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AskElectricians Community, 900 Hammond Street, West Hollywood, CA (2026)

09/14/2026

Is this panel configuration okay? There's 200 amp service coming into the bottom of the panel from the meter. This feeds one building. Then, there's the splice that feeds a second building that exits thru the top of the panel.

09/14/2026

Contractor pushed cut hot line into the wall and mudded over. Help me respond? I have a general contractor for a remodel of a bathroom. One of those 60's era, tiled-in-with-swinging-door-enclosure-showers. In the wall as you enter was this switch and a line that went around the bathroom and to the light above the shower. The line was cut short and left poking out of the wall. I noticed the line was gone when the walls were mudded, but didn't know how it was taken care of, and suspected it was just poked back inside the wall uncapped. I also wondered why I still needed the switch.

I pulled out the switch and was able to pull up the cut line downstream from the switch. So when that switch was flipped on, then there was a live exposed wire in my bathroom walls.

I don't think that fits any code that I'm aware of. However, when I talk to the contractor, how furious should I be? Is this a 'whoa - glad you caught that, must have been the mud guys' or a 'Burn the guy's reputation down and yell up various ladders'?

Thank you for the feedback and perspective.

EDIT: To be fair - the scope of work was for plumbing and tile work to be done, installing bathroom vent. The four single gangs were already there and one switch was moved to a different wall. I'm the one who is going to pull these and clean up the wiring.

09/14/2026

Confused I am a first time home owner and am learning so much these last couple months about electricity. First we had to replace the whole panel to the pole from water damage/corrosion etc. I have solved some mysteries but this one I can’t figure out.

I have a dual switch that is connected to the chandelier and the small light hanging above the stairs.

When you turn on the chandelier it works. Then if you turn on the stair light it does not come on. The dining room light does stay on. BUT if you turn off the dining room light you then can turn on the stair light. ALSO if you turn on the dining room light while the stair light is on the stair light turns off and the dining room light comes on….

If you turn back off the dining room the stair will pop back on…

There are two sets of wires in the switch box. Black/white/ground

I broke the tab on the side of the switch since they both have their own hot wires and the switch will be used to control each light. I bought a new switch becuase I wanted to rule out the switch being the issue. I wired it up the same way it was before.

Black to com and white to opposite. Same for bottom switch.

I pulled my multi meter out and when the switch is off I’m getting 121 and 119 volts on each switch. So I think that is good.

When the switch is turned on I’m reading 0 volts. I think that is also correct?

when I touch just black to ground with meter I’m getting 90 volts.
When I touch white to ground with meter I’m getting 20 volts (so maybe not true neutral?)

I wired both of these lights shown in the photos as well
I checked the black wires on both boxes in ceiling and made sure black was actually hot. For the light fixtures the chandelier had a smooth wire and I connected it to black and it had a “ribbed” wire and I connected it to white.

The stair light had black and white wires so it was easier to wire up.

any other reasons you can see that this might be happening? My main goal is to just make this safe and not dangerous.

Also, both lights are on the same breaker switch.

I’m also trying to avoid an electrician coming out and spending 1000$ as the last time they quoted me 700$ and I ended up figuring it out myself in a few hours. This one needs a little more brain power.

Thank you for any help.

09/14/2026

I'm considering putting in a nema 14-50 outlet. I don't have a switch to disconnect all power in the mains panel. What can I do to make this safer? Basically, I'm checking to see what all I can do to make this more safe, or a reality check if this is just totally unsafe.

Picture 1: Mains panel, connected directly to the electric meter. No disconnect switch for the whole thing from what I can tell.

The 2nd breaker on the left side- 50 amp, 240v, is currently not in use as it was for an electric stove/range, which was replaced for a gas stove.

Panel itself is rated for 125 amp.

Picture 2: single breaker panel, connected to a the disconnect box in picture 3, which then connects to the meter. Panel is rated for 40 amps, breaker is only 30 amps.

The breaker has been shut off for months - nothing is connected to it from what can be seen. It may have been for a sprinkler system or alarm system that's no longer in place, but I don't have a solid way to fully track it without tearing walls out.

Use case: electric car charger. The one I have can do max 32amps, but can be set as low as 8 amps. (It happens to be level 1&2 so right now we're just doing level 1 charging.)

My main ideas are as follows:

In any of these scenarios I'd be turning all breakers off and using insulated tools. Not that that immediately makes it safe, but should help a bit.

Steal the 30 amp breaker in the 2nd pic, set amp on charger to 24 amps. Turn off or even replace breaker with a newer one. I'm not familiar with the disconnect box functionality, but it doesn't seem like I can actually disconnect it there.

Steal the 50 amp breaker. Flip all breakers to off in the box before working. Remove the old line, feed in New line, use Same breaker or updated one (probably at 40 amps just because I can't go above 32 amps for the charger anyways), go from there.

If neither of those are feasible, and I have to call a licensed professional, id probably have them replace the mains panel to an updated one with an effective disconnect switch. That way if I need to do anything in the future I could actually do so safely-er.

09/14/2026

Panel Inspection Preparation Hey electricians,

I am working to rewire my kitchen, including new power to kitchen.

This is my current panel, and I wanted to see what red flags are already waving so I can fix, and prevent those mistakes going forward.

I have marine electrical experience, but the work was simple swaps and trouble shooting for faulty components. I never had to work under code or understand it, thanks US navy for that!

Edit.. I also don't want to be failed by the inspector when they come around after the work! *Located in Minnesota.

09/14/2026

Found wires in backyard, not marked by 811. Any ideas?

09/14/2026

Breaker melted, Electrician said no to panel replacement? UPDATE: 3rd party electrician arrived at my door after I sent a lengthy email with the feedback here. Didn't need any convincing, panel replacement ordered the second he saw it. Thank you all!!
**Apartment complex, I am the resident.

I live in the US. This guy is a licensed electrician of 30+ years, not on-call maintenance, but is employed by management. Management is responsible for paying him. He returns Monday.

Pic 1-3 is initial damage, Pic 4 is "fixed". I smelled burning fish coming from the box over a week ago, and reported the possibility of an electrical fire to management. I was called crazy. At the same time, my central AC stopped cooling properly. Nothing they did fixed the AC, either. Lo and behold, I hear buzzing and sparking coming from the box, record it, and an electrician is sent out the next day. Everything in the box was hot enough to burn fingertips, hottest being all AC-related.

Electrician is using words like "i could do that, but i think this will be fine" when addressing a full panel replace. Instead, him and 2 regular maintenance guys agree that only the 4 visually effected slots need to be removed and that's it.
He only checked behind those 4 for damage as well, and said the AC isn't the electrical problem at a glance, this was a random failure. I've been told to worry that it's on 20amps instead of 30amps, but not sure.

2 days later, burning components smell is back, AC not cooling again. Is his 30+ years of experience correct? I have been led to believe I am overreacting & crazy. Currently in here with 2 portable ACs in separate rooms given to me temporarily by management till he returns Monday. AC & Dryer power is shut off. I don't have electrician experience so forgive any odd verbiage.

TLDR: Breaker go boom boom, AC overloading maybe, no replace panel, problem return.

09/14/2026

Multiple Wagos safe/acceptable Ran out of 5 slot Wagos, so I used 2- 3 slots to pigtail. I know 5 is probably best, but just checking to see if this is ok as well.

09/14/2026

UPDATE Electrician came and “fixed” my main breaker. Pulled it out and threw a new one in. Is that right?

09/14/2026

All whites are hot, blacks are neutral. We just bought a new house, after trying to fix a faulty outlet I discovered that many, if not all, of white wires in the house are the hots and the blacks are neutral.

That said, the outlets are wired "correctly" to accommodate. Black to silver and white to gold.

If I leave it alone I think it would be safe,except maybe some light fixtures.

Should I leave it? Or try to fix it by flipping the outlets and the wiring at the panel.

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