Q:When assembling electrical wiring, what is the small circle on the wire?

KVV22-450 / 750V armored control cable 2 is two 4 * 25 is a cable containing four 25mm2 wires

Q:Hi. I would like to add a Maestro Dimmer switch to a three way circuit. My current setup is that I have two switches that control one receptacle. I would like the finished job to have the receptacle be controlled by only the dimmer switch and have the second switch be inoperable.This is what I currently have for my wiring setup.Switch 1 (One wanting to add dimmer to and keep): Red and White wire connected at top of switchWhite connected at bottomTwo black wires connected to each otherSwitch 2 (One wanting to make inoperable):Black connected at topRed and White connected at bottom.Receptacle:White connected at topBlack and White connected at bottomTwo black wires and one white wire connected to each otherI understand somewhat how the two switches work but am baffled at the receptacles wiring. I am no electrician by any means so if someone could explain in simple terms, I would greatly appreciate it!

Hi There, It is possible the light switch you installed has a high resistance. Try another switch or simply tie the two wires together and see if that makes a difference. Also very possible that you have a bad connection either to/from the switch.or where you connected to the original power feed. Could also be the wire you used to connect the switch is faulty. Try another wire for wiring the switch. From your description it sounds like the lights are wired in series (instead of parallel). If lights are wired in series they will all be dim (but if you turn one off they will all go off). Perhaps the bulbs are too large causing a hudge voltage drop because of too much load on the circuit. If that is the case try only one light at a time and it should be bright. Aslo the wiring would become hot to the touch. Check your wiring again and use a volt meter to find the problem. Hope this gives you some ideas for finding the problem. Al

Q:I was doing some renovating on a house I just purchased and was taking apart the ceiling to work on some electrical wiring. As I removed the ceiling, I found mouse droppings in the ceiling. I took down the entire ceiling and found there are place where the mice chewed through the insulation and I have a bare wire. Is there a way to repair the wire or should I replace the wire? Thanks.

I have rehabbed many buildings over the years and have found many with mouse damaged romex cable. I would advise that you hire an electrician and do a through inspection. Remember that the lives of many may be at risk ! Best of luck !

Q:I have a garden shed to which I would like to run electrical power. I have a source of power in my workshop that has a few open breakers in a 125AMP panel. Any running from the current panel to the garden shed would be roughly 60 feet long. I was thinking of running a 10-3 wire with two hots, a common and the ground to split into two circuits once I got to the shed. One would be for a few outlets (internal and outside) and another circuit for the lighting. I would be exiting the workshop for about 20 feet to get to the garden shed where I would put the cable 18 underground in a 1 1/2 inch conduit. If this is OK, what sort of breakers would I need at the workshop panel? I was thinking 2 20-amp single pole for each wire (hots-redblack), the common to the neutral bar and of course the ground. Is this enough information to help me ensure I would be NEC compliant? Any safety issues? Is there a better way to do this?

You are running two single-pole 20-A hots out there. That is considered more than one branch. NEC 250.32 requires that the outbuilding subpanel have its own grounding electrode (e.g., buried rod) connected to the grounding bar in the panel. If there are no other metallic paths to the shed (water or gas pipes, TV cable, etc), then you can even skip the grounding wire in the PVC conduit completely (running two hots and a neutral) and just ground the new panel to the new electrode. Look at the cost of running two 10 AWG conductors and one 8 AWG rather than 10/3 w/g. Probably not far enough to make a difference. Agree that 1-inch pipe is plenty big. Run two in at the same time, in case you ever want a phone line, CCTV, alarm/bell wire, or any other low-voltage wiring to the shed. If you do use 10-3 w/g for the feeder, do not bond the neutral bar to the panel ground (i.e., leave out the tap screw that they may give you for that purpose). But you still need to connect the new grounding rod to the grounding bar in the panel. The 250.32 Exception would apply if you were just running 10-2 w/g for a single branch, relieving you of the need for the new grounding electrode. If anybody has a newer code that gives some other grounding rod exceptions, please chime in. I'm looking at my old NEC 2002 Handbook, Exhibit 250-18, showing two hots, neutral and EGC running through u/g feeder conduit, isolated neutral bar in subpanel and grounding conductor from first building bonded to grounding bar at subpanel and separate electrode rod.

Q:1 square wire can load how much power

You remember, a square of the copper core line can not allow more than 8A of the current through it, under normal circumstances, we take 5 to 6 years of current to count, remember too much, and trouble, only Disrupting our memory. This value is applicable in low voltage

Q:I have an 5 month old kitten she has chewed plug ends off of things that are plugged into electrical sockets

Double sided tape is awesome for kittens, they hate the stickiness. It's also great to put on your couches where they like to scratch.

Q:but I don't know the exact name or gauge but it looks like this

yup thats defo telephone wire

Q:I want to know why this happens in terms of whats going on at an atomic scale with the flowing electrons in the metallic bond. Thanks

First I thought you were looking for an explanation of diffusing electrons in a wire, but I think you are looking for an explanation of ohms' law: VIR or as you indicate R V/I. What you are missing is that the voltage is not constant. The resistance is fixed from the physics of the conductor. In a circuit you can have a current source where you control the amount of current. In this case if there are no components changing the resistance, the voltage drop across the resistor changes as you change the current. On the other hand, you could have a voltage source like a battery. The voltage drop across the resistor can not change. It is equal to the battery's voltage, but if you change the resistance, the current will change. Hope that makes sense. If it is really the former you were looking for I think it can be explained by looking at the effect of heat on the wire and keep in mind that electrons aren't zipping from one end of the wire to the other even in a DC circuit.

Q:I'am going to put in baseboard heat in my basement,the unit I want to put in is 240 volts 1000 watts, what size wire should I use or can I run 2 12-2 lines from 2 differnt lines?

As someone else said. You only need one 12-2 wire. You could run it on a 15 amp double pole breaker. Just Use the black and the white as hot. Connect the black to one pole and the white to the other.

Q:I ordered and received a violin makers bending iron in the mail. There is a ceramic box that covers some wires that is broken in half. Must have been in the shipping. I contacted the seller who said I should just glue it or wrap electrical tape around it. Does this sound right? Thanks so much for your help.

First of all, if you bought it new, then you should get it replaced at no additional charge. If it was used and not insured, yes, you can just glue it together or tape it OR if you want to you can make a new box altogether. The only purpose of the box, other than looking nice, is to protect the wires from being touched.