakes which is different from previous models, as we got one
of the very first versions of this car I guess the mechanic had never worked
on this car before and just assumed he could do the same as previous ones.
Or the mechanic who tried to jack up my dad's car with a trolley jack at
some random point (and not at the jacking points) - if it weren't for the
fact that my dad was watching and screamed at him it would have surely
resulted in several bent parts of the space frame.
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scott wrote:
>
> Or the mechanic who tried to jack up my dad's car with a trolley jack at
> some random point (and not at the jacking points) - if it weren't for
> the fact that my dad was watching and screamed at him it would have
> surely resulted in several bent parts of the space frame.
>
I always cringe when I see some mechanics jack a car with a portable
floor jack.. Invariably they simply choose where they want to jack a car
up.
--
~Mike
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On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:12:52 -0600, Mike Raiford <"m[raiford]!at"@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>For some reason switching power supplies and inductive loads are prone
>to tripping them, I can't understand why (inductive maybe because of
>power factor, switching supply, who knows...) All I know is my freezer
>has a tag on the plug that says never plug into a GFCI outlet (truth:
>parents did this, and noticed soon enough the freezer stopped working
>before everything thawed, then it kept happening. The motor that runs
>the compressor draws a lot of current, and probably doesn't have power
>factor correction)
>
I think that you must be right about the inductive loads. I don't have as many
problems now since changing to energy saving light bulbs.
>On the other hand, it was quite irritating to have the GFCI
>spontaneously trip on the circuit my computer was plugged into. I
>finally resorted to buying a long high-grade extension cord and finding
>an unprotected outlet on the other side of the apartment (in a different
>room, mind you) to plug my computer into.
>
I ended buying individual filtering circuits for all my HiFi components and what
a difference that has made to the sound quality. :)
>Ironically, the outlet on the porch isn't GFCI protected. :-D
WTF! Double indemnity outside the home? :)
--
Regards
Stephen
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On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:02:25 +0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>Stephen wrote:
>
>> I can't agree more but we were talking about repairing things, I think. There is
>> a world of difference between design, construction and maintenance.
>
>And *I* was talking about normal people not appreciating this
>difference. ;-)
I took that as granted. I've often been mistaken for an electrician much to my
chagrin.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:29:29 +0100, "scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
>> I can't agree more but we were talking about repairing things, I think.
>> There is
>> a world of difference between design, construction and maintenance.
>
>Of course, but if you start to try and maintain something that you are not
>trained to, you never know what special things you need to worry about.
That worried me when I worked offshore on the semi submersibles as a contractor.
I was expected to work on equipment I had never seen before and sometimes the
manuals were in German or Norwegian. B*gg*r that for a game of soldiers!
Safety/Money - Money/Safety, "Just fix it!"
--
Regards
Stephen
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Mike Raiford wrote:
> Ironically, the outlet on the porch isn't GFCI protected. :-D
You can fix that yourself, you know. :-)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Ouch ouch ouch!"
"What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
"No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."
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