When I married Martha, I was a pretty handy guy and could work my way around an apartment or car and solve my own problems. Electrical stuff was not in my list of skills. I think the first real lessons in that came in our Oak Park house when Martha's Dad, Bill Siembieda, came and explained to me why the electrical set up in that house was a bit iffy. We didn't do much in that house to the electrical system, except replace blown fuses (Yes, fuses. Not flipping a circuit like most modern homes.) The second lesson was a bit harder for Bill in our Newcastle house. In the excitement of ripping apart our kitchen, I had left all the electrical wires hanging in disarray, waiting for the impending arrival of my electrically-mind father-in-law to help me get it all straightened out. The multitude of 3-ways switches confused him until the day he left, but he managed to get them straight. Although Bill was kind in his words, I could tell he was shaking his head inside. In our 3rd house in Redmond, my confidence and skills were at a level where I did most of the electrical work myself (outside the replacement of our electrical panel). There was still plenty of assistance from Bill and brothers, but I now owned electricity!!
Then I came to Ireland. There seems to be a difference in attitudes about electricity between our countries. I think the attitude change happens somewhere between 110 and 220 volts. The first thing you notice is that the light switches for bathrooms are all on the outside of the doors. Strange, but functional. The next thing you notice is that there are no plugs in the bathrooms. Shaving and hair drying aren't something that is apparently safe. They often have heaters in the bathroom, but they are high up on the ceiling with a cotton pull string to pull to turn them on. They often advertise "electric showers", which really means good pressure and heat. Ironically, you have a big box with 220 volts inches from your body standing in a puddle of water, but that's apparently OK. I guess it's the difference between what 110 and 220 can do. I think it was Bill that gave me this advice when working on the Newcastle house as we were stringing a bit fat 220V cable to where the stove was going to be. He said something to the effect that, "110 will make your arm tingle, 220 will kill you." Now, I know not everyone does their own wiring in the U.S. But, IF you wanted to, you would have at your hands all the materials and guidance to do it and there would plenty of people to sell you the stuff to do it.
As we readied our trip to Ireland, the advice was to leave everything electrical behind as the power differences would make them either burn up or force you to connect them to a Step-Up-Down transformer. The Holmes' went as far to give me the link to a Amazon page that had exactly what I should buy for the 110V items that we couldn't just abandon (mainly computers and video game consoles). Because if I came over here and attempted to buy a transformer here, I'd have "American Sucker" written all over my face and I would likely have to come up with another child to exchange for it. That's a bit tough for me at this point. So I took that advice and brought 3 transformers over, when I really only needed 2. Everything was grand, until last week.
It was then that my one and only US-110V surge protector/power strip decided it wasn't happy with it's current situation. There were 4-110V plugs that needed a place to call a home. For these, I used the surge protector/power strip to plug them into and plugged the surge protector into the transformer. After discovering a popped circuit, I experimented a bit and found that my surge protector was the cause. After consulting the all-knowing source of truth (the Internet), I found many cautionary tales related to using a surge protector on a transformer like this. They weren't applicable to my current state, but this left me in a strange predicament. Here I am in Ireland, needing a 110V surge protector/power strip. They just don't sell that stuff around here and if they do, any purchaser has the aforementioned label on their forehead with the appropriate price. I put the request into my letter to Santa, but only received a quick reply back from his legal department that they couldn't support my intended use.
The Holmes' came to the rescue with a 3-plug power strip. That almost got us all the way home. It was then that I had a brilliant idea. Just because my surge protector was a problem didn't mean I couldn't just make it a power strip and take out all the now defective parts that were causing the problems.
So I dismantled my surge protector and started pulling all the pieces out that were in between the power cord and the plugs. It was actually pretty easy. Then I had to put it back together, which involved splicing a few wires together.
When you connect two wires together in the US, you use a wire nut. This was something that I would have had in my garage (actually 100's), but unfortunately they didn't make the trip on the air plane, so I made my way to the local DIY (Irish for hardware store). I asked the young man where the wire nuts would be. (Blank stare.) I then proceeded to tell him what I was doing. (Blank stare with a bit of fear that he was speaking to a crazy American.) I was then referred to "Mr. Bauman". It was Bauman's DIY, so I thought I was making progress.
Mr. Bauman first suggested that it probably wasn't a good idea for me to be messing with electrical stuff, but if he needed to connect two electrical wires together, he'd use the pictured wire connector to the left. So I left Bauman's with a roll of electrical tape (as a backup) and this device. Of course, my wallet was 5 Euros lighter in exchange for what would have cost me $2 (at most), but you'll recognise that recurring theme in my stories. But, this blog is now being written on a computer plugged into the new non-surge protecting power strip.
Surge protectors are kind of like insurance, so odds are good that I won't be needing that additional protection. Just in case, I might pick one up on a business trip back to the US in the near future...
Thanks Bill for giving me the knowledge and confidence to wire my way to success!!
Then I came to Ireland. There seems to be a difference in attitudes about electricity between our countries. I think the attitude change happens somewhere between 110 and 220 volts. The first thing you notice is that the light switches for bathrooms are all on the outside of the doors. Strange, but functional. The next thing you notice is that there are no plugs in the bathrooms. Shaving and hair drying aren't something that is apparently safe. They often have heaters in the bathroom, but they are high up on the ceiling with a cotton pull string to pull to turn them on. They often advertise "electric showers", which really means good pressure and heat. Ironically, you have a big box with 220 volts inches from your body standing in a puddle of water, but that's apparently OK. I guess it's the difference between what 110 and 220 can do. I think it was Bill that gave me this advice when working on the Newcastle house as we were stringing a bit fat 220V cable to where the stove was going to be. He said something to the effect that, "110 will make your arm tingle, 220 will kill you." Now, I know not everyone does their own wiring in the U.S. But, IF you wanted to, you would have at your hands all the materials and guidance to do it and there would plenty of people to sell you the stuff to do it.
As we readied our trip to Ireland, the advice was to leave everything electrical behind as the power differences would make them either burn up or force you to connect them to a Step-Up-Down transformer. The Holmes' went as far to give me the link to a Amazon page that had exactly what I should buy for the 110V items that we couldn't just abandon (mainly computers and video game consoles). Because if I came over here and attempted to buy a transformer here, I'd have "American Sucker" written all over my face and I would likely have to come up with another child to exchange for it. That's a bit tough for me at this point. So I took that advice and brought 3 transformers over, when I really only needed 2. Everything was grand, until last week. 
It was then that my one and only US-110V surge protector/power strip decided it wasn't happy with it's current situation. There were 4-110V plugs that needed a place to call a home. For these, I used the surge protector/power strip to plug them into and plugged the surge protector into the transformer. After discovering a popped circuit, I experimented a bit and found that my surge protector was the cause. After consulting the all-knowing source of truth (the Internet), I found many cautionary tales related to using a surge protector on a transformer like this. They weren't applicable to my current state, but this left me in a strange predicament. Here I am in Ireland, needing a 110V surge protector/power strip. They just don't sell that stuff around here and if they do, any purchaser has the aforementioned label on their forehead with the appropriate price. I put the request into my letter to Santa, but only received a quick reply back from his legal department that they couldn't support my intended use. The Holmes' came to the rescue with a 3-plug power strip. That almost got us all the way home. It was then that I had a brilliant idea. Just because my surge protector was a problem didn't mean I couldn't just make it a power strip and take out all the now defective parts that were causing the problems.
So I dismantled my surge protector and started pulling all the pieces out that were in between the power cord and the plugs. It was actually pretty easy. Then I had to put it back together, which involved splicing a few wires together.
 |
| US Wire Nut |
When you connect two wires together in the US, you use a wire nut. This was something that I would have had in my garage (actually 100's), but unfortunately they didn't make the trip on the air plane, so I made my way to the local DIY (Irish for hardware store). I asked the young man where the wire nuts would be. (Blank stare.) I then proceeded to tell him what I was doing. (Blank stare with a bit of fear that he was speaking to a crazy American.) I was then referred to "Mr. Bauman". It was Bauman's DIY, so I thought I was making progress.
 |
| Irish wire connector |
Mr. Bauman first suggested that it probably wasn't a good idea for me to be messing with electrical stuff, but if he needed to connect two electrical wires together, he'd use the pictured wire connector to the left. So I left Bauman's with a roll of electrical tape (as a backup) and this device. Of course, my wallet was 5 Euros lighter in exchange for what would have cost me $2 (at most), but you'll recognise that recurring theme in my stories. But, this blog is now being written on a computer plugged into the new non-surge protecting power strip.
Surge protectors are kind of like insurance, so odds are good that I won't be needing that additional protection. Just in case, I might pick one up on a business trip back to the US in the near future...
Thanks Bill for giving me the knowledge and confidence to wire my way to success!!
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