Electrical work here in Bolivia leaves something to be desired. I am not boasting when I say that I understand wiring and electrical better than the electrician that wired our house.
The start of the problem is that the MAINS coming into our meter from the street is AWG14. Yes, 14 gauge mains. While that's sufficient (at 240V) for the average Bolivian family, I daresay we tend to overdraw it.
Then take the way our home was wired. There's Breaker #1 at the meter. This feeds Breaker #2 at the bottom of the stairs, out of which comes the patio light and 2 outlets. From Breaker #2, we go to Breaker #3 in the kitchen, which feeds THE ENTIRE HOUSE. Breaker #4 is in the bathroom, to control the electric shower head.
Yes, that's 4 breakers in series, with no parallels. Great, huh?
So what happens when you're in the shower (drawing up to 22A), with a heater (8.5A), the dryer is running (another 8.5A), and your wife turns on the electric kettle (10A) to make herself a cup of tea?
Bad things:
If you click on the photo to make it big, you can see the two wires that shorted through the insulation. The resulting arc broke both wires. I thank God it happened in the ONLY junction box in the whole house. Makes me wonder what happened to the 32A circuit breakers!!
Scenario #2:
Kaylee complained that the shower head was cutting out on her. At the time, her brother was visiting and I was busy ferrying him around, so I didn't get to it. Then one morning, she got a shower of sparks!! Thankfully, I was in the bathroom at the time and quickly shut off the breaker.
A quick investigation later in the day revealed the problem:
Whoever installed this thing connected the solid-wire lines onto the stranded leads with just some loose loops. The continual arcing over time broke the one connection.
This is actually something I built back in September, that I wanted to share and write a little bit about.
Because of several factors, our house is always dirty: we live in a dirty city, the windows are very drafty, and we get lots of wind. For that reason, I wanted to be able to protect some of my electronic office equipment from the dirt. However, you can't just put them in a box, or they'll overheat. But unfiltered ventilation is just as bad. So here's what I did:
I started with a wooden box that I purchased in the Cancha (same as in the dehydrator project) for 150Bs ($21.83).
Again, the Dremel 400XPR that I brought from the US came in very handy (shown with circle-cutter).
I cut a hole a rectangular hole in one end and set in an air filter (for a Toyota Corolla) for which I paid 38Bs ($5.53).
In the other end, I cut a circular hole, stuck on some screen (to keep little fingers out!).
The 6" computer fan cost 25Bs ($3.64). The power supply for it was 35Bs ($5.09). The power strip was a burned up unit I picked up for free from another missionary, which I then gutted and reworked.
I used some wood scraps to make a rack in the lid for paper storage.
Now our backup hard drive, wireless router, battery charger, and Vonage phone adapter live in clean comfort, with plenty of room for more, all for the low price of $31! The interface cables are passed through notches in the wall of the box.
I keep an indoor/outdoor thermometer on it to monitor the interior temperature. So far, it's doing great!
When I was a kid, my dad made a dehydrator for my mom. No, not one of those cute little plastic things that goes on your counter, it was a humongous plywood box on wheels. It measured somewhere in the neighborhood of 2' x 2' x 4' long, with a door on the end and 5 or 6 wood-framed screen trays inside. It was powered by an ordinary space heater that pushed the warm scent of drying bananas, apples, pears, plums, and herbs throughout the house.
Here in Cochabamba, we have a ton of fruit, when it's in season. We can get tons of bananas all year (we make lots of smoothies), and typically have oranges and papayas as well. Seasonal fruits are: apples, peaches, plums, grapes, watermelons, etc.
So, in order to use up more bananas (I love dried bananas) and to preserve fruit so we can enjoy it out of season, I decided to modify my dad's design and made a dehydrator for my wife for Christmas.
I started with a plain wood box that I bought in the Cancha (our huge, open-air market). I've been told that they are mostly used by the military as foot lockers.
Because my box was pre-made, I couldn't dado in slots for the trays (like my dad did), so I made cleats. The trays are made of screen nailed and siliconed to wood frames. Other than the box, all of the wood is scrap that I had laying around.
I had to rip down the boards I had, so I made a table saw for this project:
I used my Dremel with the circle cutter attachment to cut two holes in the lid, where I mounted two 6" computer fans.
To keep little fingers and bugs out, I put a piece of screen (with silicone) over the holes and covered it with vinyl, left over from the Pony Project.
I used a spade bit to drill ventilation/outlet holes in the top of the box and covered them with screen as well.
I modified a variable-output AC-DC converter, removing the pins and soldering the supply wire directly into the board, through the holes in the case.
This was then connected to the fans and mounted in the box.
Because the "lid" was now a "door," I had to upgrade the hinges and mount the handle on the (new) top.
Did I mention that most of this took place on the Dec 24th, in between coats of polyurethane on the Christmas Ponies? It was done in time to go under the tree!
The only thing it lacked was heat. I wanted to try it out without, so I gave it a rack of bananas, but it took a couple days to dry them out. So I was thinking about heating options and my brother suggested a light bulb. So I added a 100W bulb, and bananas finish in less than 12 hours. It glows in the dark nicely, too.
