Electrician U

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Many up-and-coming electricians have trouble understanding how to use the various electrical testers out on the market. All of the dials, characters, and options can get a bit confusing if you don’t have experience using a multi-meter. In this episode, I talk about how to use a commonly used tester, the Fluke T5-600.

Technically the fluke T5 is not a “multi-meter.”  Fluke’s website lists it as a “tester,” while their Multimeter section shows only digital multimeters with no separate jaw-type ammeter.  However, a multi-meter is simply a “multi-use meter” – something that can test several different electrical units of measure. The T5 measures voltage, amperage, resistance, and continuity.  There are other multi-meters out there that have extra functions but the T5 is for the basic 4 that most electricians will use every day. So how do we use it?

 

VOLTAGE

What you’re doing when you’re testing for voltage is testing the difference of potential between two points. “Voltage” is a difference of potential between two points in an electrical system.  It is not a reading of one conductor, it’s reading a difference between two. It can even be a difference between one wire and a piece of metal that’s bonded to earth. But keep in mind that you’re trying to get a value that shows “the difference in potential” between TWO things.

Flip the dial of the T5 to the “V” and take the leads out of the slide-in slots on the back.  Ensure that you’re wearing proper PPE such as insulated “hot-gloves,” and a flash suit if you’re working in an electrical panel.  Take one lead and touch it to a known hot conductor or terminal. Take the other lead and touch it to that same conductor or terminal.  Notice you get a reading of 0v. This is because this conductor is at the same potential as itself. To get a voltage reading you have to test between two different objects.

Next, leave one lead on this conductor, and move the next lead to a different conductor. If you’re working in an electrical panel this can be a different colored conductor. You should notice a reading of around 240v (volts) if you’re in a single-phase panel. If you’re in a 3-phase panel you may get a measurement from anywhere around 208-240v. This means you have a difference in potential between these two conductors.

Want to learn more about becoming an electrician or mastering the craft? Visit ElectricianU.com for courses, resources, and everything you need to succeed! 

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Someone recently asked me if there’s a way to bend PVC conduit or if someone makes a bender or a tool to get a proper bend. In this episode we’re going to cover how I do it.

When working with PVC conduit electricians do one of two things when bends are involved. Either:

1) we will buy “manufactured bends” like pre-bent “90’s, 45’s, and 30’s”

2) we will use a heat gun to manually bend the conduit to fit the application.

Manufactured bends are often sold in the same aisle as the PVC conduit itself, and come in several angles. However, sometimes the job requires a slightly trickier bend to be made so we need to do it by hand. Often times pre-manufactured bends are too large, or create too small of an offset so it’s time to break out the heat gun!

To bend PVC you need to have either a high-powered blow dryer or an actual “heat gun” at your disposal. These can be bought online or at your local Home Depot. The model I have (and prefer) is a Wagner Furno 750. It has a digital display and will heat up to 750watts. Not only can you hold it like a gun to heat the conduit, but you can set it upright on the ground and roll the pipe with both hands. Not many models out there have this functionality.

The second thing to have nearby when bending conduit is a bottle of water or a hose. When heating PVC conduit it becomes very maleable, but it does not stay in the position you bend it without waiting quite awhile – while holding it in the desired position. One way to speed the drying process up is by splashing cool water on the PVC to set it instantaneously.

Bending A 90

A 90 is probably the most involved thing you could bend using PVC pipe and a heat source. The reason is that you need to overheat the amount of pvc that you’re going to bend. I try to heat 6-8 inches of pipe evenly when bending a 90, as the total 90 will be roughly 5” in from beginning to outer edge. I slowly heat the entirety of what I intend to bend, and begin applying pressure to bend the pvc. I bend at multiple points until I get the pvc flexible enough to start forming a 90, and continue heating any stiff areas that are not loosening up. Finally once I get the shape I want, I pour some water on the pipe to rapidly cool the material – locking the shape in instantly.

Bending An Offset Step 1 – Measure Your Offset

The first thing we need to know is how far away from the wall our pipe is. This is the “gap” that we need to reduce to get our conduit laying flush on the wall. In my example my conduit is 3 inches from the wall. This means we need this conduit to move 3

Want to learn more about becoming an electrician or mastering the craft? Visit ElectricianU.com for courses, resources, and everything you need to succeed! 

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My dudes, I really need help figuring out what to do with my storage situtation. I keep losing terrabytes of data everytime my RAID 5 crashes, and it happens often.

Any of you tech gurus out there PLEASE HELP!

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LISTEN TO AUDIO:http://electricianu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Episode23-HELPME212121.mp3

**Disclaimer – These videos are for training purposes alone, all work done on electrical systems should be done by a licensed and insured electrical contractor.  If you are not an electrician, do not attempt any of the work you are seeing in these videos.**

Want to learn more about becoming an electrician or mastering the craft? Visit ElectricianU.com for courses, resources, and everything you need to succeed! 

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This is, no-doubt, my most asked for topic to do an episode. “Do an episode on bending conduit” they say….”It’ll be fun” they say… Well my friends, strap in, here we go….

First off there are some things to understand about different types of conduits. For example today we’re going to be bending EMT (Electrical Metallic Tubing). This type of conduit is relatively easy to bend using a bender if you’re bending 1/2”, 3/4”, or 1”. Once you get to about 1 1/4” and up this type of conduit requires a larger bender, and a lot of ass behind the person bending it. Normally in this situation a company will use a “Chicago Bender” or an “Machine Bender” (which is normally either electric, pneumatic, hydraulic) See below:

In our example we’re going to be dealing with 1/2”, 3/4”, and 1” EMT. This is the easiest conduit to bend, so for those of you practicing at home – choose 1/2” EMT to start with before moving up to 3/4” or 1” as the ease of use makes the understanding go further.

Understanding The Bender

First thing we talk about is understanding the bender. There are tons of little lines, marks, and numbers on the shoe of a conduit bender, and knowing which one does what is half the battle. To start off, every bender has stamped in it what type of conduit the bender is designed to be used for. A 1/2” bender will say “1/2” EMT Only” or something similar – usually located where the shoe meets the threaded end of the handle. If you flip the bender around 180 degrees, in the same spot there will be a stamp for what size takeoff you’ll need to use to achieve the proper bend with this bender.

Next are the lines that say 10, 22.5, 30, 45, and 60 next to them. These are your angles of bend radius. To bend a 30 degree angle with a conduit bender, you bend the pipe up from the ground until the 30 degree line on the bender is parallel to the pipe and floor. You would flip the bender over and repeat this step if you were trying to bend a 30 degree offset to overcome an obstacle.

Probably the most important mark to learn is the “arrow” – this is the marker you’ll use most often when bending 90

Want to learn more about becoming an electrician or mastering the craft? Visit ElectricianU.com for courses, resources, and everything you need to succeed! 

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In my house we have an issue with some people leaving lights on, specifically in the garage. After hounding on the issue, I decided to get a cheap occupancy sensor and install it in the garage to take care of the problem.What is an occupancy sensor?

As the term indicates, an occupancy sensor is a devices that “senses occupancy” or movement. It is able to, through using forward facing infrared technology, “see” a static room and notice if any movement occurs. Once it detects movement it closes the circuit and turns the lights in that room on, rather than relying on the manual action of a human to flip a light switch. There are many types of Occupancy Sensors on the market, some commercial grade for shops and warehouses, others for typical residential use. The one I’m using in this video is a standard residential model that most electricians are familiar with.

Prep Work

First things first, since this device is a direct replacement for a decor switch, I removed the existing switch from the wall box in my garage. The wiring I found in the wall was sub-par so I had to address this issue first. Whatever electrician wired this place back in the late 60’s, did not pigtail the hots – instead daisy-chaining them together. This is not inherently bad, it’s just a lazy wiring method that causes anyone doing work later to have to address both switches rather than just working on the one in need.

How I like to wire switches is by installing independent hot pigtails so that each device has its own wire, not shared by another device. So this is the first thing I redid. A professional electrician who cares about quality and craftsmanship will always look at everything surrounding what he/she is repairing or replacing. It is a great habit to get into, as a lot of times you’ll find other problems that can save your customers money and system efficiency down the road. In doing so I was able to find another issue. Neither of the existing switches had ground wires (equipment grounding conductors) attached to the ground terminals on the devices. This is a big code no-no. Any metal parts around electrical equipment must be bonded to the equipment grounding system, as well as the devices and equipment themselves needing to be grounded.

Want to learn more about becoming an electrician or mastering the craft? Visit ElectricianU.com for courses, resources, and everything you need to succeed! 

Something electricians use the hell out of daily are sawzall blades. As you progress in your career you will find that there are cheap crappy blades, and slightly more expensive BADASS blades. Enter Diablo. Diablo has been on the rise lately making blades for sawzalls and circular saws that are incredible. I’ve gotten to use… Continue reading Tool Review – Diablo Demo Demon 9″ Carbide Sawzall Blades

I’ve been waiting for quite awhile to test out a new set of Milwaukee FUEL drills.  I was stoked to open this case up and let them rip!  So how did they do on the job?  Here we go… Upon opening the package I was immediately impressed.  The kit comes with an 18v FUEL brushless… Continue reading TOOL REVIEW – Milwaukee 18v Brushless Cordless Hammer-Drill & Impact Driver Combo Kit

I’ve been waiting for a long time to test one of these battery-powered framing nailers out. For quite awhile the only thing on the market has been cordless brad-nailers or trim-nailers, but nothing for full-sized framing nails. Well, DeWalt has changed the game yet again! When I picked this framing nailer I was surprised to… Continue reading Tool Review – Dewalt 20v Cordless Brushless 21-Degree Framing Nailer

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In this episode I talk about the various fault detecting devices on the market in use in most modern residences. Chiefly Arc Fault and Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters. GFCI – Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters

GFCI’s are devices meant to detect and clear a ground fault.  Ground Fault’s are exactly as they sound – faults to ground.  A fault means a “wrong-doing” or “responsibility for an accident or misfortune” So a ground fault is literally a wrong doing in an electrical circuit, where an interaction occurs between a hot (un-grounded) conductor, and a ground (grounding conductor).  

Ground faults can be very dangerous if there is no ground fault protection.  If there is too much resistance built up in a circuit current travelling on the ground (grounding conductor) will not trip a breaker and clear the fault.  So a person can be introduced into the circuit and get seriously injured.  Say a person is in their garage and their washing machine overflows.  They open it to take the clothes out and do not realize that a hot (un-grounded conductor) has come loose in the machine and is laying on the casing of the washer.  Due to improper equipment grounding and/or bonding methods, the breaker does not trip.  There’s water all over the floor, the person is barefoot standing in a puddle and goes to open the metal washing machine.  That person has just completed the circuit from their hand to their feet, through the water, through the concrete slab and back to the panel.  Current just found a far easier (less resistance) path back to the source and this person is now hospitalized for severe electric shock.

This situation could have been avoided had the circuit had GFCI protection on it.  When a GFCI device detects a difference in current between the hot and neutral wires inside the device (as little as 5 milli-amperes) it will cause the circuit to disconnect within a tenth of a second.  When current finds an alternative path (through the ground or equipment grounding conductor) there is a slight change in the amount of current in the neutral, while the current in the hot wire stays relatively the same.  The breaker detects this via a current transformer inside of the device and automatically interrupts the circuit.

For more information on where GFCI protection is needed to safeguard personnel, check out Article 210.8 in the 2017 National Electrical Code.

AFCI and CAFCI (Arc-Fault and Combination Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupters)

AFCI’s work very similarly to GFCI’s however, they’re a bit more advanced and serve a slightly different function.  Where GFCI’s detect faults to ground, AFCI’s detect arcing conditions in a circuit that can cause a potential fire.  In a single wire, or at a termination for a single wire, a series arc can occur between the wire and the termination.  A series arc-fault is a condition where a connection becomes loose but the two sides of the connection are still close enough that an arc can occur between two points.  With enough current and a large enough difference of potential current can overcome the air-gap between the two points, and create an extremely high-resistance connection through the arc.  The arc becomes very hot, and can start a fire.

Want to learn more about becoming an electrician or mastering the craft? Visit ElectricianU.com for courses, resources, and everything you need to succeed! 

In this episode I talk about the various fault detecting devices on the market in use in most modern residences. Chiefly Arc Fault and Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters.  GFCI – Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters GFCI’s are devices meant to detect and clear a ground fault.  Ground Fault’s are exactly as they sound – faults to… Continue reading Episode 20 – Fault Detection Devices – GFCI, AFCI, DF, AFGFCI