When an electrical box needs to go into the wall where there are no studs, you can secure them with special drywall brackets. The one in the photo is pushed in from the front and then the screw pulls it back tight against the drywall. You must cut the hole tight enough to have the ears on t...
You will notice that wires that go into your breaker box are much longer than needed to get to their connection. This extra wire provides flexibility as to where to attach the wire as well as prevents possible stress on a too tight wire.When you curve a wire to put it under the screw head of an ...
We took our TV cameras out to look at some tree limbs that should be trimmed back to protect telephone, cable or electrical wires from extra stress with the weight of winter snow and ice.With or without tree problems, you should take a look outside at all the wires attached to your house. Eac...
For electrical appliances to be safe it is important that the power comes through a fuse or circuit breaker, into the wall outlet, then the plug must take that same wire to the on/off switch of the appliance. This way, when the appliance is turned off, there is no power coming to the applian...
You can use special shrink wrap sleeves to seal off electrical connections water tight. This can be very useful for outdoor low voltage wiring, outdoor sound systems, or anywhere you need something better than electrical tape.Shrink wrap sleeves of all sizes can be found most easily at automotiv...
There are many ways to eliminate static cling. Just a couple from this segment:Clean your TV or computer screen with sheets of Bounce, they will no longer collect dust.Take a metal coat hanger and wipe it over a statically charged sweater. The charge will come off through the hanger into your h...
All outside electrical outlets must be protected with a gadget called a Ground Fault Interrupter or GFI. This can take the form of a special outlet (the one with the test button in the middle) or of a more expensive GFI circuit breaker at the breaker panel. A GFI in any electrical line then pro...
Every week on my TV show I would demonstrate a simple but useful tool, this time a very inexpensive but essential tool for all household electrical work. When you have what we call Lomax wire, that is regular household wire with the plastic sleeve, it is always a problem to strip off the plastic...
Outdoor sound system speakers are subject to the elements, but some are made for just that. One of the easiest is a water resistant speaker system (the paper on the speaker drum is replaced with a water resistant material) that is wireless. A small transmitter in the house feeds its signal to t...
We walk through a couple of the tricks on re-wiring a table lamp.First take a close look at the socket fixture and locate the word "PRESS". If you push this point with your thumb, you will be able to remove the socket from its base without any tools or mess.Second learn how to use the old wire t...
