Social Media and Your Business?

Exclusive to eLocal Blog-Off Experts

I have been a contributor to eLocal's "Blog-Off" for some time now.  The blog-off provides contractors with the opportunity to share their thoughts on a wide variety of home improvement topics.  This last blog-off posed the question of how social media is affecting business.

My response was awarded the designation of "most articulate".  Have a read and let me know if you think there is any merit to the use of social media channels in today's business world.  What about you - do you visit the Facebook pages/Google+/Twitter accounts of the businesses you patronize?


The link to the top 5 comments is here:  http://www.elocal.com/content/home-expert-network/social-media-success-ideas-prevailing-experts-2915

Anti-Photo Radar Club (Rant)

I realize that this post isn’t related to my expertise as a the Internet Electrician, but it’s something that I believe my readers can benefit from, so please forgive me for this, but I’m just trying to help out here, and maybe save you a few bucks!Most of us are law-abiding citizens, and I would never be an advocate for breaking the laws of the land, be it a minor misdemeanour, or criminal in nature. However, I do take issue with the cash grab that municipalities like to call photo-radar. I try to keep my speed within normally accepted tolerance levels, but I don’t pay as much attention to the posted limit as I do to keeping up with the flow of traffic. To me, if the posted limit is 60 MPH, and most of the traffic is travelling at 75 MPH, to drive at the speed limit in these conditions is more of a hazard than going with the flow. This is my opinion only, of course.Here is one of my own personal experiences with photo-radar.
Several years ago, Sandy’s Father was in the Hospital in Edmonton Alberta, and we live about a 2 hour drive south of there. We were on our way to Edmonton for a visit one day, and I got caught by an officer with a radar gun for speeding. I hadn’t had a ticket in several years, so I reluctantly accepted the consequences, knowing that I was probably lucky that I haven’t been ticketed more often over the years. After receiving the ticket carrying on our way, I set my cruise control at the posted limit (maybe slightly above), just so as to not get stopped again. When we got the City, I lowered my speed to the flow of traffic, and being a freeway, although now inside the City, I assumed the limit was likely 60 MPH, judging by the flow of the traffic. Feeling quite proud of myself for being a model, law-abiding citizen, we got our visit in, and returned home later that day.

To our surprise, a few days later I receive another speeding ticket via photo-radar from the City of Edmonton. As it turns out, the posted limit was only 50 MPH and thus I’m mailed yet another ticket for $125, adding to the $75 ticket from Police Officer earlier that day. Two tickets within an hour of each other, costing me an extra $200 over the normal expenses related to the trip. Thus began my distaste of photo-radar.

There are many products available on the market today, designed to foil the photo-radar system. Most are plastic plate covers that by various methods, are thought to blur or obscure the image of the plate number that the camera captures, adding some degree of doubt that the ticket will reach the rightful registered owner of the car. All of these devices are quite easy to spot from behind the vehicle. Many States or Provinces now have legislation drafted to combat these devices and are worded as such that the vehicle plate must be free of any obstruction, and be visible at all times. With these visible plastic covers, the vehicle will likely get pulled over and the driver will be asked to remove them, or given a ticket for obstructing the license plate.

A new product has reached the market, and it is designed to break the backdraft that exists behind most vehicles that causes dust, mud, snow or ice to accumulate, thus obstructing the plate. This helps the vehicle owner to comply with the legislation that exists that says the plate must be visible, clean, and easy to see. One possible additional benefit to this device is that it just may block the last digit of the plate number from showing up clearly on the photo-radar generated speeding ticket. That’s because the camera angle that photo-radar operates on is about a 22 ½ degree angle from the rear right hand side of the vehicle. Nice touch. The product has been tested in practical conditions, and it works as designed. Notice how you cannot see the device when approaching the vehicle from the rear, and the licence plate is clear and unobstructed.

Now look what happens when the picture is taken from the position of the photo-radar camera.
Notice that the last digit of the plate is not captured, thus making it impossible to send out a ticket to the vehicles registered owner.They are made from a flexible and nearly unbreakable black plastic, and are paintable to match the exterior of the vehicle. The mounting plate is pre-drilled with mounting holes to match all standard licence plate designs, in North America, Europe, Australia, and more.

They also work on the smaller plates for motor cycles.

These special devices are now available for sale on our website for the low price of $25 (plus S & H). Really quite a bargain considering that they function as designed to keep your plate clean and unobstructed, and just might save you the nice little surprise that arrives by mail for too many of us un-suspecting, generally law-abiding citizens.

Click here to get yours today!

Internet Electrician Trademark

Somewhere along the way since launching our website back in 1997, I started to call myself the Internet Electrician. It seemed like a good moniker for an electrician whose website content was designed around helping out the homeowner with his or her electrical questions and problem solving on this new thing called the Internet.

It was pointed out to us that it would be prudent to protect that branding effort by getting the name trademarked. We set out with our formal application back in May of 2010, and after some consultation with one of the legal team members of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, for various reasons that he pointed out, the possibility of being granted the trademark didn't seem too promising. We had thought that the request was going to be relegated to the "pending" file, and that we weren't going to get the coveted status. To our surprise, we were informed by e-mail that the trademark had been approved, and soon later our sealed certificate arrived by registered mail. So here is my first official use of my name, now with the proper identification behind it. Exciting stuff, eh?

Terry Peterman

the Internet Electrician® "Registered, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office"

Father’s Day 2011, and This One is For My Dad, Lyle Peterman

As I write this, my Dad is going to be 85 years old in two months. Although he complains about aches and pains, and says he can hardly move anymore, he still manages to move at a pace that would be the envy of most men his age. If the lawn needs mowing, the hedge needs trimming, or the sidewalks need edging, it’s done with an urgency comparable to that of the need to put out a wildfire.

In the winter the snow isn’t allowed to get too comfortable lying on the driveway or the sidewalks as it will be shovelled off and piled in nice neat banks well out of the way, and if the banks get too high, they will be relocated to the center of the yard for reasons twofold; to make room for more snow, and to provide even watering of the lawn when spring arrives and the piles melt.

We (family) all like to tease him about this relentlessly, but our motive aren’t critical, only that we wish he would spend a bit more of that energy enjoying himself and taking part in more activities related to recreation rather than work, but that’s just not the way he’s wired. Dad was born and raised in Saskatchewan, and through a time period where you soon learned to work hard and appreciate what you had, as that wasn’t a lot.

Life on the prairies taught you the values of hard work and that if something needed to be done, just do it. That’s what built the character of a man that not only served his family well, and passed on his values to all of us (sometimes more than we’ll admit), but made for the kind of employee that all employers desire to have. Dad worked from his young adult years through to retirement with predominately one oil company (although the company changed ownership many times). He is one of the lucky ones that enjoyed an early and long retirement, and has reaped the benefits of a pension since he was about 62 years old.

Dad is someone that can, and is able to do just about everything. He taught me everything; mechanical, plumbing, carpentry, painting, electrical work and more. His garage, along with two outbuildings (on a residential lot), are home to just about every tool or piece of equipment known to mankind. When you have something that needs repair, you drop it off to Dad. If you need a tool, he’s got it, and is willing to lend it out as long as it finds a way back. If not, rest assured he remembers who borrowed it last!

Here`s a story that epitomizes my Dad, and one that I`ll always remember. A few years ago I took an old axe to him for sharpening, and to replace the handle that was frayed and broken after a few missed swings at the chopping block. Not only was the axe sharp enough to shave with, but the handle was replaced to factory specifications, and the rusted old head of the 25 year old axe had been sanded down, cleaned, and repainted two-tone, with fireman`s red paint, transitioning to white towards the blade that is typical of the textbook axe you see in featured images.

So that paints a picture of my Dad, and a picture that I`m proud to paint of him and to show off to anyone who cares to read this. Here`s hoping for many more years to enjoy with him, and I am thankful for all the years I`ve enjoyed with him up to now. Happy Father`s Day Dad!

Back from Mexico

We had a great time in Bucerias Mexico again this year, and we are now back in Arizona for a month before heading north again. The problems with the Internet service never did get sorted out so my apologies for the lack of posts to the blog here.

Having to seek out a wifi connection caused us to only get the basic tasks done, like checking e-mail and responding to time sensitive matters. I did have time to gather more pictures of some Mexican electrical work and as soon as I got home I posted the 3rd and final installment of Mex-electrical, and you can find it on the website by clicking here.

Since my last blog entry, I have responded to 2 more questions in e-locals' blog-off series. Blog off #3 was about the:"Limitations of Going Green", and blog-off question #4 was asking the panel of experts their thoughts on what home improvements have the best impact on resale values. Click the links to check out the responses. I was able to weigh in on both topics.

eLocal is a great resource for helping consumers find businesses in their local neighborhood with their comprehensive and user friendly directories. From roofers to electricians, and lawyers to dentists, find them listed at eLocal.com

Check out our website often as I will be back to adding content on a regular basis, and our next e-zine should be out next week!

Viva Mexico!

We're here in lovely Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico for the 3rd February in a row. The weather started out very unseasonably cool, but has come back closer to normal now.

One challenge that Mexico can present is the unreliability of some of the creature comforts, like wifi service at our condo. This results in us trudging down a large hill with laptop in tow, to sit at Jo Jo's Cafe.

Blog-off #2
E-local's second Blog-off question is out and the comments have been published. This one was about the design trends for 2011, and our thoughts on where things are going. See the thread here.

Answer to the question on previous post.
I had numerous responses to my picture with some questionable electrical wiring, and I published a few of them. The answer was C, and Susan hit it right on the nose. I was in Calgary last summer, and spotted this mess on a sign can in Calgary Alberta! Shame on that mess! It looked to me like Mex-electrical and that's why I took the picture. What were the odds that someone else reading my blog noticed the same rat's nest? Way to go Susan!

Mex-electrical #2

I will be doing a post dedicated to Mex-electrial, and have been busy gathering video and pictures. Here's a sample thus far.

This is an open pony panel on the way up the steps to a sports bar here in Bucerias. It's about eye level, and easily reachable by anyone wanting to stick in their fingers, children and adults alike.

Hopefully our internet service will be restored at the condo soon so we can get back to some more regular posting to the website, and here on the blog.

We'll see if manyana ever comes!

eLocal’s Inaugural Blog-Off!

We're down to the last week before we migrate south for a month in Bucerias Mexico, so we have a lot to get accomplished before we leave. We should have reliable Internet access where we are staying, but we're not sure how often we will be able to post new articles and update the blog, but we'll do our best while gone. I'm hoping to post another article on the subject of what I called: "Mex-electrical", a popular post a while back, featuring some of the most interesting electrical installations I encounter while travelling in Mexico.


Here is a picture I took of an electrical installation to a lighted sign. Can you guess where this is?

Is it,

a) Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

b) Bucerias, Mexico

c) Calgary Alberta, Canada

Post your answer as a comment on this post and next blog entry I'll tell you the answer.

We took my parents to the airport on Wednesday for their return flight home to Alberta. We had a great time with them, and luckily the cold snap there broke just in time.
In my last post here I posted a video of my Mom shooting hoops in the pool. Later I convinced her to come for a ride on my motorcycle, and she loved it! I'll see if I can get Dad to buy a Harley when he comes to visit next fall?



As I mentioned in my last post, I was invited to be a part of a panel of experts in eLocal's Blog-Off series.
To quote eLocal,
"eLocal is thrilled to announce a new blog-off series that will bring bloggers and professionals together to discuss hot topics and exciting trends in home improvement.
No more searching the web for the answers to your most pressing home improvement questions. This series gives homeowners information directly from the experts, while also creating a new forum for industry leaders to network and exchange ideas".

The first question was out last week, and for this first Blog-Off article, they asked the experts when in the design process homeowners should make plumbing and electrical decisions.

You can read the compiled results of the responses by following this link. Please check it out and you can also get involved by posting a comment if you feel compelled to do so.

Hasta Luego!

A New Challenge for a New Year!

Today I received the first question for the "Blog Off" series that I was asked to participate in. This is sponsored by e-local, and as soon as the answers are compiled I will post a link here, as well as on our website. A series of relevant questions will be posed to the panel of selected "experts" and each will post a response to open up debate. It should be fun, and I'm looking forward to it. The first question was related to planning for a bathroom renovation, and what should be the most important consideration, artistic vision, or the location of the plumbing and electrical components of the project.

As I mentioned in my last post, my parents are here visiting with us until January 19th. My Dad is 84, and my Mom is 82, and are both in good health. They used to come down here to Arizona and stay in their R.V. for some of the winter months in the past, but the challenges of driving a big rig this far became an issue, so they stopped doing that a few years back. Now that we have a place down here they can come stay with us to help escape at least some of the long winter back home in Alberta Canada. The timing has been good as the last several days back home have seen temperatures in the -20's and -30's. and lots of new snow and blowing snow. It is supposed to warm up to seasonal temperatures by the time they return later this week.

We have been spending time visiting, playing cards, watching movies, and had a great game of golf here yesterday. Here's a video of my Mom shooting some hoops in the pool, something that is in stark contrast to what she would be doing back in the frozen north.



I had a question regarding the installation of a motion sensing switch in a room with a 3-way switch network in place now. The person wanted to know if this is possible, and the answer is yes! With the wiring in place now to enable a 3-way switch network, the installation of the motion sensing switch is possible at either switch location (pick the one with the best 'view' of the room), and the proper splices will need to be made at both switch locations to make this new arrangement work. The switch that gets abandoned will have to be covered with a blank cover plate after the splices are made. I would have to know the details of the existing wiring to be able to advise on the correct splices to make.

The tip of the week involves the maintaining your existing tool collection so you don't have to replace them for years to come. Clean and dry your tools after each use, and lubricate when necessary. I could learn from my own advice here as you will see when I take you on a video tour of my own personal tool bag, coming soon.

Take care, and work safe!

Another Christmas Season Past.

Well 2010 is in the books, and I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We are looking forward to great year ahead!

Our Christmas was quiet, but very nice. My son Lyle was here and we enjoyed some nice weather, hanging out by the pool,

watching some movies using my new outdoor projector and the new inflatable projector screen (an early 'Merry Christmas to me' present),

and took a motorcycle ride in to the hills towards Globe.

We also golfed,

and took in a Phoenix Suns vs. Miami Heat basketball game (pretty much an NBA all-star game).
Being of Scandinavian heritage, our family celebrates on Christmas Eve, so we opened up a Skype video chat with the rest of the family back home, they had a traditional turkey dinner, while we feasted on Alaskan King Crab (not a traditional Christmas dinner)!

Lyle left on Christmas Day, and Sandy and I went for a twilight round of golf to complete our Christmas.

We were able to squeeze in another round of golf last week between working on the website, and spent New Years Eve with our good friends Rob, Judy, and Sharone over at the Turner residence. The final highlight of the season is Sandy's birthday (January 2), and as per her request, we spent the day hiking in the area on Superstition Mountain.

The route we took was the Hieroglyphic Canyon Trail, and the hike takes you up to the Hieroglyphic Spring, and on the rock walls around the spring you can see many petroglyphs carved in to the rocks by the ancient Hohokam Indians.

The Christmas season always seems to get me thinking about the really important things in life, like family and friends. We've been blessed with such good families on both sides, and our siblings fit in to both groups, family and friends. I'm lucky to have both of my parents (Dad Lyle, 84 and Mom Agnes, 82), and they are coming for a 2 week visit here on January 5th, so we're looking forward to spending some quality time with them.

There's a lot of new content on the website so check that out. Sandy has been putting together clips that we have from my appearances on a nationally broadcast television show a few years ago, and I have put together several new posts as well. The easiest way is to check the recent articles section on the homepage.

I had a question from a website client that needs some immediate attention.

Question:

What causes an outlet to get hot, melting the varnish on the wall, and the white wires are burnt at the ends where they connect to the receptacle?

Answer:

This is a very dangerous situation caused by a high resistance connection at the receptacle on the neutral side as a result of a loose terminal, or more likely that they used the push-in terminals at the back of the receptacle. This needs immediate attention as it poses a fire risk. This is something that the homeowner can repair if the proper safety precautions are observed (shut off the circuit), and a proper repair is done. If not, refer this to a qualified electrician. The device needs to be replaced, and the heated sections of the wires need to be cut back, and a new device installed.

Keep the questions coming! I will attempt to answer the quick ones here on the blog, and if the question warrants a detailed response, I'll post it as an article on the website.

Again, Happy New Year, and all the best to you and yours in 2011.

Knock Me Down and I Get Back Up

Sandy and I went out for a run today, and in a storm water retention area behind the neighborhood of San Tan Heights, we came across this interesting tree, and for some reason it inspired me to take a picture of it, and use it as the foundation for an entry to my blog.


At first glance this looked like four small trees randomly growing out of the sand, but on closer examination I observed that this was one tree that had been blown over, likely in a windstorm, or was pushed over by high water flows during a heavy rain. It struck me how closely Mother Nature and human nature are guided by the same choices when facing adversity. This tree could have just "cashed in its (wood) chips", and died, but by the survival instinct found both in humanity and in nature, instead it reached for the sun from its new-found horizontal position, and is surviving quite well here in the desert.

Probably what got me thinking about this was the challenge we are facing with the launching of our newly designed website. Right after the launch it appeared that we suffered no adverse affects regarding a loss of our traffic and our position in the SERPS (search engine results pages), but within a couple of days we noticed a substantial drop. After some agonizing days of tweaking the SEO aspects of the site, adding some new content and video, and working on analytics, we are clawing our way back to the position that we have been fortunate to occupy for the last several years. Like the tree, our new website affords us the opportunity to branch out and continue to develop the website bigger, better, and stronger than it was before.

With 2010 coming to a close, I got thinking about a blog entry I made in October of 2008, right when the economy was down, and about to fall even further. At that time I was looking at the markets and comparing numbers so I thought it would be interesting to look back to see where we were then, and where we are now, 2 years later. Also like the tree, we have made some huge strides toward recovery. Sure things could be better. The jobless rate and the housing market being two of the major stumbling blocks of the recovery, especially in the U.S.A., but let's look at what has happened since October, 2008. Being a Canadian (eh), I had used the TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) as my rough indicator of the economy. Back in the spring of 2008 the markets had begun their decline, and the TSX started to fall from a high of nearly 16,000 points. When I wrote that post, the TSX closed around 9600 that day, and the worst was yet to come, falling to below 8000 in the first quarter of 2009. Today, December 17, 2010, that same TSX index closed at 13,200. That's up 37.5% since that post from October 17, 2008. The other markets have followed a similar pattern. Consumer spending is also up this Christmas season, and other areas of the economy are showing optimistic sentiment as well.

So as we move towards the festive season, and the new year of 2011, I hope I've given you something to think about, and like the tree, I hope you didn't just lie down in the sand and dry up, but that you have looked at being pushed over as a new challenge, and with challenge is opportunity, to reach back up and branch out, bigger and stronger than ever!

We are adding content and videos to the website on a regular basis now, so please check the site often to see what's new. www.electrical-online.com

My son Lyle is coming down for a visit and to spend Christmas with us starting tomorrow so we're looking forward to that. Lyle has partnered up with Sandy to start his own website about his passion, the world of horses, in particular show jumping, so check out his site at www.equestrianplanet.com.

Should I not get a chance to post another blog before the end of the year, have a very Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays), and a Happy New Year!

Off the Computer, on to the Motorcycle!

Last Saturday Sandy and I were joined by a good friend Rob, and Sandy's sister Tammy for a ride on the motorcycles out east of us toward Globe Arizona. The scenery changes that you will see on this short little trip are nothing short of astounding! We leave the low desert here in San Tan Valley (formerly known as a part of Queen Creek), climb a short pass over to Superior, AZ, then up another pass through spectacular red rock canyons and craggy peaks up to the Miami / Globe area, mining towns with cooler temperatures at a considerably higher elevation.

We stopped for lunch in a little Mexican restaurant (excellent food) in Globe, right beside an old west Tavern on the Main Street.

We continued on north of Globe past the Roosevelt Dam and Reservoir. We stopped there for a quick look around to see what this area has to offer.

We then continued on north, where we connected with Highway 87 south of Payson. We then headed back south to one of our favorite stops, Saguaro Lake, and enjoyed a pint of beer before carrying on home to San Tan Valley, through Apache Junction, AZ.

This week has been busy as well, with our good friends Brenda and Adrian coming to stay overnight on Tuesday, so we took the opportunity to have a belated Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner with the gang, and now it's back to work on the website today.

I just posted a new article about electrical wiring diagrams, and Sandy is working on getting some more videos up-loaded to the site.

Exciting Update!

Where does the time go? Since my last post in March of 2010, we went on a sailing charter vacation to the beautiful British Virgin Islands in early April. We then returned to our home in Arizona where we had more friends and family come to visit. Then we packed up and left Arizona, bound for Victoria, British Columbia in late April, stayed on Vancouver Island for May and June, took another week long charter sailing vacation around the coastal islands and the Sunshine coast off the mainland north of Vancouver. Then we travelled back to our summer home in Alberta in late June, flew back to Las Vegas for a week long website SEO and marketing seminar, finished up with a few days at our home in Arizona, then returned to Alberta in early July, where we settled down for the rest of the summer until we migrated back to our Arizona home in Early October. Whew! Looking back, I guess we've been fairly busy!

To get a better summary of our travels, check out Sandy's blog (it needs some updating too!), at http://canusamextravels.blogspot.com/

Last spring we attended a Meetup in Phoenix, with SEO Optimization and Website Marketing Guru, Roy Reyer. We were very impressed with his presentation and the information provided, so we decided to sign up for the week long course in Las Vegas that I mentioned earlier. We also asked Roy if we could hire him for a personal consultation on the challenges that we have faced with on our website, www.electrical-online.com.

Our site has been on the internet since back in 1997, and was built using the now obsolete web development software, Frontpage. To make a long story short, we've been a bit handcuffed by this issue and that has resulted in a fairly stagnant website in the past months.

Our meeting with Roy spawned a partnership on our website, and a plan of action for re-designing our site using WordPress, and a marketing plan was put in to motion. The first step was to design and build the new site, and the management of that project was charged to David Evans, one of Roy's consultants on his team.

That brings us to the exciting part of this post.......the new website was launched on Saturday, November 27, and is now up and running! Check out the great new look at http://www.electrical-online.com/ View the introductory video, and sign up for our newsletter, and receive a FREE copy of my new e-book, "Wiring Secrets of the Internet Electrician". Now you can look forward to many new informative articles, posts, and videos, and if you don't see what you are looking for, send me a suggestion for new content at suggestions@electrical-online.com

Let’s open up that wall. That should be easy!

The following is an article I submitted to another website as part of an application process to be a "Guest Writer" . I was rejected so I thought I might as well post it as a blog entry.

After much discussion on how to achieve a more open feel to your main living area, you and your better half decide that the easiest way to accomplish this would be to create a large opening in the wall between the kitchen and your formal dining room. Just think how much of a difference that will make, and really, how hard can that be?

You consult your neighbour, the journeyman carpenter, and determine that the wall is not a load bearing wall. You obtain the correct permits from the local building authority, and you’re ready to start first thing Saturday morning.

Up bright and early, you’re ready to start. You mark out the proposed rough opening and start removing wall board beginning at the top. Using a plethora of tools, from a utility knife to a reciprocating saw, the renovation begins! Off comes the drywall in a messy, dusty heap on the floor. Things couldn’t be working out better! Your 60” wide passageway is taking shape right before your eyes, and then, you spot your problem. About 36” off the floor you see a cable running through the studs right across your opening. Upon further inspection you discover an electrical outlet on either side of your opening on the other side of the wall. Now what! What are the options?

After a few calls to several local electrical contractors, and leaving messages for them to call you back, it’s off to the computer room to check online for some answers. You find a great website for electrical help, and learn that as long as you have a reasonable skill level, a healthy respect for electricity, and that your local building authority will issue a Homeowners’ Electrical Permit, there’s no reason that you can’t tackle this project yourself.

Monday morning you get the appropriate permit in place, and on the advice you received online, you first ensure that the power to this particular circuit is switched off at the service entrance panel by turning off the correct breaker, you have checked the outlets on either side of the opening and they are indeed dead. You remove the faceplates and the device screws on each of the receptacles and discover that each receptacle has two 2-wire cables entering each box, and both receptacles have five wires attached to them: two black wires; two white wires; and a bare ground. The cable in the wall opening is running between the two receptacles. Removing the cable will break the circuit so it needs to remain in the equation. The cable has to be disconnected and removed from each of the device boxes. Fortunately the receptacles are only one stud space over from your new opening on either side, so fishing in a new, longer piece of wire between them is not that difficult. Sizing up the situation, you determine that you can run a new, longer cable up and over your new opening with a few simple modifications to the original plan. You reinstall the new cable into both boxes and reconnect all the wires properly, and now the project can move forward as planned!

You’ve learned a valuable lesson. Check for all potential problems that could be encountered, even in the most simple of projects. Look for any clues, such as electrical outlets, or plumbing fixtures beside, above or below the proposed renovation area. This would have allowed you to prepare in advance, and may have affected the entire renovation plan had the issue been a more difficult one to resolve.

The “New Improved” Basics of Household Wiring DVD

Recently I was able to check out the new edition of the Basics of Household Wiring DVD, so I will share my review of the product with you, our Clients and followers of my blog and our website at http://www.electrical-online.com/

We have endorsed this product for a number of years now, but the most recent edition includes about 30 minutes of additional information, including 3 and 4-way switches, light fixtures, etc.
Sandy and I had the pleasure of meeting with the producers of the DVD during our last stay in the Phoenix area, and it was nice to put faces to the names of the people that we have worked with via e-mail and telephone calls over the last several years.
I have always considered this an excellent resource and we have sold many copies of the DVD and have received only positive reviews from our customers and clients. This new edition is just that much better with the additional information provided. The intent of providing an educational over-view of the home electrical systems and components for the novice or the DIY’er has been achieved. The DVD provides excellent descriptions, and easy to understand dynamic graphics and pictures.
The DVD is also very careful to emphasise the dangers of electricity, and the importance of safety and following the proper safe work practices before working on your homes electrical system, and any applicable process that must be followed, such as permits.
Before tackling any home electrical project, we at Electrical-online.com strongly recommend that you get a copy of the DVD, and watch it from start to finish. It is 86 minutes of time well spent. Click on the link below to get your copy today!

www.electrical-online.com/DVDBasicHomeWiring.htm

Kudos from a former Contractor!

In my last post I talked about installing the pool light for our built in spa addition to the backyard pool in Arizona. After taking possession of our new house on December 8, and moving in on December 16, 2009, we wanted to get started on the back yard as soon as possible.

We met with a landscaping contractor in early December to open discussion on some changes we would like to see in our back yard. Nothing major, but the discussion was around designing a more tropical theme, and getting rid of some real grass to reduce ongoing maintenance requirements.

Also knowing that our time in Arizona will be in the fall and winter, we wanted to have our pool heated to allow us to actually use it rather than just look at it during the months that we will be there. Most of pools in the area are not heated (in fact some install chiller units) and only are used in the spring and summer months.

Another factor for Sandy and I was the almost mandatory requirement of having a hot tub or spa for the chilly desert nights. We've haven't been without one in all of our time together (16 years) and I even have a portable spa that comes with us on our travels, so to us this was an essential addition that needed to happen as well.

All this being said, it was decided that the best plan was to remove the grassy area and replace some of it with artificial turf, incorporating a golf putting green, adding some palm trees, fix up the existing outdoor cooking / bar area, and instead of an above ground portable hot tub, we would build in a spa in the corner of the pool and tie it in to the existing pool plumbing and at the same time install and connect a pool heater to the entire system.

For me this meant that I needed to connect all the new equipment (spa jet pump, pool heater, landscape lighting, power for the cooking area, new spa light), and modifying the control strategy to make this all work. The renovations happened so fast and efficiently that unfortunately I didn't have time to document and film or take photo's of the electrical component of this project as it would have made a great article for the website! With my parents visiting as well, I barely had time to get the work done to keep the project on course.

Anyhow, the point of this posting is to commend Chris, Kevin, and the entire crew on a job well done, in a timely, efficient manner, and most impressive, on budget!

Work began on the morning of December 21, with Christmas looming large at the end of the week. By the end of day 1, the grass was removed, the putting green was laid down, the hole for the spa was dug, and the dirt and sod that they piled on the street was hauled away and the street was swept up.

The second day of work included installation of the re bar cage for the spa and preparation for the plumbing. The next day saw the completion of the plumbing including connection of the spa jet pump, the pool heater, and a pressure test to check the new plumbing for leaks.
My point is that the project moved forward incredibly fast, and considering that Christmas and New Years Holidays were in this time period as well, the entire project was done and complete and we were swimming in the pool and enjoying the new-look back yard by January 15, 2010.
My hat is off to Chris, Kevin, and the entire crew of sub-contractors for a job well done. Not only did I discover a great resource for any landscaping or pool maintenance / installation needs, I also gained some new good friends! I would, will, and have recommended these guys to anybody in need some work of this type done for them in the Valley area! Feel free to e-mail my if you would like more details or contact information for these guys.

Anyhow, I am starting to embrace the social networking component of the Internet, and we're trying to integrate everything so they work together for our followers of http://www.electrical-online.com/ I have established an account with twitter, so you can follow my tweets at www.twitter.com/intelectrician I have a link on the blog to keep you updated as well. Until next time...;

Terry Peterman
The Internet Electrician.

When DIY Makes no Sense (Dollars or Cents)!

When it comes to projects around the home, sometimes doing it yourself doesn't make any sense, even for the Internet Electrician. Case in point, we are having some landscaping and renovations done in our back yard here in Arizona, and with this comes the addition of a built-in spa to the corner of our pool. The spa needs a light installed. If I was asked for advise from a website client on a project such as this, I would most certainly strongly suggest that they leave this job to a licensed professional electrical contractor. Now for myself, there was initially no question that I would do this myself. Permitting in this county allows the homeowner to do this work, so why not? How hard could it be?

From discussion with the pool contractor, I learn that the best way to install these lights is to run a direct run of 1/2" rigid brass conduit right back to the junction box. In all my experience, I have never worked on the rough-in electrical for an outdoor pool installation, and had never heard of using brass conduit. I questioned why it had to be brass given that a #8 bond wire is required as well, so the issue couldn't be for bonding, so is it corrosion issues, or what? Anyhow, the light in the existing pool was installed this way, so I wasn't going to cut any corners. Running rigid conduit is a skill lost on most modern day electricians, as the introduction of Teck cable almost entirely eliminated the use of rigid conduit, but in my early years as an electrical apprentice in the oil patch, I have spent many many hours running miles and miles of rigid conduit, so this wasn't part of my apprehension towards the project at all.

When work progressed on the spa much more rapidly than I had anticipated (a subject for my next blog), the need for the electrical rough-in was immediate.

At this point I began to think about all the special tools that I would need, and didn't have with me, most importantly being threading tools and a tri-stand chain vice for threading conduit. Then the issue of where to get supplies? The Home improvement stores aren't likely to carry brass conduit. I was advised of where I can purchase the pipe from a pool equipment wholesaler about 15 or 20 miles away.

It was at this point that I thought that given the time lines, and the need to rent the required tools, and the possibility of having to make multiple trips for missing fittings, or forgotten special tools, that I should just get the pool contractor to have his electrician do this portion of the job for me. It was humbling for the "Internet Electrician" to suggest that we contract out the simple installation of a 120V light in a spa, but my gut feeling was that this was the right thing to do. A call was made, and initially it looked like the electrician was too busy to fit it in without disrupting the schedule and pushing things back to the new year, so I made the decision to get it done the next day myself. Gut feelings are not to be ignored!

I decide to head in to get the conduit that afternoon, so off I go to Mesa to get supplies. I first stop off at the Home Depot to check on the remote possibility that they carry the brass pipe. As I suspected, no. Nor did they rent threading tools, but did get the name of a place that does, so the stop was not a complete waste of time. Off to the wholesaler. No problem finding the place and rolled up to the locked gate at 4:00 PM. Closed Monday in lieu of Boxing Day landing on Saturday? No, just always closed at 3:30 PM.

-Add 2 wasted hours to the project cost.

Back home I go with plans to go back first thing in the morning.

The next morning, off I go to Mesa again. I stop off at a retail pool and patio store on the remote possibility that they sell the brass conduit, and this store is much closer for me, and close to where I need to go to rent the tools. No, they don't, so off to the wholesaler again.

Gate is open, all is good, no waiting at the counter for service as no other customers are in line. I place my order for 2 pieces of brass conduit (I estimated that 20 ft. will be all I need). No problem sir, that will be $300 + tax. What! I asked for brass conduit, not gold! I'm informed that this is the price (albeit the cash customer price and not the wholesale contractor price), but $150 a piece? Yes, that's the price. I ask if there is an alternative? Yes, you could use PVC conduit at a fraction of the cost. (I wonder why the accepted best method is brass when PVC will do, but I'm not going to rock the boat now). So I swallow hard, pay the $300 and out to the yard I go to load the pipe. To my surprise, the pipe is sold in 20' lengths, so I have just bought 40 ft. instead of the required 20 ft. Not to mention I am driving a Saturn Vue (small crossover SUV). Back in I go to explain the misunderstanding. While they process a refund, I'm given a hacksaw to cut the required 20 ft. pipe in half so it fits in my car. With the pipe loaded, and the refund processed, off I go back towards the rental shop.

A few minutes after entering the freeway, I begin to mentally planning things in my head again, trying to think of everything I might need to complete the job. 10 ft. rigid conduit is sold with factory threads on each end, and come with a coupling on one end. Rigid brass conduit, as we found out is sold in 20 ft. lengths, no threads, NO COUPLINGS! Damn! Take the next exit off the freeway, turn around, and back to the wholesaler for couplings. They only have 1 in stock, so hoping that I can complete the job with only 1 coupling, I pay the $2.56, and off I go again.

-Add another wasted 1/2 hour, and about $170 to the project cost.

Back towards the rental shop I go, thinking along the way about what tools I will need that I don't have. Threader, bender, vice, etc. I get there, and to my delight they have a thread tool kit. Now the vice? Nope, just a chain style vice grip. I try to imagine how I'm going to hold the pipe steady with a vice grip while I cut at least 4 threads? Sandy and the cats holding the pipe steady? Jamming the pipe in the car door? Wedging it in the patio table? Not going to happen.

I see that they have a power threading tool, complete with cutting oil, reamer, pipe cutter, all on a tri-stand vice. Everything I need for the low rental price of $65. The hand threader was $15. Oh well, money well spent.

-Add $65 and another 1/2 hour to the project cost.

Off I go towards home, again going over the job in my head. Pipe, coupling, threading tools, bender....BENDER. Damn! Should I go back? I need a few things at Home Depot anyway, so I'll just buy a bender. I might use it again in 10 years or so. Thankfully they have 1 bender left in the store, so I purchase the bender and a few other items, and off I go.

-Add another $50 and 1/2 hour of time to the job.

I get back home around noon, and begin work right away as I have to have the tools back to the rental company before 5:00 PM to avoid an extra day charge. Besides wrestling with trying to jam the conduit in among all the re-bar, and cutting up my arms on the sharp re-bar and wire ties, the actual job goes very well, and the most amazing and almost divine intervention-like result was that the 20 ft. of pipe was EXACTLY the correct length. Not even 1/2" too long (no problem), but 1/2 " too short would have meant yet another trip to the wholesaler, and a whole bunch of swearing and cursing at myself for not doing a better job of guesstimating the amount of pipe needed.

With the pipe installed in good time, and a pause for a visit with some good friends who stopped by for a beer, the tools were returned to the rental shop with a full 5 minutes to spare before the 5:00 PM closing time.

-Add another hour to the total cost to return the tools.

So, to sum this all up, here is why I should have let the contractor do this job.
-Add the $285 in direct cost to the 6 or 7 hours of my time (with the actual job only taking about 2-1/2 hours) at $20 / hour (my time should be worth at least that), and about $25 for gas for a total of about $450.

As it turns out, the electrician would have squeezed the job in for us as a favour to the pool contractor, for about $200! Total DIY savings......... a net loss of about $250!

In hindsight I would have swallowed my pride and contracted this out for sure.

However, after it was all said and done, in some sick way, I felt quite satisfied that I had done it myself, even if it made no sense, dollars, or cents!

From Summer to Winter, what happened to Fall?

I must be one of the most inconsistent bloggers on the net. Good luck to me should I choose to tweet on the twitter! Here it is, only 4 days until Christmas, and I'm posting my first entry since Summer. Oh well, better now than not at all I guess?

In September we loaded up the boat and went out to the Okanogan area of British Columbia for some visiting, boating, and some golfing, staying at the Swan Lake Rec. Resort near Vernon, B.C. We returned to Alberta after a couple of weeks.

We pulled out of Carefree Resort on Gleniffer Lake about a week earlier than planned. The critical services in the resort are considered "shallow" services (water and sewer), and thus are buried well above the winter frost level and must be shut down and drained every fall. The tentative plan is to winterize the lines just after the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend (mid-October), but the weather took a nasty turn for the worst about a week in front of Thanksgiving, so we packed up quick and headed for warmer climates on October 7. We travelled south through Alberta in the wind and wet snow / rain mixture, got covered in 2" of wet snow that froze solid overnight in Lethbridge Alberta, woke up to below freezing temperatures, but nice and sunny, and then made our way south through Montana only hours ahead of the really cold, snowy weather. Two days later we were basking in the sunshine and warm temperatures of Las Vegas.

We stayed in Vegas for a week or so, then made our way to Mesa Arizona where we stayed until December 16.

Our plan was to purchase a house somewhere in the Valley area here in Arizona so our time here has been focused on that task. Several factors influenced our decision to purchase real estate here.

1. Need for an investment





2. The market conditions here being close to, if not at the bottom of a huge down-cycle.





3. The Canadian dollar close to par with the American dollar.





4. A nice intermediate place to call home, and to be able to have family and friends come to visit us, or to use for a nice place to escape the cold Canadian winters back home.

So when we got here, we hooked up with a local Realtor (Kristy) who had been faithfully sending us listings matching our search criteria for several months prior to our serious searching. We looked in Glendale, Mesa, Maricopa, Phoenix, and finally ended up making two unsuccessful offers on homes in Queen Creek, but 3rd time was a charm! We ended up very happy with the house we found in an area now known as "San Tan Valley", near Queen Creek Arizona. We got possession about the 8th of December, and our time has been filled with shopping, unpacking, and setting up all that is required to make a house a home.

Other activities have included two NHL hockey games (Phoenix Coyotes vs. Montreal Canadians, and Coyotes vs. my beloved Calgary Flames), my first NFL game with the Arizona Cardinals taking on the Seattle Seahawks, a trip back to Calgary Alberta for the CFL Grey Cup activities, golfing, visiting, tennis, jogging, hiking, etc.

Looking back I guess I can see why blog entries have taken a back seat. I have to find a way to make time more entries (said Terry, again).

Check out our new house and get a bit more up to speed on our travels on Sandy's canusamex travel blog, at http://canusamextravels.blogspot.com/

As far as the website goes, we did manage to shoot the raw footage for another "video short" that should be ready soon. The project involves the installation of some additional electrical in my trailer / garage using electrical metallic tubing (EMT). This video feature should be ready in the near future.

To all my family, relatives, friends, and website clients, have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! (or have a good, great, or happy whatever you might celebrate this time of year)!

Until next time..................

Terry.

Full Circle

Well, we've been back in Alberta now since June 2, and since my last post, we have been over to Europe to see my son Lyle, and we did a 3 week tour of Germany, France, Italy, and Austria, before returning to Germany for the flight home. Sandy and I flew from Vancouver in early April, and returned to Vancouver in the 3rd week of April . We then took the ferry over to Vancouver Island and stayed there for a month. Sandy's blog has more details of our travels at http://www.canusamextravels.blogspot.com/ Our trip back east took us to Vernon B.C. for a week or so before coming home to roost for the summer here at Gleniffer Lake near Innisfail, Alberta.

I'm not sure if this tells me that we have been travelling too much, or not posting enough blog entries? Anyhow, this brings the first year of our new life full circle, in what we hope to be many years of following the sun and avoiding winter. The weather wasn't very good this spring and the early part of summer here in central Alberta, but warm weather is here now so we're hoping it lasts for a while. I love boating, and this is where we keep our 22' Manitou Oasis pontoon boat. Lots of fun when the weather is good. Unfortunately our summer season here is pretty short (only between 30 and 60 frost free days). Sandy is busy getting our site converted over to a more user friendly editting tool, and I am working on adding more content, and improving some of the existing articles on the site. Time to work on the website is somewhat interrupted by distractions such as visiting friends and family, boating, golfing, playing ball, and relaxation.

We will be in Alberta until sometime in September or early October, when we will again migrate south.

Mex-electrical

We've all heard stories about interesting and frightening electrical installations from people who have travelled to Mexico. From my own experience, my favorite is from my last R.V. trip to Mazatlan, some 20 years ago. The 15A R.V. service to our campsite consisted of a duplex receptacle nailed to a palm tree (no box of course, just the receptacle), with a single black wire coming out of the sand, attached to the hot side, another white wire out of the sand attached to the neutral side (kudos for correct polarity), and then a bare wire from the ground terminal was connected to a metal coat hanger, pushed down in to the sand. Nice! I wish I still had the picture of that!

My sister and brother-in-law tell of a ceiling fan installation in one room they stayed in several years ago. It was hanging by the wires only, no mounting screws whatsoever. When you turned the fan on, it would twist the wires up tight , and then slowly unravel as the fan picked up speed, wobbling wildly around the room. Not sure if this is more funny than dangerous, or vise-versa. Needless to say, they requested a repair, but that didn't happen in the time they spent there, so they just left it off.

With this trip through Mexico, I've noticed that for the most part, things have slowly improved over the years. It's truly amazing that more people aren't injured or killed by installations such as this.

On our way back north from Bucerias, we stopped to visit some friends, Del and Angel, who are staying near San Blas. They have decided to stay year round, and had a palapa built to park their R.V. under. Del wanted me to check to see if the electrical service was sufficient to serve his needs. Well, I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but this installation was BAD NEWS! At first glance things didn't look too bad. An indoor panel was installed , with two receptacles mounted underneath it, and fed by a 20 A and a 15A breaker. The power source came in with a piece of plastic water line, and individual conductors inside. I assume some kind of ground rod was buried because a wire attached to the panel ground lug went deep in to the sand. Upon further investigation, I found that they had only 2 conductors inside this plastic pipe, and the pipe ran over 300 ft. to the source. This is where it got interesting. It went up a palm tree, across the roof of a house on the property, and then spliced directly in to the service conductors that fed the house, upstream of the meter, and right off the utility power transformer with no over-current protection, other than the high voltage fuse links that protect the transformer on the pole. The wire was only #10, and only 120V supply, the same service as the house. Not only was this un-safe, but also illegal, even in Mexico. Splicing in ahead of the meter is theft. Not sure if the ignorance defense works in Mexico, but I know it doesn't in the rest of North America.

After informing Del that as he had suspected, this was NOT adequate for his needs, he asked that I provide him some direction and advise. This is where it gets tricky. How do you give advise on electrical installations in Mexico? How do you strike a balance between what is the correct way, what is the safe way, what materials are available, etc. All I could do was to show what the options were providing he could source out the correct materials, and advised him to do the best he could with what he had to work with. It turns out that the newly constructed motel on the property had a fairly modern electrical installation, so I suggested taking a new sub-service from there. Good luck Del, and I'll inspect it for you next fall!

Here are some pictures of other interesting mex-electrical installations I observed.

This is a receptacle, fed from the light fixture in the bathroom of the villa that my family rented while in Bucerias. It is mounted high in the corner of the SHOWER! The receptacle is for the air conditioner unit for one of the bedrooms.

This picture shows the service conductors feeding power in to a villa in Bucerias. Note the meter at the left of the picture, with a mast that has been torn loose from its mounting straps. The conductors are sagged down to within about 4 feet of the sidewalk. To walk down the sidewalk and avoid the conductors you have to duck to one side or another, or push the wires out of your way with your hand. Luckily, Mexicans have a healthy respect for electricity, so most people just walk on the street to avoid this dangerous situation. Here is picture of an open meter socket for a service that has been up-graded or moved. However, this one is still connected to the utility power, so the open and exposed lugs on top are hot. Just the right level to be poked at by the curious hands of a child.

Here is a typical installation of an outdoor light fixture. Just a couple of wires coming out of the concrete, and a pig-tail lamp socket spiced on with electrical tape. Does the job I guess, and the price is right too!
And now for my favorite. I'm dedicating this one to the boys from Fortis (utility power company) back home in Olds. Gary, Scott, Randy, what do you think of this innovative idea when you need some separation between phase A and phase C? Just tie on a water bottle full of sand to make the line sag a bit more. The more separation required, just hang a bigger bottle with more sand! Genius!

If you have some interesting stories, or even better, some pictures of amusing mex-electrical, send me a note at terry@electrical-online.com

If you're interested in our travel progress, catch up with the latest on Sandy's blog, at http://canusamextravels.blogspot.com/

Until next time!