Category: Basement Electrical

Ripping out the fire hazard of festooned BX cables and replacing it with temporary lighting.

New Basement Electrical

February 10, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Before we start ripping up the floor of the basement, it made sense to put in the new electric. For one, it’s easier to put in overhead lights with the floor a little higher, but more importantly we want to cut down on work that needs to be done after the floor is done since we’ll be in a hurry to get moved back in. Plus, having good lighting down there instead of some crappy dangling fixtures will make working on the floor a little better. I debated doing the electrical myself, but in the end I just called Percy, our electrician, and he and his assistant Kevin got it done in a few days, where it probably would have taken me a month. Percy will come back after the interior walls are up to add a few more outlets and switches, but this gets us 90% of the way there.

New switches and outlets

New switches and outlets

We went the typical recessed can light route. The ceiling in the basement won’t be very high, so anything that sticks down is less than ideal. I bought a few LED light bulbs to decide what color temperature and style we like before ordering a whole set of them. We settled on the 3000K “bright white” since they’re a nice compromise between the 2700K yellowish “warm white” and the 4000K laboratory “daylight”. The bulbs came out to $12 each, cheap for LEDs, but expensive relative to CFL and incandescent until you consider the operating cost and lifetime. A regular 65W bulb costs $3 and  lasts 1,000 hours. A CFL costs $8, uses 14 watts, and lasts 8,000, while an LED uses only 8 watts and lasts 25,000 hours. Including replacement costs and electricity, every thousand hours of incandescent use costs about $13.85, compared to a CFL that costs $3.38 and an LED that costs $1.82. Since we’ve got nineteen lights just in the basement, the payback is there even vs CFLs. We spent $75 more on LEDs than CFLs up front, but even ignoring that the LEDs last three times longer, the electricity savings will pay that back before the CFLs are half used.

New can lights

New can lights

I was concerned about mounting the switch and outlet boxes on the brick, since even though the metal is galvanized, moisture can corrode it. The old finished basement had some extremely rotted boxes and conduit that we don’t want to recreate. Percy sprayed the backs of all of the boxes before putting them up with a rubberized coating to prevent water contact from the walls. Our hope is that along with improved water management, the electrical will stay dry and last a long time.

Outlet box spray coating

Outlet box spray coating

The plan is to install a foam panel system on the exterior walls that will provide a drainage plane behind the insulation. These systems have raceways for the electrical so we can just fit them over the installed conduit when we finish the basement. That will ensure any water that comes through the brick will be able to drain away and that the wall itself is impervious to water and won’t rot. It’s exciting to see more progress,and to see how much the basement has changed so quickly, especially since I didn’t have to do all the work!

New Electric Service

December 29, 2012 / / 1 Comment
New Electric Panel

New Electric Panel

Let’s take a break from the beam project for a moment. I often post incremental progress on our many simultaneous undertakings, but I’d like to be able to have each post be about one topic. It was that line of thinking that had me holding off on posting about our upgraded electric service. See, it was supposed to be simple. For one, we hired someone to do it. To be more specific, we hired someone in July. I held off posting about it because I was waiting until it was finished, so I could have a start-to-finish post on one topic. I didn’t realize we were in store for an epic saga of electric company obstinacy. If I had, I’d have posted along the way. Instead, here in December, I’m going to give you one big post about how we got our electric service upgraded. Unfortunately, I don’t remember all of the dates.

The story starts with us selecting contractors. We had met Percy, our electrician, at an open house hosted by Marcus and Cathy. They had hired Percy to do their work and from what we could see of it, he’d be perfect for what we needed. At the time we were hoping it would be possible to get the radiant heat installed this fall, and so getting new electric service was a priority. Percy quoted us the new 200 amp service with a new breaker panel and whole-house surge suppressor and we hired him.

Right on time, Percy and his assistants arrived and spent a day and half installing the new equipment, moved all the breakers into the new panel, and put the service pipe on the side of the house for the new service to connect to. Everything was done very well. Lots of clamps securing everything, neat connections and professional work all around. We originally had two meters (for the two flats) on the side of back porch. Because we’re eventually removing and replacing the whole back porch, we wanted to put the meter on the house itself. After some discussion with Percy, he put the meter box about three feet from where the old one was.

Percy told us that ComEd (our power company) would be out in a couple of weeks to hook up the new line from the pole. Two weeks came and went but there had been some storms that had knocked out power for people so we waited a bit longer. Then, one Saturday morning I got a phone call that someone from ComEd would be there to perform an inspection in a few minutes. I met the inspector along the side of the house and he succinctly told me that the location of the meter wouldn’t work. It was too close to the neighbors house, too close to their meter, and it was too close to the property line. I should explain here that we have a sidewalk along each side of the house. One (on the South side) is our sidewalk and one (on the North) is our neighbors’. The meter box was along the neighbors’ sidewalk, and our house sits right on the property line. It never occurred to us this was a problem because the old meter was along that side as well.

The inspector left and we called Percy. He said he would call ComEd and get it straightened out. He explained that he could appeal but it might take several weeks. We told him that was fine and waited. Eventually, in late August or early September, he was told that it would in fact need to be moved more than three feet from the neighbors’ meter. That meant that Percy had to come back and spend a whole day moving the box and the pipe three feet over and re-run the cable.

A week or so later the inspector from ComEd came back and this time Percy met him there. He said that while it was now far enough from the other meter, and he could forgive the distance to the other house, once a meter was put into the box it would be over the property line (by approximately three inches), and he couldn’t pass it. The only place the meter could go was the other side of the house, along our sidewalk. With no recourse, Percy came back and spent another day and a half again moving the pipe and meter box, this time to the opposite side of the house, adding a cutoff switch in the basement because the meter box was now more than five feet from the breaker. Because the line from the alley was still connected on the other side, he had to run temporary wires around the back of the porch to connect to the new pole.

The inspector was due out, but we never saw any sign of him. Instead we got a letter from ComEd that because we no longer had a working meter (just the box for it) they were going to disconnect our electricity. Sarah called ComEd and we were told not to worry about that. They said the inspector had not approved it because the wire that would connect from the house to the alley would run past the window on the porch. She explained that the porch was going to be removed, but they said unless we could tear it down now, that didn’t matter. Finally, they agreed that if we boarded up the window it would be acceptable.

The inspector finally came back out and reluctantly, as if searching for any excuse to deny it, approved the work. We thought that now, finally, we were in the clear. By now it was October. The next visit from ComEd was supposed to install the new wire to the alley, but the guy that arrived looked at the house and told us they couldn’t do it because there wasn’t enough room to safely put a ladder against the side of the house, and then left. A few days later a man arrived from ComEd to install the new meter and told us he couldn’t because the wiring around the back of the porch wasn’t safe. We explained it was temporary, but he said he couldn’t install the meter and left.

A series of phone calls to ComEd got a visit from the foreman who reiterated that they couldn’t safely put a ladder against the house and the only way to do it would be to bring in a scissor lift. They measured the clearance and determined it wouldn’t fit through the back gate and wouldn’t fit between the house and the neighbors fence at the front.

We asked it it could be brought through the garage, since we have an overhead door that opens to the yard. He wasn’t sure how tall the lift was and said he’d let us know. Further phone calls revealed it was too tall. Finally, Sarah told them we would remove the section of the back fence adjacent to the gate so they could bring in the scissor lift.

Removing the back fence

Removing the back fence

All of this brings us to early December. I pried off the concrete along the edge of the sidewalk and dug out the post for the fence, which unlike much of our house was actually done well, with a concrete footing nearly three feet into the ground. I finally had to use a 2×4 to lever the thing out of the ground and a sledge hammer to break off the concrete. The next day, the crew from ComEd showed up and used a ladder. They were apologetic about the previous people that told us to dig up our fence, and even helped Sarah put it back in place so she could pour new concrete.

Re-poured fence footing

Re-poured fence footing

Finally, we have new 200-amp electric service. We didn’t wind up getting the radiant heat installed this fall because we didn’t have permits yet and we weren’t far enough along in the other work. Other than meeting code requirements, we probably don’t even need it. However, after countless phone calls and seemingly endless frustration it’s done. Percy, having spent quite a bit of his own time, money, and material dealing with their bureaucracy is considering legal action, but we just want to put it behind us and focus on the next piece of this massive puzzle.

Basement Electric Redux

October 15, 2012 / / 0 Comments

After we finished the demo of the basement I re-wired the basement lighting to function on a single light switch, removed the outlets and switches from the center wall, and configured the circuits to separate the lighting from the outlets and boiler. However, the electric was still running through a rigid conduit and routed through a junction box that were both mounted to the main beam in the basement. Since we’re planning to replace this with a steel beam, we needed to remove the electric.

Beam junction box

I’ve collected a large pile of old flexible and rigid conduit from the demo of the basement and first floors, so I have plenty of material to re-use as long as it isn’t permanent. The basement wiring all falls into the “temporary” category. When we moved the laundry to the basement, I wired up an outlet using a separate conduit that ran along the back wall that had originally serviced the first floor. Since it had more than one circuit running through it, I was able to branch from this point with flexible conduit to connect a light fixture in the laundry area and the two storage areas toward the front of the house. I spent a lot of time switching between active circuits so I could always have at least some lights turned on while I worked.

Basement beam

I was able to disconnect three conduits that ran to the first floor, leaving only one outlet for that floor still active for lights and power tools. The junction box was eliminated by running the conduits directly into the panel, and I was able to eliminate a second junction box once I had finished moving all of the lighting from the conduit along the beam. Finally, I ran one more light by the electrical panel to give some additional light. The result is fewer lights in the basement, so some of the areas are not as bright, but we have light where it’s needed and the beam is now clear.

Scattershot

June 24, 2012 / / 0 Comments

We’re on to the forms and paperwork stage with our architect, which means that applying for permits isn’t too far off. We’ve identified all of our contractors, but we still need to get letters from them acknowledging they’ll be completing work on our property. The electrician needs to fill out a whole form as well. We’re meeting with him on Monday, as well as another structural contractor. I have to transfer my work on our Chicago Green Homes checklist to the official application and sign on several dotted lines.

Sarah planted some marigolds in the front yard, not because we particularly like them but because they supposedly will keep the neighbors dog from sticking his snout through the fence and trying to bite us. In any case it looks better than the weeds that had previously occupied the space. There are some hostas, rose bushes and a couple of other plants to put in so that it doesn’t look completely bad.

Bathroom Light Fixture

I took down the drop ceiling in the first floor bathroom. This means the “light below a light” has finally been removed. I also took out the sink and disconnected the toilet. At some point a couple months ago I ripped the medicine cabinet off the wall, so that was already gone. Still a lot to be done in there, but bit by bit we’re making progress.

We got our shelves up in the basement and moved the boxes and bins we’d been storing in the back bedroom of the first floor to the basement. We need to clean up some of the mess down there before we can get everything else relocated, though. There’s a deadline on that now, though, but I’ll get to that.

Basement light switch

I also started working on the latest basement electrical project. First, I removed a lingering light switch from the “kitchen” area. I added an outlet where the laundry will be and removed a bunch of conduit and wiring from the first floor panel. It is now completely empty except for the garage and the one circuit we’re using on that floor for the current laundry and lights. Of course, now I’m contemplating moving all of the circuits from the second floor box over to it, because it’s bigger, newer and doesn’t have a scary spliced main connecting it to the meter. I’ll talk to the electrician about that on Monday.

The larger basement electrical project is moving the conduit away from the beam. That will be involved, since they actually used some rigid conduit down there. The one place flexible would have been really convenient is the one place they didn’t use it. There are also a couple of junction boxes with countless circuits snaking through them mounted to the beam. That will all need to move, the ease of which depends on how much slack there is in the wires. I’m guessing not much.

Finally, in order to remove a couple of the old flexible lines from the first floor panel, we ripped out the back wall of the first floor bedroom, which is directly above the panels. Demo is so much fun. I pulled the disconnected lines out, leaving one circuit that goes up to the second floor through that wall. We made a huge mess, and also discovered a window hidden in the wall, glass panes still in it. It makes sense; the space used to be a pantry off the kitchen and pantries usually had a window on the end. We’ll probably find one in the same place on the second floor.

Basement Demo: One Fire Hazard at a Time

December 30, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Several posts ago I shared some videos of the, er, shall we say imaginative electrical “planning” in the basement. Last night I worked to dismantle the festooned conduits. The lines I took down yesterday mostly serviced the first floor outlets, but they were all run along the ceiling of the basement, preventing me from taking down drywall. Surprises were in store from the outset as the first junction box I opened rained roach carcasses down.

Roach-filled Junction Box

Fortunately they weren’t all that way. Most of them were so full of wires they couldn’t really accommodate a roach oasis. I had to cut power to one of the basement lights, which unfortunately was the living room where the debris pile is located. I’ll be using work lights for the time being. One of these lines was a particularly scary bit of electrical-taped wire segments strewn across the laundry room plumbing, so I was glad to get that removed as it seemed more than a little bit of a fire hazard.

Wire Bonanza

Getting this out will make it a lot easier to remove the rest of the ceiling drywall, though the discovery that there are actually five gas lines running from the meter at the front of the house to the utility room in the back will complicate things. I knew there were at least three, but five? Almost all of them are going to be in the way when the center beam is replaced because they run down either side. Most are mounted to the drywall, so I’ll either need to disconnect them or work around them. Let me tell you, shutting off the gas for extended periods in winter while I remove and re-route lines sounds like a lot of fun.

In any case, I’ll at least be able to report progress to my insurance agent the next time they call asking for an update on the three issues they had with the house: the roof, the garage, and the electrical.