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Installing gfci; I am so confused!!Help!!! Old house, no ground, trying to replace outlets with gfci. Homeowning newbie....
10/16/2026

Installing gfci; I am so confused!!

Help!!! Old house, no ground, trying to replace outlets with gfci. Homeowning newbie. Went to YouTube university.

Last week I successfully switched out one outlet for a gfci and it worked great. Today I tried to do the other 3 in this room (one is on the same breaker as the one I did before, two on another). Went through the same process and then none of the 4 outlets worked, including the one I had already completed.

I went back in and tested the black wires on two of the outlets (2/4 have four wires, 2 only have two) and I had the line and load wrong so I switched them. Now the safety light on the main outlets with 4 wires turn on but they don’t give power to things plugged in, and the other 2 outlets with two wires that are down the line don’t work at all (one of which is the one that I had previously replaced with success). The line and load wires are correct now! I’m so confused.

What is going on 😭 pics in case they help.

I know nothing. Thats why I came to Ask Electricians. I want to know what I'm talking about and not be taken for a ride ...
10/16/2026

I know nothing. Thats why I came to Ask Electricians. I want to know what I'm talking about and not be taken for a ride when I have a contractor come in. I want to install an EV charger. My panel is full. I have a 200A service. Do I need a 2nd main panel, a sub panel, or something else entirely?

Adapting a plug in dimmer for use in hardwire light fixtureAfter searching wide for a solution that would meet my criter...
10/16/2026

Adapting a plug in dimmer for use in hardwire light fixture

After searching wide for a solution that would meet my criteria, I decided the device I used elsewhere for plug-in lamps would be ideal for my needs if it could just be installed directly into the ceiling fixture conduit. So I decided I would try just that!

Ground would pigtail the lamp, adapted plug dimmer, and ground wire together. Hot and neutral would connect to the conduit, same as a lamp would.

I’ve performed numerous basic electrical upgrades around the house, such as replacing GFCI outlets, switches, light fixtures, and so on. I’ve made every effort to securely attach wires using solder seal heat shrink wire connectors. This doesn’t seem like a hazard to me, but I figure the fine folks in this channel would actually know and could tell me if I shouldn’t do this and help me understand why.

Thank you!

EDIT:
Thanks to the few folks who explained the issues with this. I’ll just go ahead and install a Shelly Dimmer instead (even tho it’s more expensive and complicated than what I want). Oh and No thanks to the super unhelpful folks who just want to rag on someone who doesn’t know better without providing any useful information. Jeez y’all are the worst 🙄

Is my service able to be upgraded to 200 amp? Or is it already 200 amp? Some other questions as wellI think I have a pre...
10/16/2026

Is my service able to be upgraded to 200 amp? Or is it already 200 amp? Some other questions as well

I think I have a pretty good idea of some of these things but I need input, I may be wrong.

Reason I want to upgrade (if it's not 200a) is Im planning on a EV charger level 2 and the current panel is using all slots. If the panel can be upgraded to 200a I'd like to ideally put in a 40a 240v charger. I know it would need a 50a breaker for the 80% \1.25 rule.

If I cannot upgrade the panel (I'm gonna guess the service lines are not correct size for it) I would instead put in a 32a charger on a 40a breaker. Question is could I consolidate the garage onto one of the other breaker(s) and use the freed up garage spots for the 240v\40a. The only other 240v I have is my AC, which is the 15a (30a?).

I don't know why the garage has the pole connector thing but there is no 240v in the garage. Same with the other dishwasher and disposal (I don't have a disposal, it may be used on something else and not labeled right).

Thank you kindly for any and all input. I of course would get an electrician to do all work if I upgrade anything.

Follow-up: How to pull wire through tight EMT connectionAfter trying and failing to pull 9 14AWG conductors through a pa...
10/16/2026

Follow-up: How to pull wire through tight EMT connection

After trying and failing to pull 9 14AWG conductors through a pair of twisty 1/2" EMT connections, with the advice of comments on the previous post, I got a different box and did a 3/4" ni**le and shimmed out a 6-gang masonry box, which worked perfectly for the task of adding 4 AFCI dead fronts to feed 4 circuits through that are on tandem breakers. The 17 conductors were trivially easy to push through the 3/4" ni**le.

The goal is to save space in the box while adding AFCI protection. Now, with one other suggestion (using a quad breaker on the AC and Sense), I can free up two more slots if/when needed for a range or EV charger.

The wiring kind of looks like a disaster but I cleaned it up as much as I can and it's much more serviceable than it was before.

Two more breakers to go (dryers after upgrading to 14-30s) and I'll meet or exceed 2020 code AFCI and GFCI protection in my 1994 house.

EDIT: Those two boxes from the previous attempt didn't got to waste, they got consumed as junction boxes for pulling a new circuit for the dishwasher, which avoided the MWBC problem of not being able to provide DFCI protection. They are now each on their own DFCI circuit, and when the disposal died, I added a receptacle with conduit protecting the illegally installed Romex that was feeding the disposal.

Can I reuse this hot tub wiring for level 2 ev charger?So I’m looking to install a charge point level 2 hardwire ev char...
10/16/2026

Can I reuse this hot tub wiring for level 2 ev charger?

So I’m looking to install a charge point level 2 hardwire ev charger in my garage. My main fuse box is in my basement and my basement is finished. I have this old hot tub wiring believe the wire running to it is 6-3 but it seems to not have a ground? So I was wondering if I can use this to power the ev charger? First do I need a gfci breaker? If it is 6-3 can I run a 50 amp breaker? Could I just have the breaker in the main box and then make the wiring in the old hot tub box almost like a junction box? If so how? I don’t think wire nuts are big enough.

Is this the wrong kind of breaker box for outdoors?Hi, we had an EV charger installed last year, by a licensed/insured e...
10/16/2026

Is this the wrong kind of breaker box for outdoors?

Hi, we had an EV charger installed last year, by a licensed/insured electrician company in our area (Virginia). Today an electrician came to do something else and alerted us that this box should be weather/waterproof. Did the electrician we hired last year install the wrong kind of box? If so I will reach out to them to come fix it. The wire on the left comes out of the house from the main panel in basement, then into this outdoor breaker box, then on the right goes to the charger on the exterior wall of house. Thanks for any guidance.

Our car charger almost burnt the house down last night.We purchased an electric vehicle 6 months ago. We hired an electr...
10/16/2026

Our car charger almost burnt the house down last night.

We purchased an electric vehicle 6 months ago. We hired an electrician to install the charger in the garage. We had to call him back out because it kept blowing the fuse. The electrician said he changed the fuse to a higher amp and said we should have no more issues. That was about 4 months ago. We haven’t blown the fuse again but woke up because there was an alarm going off on the car that it stopped charging. The box was so hot to touch we waited an hour before taking a look at the damage. We plan to higher a different electrician to fix this but I’m trying to figure out if our initial electrician steered us wrong or this was something else.

1 year old home EV charger pre-installedTEXAS - Moved into new development, brand new house, in July 2024, right after h...
10/16/2026

1 year old home EV charger pre-installed

TEXAS - Moved into new development, brand new house, in July 2024, right after home was completed.

EV charging plug was installed by builder and is standard in all new homes with a garage.

Photos taken Friday night, when I tried to charge my car and it kept faulting. Found the plug melted and hot to touch. Turned off breaker in panel, verified no power to receptacle with non-contact voltage pen before taking the outlet apart.

I had noticed some smoke, and I wanted to verify nothing was still smoldering.

Question:

1. What is the warranty generally on new builds for electrical in Texas, Bexar County specifically?

2. If still under warranty, after putting forth a warranty request, would you hire an outside electrician to verify the work after it's completed?

At this point, I don't have a lot of trust in the electricians originally hired for this home, and would want to make sure this and all the rest of electrical is good as well.

[Please be kind, I'm a bit frazzled, as well as sick, and have been trying to figure it out, but this is my first time owning a house. When a previous place I rented had an electrical fire, I contacted the landlord. Found that the panel in that rental hadn't been verified since the 70s, so the power feeder from the pole had wiggled out over the years and caught the panel itself on fire.]

Panel upgrade - worth if already 200amp in 46 yr old house?Just bought a house. The inspection noted concerns about wiri...
10/16/2026

Panel upgrade - worth if already 200amp in 46 yr old house?

Just bought a house. The inspection noted concerns about wiring in the panel and exposed wire not in conduit, no GFCI breakers. This is 200amp. Not many free slots.

I had an electrician come out and he relayed that there’s no current issue in terms of safety and that the GFCI breakers weren’t necessary, but that he’d recommend upgrading the panel to an Eaton copper. The unofficial quote sounds like it’ll be over $9,000.

Is this worth considering if there’s no actual problem happening with the home? I primarily care about fire hazard and safety.

Thanks in advance.

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