Switch at exterior door

Michael Vasquez · 09-01-2009, 06:43 PM

Hello, I was performing an inspection on a new construction home today and came across a back patio door from the master bedroom without a switch by the door for the patio lights. The switch was located in the living room by the other patio doors. Should a second switch be located by the master patio door?

Thanks

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**Jerry Peck** · 09-01-2009, 06:50 PM

The location of the switch is not addressed in code, only that it be switched.

That is one of those "common sense" things which fall by the wayside when a builder, electrician, whomever laid it out does not use common sense.

Being as home inspectors are not code inspectors, home inspectors can write things like that up and be on firm ground, while the code inspector can only shrug his shoulders and say 'What idiot put that switch there?', followed by 'But the light is switched, so it is okay.'

Michael Vasquez · 09-01-2009, 07:10 PM

Jerry, Thanks for the quick response.

**Rollie Meyers** · 09-01-2009, 09:23 PM

While in my opinion a switch belongs there from a convenience stand point, if that was a tract home you get what you pay for, a cheaply built home done by lowballers doing what ever they can get away with.( I refuse to say meeting minimum code even though that switch is not a code issue).

This is a lowballer at "work", the panel is even the new Zinsco.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1251865178

**Jerry Peck** · 09-02-2009, 07:02 AM

Originally Posted by Rollie Meyers

the panel is even the new Zinsco.

Rollie,

New one on me "the new Zinsco", are you saying there is a new style panel with the Zinsco name?

**Speedy Petey** · 09-02-2009, 12:58 PM

Looks like GE to me.

**ken horak** · 09-02-2009, 01:08 PM

GE or possible cutler hammer BR series ?

**Rollie Meyers** · 09-02-2009, 04:08 PM

It's a GE SUBPANEL.

**Jerry Peck** · 09-02-2009, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by Rollie Meyers

It's a GE SUBPANEL.

I don't doubt it, GE does make everything, which would likely include submarines, so of course it would be a GE SUBmarine panel.

**Rollie Meyers** · 09-02-2009, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by Jerry Peck

Rollie,

New one on me "the new Zinsco", are you saying there is a new style panel with the Zinsco name?

I am saying GE is the replacement for Zinsco since the lowballers don't have Zinsco/Sylvania/Challenger anymore, GE is the next cheap thing....

**Jerry Peck** · 09-02-2009, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by Rollie Meyers

I am saying GE is the replacement for Zinsco since the lowballers don't have Zinsco/Sylvania/Challenger anymore, GE is the next cheap thing....

Ohhh ...

It is?

I have not bought panels in so many years I don't know which is cheaper or more expensive or "better quality" or "lesser quality", but I always thought GE was decently good, like Siemens and Square D (QO series).

Which is better now, and why?

Which is worse now, and why?

Thanks.

I know from back in the 1960s that my Dad (electrical contractor) always had a distaste for FPE and was always saying you know who did the electrical when you see an FPE, and that they were junk. And that was back before the rest of us found out they were junk.

**Speedy Petey** · 09-02-2009, 06:45 PM

Originally Posted by Rollie Meyers

I am saying GE is the replacement for Zinsco since the lowballers don't have Zinsco/Sylvania/Challenger anymore, GE is the next cheap thing....

Really? This is news to me. This is the first I have heard this. I must have missed a meeting.

Not that I use GE. If price is a concern I use C-H BR series.

**Bill Kriegh** · 09-02-2009, 09:20 PM

"Cheap"? I'd say very competively priced.

I think GE's pricing is just a reflection of how bad the other guys are scre**ng you on price.

On a percentage of equipment type serviced versus buss and/or breaker failures I've had fewer problems with GE than with anybody else's.

I also tend to believe that GE probably knows what they're doing as they've been in the business since the beginning.