Spring in Alberta!

IMG_1295, originally uploaded by sandypeterman.

Winter returns (for now)

Here we are, 20 days into the month of April, and I’m happy that my blog entries are slowly becoming a little more frequent. The sale of our contracting business is moving towards completion, and we might be able to set a date for the change of ownership by the end of this week.

If we were having any second thoughts about spending more time closer to the sun, they were erased on Friday, with the invasion of a cold front, complete with high winds, cold temperatures, lots of snow, and no sign of relief for about a week! I just got back in the office from clearing our sidewalks of heavy, wet, drifted snow (see the uploaded picture).

As a contrast, one week ago Saturday, the temperature was about 21 degrees Celsius, or 70 Fahrenheit for our American friends.

A few weeks ago, we were approached by the nice folks at Warmly Yours to see if we would consider putting an article on our website introducing our clients to their line of home comfort heating products, including tile and stone, carpet and laminate, snow melting (I could use some of that right now), towel warmers, mirror de-foggers, and area rug heaters.

After reviewing their comprehensive and informative website, at www.warmlyyours.com , we were very impressed with the products and the company, and we have posted a short but informative article on our site that you need to check out, whether you are in the market for some floor heating now, or will be in the near future. Follow this link at: http://www.electricalonline.com/wiringanelectricfloorheatingsystem.htm

Recently a client sent me this question, which I will answer for you here on this blog as a timely compliment to the subject of installing some in-floor heating products.

Question:

I have tiles floor heat in my bathroom. As per the electrical inspector, I need to install a GCFI breaker for the circuit. Currently there is a 240v double pole 15a breaker installed with two screw terminals. There are two wires connected to these, and a ground that attaches to the bond terminals in the panel. The two wires go to the line voltage thermostat for the floor heat.

When I got the new 240v GFCI double pole 15a breaker I see it has three screw terminals and a white curly wire attached. I connected the white curly wire to the neutral bar in the panel per the instructions. Then I connected the two wires that are going to my thermostat to the two screw terminals that are black and labeled Load -. There is a screw terminal in between those labeled ‘Load N’, and nothing is currently connected to that. I have power to the thermostat but when I press the test button it doesn't trip the GFCI breaker. Any thoughts?

Answer:

If you have connected the new GFCI breaker to your circuit as you have described, you connected it correctly. The load neutral is only required if the appliance or the equipment that you are feeding with the GFCI breaker requires a neutral conductor. With a 240V electric heat circuit, there is no neutral, so leaving the ‘Load N’ terminal unused is correct.
As for the breaker not tripping when you push the ‘test’ button, this can only meant that the breaker is faulty, and should be returned for replacement. GFCI devices should be checked in this manner on a monthly basis, and need to be replaced if they do not function as designed.

Until next time, work safely, and check back often!

Spring time and closer to the goal.

We are getting very close to the goal of working on the website on a full time basis. Given my dismal performance thus far in up-dating my blog, I would guess my next entry will be to inform our readers of a completed sale of our contracting business, paving the way for the next phase of our life, where www.electrical-online.com will be our primary focus.
I must apologize to the thousands of people who have taken the time to sign up for our monthly e-zine (that comes out every year or so). The questions that you submit are now answered sporadically, but I keep them all for information to design future content for the site. I do respond to all of the e-mail, custom wiring diagram, project consultation, and telephone calls that come in to me via the website within a few hours. If you are calling the 1-888-622-3322 help line, please leave a message with a return number as these calls come to my cell phone, and I end up calling you back from a land line anyway. I will return calls in a timely fashion.
Our Alfa Motorhome has been a bit of a disappointment to us as I sent it in for some minor warranty repair work back in the beginning of January, and now I am told I might have it back at the end of next week. This will be a full 12 weeks, or 3 months, or 25% of a YEAR. Not impressed! The dealership blames Alfa, and Alfa denies any problems, so the blame game continues and I'm without the use of the coach. (Thanks for allowing me to vent).
Anyway, I look so forward to being able to focus on the site, adding content, responding to questions, and updating this blog. It's sooo close!

A new entry!

The last time I up-dated my blog, it was March, 2007. Around that time I vowed that I would be adding entries on a more regular basis. It's now December 3, 2007. So much for that. However, some progress has been made towards our goal of working on the website business on a full-time basis. We now have an agreement in principle for a sale of our contracting business, and in September of this year, we purchased the Alfa motorhome that we will be living in beginning sometime in the 2008 calendar year.
It seems hard to believe that a person could be too busy to sit down and update a blog every once in a while, however, as if to reinforce this reality, I have been interrupted three times since starting this entry. One interruption was to check out an equipment malfunction on one of our service vehicles. Then Sandy called me to the dinner table. Then an emergency call out that resulted in the dispatch of one of our electricians to a hay plant to trouble-shoot an electric motor problem.
I would like to say that I'll post another blog in the very near future, but given the gap since the last entry, and the fact that it is December 3, I'm going to end this now by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and a happy and prosperous New Year!
Until next time.....

Washington D.C. leaves lasting impression.

After a long day of touring DC, and a fairly long day of travel, we're back in the great white north (Canada eh?).
I wasn't able to post a new blog until tonight, but I'd like to comment on the impression that your nation's capitol has left on Sandy and I. Washington D.C. wasn't a place that was on our "places to visit in the near future" list, but the Yanik Silver Internet Marketing conference is held there, and Sandy and I wanted to attend, so why not spend an extra day to check out the sights. Let's just say that we will be back someday, and we'll plan on spending at least a week. We were awe-struck, with the historical significance of the statues and monuments, and with the physical size of it all. You see these landmarks on television, or in the movies (Forrest....is that you Forrest?) but nothing can do justice to the magnitude of these icons of American history.
My friends to the south, you have so much to be proud of. What you, and the rest of the free world stand for, is all there, etched in the walls of these magnificant structures, with the great men who authored our way of life, standing proud to see that we continue on with the dream. I couldn't help but think about that terrible day (September 11), and the anger that it stirs up inside me, and I feel so grateful to the thousands of all of our men and women that have died, and continue to give their lives for all of us in the free world. Thank God that some people still believe that what we have is worth defending. I am one of those people.
Thank-you U.S.A., and from a proud Canadian let's all remember these words. United we Stand!

Sunshine and Springtime in D.C.

What a great day to be in Washington! Sunshine, slight breeze, but about 65F and rising.
I went for a jog this morning, and as planned, made my way to the Pentagon (partially by luck and instinct as I had no map). As I weaved and bobbed my way north and east from the Hotel, starting up Crystal Drive, I eventually found a road that went under a freeway that had a police car in the process of pulling over a motorist. This was the Pentagon Police Deptartnent, so I knew I must be close. On the other side of the underpass, there it was...the Pentagon. As I approached the parking lot I noticed another police cruiser had emerged from somewhere, and was slowly making it's way toward the underpass, and the location of the other cruiser with the car that was pulled over for a check. I jogged around a short distance, then made my way back the way I had come in, and past the police cruiser, which was now joined by the second police car. It couldn't have been too serious, as the motorist was pulling away by the time I jogged by. As I exited the underpass, it was then that I saw the sign I had ran by on the way in that read: "Entering the Pentagon. All persons may be subject to search". I was thankful that I had escaped without the full search, as all I was wearing was shorts, t-shirt, and my water bottle pack. I had only my hotel key card, $8 cash, and no rubber gloves!
I got back safely to the hotel zone, and as any good jogger would do, stopped at a 7-Eleven to pick up a 6-pack of Budweiser so throughout the rest of the day I can replenish my lost calories. Now back to work. Sandy will be attending sessions until 3:30PM, and then we will plan the remainder of our trip.
Tomorrow we take a tour with Old Town Trolley Tours so I'll report back after that.
Until tomorrow,
Terry Peterman
The Internet Electrician

Thoughts from Washington D.C.

Well here we are (Sandy and I) in Washington D.C., for Yanik Silver's Underground Online Marketing Seminar. More accurately, we're at the Hyatt Hotel in Crystal City, Virginia, which is south of the Pentagon, and across the Potomac, south and east of the White house, and the rest of the attractions in your Nation's Capitol. Sandy is attending all the sessions of the seminar, and I'm holed up in my room adding some more useful content to our website, www.electrical-online.com.
Shamefully, I see that it has been since November of 2006 since my last blog entry, and this pathetic frequency is something that we are going to change starting right now. Sandy is enjoying the sessions, and is getting a lot of valuable information from them. Our goal this weekend is to get away from the routine at home so Sandy can learn new ideas at the seminar that we can apply to our site, and for me to get some uninterrupted time away from the contracting business to work on the website. At lunch break, and in the evening, Sandy shares what she's learned from the day's events. I must admit that I'm a little torn between getting out and touring all that there is to see here, and staying in the room to create content, but we are dedicating Monday as "Tacky Tourist Day" and will get out and see the sites. I'll be adding daily entries to the blog until Monday night, and then we'll set a more manageable blog entry schedule after that, but I promise that the days of quarterly entries are behind us now.
Until tomorrow,
Terry Peterman
The Internet Electrician

Simple Home Wiring Fixes

Do you have a few little home improvement projects around your home that you keep putting off? I had one of those recently that I finally bit the bullet and completed.

We have five bathrooms between our home and office. My wife, Sandy, was tired of finding the bathroom fans being left running for hours and even days at a time. There was a simple solution to this problem. I just replaced the bathroom fan switch with an electronic timing device that allows you to control the length of time that the fan operates - in this case intervals of 10, 20, 30 and 60 minutes.

This is a simple home wiring improvement (and wife saver!) that I thought some of you might be interested in seeing, so we videotaped the project and prepared an e-book covering the steps involved.

You can view the video and download the e-book (FREE) by visiting the following link on the website:

http://www.electrical-online.com/bathroomfantimerswitch.htm

Please feel free to pass this information on to any of your friends or family that might find it useful.

And please - follow all safety guidelines when working on any home electrical project.

- Terry Peterman, the 'Internet Electrician'