Home Improvement

Lanx said:

update,

who ties outdoor porch outlets to a 2nd floor bathroom? jfc

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Depends. How old is the house?

The reasoning used to be: "What circuits do I *HAVE* to GFCI protect ----> How much would it cost to run separate circuits with separate GFCIs ----> Am I even required by current code to run separate circuits ----> I'll just put it all on one circuit!"

A lot of people who read the NEC are like "Why the fuck is this so complicated" but it's because unless you make something required, and write it like you're some sort of a lawyer, most electricians will do things as cheaply and lazily as possible.

So someone probably knew that 1) outdoor receptacles had to be protected, 2) bathroom receptacles had to be protected, and then tried to combine everything into 1 circuit. Why? To use fewer GFCIs and save a little money, LOL

I used to use those splices. And I still have the crimper. I got really good at cutting them off w/o damaging the wire using a pair of dykes. but generally speaking they're were really only used in residential on grounds, like in your picture. They can replace wirenuts; you just have to cut the end off even, and there's some 'caps' that you push over the end that snap into place.

I do remember some municipalities hating them, because in their eyes they weren't 'removable' and they preferred being able to be able to untwist wirenuts.

But they were cheap!

Also, in your picture, I don't even think they used the actual crimper for these. A lot of the time people would just take their pliers and smash them in half, lengthwise, around the wires. Which is a shitty way to do it, IMHO.

My guess is, if your house was built in the 90s, that those original electricians were probably the ones to run your GFCI circuits like they did.

There's a theme here, and it's a cheap electrician.

My house is 1971 and there are no GFCI in any bathroom. Must have been a later code that required them. Only GFCI was the one outside but again every plug on the circuit after the GFCI was protected, which was a few plugs on the same wall in my master bedroom. So I split the GFCI off to be separated from the circuit. I have a feeling it was jsut a regular plug at some point which was replaced by GFCI by another homeowner and they just wired it the same as they saw the old one wired.

There is also other fuckery they did with circuits back in the 70s thats LOL worthy today. Like kitchen receptacles being on same circuit as family room. I learned the hard way when my computer was unfortunately on the same circuit as the microwave and it fried the fucking HDMI board on my TV that it was plugged into at the time. Thank god it was the only thing it fried.

My old house was a 60s build and it was even worse. But somehow they managed to keep all the kitchen shit in the kitchen.

Daidraco said:

So Im looking at a house that was built in 2001 to buy and rent out. The HVAC is a Siemens Zone Control and is malfunctioning. The house seems to be priced relatively ok. But I dont want to dive into this house and 15k of my budget go towards ripping out an old zone control and putting in even a basic central air system. The house has been on the market for just under a month at 330k and I should be able to rent it out for roughly 1600. Thoughts?

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Can you get a home warranty thrown in with the close and have the HVAC replaced through that for "free?" If it is a rental I don't know the value of replacing it with anything but what the lowest bidder home warranty service company would use. Around here a 1-year warranty is a pretty standard throw in on any home sale.

Daidraco said:

So Im looking at a house that was built in 2001 to buy and rent out. The HVAC is a Siemens Zone Control and is malfunctioning. The house seems to be priced relatively ok. But I dont want to dive into this house and 15k of my budget go towards ripping out an old zone control and putting in even a basic central air system. The house has been on the market for just under a month at 330k and I should be able to rent it out for roughly 1600. Thoughts?

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If you think it is priced right, offer the asking price with the condition they provide seller concessions for you to replace the unit.

Do you have a Realtor?

Daidraco said:

Basically saying, since its a private seller - I can try to low ball him for the "central air repair" but from my experience, people like this dont budge. "I know what I got buddy!"

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Bro with the recent rate hikes the buyer pool has diminished greatly. How long would this house have been on the market 3 months ago? Unless this guy is a Realtor, an Appraiser or Slum Lord he knows Jack shit and Jack just left town.

Daidraco said:

I am. I should have noted that I looked and found out about it yesterday. Im not going to trust what the owner says.

I go off general neighborhood data for rent figures, but you're not wrong. Im planning on 2600, not 1600 - guess I fat fingered it. Even at the interest rate I can get for the remaining loan balance, $2600 is just barely carrying the rest of the note.

The general question was just really if anyone had any experience with an old Siemens zone control system. The earliest I can get my own HVAC guy to look at it is beginning of next week.

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Here is what I use for my Rental Data.

Anyone familiar with HVAC here?

In June we noticed that the system in our house was acting up. Not cooling as powerfully as before. Had a dude come out and service it. Said it was working fine. Checked everything and tuned it up. Worked better after that. It shit the bed last night so called the guy back up. He refilled the coolant which is something I've never done in my 6 years in this house. House and system are now about 13 years old.

He said there may be a leak or I may need to replace the whole thing. Thoughts?

TJT said:

Anyone familiar with HVAC here?

In June we noticed that the system in our house was acting up. Not cooling as powerfully as before. Had a dude come out and service it. Said it was working fine. Checked everything and tuned it up. Worked better after that. It shit the bed last night so called the guy back up. He refilled the coolant which is something I've never done in my 6 years in this house. House and system are now about 13 years old.

He said there may be a leak or I may need to replace the whole thing. Thoughts?

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I’m not an HVAC expert, but the way they work is by highly pressurizing coolant in a closed loop and pumping it around between the inside and outside in order to move the heat where you want it. I don’t know for sure that there’s no other explanation, but if you need more coolant then it seems to me you definitely have a leak. My understanding is it’s quite difficult and costly to locate a leaky coolant line and if the leak was caused by age/oxidation, you’re better off getting a brand new unit.

13 years isn’t terribly long but I think 15 years is life expectancy for HVAC units.