Situation: Standard socket, ceramic crud with a socket to outlet converter on it. My head smashes into it every other day. powers two florescent tube fixtures.
Proposed: Take out the socket box, and install outlet box, outlet and cover plate, and use same wires that powered socket to power outlet.
Is this ok to do?
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Replies
Technically an outlet is any place that equipment that uses electricity is connected.
So you have light fixture for outlets, etc.
What you plug a plug into is a specific type of outlet, a receptacle.
Yes you can replace the existing box (probably an octagon box or round box) with a rectangular box for a receptacle.
You can get round covers that can mount a receptacle in the existing box. that will get you a little clearance.
But if the cables are long enough get the square box and mount it on the side of the joist so that the receptacle faces to the side, rather than down. Or mount it so that the receptacle faces down, but a couple of inches up on the joist so that the plugs will still be clearof the bottom of the joist.
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
good idea with the recessing of it, i will do that
m/ (>.<) m/http://www.cocoboloboy.co.nr
>>Standard socket, ceramic crud with a socket to outlet converter on it. <<
FYI, The "cermaic crud" is called a keyless light fixture.
"FYI, The "cermaic crud" is called a keyless light fixture."That is unless it is "keyed".Many basement lights are "keyed" in older homes. That is they have a pull chain. Got me to wonder why it was called keyed and keyless.Found this."Believe it or not, this has to do with a dispute between Standard Oil and Gas and the Edison Illuminating Company way back in he late 1800's.One of Thomas Edison's marketing strategies for the incandescent lamp was a smear campaign against gas / kerosene lighting. However, Edison did do his research. There were many common complaints against the use of gas lighting. The smell of gas fumes and the flicker of the light were two examples.At the same time, people were generlly comfortable with the use and operation of the gas lamps. Edison took all this into consideration when designing the first electrical lighting systems to be used in homes and apartments.Convienently, gas pipes already entered the home which provided a raceway for new wiring from a generator located off-site. These pipes entered the buildings or home and terminated at typical gas wall lamps and hanging fixtures.Edison simply converted the gas fixtures to electric lamps by evacuating the gas and pulling wires in the empty pipes. User of the fixtures were used to using a "key" to adjust the wick of the gas lamp. Edison designed the "key" to switch the light on and off. This proceded the use of wall switches remote from the fixture itself.Once the use of wall switches became more popular, fixtures without the integral switch would be known as "keyless" fixtures, meaning they had no switch operation at the fixture.By the way, it was also do to the normal light output of the typical gas lamp and the cost of copper which made Edison choose 110-Volts nominal for the first lighting systems."But I think that is slightly wrong. Oil lights would have had adjustable wicks. But I think that "key" on a gas light was a valve.So the "key" was just slang for a switch and keyed sockets are still commonly used in table lamps..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
Very interesting.
I like info like this.
Thank you.
Russell
Another "complaint" about gas lights was CO.CO poisoning, and the hallucinations that often accompany it, was the explanation for many a "haunted" house. There are some fascinating, well-documented stories about this. I think I remember a This American Life segment on it. If so, it should be available as a podcast.AitchKay
There is a play and I believe a movie called Gaslighting where the husband was trying to make his wife think that she was mad.But it was not from the CO.He had installed remote valves and would play with the level of the lights..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
I found that story. It's the prologue (6 min. long) to Episode 319,"And The Call Was Coming From The Basement"A true story from a 1921 madical journal.http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=319
I just listened to it again. Great story!AitchKay
Ghost and CO poisoning.http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=319.
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting"Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse. It involves an increasing frequency of systematically withholding factual information from, and/or providing false information to the subject, having the gradual effect of making the victim anxious, confused, and less able to trust his or her own memory and perception. A variation of gaslighting, used as a form of harassment, is to subtly alter aspects of a victim's environment, thereby upsetting his or her peace of mind, sense of security, etc.The term was coined from the 1940 film Gaslight and its 1944 remake in which changes in gas light levels are experienced several times by the main character. The classic example in the film is the character Gregory using the gas lamps in the attic, causing the rest of the lamps in the house to dim slightly; when Paula comments on the lights' dimming, she is told she is imagining things. Paula believes herself alone in the house when the dimming occurs, unaware that Gregory has entered the attic from the house next door. The sinister interpretation of the change in light levels is part of a larger pattern of deception to which the character Paula is subjected.This technique is also supposed to have been used by the Manson Family during their "creepy crawler" burglaries during which nothing was stolen, but furniture in the house was rearranged.".
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe