A quick recap of the past week.
Thursday. The electrical inspector arrived for my rough-in. He looked around a bit, then shockingly noted I didn't make any splices in my boxes. I told him I didn't know I needed to. Live and learn.
He also noted at my aerial service entrance, the weatherhead was at 10ft from grade, which would cause the driploop to hang below that elevation, which is a code violation. He recommended I add a upward bend at the end of the conduit, to bring the weatherhead up about a foot, to place it in front of the soffit box.
Friday-Sunday. I purchased some necessary tools for making the box splices. I went through the house, each circuit at a time, splicing up neutral/ground/hot pigtails. It went a little slow at first, but near the end I'm now a pro splicer :P
The best tools to use I found were a pair of wire cutters to cut the romex to length, a pair of sheath strippers to quickly remove the romex sheath - and make sure they're bent nosed, or you won't be able to strip it inside the box, a pair of stripmasters to strip the individual THHN conductors, and a screwdriver with a hole at the end of the handle designed to turn wingnuts. Wingnuts are a brand of wirenuts with little wings on 'em, they're easier to turn, and the screwdriver really saves your fingers after putting on a ton of 'em. I also ordered an adapter which chucks into your drill to turn the wingnuts, but it still hasn't arrived yet - I'll try it on the next house!
Monday. I borrowed a large pipe cutter from Ed and cut off the existing weatherhead. I glued on a 90-sweep and then glued the head back on there. This was a real pain, with the conductors in place, it was difficult pulling the head and ell onto the existing conduit. Ah well, now the inspector can be satisfied that my drip loop won't hang a few inches below the magic ten foot line. I then scheduled another inspection.
Tuesday. Inspector eventually showed up, glanced at my splices, and left within 90 seconds of arrival. Before leaving, he told me I still get another inspection for free before they charge for additional inspections! He said I could use that for my final inspection. Mmm hmm. I'm sure, as an employee of a profit-oriented enterprise, he won't find anything that will need to be corrected at the final inspection. I then called the city to have the aerial line switched to the house.
Wednesday. A worker showed up early in the bitter cold to make the swap. We BSed a bit while he was working, and I made sure to tell him where the 10ft line was, and that the inspector was nitpicking and the bottom of the loop needed to be above that line. Of course, the neutral loop still ended up just at that line. It's a grounded conductor, so really there is no danger, but if the inspector wanted he could pitch a fit.
Once the power was switched, I jumped for joy. I was going to install a receptacle for power for my tools, but I realized all I had was a box of the old receptacles, which aren't Tamper Resistant. A few months ago, I had to apply for another electrical permit from the county, since my original permit from my temp pole install was over a year old. In that time the state adopted the newer version of the code, which requires all receptacles to be TR. It also requires additional AFCI breakers. All this crap costs money. I think I spent an additional $100 or so on this junk.
Thursday-Friday. I installed some receptacles, switches. Wired up a few circuits to the main panel. Now I have lights in the crawl and attic, and all the exterior lights wired up. I installed a few receptacles in the crawl and outside, and one in the laundry closet for my tools.
Now I'm going to finish plumbing, but I also want to get the HVAC system running. Those blowers can still give me some heat before I add the ductwork. It's all wired up, just needs to have the refigerant lines attached and pressurized. I have the copper and flaring tools.. Just need to run the lines, and then pull a vacuum on a nice, warm day. I'm also looking into getting a tank of nitrogen to run a nitrogen leak test, this would be a smart thing to do if not expensive. Otherwise, if there is a leak and I release the refrigerant into the lines, that will be a very expensive mistake to fix..
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