# Electrical: So easy anyone can do it!



## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

I posted these on another forum, but I wanted to share with everyone.

I get a call from the building owner in Florida. Says the tenants are complaining that the parking lot lights don't work. Strip shopping center, grocery store (unoccupied) on one end, old Walmart on the other (closed), five spaces in between. Well, I shoot over, and find there are no lighting controls on outside of building.

He mails me a key to the grocery store. Says he remembers something about some work he had done in there before concerning some electrical... After all, it was his general contractor/handyman. Now... why don't those lights work?


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## electricalperson (Jan 11, 2008)

if they painted the brick where the panel used to be it would look a lot better


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

No wonder the timer doesn't work.




It's not hooked up.


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

480sparky said:


> No wonder the timer doesn't work.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I started taking the tap loose when I decided to take a pic. There never was a connector though. The white went to the contactor, the black was on the breaker, and the green was on the ground bar. The timer comes out of the box ready for 208. For 277, you have to move one motor lead to the far left terminal for the neutral. So, the timer never worked because it didn't have a neutral, and if it had, when the contacts closed it would have been a short to ground.


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## splitphase (Jan 8, 2009)

My next move as the bldg. owner would have been to rent a lift or bucket truck and send my handyman to the walmart next door, have him pick up a case of 60W household lamps, and have him change out all the parking lot lights. If that did'nt solve the problem, then I might call an electrician......:laughing:


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

splitphase said:


> My next move as the bldg. owner would have been to rent a lift or bucket truck and send my handyman to the walmart next door, have him pick up a case of 60W household lamps, and have him change out all the parking lot lights. If that did'nt solve the problem, then I might call an electrician......:laughing:


You have mogul-base bulbs in your household?


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## iaov (Apr 14, 2008)

No need to call a qualified electrician when you can get great work like this for half the price!!:blink:


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

InPhase277 said:


> I started taking the tap loose when I decided to take a pic. There never was a connector though. The white went to the contactor, the black was on the breaker, and the green was on the ground bar. The timer comes out of the box ready for 208. For 277, you have to move one motor lead to the far left terminal for the neutral. So, the timer never worked because it didn't have a neutral, and if it had, when the contacts closed it would have been a short to ground.


 
This is kind of getting to be a pet peeve with me lately. When guys install something like a time clock don't they try it to prove it will work? When I follow up on jobs at work that is the case more often than not. I went up on a roof in driving rain early this week for a no a/c in a server room to find the RTU disconnect off from the last service call there.


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