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SUCCESSFUL SERVICE REPORTS

Written By: John Peters

Hair Dryer and Microwave

The young lady was getting ready to go to work. The lights went out. She had a new roommate and her roommate was using the blow dryer and she was using the microwave. I tried to solve the problem over the phone but it didn't work.

I drove over to Noe Valley and found that the main breaker had tripped. It should have tripped one of the small breakers.

I showed the young lady how to cock and reset the 100 amp main breaker and now the power is on and she was able to go to work.

Bath Lights Out

Monia has an apartment building and one of the units had a problem with the lights in the bathroom. She called Dan at Coldwell Banker and Dan said "Call John Peters."

I came over at noon on Saturday and found out that the dimmer had gone bad.

I replaced the dimmer with a D-600 dimmer that is similar to the old one and gave the tenant, Jeff a free light bulb. I also tightened up some loose wiring inside the junction box that was causing the GFI wall plug to work intermittently.

Everything in the bathroom works okay now and Jeff is happy.

Attic Hazzard

An email came in from a local hardware store referring me to someone on Day St. in San Francisco. His friend had built and rewired the back porch making it into a bathroom. The lights, the fan and some of the plugs don't work.

Eventually I discovered he had terrible wiring inthe attic, with wires just twisted together and taped without benefit of a wire nut. After that I finally found the source of the lost neutral inside the panel in the breeze way. Several of the white wires were corroded and overheated and the one in question has actually burned in half.

I will be sending some two electricians to come and redo the wiring properly and safely.

Dishwasher Plug Conversion

I was working in the field when I got a call from Marliann asking me if I can come there right away because the dishwasher installer said they can't do their job until some electrical work is taken care of. I said sure I can be there in less than a half hour. I looked at the job, made a parts list went to the supply house came back and converted the hardwired dishwasher and disposal to a cord and plug connection that sypports the national electrical code. We really only needed to convert the dishwasher but by converting the disposal at the same time it will avoid having to call an electrician if and when the disposal needs to be changed out some day in the future. ANother job well done.

Pet Hospital Service Call

Sunday evening about 7 Pm, I got a call from a Pet Hospital telling me that the computer had a problem with the server and also the lights in the basement went out. To make a long story short I found a bad three-way switch along with a incorrectly wired three way switch at the other end of a long basement passage. I rewired one ent and replaced the switch at the other end and that took care of the basement light problem.

I diagnosed the computer outage as a temporary power outage by PG&E. I double checked to make sure they have a UPS (un-interrupable power supply) so they're in good shape now.

Paddle Fan

One of the home warranty companies sent me to Redwood City. The problem was the paddle fan in the bedroom stopped working. I got the okay to purchase a new unit and this photograph shows the installation with the motor hung up and the blades ready to install.

The paddle fan was over a bed which was way too heavy to move. Here you can see how the shortened legs of the adjustable ladder was placed in the cardboard carton the fan was shipped in. This allowed me to work directly under the light outlet.

Main Breaker

The customer said "We were changing fuses and the main breaker turned off and now it feels loose or broken. It won't turn on."

These symptoms are typical of a main breaker that is in need of replacement. I don't know why this happens. The breaker looked brand-new but it definitely stopped working. I cut the seal on the meter, pulled the meter and changed the main 100 amp breaker.

They kept thanking me for coming out on Mother's Day. I told them I enjoy it as there is less traffic and the music on the radio is better.

Perplexing 3-way switches.

The client used her computer to Google for SF Electrician and the Brookline information "popped up"

The stairway light switch quit working. Two three way switches in 100-year-old house on staples street. These old houses are notorious for having Hollywood three-way switching and that can be a problem, since it requires a special type of switch. The owner had replaced the three-way switches and it worked for about a month and then it quit. The perplexing thing is I tested it and it was not a Hollywood three-way switch system. After much head scratching and testing it turns out that one of the three way switches did not work when it was placed in the wall and secured but ot did work outside during testing. I replaced one of the switches with the new and we trashed the other two switches as being untrustworthy. This was an unusual one but the case is solved.

Bathroom Lights not working.

The woman said "The bathroom Lights are not working. For a while they flickered." While we were on the phone I had her check to see if there was a GFI with a test button, but no, it was a regular plug outlet.

When i got there I found the stacked switch was worn out even though it operated smoothly and felt like it was fine. As I replaced it I discovered it had been wired incorrectly since the house was built. Before I got there you had to turn on the room light before you could turn the shower light on.

This was not noticed since one usually turns on the room light when you first come in. I rewired it properly. I took care to make the top switch the one for the main ceiling light and the lower switch for the shower light as this is easy to remember and even a house guest will do the right thing.

The customer is now happy.

Fuse Box

The fuse box would blow outevery time the young lady of the house put in a new fuse. She had already unplugged everything, so we knew that the short was not in an appliance. It must be somewhere in the building wiring.

FUZE BOX

This picture shows that I removed the fuse and I for testing purposes I wired a plug outlet in series. This allowed me to plug in a 50 foot extension cord. On the end of the extension cord I plugged in a light bulb. As long as the light bulb was shining brightly it indicated that the short was still there, but without blowing out a fuse. The picture was taken after wiring the plug, but before I replaced the 15 Amp fuse.

I replaced the fuse and took the far end of the extension cord upstairs. I placed it on the floor in the hallway where I could see it from several rooms.

TEST LIGHT BULB

Here you see the test light bulb is glowing and not shiny hot bright. This indicates that at that time, instead of a short, there is at least one light on some where on the circuit.

I went around turning lights on and off until I found that the front entry hall light switch caused the light to go out. I continued as I was still looking for a light switch that would make the light bulb burn fully on and bright.

I finally discovered the light got bright when I turned on the light switch for the light fixture at the top of the stairs to the basement.

Now it was simple - I took down the fixture at the top of the stairs and found the place where the wires were touching as a result of the screw holding the fixture to the wall had pierced the insulation. So it was a simple case of taping up the nick, rerouting the wires and carefully replacing the fixture and we were good to go and get paid.

If I didn't use the 50 foot extension cord technique, I would have to run up and down the stairs every time I tried a switch to see if the fuse blew or else I would have to have had someone stand there and replace the fuse every time it blew out. That is not very professional and takes too much time.

Visitors from England

The woman on the telephone said that she is expecting overseas visitors from England tomorrow and the guest bathroom light switch has stopped working.

I went over there and found it actually was an occupancy sensor and sure enough it did not work. We decided to replace it with a decorator style switch. As I was starting to work on the switch I realized perhaps I should suggest to her that instead of having a toggle switch next to an occupancy sensor next to a decorator style switch, why not perhaps change all three of them to decorator style switches and use a new three gang decorator style cover plate since that would look much nicer.

I called her down from upstairs for a "quality checkpoint" meeting and she agreed that it was a good idea so I did it. And now she's happy and I am on my way back to the shop while I am waiting for my next call.

SWITCH

Two antique brass fixtures

The customer said he was calling from a fixture store in Berkeley. He said he would be back in San Francisco and later that day and he wanted me to hang two antique brass fixtures on the high ceiling of his Victorian flat. I made sure he had a ladder. We set an appointment time that was good for him.

I went over there and noticed they were two of the most beautiful antique brass fixtures that I have ever seen. They are kind of an art deco style which he purchased in Berkeley.

It was a high Victorian ceiling. I was able to use his tall ladder. He used a step stool to support some of the weight of the brass fixtures while I attached the wires and the supports. I was able to install them even though there had previously been gas light type fixtures.

After I finished and had cleaned up and as I was writing my bill, just for nun, I asked him "How much did those fixtures cost? He told me they cost $1,500 each and he asked me that was a reasonable price." My answer was "I am in no position to judge, however I can see the brass parts have been cleaned up, polished and lacquered and all the wiring replaced with new lamp holders so all I know is that they did a good job."

After I finished and I was going down the stairs somehow the front door slammed very loud. There wasn't any wind, so the only thing I could think, was to wonder if he thought I had charged him too much. That's the only thing I could come up with.

I worried about it for awhile. After I got back to the shop, I decided to send an e-mail with a credit for $75 on future work since he mentioned that he was going to get some more fixtures of a similar type for other rooms.

HANGING FIXTURES

BRASS FIXTURES

It wasn't really an Electrical Emergency

It was about nine o'clock when the phone rang. The young woman said it wasn't really an emergency but the smoke detector had been "chirping" for a while and she didn't get around to calling anyone and now it was beeping and it was too loud to sleep. She said she had to go to work in the morning and it would be hard to sleep with that beeping every minute.

I asked her may I come over in about 20 minutes. Since I had finished dinner I didn't mind going out at that time of night.

I replaced the hardwired smoke detector head and she paid me by personal check instead of making me wait for the landlord to send a check. I thought that was very nice.

Hallway light switch was crackling

A customer called to say that her hallway light switch was crackling and there was a burning smell. I asked her may I come over in 30 minutes or less and she said yes that would be great. There were no symptoms when I arrived and I thought I might have to leave and come back another day. Luckily the lady was playing with the light switch while we talked and it finally went "pop!" Now I knew we definitely had a bad light switch rather than a problem with one of the light fixtures. I replaced both three-way switches in the hallway as well as a single pole switch for the basement light that would not stay on dependably. I noticed she had a smoke detector in the hallway hooked up to a central system but no smoke detectors in any of the three bedrooms. I offered a low-price for the cost of the smoke detectors, and she agreed. I feel better now that I know of she is safe in case there's a fire. When I started in this business more than 39 years ago I would see a picture of a fire in the Chronicle. Nothing would be left except the foundation, the front steps and the chimney. Nowadays due to the use of modern smoke detectors, typically a fire will only burn up a single room. Of course you still have to move out while everything is repainted but that's a lot better than losing the whole house.>

SF Electrician needed to Balance The Load

I was called to the job site by a company called Water Damage Recovery. The flexible tube going to the WC toilet upstairs had burst and flooded the hall and some of the rooms of a single-family dwelling out in the avenues here in San Francisco.

I was called to the house because when the technician from Water Damage Recovery hooked up all their blower-dryers and de-humidifiers. the fuses were blowing out on at least one of the circuits causing the one of the service technicians to have to stay at the house in order to keep the fans working by changing the fuses.

I used by amp-probe measure the load (amps) on each of the four fuses. I discovered that one of them was way underused and another one was overloaded. By un-screwing and turning off all the fuses except for the under loaded circuit we found one fan that was working on that circuit. So we moved some of the other fans on to that circuit to balance loads across l four fuses.

This enabled the technician to leave the job site with confidence, knowing that the fans would keep working over night. Apparently it requires three full days to dry our all the water from the carpets in the house.

Gas Hot Water Heater

The gas hot water heater started leaking and was declared a hazard and must be changed to a 220 electric heater. I stopped by and took the enclosed video of the project. There is room in the main panel for the added 220 Volt breaker and they have enough power. The only problem they have is coordinating a plumber who will provide a water heater in a short amount of time. We can match whatever schedule they come up with. Right now we are waiting for the tenant to get several bids as required by the owner. I'm sure our price is very competitive.

Melted Plug

Client said the plug was dead - no wonder!

DEAD PLUG

Truck Hit Wires

We got the job of replacing the "riser" and the meter box as it was bent and also the box had some corrosion.

Door Bell

I was called to a job on Scott Street. The doorbell stopped working again. The handyman had re-wired it nicely with new plastic wire but he didn't know that the door bell push buttons are a tiny bit larger now days since the original company went away. When you force it into the hole in the iron gate it squeezes the internal parts and it shorts out. This sends power continuously to the door chime. Unfortunately modern door chimes are plastic and they can't handle continuous power. They melt and stop working. I drilled out (enlarged) the hole for the button with a step bid which we cal a carrot drill because it's shaped like a carrot. We hooked up the wiring. I replaced a wood screw with the proper steel screw bad screw on the gate release and sent the owner's handy man out to get a new chime. Now it is all ok.

Extension Cord Smoked

Martha needed a SF Electrician. She called and said PG&E had come and did something to the breaker and it seemed okay but now the power is out again. She liked our webpages and she wanted to know if she could ask some questions.

I said, sure you can, and I walked her through a process of how to find out which circuit breaker had tripped even though it didn't indicate by flipping to the off position. I let her know that I usually charge a small fee for consulting and she agreed. She was on a cordless phone so I got her cell phone number in case it got cut off when we were testing the breakers. I had her go out side to where the main breaker box was so we could do some testing that does not need any tools and is safe.

It was a success. She went upstairs double checked everything and we talked about having plenty of smoke detectors. I advised getting a better extension cord as that is what caused the problem in the kitchen and the first place. Everything works okay now.

I sent her an invoice by e-mail which will be paid by the landlord and it's on to the next trouble call.

3 Phase Motor Jumper

The phone call came in just before 10 PM. The building owner told me that PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) had cut off one of the wires because of a problem at the weatherhead. He asked if I could I come out and help because some of the power was off in the apartments and one store.

The weatherhead was about 22 feet up and (on purpose) I don't carry a extension ladder on my small "same day response" vehicle. With a bright flashlight, I could see something was odd, because one wire had been cut loose but there seemed like there were still two hots and a neutral connected, but I could not be sure. (A binocular would have been nice)

I moved on to taking a look inside the wooden meter box. I found a single phase 100 amp fused ex-op (externally operated switch) with an "A-base" meter on top of it along with two smaller 30 amp ex-op fused switches each with its own A-base meter for a total of three meters. It looked like one commercial meter and to residential meters which is what I expected.

Because the residential apartments had lost one leg and half of the lights, and with the owners agreement, I left a message to dispatch a couple of electricians to come over early the next morning and take care of restoring full power, I went ahead and jumped a piece of No. 6 copper between the two phases. The old wires are RH or rubber heat and not red and black so let's call them A & B. This restored power to the apartments. I did not have access to the store food cases and reach-in-boxes until the morning but I figured that was ok because in essence, instead of having 220 volts they would have zero volts across the A & B legs.

After scheduling a couple of electricians to come back early the next day I went home. The next morning I drove bye to see what was going on and I was happily surprised to find out my partner company owner had signed up the building owner for a complete new service. The plan was to only repull the larger 200 amp wires so as to restore power to the

store and schedule the major upgrade for later.

When they went to do the repull it turned out that - surprise! - when they got access to the store they found there was a three-phase service and another meter on the back side of the wall behind the outside meter box that could not be seen from outside the building. I got a call from Boris telling me "be careful John" and he explained what they found. I said "Wow" did anything burn up? and he said no, no problem and so that was a relief.

Ground All The Plugs

Susan bought a house out in the Avenues. She called and asked for an estimate to ground all of the two prong outlets in the house and convert them to three prong plugs.

When I got there, it turnout what was needed was actually a whole house rewire including adding lots plug outlets and lots of recessed cans in the bedrooms and the hallway. Susan and I walked around the whole house as I recorded her copious requests on a room by room basis on my yellow legal pad paper. It looks like a large job that might take a couple of electricians two weeks to do so we're happy to do an estimate for that.

Now I'm back in the office typing up all the items in my estimating program, so that each task can have a separate price.

Orkin Inspection

Orken Special Services asked me to do an inspection of the attic in preparation for them to blow in insulation. In preparation, I went to City Hall and got a copy of the relatively new California State Code. This new exception modifies age old requirements at maintaining at least 1 inch of airspace surrounding knob and tube wires. It turns out that nowadays as long as the wiring is in good shape and not over fused, they now allow blown in insulation to surround the knob & tube wires. this was a big no-no which had not been allowed previously.

The inspection went well. The only hazard that I spotted in the whole house was in the closet where there was a wall plug with a missing cover. The owner said he would take care of it but I said -no- why don't I go ahead and put on a cover for you. I found there was a problem. The wood paneling had been cut improperly and it interfered with placing the cover for the outlet.

If I return another day, I will try a metal cover, a so-called handy box cover that is smaller and may more easily fit.

They are free to proceed with blowing insulation into the house.

Flourescent Desk Lamp Is Dim

A lady on Carson Street called me up and said that her desk lamp was not working well. It was dim and not bright. I thought I might have to replace the whole fixture which was an 18 inch fluorescent fixture built in to her desk.

I took a quick look underneath and I found that by just touching the fluorescent tube it jumped up to full brightness. I could see the tube bi-pins were not correctly inserted into monument type lamp holders.

All I had to do was properly insert the fluorescent tube into the lamp holder and send everything was okay.

Phone Static Job

Sandra is a previous client. She asked me to come over and replace the outdoor telephone wiring leading from the telephone company demark box to the phone jack in the basement apartment. We set up a time.

I brought some shielded wires left over from another job. This shielded wire is superior quality because it is shielded against out side interference.

I strongly suggested I wanted to run the wire directly from the phone company demark box to the computer desk, but I was overruled by Sandra who stated that the phone company has been out there and said it must be this outdoor wiring as it has some corrosion. I took a look at the corroded area and to me it looked like it was paint blobs.

Once again I mentioned that the smartest thing was to run the wire directly to the computer desk but my plan was not accepted. It was slightly misty raining but I went ahead and ran the wire alongside the house to a point just inside the door where they wanted me to hook in to the inside wiring.

Unfortunately when I finish this process. There was still static on the wire other lines. I ended up spending another hour tracing and disconnection various old phone lines in the apartment some of which were thumb tacked over the door. Eventually I was able to dis-connect all the unused lines and eventually clear up the static.

Ann In The Avenues

Ann bought a house out in the avenues. She called to ask for an estimate to ground all of the two prong plug outlets and change them to three prong plugs.

When I got there it turned out it was actually a bid to rewire the whole house including adding lots of recessed cans in the bedrooms and the hallway. Ann and I walked around the whole house as I recorded her copious requests on a room by room basis on my yellow legal pad paper. It looks like a large job that might take a couple of electricians two weeks to do so we're happy to do an estimate for that.

Now I'm back in the office typing all the items so that each one can have a separate price.

Band Practice Studios

Max has a series of Band Practice Studios in a large commercial building downtown. He called to say that they lost power after a PG&E outage and the lights in the hallway downstairs in the basement no longer work.

On arrival I found a yellow zone and waited for Max to show up. While I was waiting the building manager came out and showed me the problem in the basement.

I started checking the fuses. The whole place is quite a mess in terms of electrical safety, but as I went around checking each fuse I couldn't find the problem. It seems like every fuse was okay. One box looked like a three-phase fuse box and I got a few funny readings on it, but it seemed to be okay.

There was a sub panel in the hall way that had lost one leg. 110V instead of 110/220 volts

Ah ha! I put my Greenlee "sniffer" tester on the offending circuit panel that was half dead. I went back to the meter room and turned off each fuse box one by one until I found out which one cut off the power to the that subpanel.

Once I had this knowledge that was easy to focus on the panel box that looked like a 3 phase disconnect. I discovered that the center fuse was blown. It should not be fused as it is the neutral

When the neutral fuse blew out from PG&E overcurrent it blew out some of the music amplifiers in the studio practice rooms. I replaced the fuse on the neutral wires.

I didn't realize the full extent of the problem until thinking about it later. I sent an e-mail to Max, warning him that he should have an electrician correct the problem and jump around the fuse on the neutral so he can never have the problem of the neutral or white wires no longer being neutralized.

Same Day Service (415) 239-5393 SF Electrician Prompt Emergency Trouble Repairs, I Love Old Houses in San Francisco, 39 Years, Reviews

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