C-8 Overloaded?

The hub is showing red. Do I have too many devices attached‽

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For anyone who was thinking the same thing I was, please note the category in which this topic was posted. :smiley:

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If anything, I would have expected the switch to show red before I installed the smart switch. This house never ceases to throw me curveballs.

It may not be clear in that picture but the hot legs are tied together and the neutral is switched. :flushed:

The first thing I noticed was it looks like the Neutrals are just taped together without a proper connection. Then I noticed the back-stabbed neutrals on the switch.

There was a wire nut under all that tape. It's all sorted now with a fresh Inovelli Fan switch.

Adapting my 7 nests to a single power source had me discover and fall in love with Wago's.

I refuse to do any more home electrical work if I can't replace the wirenuts happen to need to work on.

"Love" is strong, but life is quiet in the woods here. Doesn't take much. :wink:

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Wago's are fantastic. I've used them for decades. In this case I just used one of the existing wire nuts. On the hot side I have the incoming and the always on lead connected to the same lug on the Inovelli. The one going to the fan is connected to the load side. Then, since the wire nut was too tight I tied two neutral lines and a jumper with the wire nut and the other neutral and the jumper connected to the lug on the switch.

It is a shallow box so now I just need to stuff everything back in. That's another feature of this house. the wall is block and they framed it with 2x2's and sheetrock on each side so they didn't have to run electrical through the masonry. The house it built like a bunker and I don't hear anything from outside.

It is a slow process but things keep getting better. Now the next battle is keeping it from getting bulldozed in a year or two. :flushed:

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My sincerest best towards that. (I'd wager yer gonna need more than Wago's, though)
:grin:

Do they make Wago's for 4-aught cable? I could use those to build a wall around the property. :smiley:

Eminent domain sucks.

Fuuuuuu.... Man, you win the "found the worst wiring" challenge this week. Amazing what some people will do, and that they don't die.

Have you checked this with a meter? I’m not sure what’s going on with this mess, but I would not trust the wire colors to be correct. I have a lot of switch loops where the white wire is used (and not marked) as hot.

I would seriously consider replacing all of our receptacles in the house.

Unmarked wires, shoddy connections, and not to mention back-stabbed wires on old receptacles where the wire tends to pop out on its own over time.. these things cause electrical fires.

Swapping all the receptacles in your house is not expensive (unless you want to be fancy). You can get a contractor pack of outlets for $2-3 / outlet.

The reward will be in knowing that you mitigated one of the most common causes of electrical fires, at the cost of a few bucks and one Sunday afternoon.

How about where the switch literally breaks in half when you try to remove the back-stabbed wires, that's my house. All those switches are gone though, I replaced every single one with smart switches and new decora's on the other end of the 3-ways. I have a bunch of outlets I bought but have not replaced them yet.

Yikes. I've never had that happen, but I've had wires pop out when I pulled the receptacle towards me, gravity was the only thing keeping the hot wire in place. I've also uncovered more than one cracked electrical box in a wall with no insulation, so that fire would have plenty of air to travel. Scared me enough that I went and replaced all 70 switches and outlets in my house. The only two I haven't touched is the dishwasher and fridge.

So much fun. My first project when we moved into our house (an early 1970's tract home ~20 years old when we moved in) was to replace all the original switches and outlets. My first exposure to electricity and I got some nice shocks along the way. :slight_smile: I felt like a manly man when all the old beige stuff was replaced by shiny new white Decora switches/dimmers & outlets and no one had been killed. :wink:

Yup - mine were inconsistent and sometimes very confusing. A meter is your friend...

Getting zapped a few times is part of the learning process. A quick jolt from a 20a circuit will wake you up real quick :slight_smile:
I recommend getting a pair of gloves, specifically MaxiFlex 34-874. They're great for doing electrical work, they offer just enough protection to not get zapped if you briefly touch a live wire, but they're also thin enough for fine motor control.
I learned that in my house, I should always assume the neutral is hot. The gloves help :slight_smile:

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Unbelievable, I just added a C8pro and with no devices it is already in the red. :frowning:

Screenshot 2024-02-04 at 1.01.38 PM

It must be that feedback loop.

Joking aside (I hope) there seriously was someone recently who was very concerned about that loop even though I told them to ignore it. Thought for sure thats why they were having problems.

I might have a problem. :wink:

only five?? Slacker :slight_smile:

I have 6 powered on at this moment. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: