Rebecca from Cold Lake, Alberta wants to dim her three-way switchs. Can she do it? No and Yes. I know you like that kind of an answer. So read carefully. In fact I don't think I was perfectly clear about this when I did the segment on the TV show, judging by the confusion I heard after it wa...
Kathy writes: "My electrical box is located in the "finished" half of my basement, however it is attached to the bare cement block wall and has a particle board cupboard built over it. I am getting cold air from the wall and presumably moisture as well. How do I insulate this cupboard and since...
Shawn from Nepean, Ontario writes: "My mother wants to replace all of her baseboard heaters but has been told that all new heaters are 220v and her home has only 110v. My question to you Jon is how can I tell for sure if Mom's home is 110v and if so, what can we do to replace her baseboard heate...
There are a number of appliances around the house that have user or trade adjustable temperatures and it is not always simple to get them right.Hot Water HeatersMost Hot Water heaters for domestic hot water are factory set to 66deg C. ( 150F ). This is actually hot enough to scald someone so legi...
Debbie from North Bay, Ontario has electric heaters sunk right into her floor. Very few people even know that these things exist, but if you have a baseboard heated house you know how hard it is to get heat in front of a patio door or some other place that needs heat but there seems no way to ge...
On other shows we talked about wiring in ceiling fans -- today we dealt simply with how to attach it to the ceiling so that it does not come down on top of the bed like a giant blender.You cannot just attach it to the ceiling drywall.You cannot just attach it to a simple electrical box in the att...
Yes you saw right -- you can actually buy Liquid Electrical Tape. It is a liquid that you paint onto an electrical joint and it provides electrical insulation. Excellent for the impossible to wrap joints.Called Liquid Electrical TapeMade by Star BriteHome Hardware, Canadian Tire & Marine Ou...
Styrofoam (which is actually a Dow Chemical brand name of extruded polystyrene) is a fairly good vapour barrier. It will not cause problems in the Canadian climate if you put on at least 1-1/2 inch thick and preferably in 2 ft. x 8 ft sheets applied horizontally. This actually permits some ...
The next time it is time to change the clocks for day light savings, take the opportunity to identify what each circuit breaker or fuse is hooked to. If you are working alone, plug a radio into an outlet or even light socket, turn it up loud and start flipping circuit breakers until it goes off....
When we string new wires through the house, telephone, cable, speakers and the like, it would be nice to be able to hide them. One trick is to remove the quarter round trim from the floorboards and if there is a space behind the rug or under the floor board, the wire can go into that space and t...
