Adventures in Electricity, or An Electrifying Experience!

Ian has been doing an awesome job getting all our appliances installed and ready for use. We needed to replace a number of them, and in doing so we have discovered that there is some interesting electrical wiring in our home. For example, there is no main switch to shut off all the power to our house. You can only shut off each breaker individually. And the breakers are old…and discontinued. We soon learned that the main breaker to the dryer (a single pull 30 amp instead of a double pull) was weak and easily flipped off when the dryer was started. Fortunately, Ian found a local store that would sell him a refurbished breaker for $10 instead of the $40 being asked for at the big box store.

We have also learned that the stove used to be positioned next to where the refrigerator is currently located (there is a taped over power outlet nestled under the counter in that location).

One of the appliances that Ian has installed is our microwave. Because there wasn’t space above the current stove, we decided to put it above where the stove used to be.

As Ian planned to install the microwave, he thought it would be best to wire a new outlet and circuit breaker for the microwave. Especially since we discovered that almost all the kitchen is on one breaker. And the breaker will flip if you are running the dishwasher, toasting bread, and trying to cook eggs on the electric skillet.

Ian carefully planned where to put the microwave and its outlet and made all the appropriate marks and holes. He cut a hole in the drywall inside the cupboard in order to place an outlet there. Interestingly, the wall was two pieces of drywall thick in this location. Then he climbed up into the attic crawlspace to lay the wire. It wasn’t too difficult to pull the new wiring into the hole for the outlet, as there is another wire running down the wall next to the hole to an outlet just below it.

It was a little harder to pull the new wiring into the breaker box. There was only a tiny hole in the side of the box for me to look through to see if Ian had dropped the new wire in the right place so I could hook it in through said small hole. (The yellow wire is the new wire we just installed, and the dangling circuit breaker is the one for the dryer. It came out as I pulled the wire through the hole.) After about an hour we got it done. We were done for the night!

The next morning, June 8, Ian finished the wiring. He installed the new outlet inside the cupboard and then started connecting the wires to create a new breaker in our box. All was going well, until Ian discovered what happens when you are holding a live wire sheathed in a too-thin layer of rubber with a pair of needlenose pliers and the pliers touch the ground wire. It will burn a hole in the pliers, the hot wire, and the ground wire. All in an instant!

I was in the bedroom when I heard something clatter to the floor. I come into the kitchen to see Ian looking at his blackened left hand. I don’t think Ian was shocked electrically speaking, but the circuit he created unleashed a great amount of heat that gave him a nice second degree burn on the back of his middle finger, burnt a hole in his needlenose pliers, and sprayed molten copper onto his glasses. In one picture you can see the red wire that used to be connected to the (then plugged-in) dryer circuit breaker. It is no longer connected to anything. There is a copper ground wire that is blackened as it passes behind a black wire. That is where the connection was made. You can see what the electric circuit did to the pliers! The hole was made from where the wires were touching the red wire. On the backside of the pliers (that you can't see) is some melted copper.

All I can say is that I am grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord! I mean, it would have been nice if there hadn’t been a problem, but it could have been so much worse. First of all, the needlenose pliers had a thick insulating handle, so none of the electricity traveled through Ian. Ian wears glasses, so the tiny droplets of molten copper that flew at his eyes were stopped by his glasses (there were some tiny copper balls left on the floor afterwards) and didn’t hit him in the eyes. The copper could not be removed from the lenses as it had fused to the glass. And, Ian, who is normally so good about putting his wedding ring back on after his showers, had forgotten this time. With the speed and intensity of the heat given off in that instant, I am afraid of what would have happened to his finger if the ring had been where it was supposed to be!

But everything turned out well. Ian finished installing the breaker, got the wires fixed, replaced his glasses, and wore a band-aid on his finger for a few days to protect the burn on his finger. Now we can run the microwave and other appliances simultaneously without the kitchen breaker being thrown, and his finger has made a full recovery.

Isn’t Ian wonderful? I think so!

Unfortunately, after fixing all the wiring the dryer would not work. But that is another story!