Fun New Fire Hazard Revealed

Here’s today’s shoddy-construction nightmare.

The air conditioner crapped out. Probably a bad capacitor on the compressor. No problem, right? Wrong. The breaker by the compressor failed to trip, so the wiring and the box burned. While the AC guy was replacing it, he found a piece of conduit running from the 220 AC box to a floodlight and outdoor socket. It was probably #14 wire. With the ground used as neutral. And NO FUSE ON THE CIRCUIT. In other words, some…GENIUS…drew power from a 60-amp 220 circuit for a 15-amp 110 circuit, and he didn’t use a neutral wire, and he didn’t put a separate fuse or breaker in the smaller circuit. So if the floodlight fries, the wiring leading to it melts. And if something near the conduit or floodlight catches fire, adios, house.

Isn’t there a law that says I can shoot someone over this?

The solution is to remove the conduit going to the AC box, drill a hole into the garage, drill a hole from the garage into the AC air handler closet, run more conduit, and hook it all up to the bare 220 Romex I found earlier this year, hanging in the closet. I can hook the Romex up to a 110 breaker at the panel. I can also put up some lights in the closet, which I wanted to do anyway.

The AC guy is putting a new box with slug fuses next to the compressor. I was going to bitch, but now that I’ve seen how well circuit breakers work outdoors, I’m keeping my mouth shut. Fuses are wonderful. Bring them on.

This house is like a sickly octogenarian, and I’m the immune system.

Yesterday I found out there was a leak in the swimming pool pump pipes I replaced, so I get to fix those as soon as the AC guy leaves.

Should I buy some expensive tools, chosen primarily because I think they’re cool? Yes, obviously. That will help.

If you have kids, for God’s sake, learn something about wiring and inspect your house. Don’t trust a professional. They just walk around the property once and then take your money. This place has been inspected, and they didn’t find a damn thing.