A rant on circuit boards.

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Greg_Lewis
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Re: A rant on circuit boards.

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Hm. Interesting, Bill. We had a new power panel installed a couple of years ago and the grounds were re-done, but that doesn't mean they are good. The old panel was a Stab-Lok brand from the 1970s and those had a habit of catching fire. The electrician that did our back shop warned us about it and after I looked on line and saw the photos of the burned panels, I called him right back to replace it. Also, this house was built in 1975 when aluminum wire was used for the 220 lines to the appliances without proper connections to the brass and copper. We came close to a fire behind the clothes dryer when the outlet overheated and melted down. When I pulled the outlet out of the wall it just crumbled apart in my hand. There is a saying out here in the country: the county fire department hasn't lost a foundation yet.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
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Steggy
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Re: A rant on circuit boards.

Post by Steggy »

Greg_Lewis wrote: Thu Mar 30, 2023 4:29 pmThanks, Steggy, but the board is just under $300. My deductible is more than that.
Figures.

By the way, folks, I apologize for the comment about PGE. That brings politics into the discussion and I think we're better off to leave that to other forums.
Hey! Everybody likes to pick on the electric company. Lord knows they eat up a lot of our money.
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: A rant on circuit boards.

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Steggy wrote: Thu Mar 30, 2023 6:20 pm
By the way, folks, I apologize for the comment about PGE. That brings politics into the discussion and I think we're better off to leave that to other forums.
Hey! Everybody likes to pick on the electric company. Lord knows they eat up a lot of our money.

:lol:
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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Bill Shields
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Re: A rant on circuit boards.

Post by Bill Shields »

Google "ground rod resistance test"

I was right - 25 ohms.

It is the restance between your system and the power company ground, and us totally unrelated to anything inside the house.

The house wiring can be perfect, but if the ground rod is bad, your electronics is toast.

It should be the first thing a good electrician checks before he puts in a "whole house surge protector".

In reality, the local electrical inspector should check before he signs off in new construction -> but in reality they usually just check that there is an 8' rod installed.

My house has a very good, 200' ground rod...the house is bonded to my water well. The measured resistance has stayed under 2 ohms since construction.

Yes, we have a rod also to keep the inspector happy.

Other than a fried compressor from a direct lightening strike on an A/C unit, no problems from the literally 1000's of power interruptions in 40 years.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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