#GCFI

[validworthblog]

Ways to prevent an electric shock

8 WAYS TO PREVENT ELECTRIC SHOCK Electric shock can lead to severe harm and even fatality to persons when it happens. Ad with the necessary measures in place, you can prevent an electric shock from causing damage.   Electric shock often occurs when the human body makes contact with any source of electric current. The human body will now serve as the conductor to allow the electrical energy to…

[plantanarchy]

i'm trying to make lists of all the small projects left unfinished in my house and frankly none of it is big stuff (except the kitchen) but it's all just. compounding small things that i don't have the tools or knowledge to do.

[pirefyrelight]

I brought my laptop downstairs so I could hook it up with an ethernet cable directly to the router. It hasn't had internet issues for the past few hours so that's nice. The only buffer it had was actually opening my browser and I think that's more to do with the fact that it's ancient than anything else.

Now I have to decide if I want to bring my second monitor down too or leave it unused on the desk. I only have so much space at this table.

[shieldfoss]

Systems programmer wants to know what happens on signed integer overflow.

First he asks his 2023 HCFI (Hardened Compiler for Idiots) and HCFI says "Man that's not a thing. If you cannot statically prove the two numbers are safe for addition, your program won't even compile."

Next, he asks his 1996 GCFI (Garbage-collecting Compiler for Idiots). The GCFI looks slightly embarrassed and says "ok so I know it's a perf hit, but actually that's checked and we throw an exception on that."

Finally, he goes to his 1984 BCFI (Bad Compiler for Idiots) with the same question. BCFI does a shifty look left and right, closes the door and pulls down the blinds, and turns back to him: "So... What do you want to happen?"

[pancakeke]

microwave went bonkers even though nothing was running in the kitchen. when I went to unplug it and test its GCFI outlet, the outlet's buttons didn't budge. the outlet tested fine a month ago but the microwave has been a piece of shit for a while. now I have to replace both 😤

[jenthebug]

Hi! We're replacing all the outlets in our house ourselves, which I don't know how hard that is, but it's like, $55 I think for four GCFIs, $25 for a ten pack of non-GCFI? I'm the house dog, but it didn't look immensely complicated if it's an outlet switch. Obviously, uh, know what you're doing, but internet?

Oh dang! I'll have to look into that.

[fidelishaereticus]

me: [under the deck, diligently eliminating variables to determine why my hot tub is tripping the GCFI breaker] brain: pst. i know whats wrong me: please brain: yeah me: yeah?  brain: brain: she ground on my fault until i interrupt

[jensownzoo]

Okay. Fuck it. I give up for now.

Was determined to throw a coat of rubber roof tar over the spot where shingles have blown off this morning. Wanted to do it yesterday afternoon, but started having backspasms on the walk to vote and decided it probably wasn't a good idea.

Got the 5 gallon bucket of coating out of the basement. The contents have completely separated, which isn't surprising since it's just been sitting for years. Start trying to stir it up and I have to do it manually since I sold my more powerful drill with the mixing attachment after I stopped needing it to mix concrete for fence posts. Really regret that now since it took all morning to get everything completely resuspended and my wrists, elbows, and shoulders are killing me.

Go into garage with battery-powered lantern (because lightning fried the electrical system in there last summer and replacing the breakers and gcfi outlet didn't fix it, so no lights) to see if I can find some tar paper too. I had some at one point, can remember putting hands on it sometime in the past few years, cannot remember if I threw it away or kept it. Cannot find tar paper, do find old shingles and a large rodent nest. Then on my way out, notice there's significant daylight coming in at the roofline at the opposite end of the garage. SIGNIFICANT daylight. Fuck.

Grab ladder and go around to that side of the garage on the outside. Squirrels have ripped up shingles and rotten strand board above the gutter and into the roof. Like a 6 x 12" section. Rain will flow right into the hole and into the garage and all over the stuff beneath it. This is the first time I consider it a lucky thing to not have rained in over a month as this seems to be relatively recent damage. Unfortunately, it's supposed to storm tonight/tomorrow (which is why I was trying to repair the roof).

So. Redirect attention to fixing the squirrel damage. Repurpose some ducting I had leftover from venting the dryer. It's 2ft lengths of sheet metal that hook together to form a tube shape instead of the flexible coil stuff, so it will work. Shove one edge under the remaining shingles, flex the rest to fit into the interior groove of the gutter, and flatten somewhat to hold it firmly in place. Use aluminum flashing tape to secure sections together so the critters can't rip them right out.

I wore work gloves, but apparently there's something in the rotten strand board, either mold or mites, that causing me to itch like crazy on my unprotected forearms. So there's that.

It's now just a few hours before sunset and the clouds are already rolling in. I'm sweaty and grimy and very frustrated. This particular roof repair is something that really scares me and has kept me at a high level of anxiety all day. I have no issue climbing on my other roofs, but this one is two-story, with a steep pitch, and the shingles are already loose enough to be falling off. I've been trying to psych myself up enough to get it done for weeks because I can't afford to pay someone to do it for me. Now it's going to be too cold and too wet to use the coating, but there's also not enough time left for it to have a chance of setting in time today.

So I'm giving up. For now.

On the next clear day I will climb up on the roof with a tarp and a few cinderblocks and rope and try to block the rain from that spot until it's warm and dry enough to affix a patch. Maybe I'll see if I can do a trade for some tar paper in the meantime. Maybe a few newish shingles (the ones I found in the garage are pretty old and stiff) for a proper patch job. Until then, I'll just have to sit in the underlying room during the rain with buckets and plastic sheets so I can catch any leaks before water ruins anything.

Sigh.

[thevagabondexpress]

Oh THERE the information on circuit breakers is. Under the stuff on grounded outlets, between the stuff on two/three plug systems and the stuff on GCFI, in a completely different place from where it is on the worksheet!

[andmaybegayer]

The "most farms in the USA are family farms" thing is true but misleading.

Farms in the USA are overwhelmingly family owned, but a lot of those are still enormous industrial farms. Family farms with gross incomes of over USD 1 million produce almost half of all crop value in the USA, with many earning in excess of USD 5 million. (link to the USDA which is where I got the graphs below)

There are lots of small family farms but they produce a relatively small amount of food between their small size, high specialization in fruits/other small scale crops, and inability to efficiently make use of land at scale: Large scale farmers produce more food, often cereals, at high values, on less land. The result of this is that family farm size in the USA continues to grow year-on-year as larger and more successful family farms get more successful.

(this pattern is relatively common all over, not just in the USA: family farms are handed down, and successful ones have a tendency to grow and grow, while remaining family owned)

These large family farms growing corn receive enormous government subsidies, a direct transfer of wealth from the general population to large, successful farmers who are already in the upper echelons of income in the USA.

Production has been shifting to larger farms for many years. Family and nonfamily farms with over $1 million in GCFI accounted for half of the value of U.S. farm production in 2015, up from about a third in 1991. That comparison takes account of inflation in farm product prices over time, and therefore reflects shifts of production to larger farms. ... Ongoing innovations in agriculture have enabled a single farmer, or farm family, to manage more acres or more animals. Farmers who take advantage of these innovations to expand their operations can reduce costs and raise profits because they can spread their investments over more acres. In 2015, larger family farms displayed stronger financial performance, on average, than smaller farms. For example, 74 percent of very large family farms (GCFI of $5 million or more) had estimated operating profit margins in excess of 10 percent of sales in 2015—compared to 54 percent of midsize family farms (GCFI of $350,000 to $999,999) and 41 percent of moderate-sales small family farms (GCFI of $150,000 to $349,999). ... Most large-scale U.S. farms in 2015 were family operations: over 90 percent (about 59,000 farms). Among the 6,300 large nonfamily farms, about 1,760 were organized as corporations, with almost all of the rest organized as partnerships among unrelated individuals; as cooperatives; or as farms operated by hired managers on behalf of trusts, estates, families, or institutions.

Not growing anything is exactly what you should do! That land can be managed and allowed to return to a more natural ecosystem, bolstering ecological health by providing natural habitats for threatened wildlife. Humans do not need to use every inch of available land for food and can make space for a healthy ecosphere without having to give up much of our high expected standards for quality of life.

Imagine if you could shut down almost half of those endless rolling corn fields that blanket the midwest and convert them into space for forests and wetlands and grassland for insects and wolves and birds to live in.

what do you mean 44% of American Corn goes to fuel ethanol. Barbaric. What the hell.

Agricultural policy... is not very good! And I know that already but it's somehow even more ridiculous than my intuition. Basically all increases in corn production since 1980 have gone into fuel ethanol. Just don't use that land! It's free carbon sequestration!

[arcticarthropod]

Come to find out today that all our kitchen and bathroom lights are run through the same switch that controls our outside lights???

And you may be thinking that surely I mean a breaker switch but no! A random light switch in a completely different room!

Also our 2 bathrooms are on opposite sides of the house but somehow the outlets for both are on the same chain, so the gcfi in our bathroom is actually connected to a very long and useless wire that goes all the way through the house for no reason.

[sputnikcentury]

I’m not an electrician but it can’t POSSIBLY be up to code for the gcfi outlet in the bathroom to shut off power to every outlet in the living room.

[chicagoplumbingexperts]

Tips to Make Sure Your Sump Pump is Ready for Fall/Winter

If your house has a sump pump, you probably know how valuable it is for protecting your home from a flood. The sump pump is your first line of defense against flooding in the basement. Without it, you would live in perpetual fear of flooding your basement.

But beyond this, the sump pump also protects the foundation by keeping water out of the base of your building. This helps to preserve the structural integrity of your house, explains Best Rental Services. Because of the critical role of the sump pump, it is vital to know how to maintain it.

Sump pumps are not always in operation; your home may go for months or an entire year without the sump pump ever being called into action. But the sump pump may be needed in early spring when there is snowmelt or in summer when there is heavy rainfall.

When the sump pump is needed, you want to be sure that it stands ready to serve. A lot of the flooding in homes could have been avoided if the homeowner had taken steps to ensure that their sump pump was working.

The presence of a sump pump in your basement does not mean your home is protected from flooding. You must check to see if the system is working as it should. This step will save you from stress and help prevent unnecessary damage to your home.

Tips to keep your sump pump ready

A typical sump pump has the following features:

A sump pit where the components of the sump pump sit. The sump is simply a tank for holding water. The sides and bottom of the sump pits are made of concrete, and on top is a plastic layer to make the sump waterproof.

A submersible water pump that is driven electrically. This will have an electric cord connecting it to a power outlet on the wall. You want to make sure this electric circuit is protected with a ground fault circuit interrupter (GCFI) to prevent electrocution.

A drainpipe through which the water outside the home enters the sump pit. The drainpipe collects moisture from the footing drains around the house and sends it to the sump, keeping water from building up and finding its way into the home.

A discharge pipe goes from the sump pit to the roof or wall of the basement and exits outside the house.  It is connected to another line that opens to the city sewers or a location on the property where water can be discharged safely.

Inside the discharge pipe is a check valve that only allows water to move upwards. The check valve contains a flap that closes when water tries to flow backward. It keeps the water trapped inside the discharge pipe out of the sump.

Here are the steps for testing your sump pump and keeping it ready:

Before testing the sump pump, make sure you clean your sump pit. Debris can get into the pit from the drainpipe or the sump pump cover. If debris is left in the pit, it can clog the pump or interfere with the operation of the float and switch.

Pour water into the sump pit using a garden hose or a 5-gallon bucket. Whichever method you use, you want to pour the water slowly so that you can observe the movement of the float. Ensure the water goes directly to the bottom of the pit and not to the pump.

Watch as the water level goes up to ensure the float rises smoothly. The float should rise steadily until it is high enough to push the switch, and the pump should come on without faltering. Many sump pump failures and sump pump repairs happen because of failed controls.

When the switch trips and the pump come on, listen to the operation of the pump. There should be no squealing or unusual sounds from the pump. If your pump does not operate smoothly or does not turn on at all, you may need to repair or replace it.

Keep listening to the pump until it shuts off. The pump should shut itself off when the water level falls low enough. You have a problem if the pump does not turn off after the water level is low and the float is not pushing against the switch.

Finally, as the pump shuts off and the water inside the discharge pipe attempts to flow backward, you should hear the check valve closing inside the discharge pipe. If you don’t hear this sound, you may see water trickling back into the pit.

Repeat the steps above to be sure you did not miss anything and that your sump pump is okay.

[pancakeke]

now I have to go to the hardware store for the third time this week because I replaces that outlet with the GCFI one I bought for the microwave.

now taking bets on what I find behind the microwave outlet when I get home

[chrisschallertideaengine]

Oh shucks, I broke my streak.

A coffee-induced rant on my current progress.

Darn. I had March all planned out. One blog post prepared per day. That way I could spend the time on other projects instead of being neck-deep in blogging all the time. Silly me. I should have done it so I blocked out April. Why? Because April has been nuts. Weather, work, church (so much church), gardening/yard work, house work (replacing electrical outlets with GCFI-compliant outlets,…

[nfinitefreetime]

And Now: The Continuation of TERRIBLE DECISIONS

And Now: The Continuation of TERRIBLE DECISIONS

Compared to the staggering changes yesterday, when the whole bathroom got torn down to the studs, the progression today doesn’t seem too extensive, but they basically got a ton of stuff done that involved precise measuring and cutting. I didn’t get pictures of everything, because junction boxes and power switches and GCFI outlets aren’t really all that interesting, but here’s the shower: The new…