brickeyee wrote: "Ufer grounds can easily be created during the construction of reenforced concrete buildings by ensuring bonding of the reinforcement bars electrically (often by welding them together). When they are buried in concrete you create a very effective earth ground." Under the US National Electrical Code a "concrete encased electrode" is usually required for new construction. The required minimum length is 20 ft and can be 1/2" rebar tie-wired together where necessary. I agree they are good. Ground rods are lousy. brickeyee wrote: "The 'surge suppressor' devices (MOVs being a very common type for this) allow for a connection between wiring and ground/neutral when the voltage exceeds their break-over rating. This has the effect of clamping the voltage on the line to approximately the break over voltage of the device. If the surge current is not very large or very brief the power dissipated in the device (current times break-over voltage times time conducting) will not cause destruction of the device" Maximum service surge current is 10,000A per service wire. Service panel protectors with much higher ratings are readily available. The author of the NIST surge guide looked at the amount of energy that might actually be absorbed in a plug-in protector. Branch circuits were 10m and longer. Power line surges were up to 10,000A (as above). The maximum was a surprisingly small 35 joules (based on US wiring). Plug-in protectors with far higher ratings are readily available. brickeyee wrote: "For MOVs it does cause some localized damage that decreases the ability of the device to carry current the next time it breaks over into conduction." As MOVs absorb surge energy they eventually start to conduct at lower voltages. Eventually they conduct at normal voltages, and go into thermal runaway. (Since 1998 UL has required listed protectors have thermal disconnects to disconnect overheating MOVs.) Far as I know MOVs continue to conduct surge currents up to failure. (Protection is not by absorbing the surge, but some energy is absorbed in the process of protection.) brickeyee wrote: "In the most common description the device is said to 'suppress' or 'shunt' the surge to ground. A poor connection to the source of the surge can result in limited effectiveness, and that includes the path back to earth ground for surges referenced to earth ground. The impedance of the ground path ads to the voltage the clamping device needs to turn on, decreasing its effectiveness at liming the voltage rise." For a power service protector the MOVs are connected line-to-line and line-to-neutral. In US services the neutral is bonded to ground and the earthing electrodes at the service. Unless the wires connecting the MOVs are too long they will function as intended, limiting the voltage between hots and neutral. If the earthing path is higher impedance it means that the power wiring will rise to a higher voltage above 'absolute' earth potential. With significant surge earth current it will rise in any case. Much of the protection is that all wires - power, phone, cable, ... - rise together as explained in another post. The same happens at plug-in protectors. All wires to a set of protected equipment has to go through the protector. The protector limits the voltage on all wires to the ground at the protector. As explained in the IEEE surge guide (starting page 30) the voltage at the protector may rise well above the ground at the service but the voltages between wires to the protected equipment is safe. brickeyee wrote: "Luckily the insulation on the phone lines usually fails around 4,000 to 6,000 volts (line to line of each pair) providing at least an upper limit on what is transmitted for many distances." Interesting - I never saw a breakdown number before. In US services, when service panel busbars reach about 6,000V there is arc-over to the enclosure. After the arc has stabilized the voltage is hundreds of volts. (Since the enclosure is connected to the earthing electrodes that dumps most of the surge energy to earth.) Similarly, 15 and 20A US receptacles will arc-over at about 6,000V. I generally agree with brickeyee. ========================== westom wrote "A 33kv wire fell on local distribution. Electric meters literally exploded up to 30 feet from their pans. My friend properly earthed one 'whole house' protector. Had no damage except to his electric meter." MOVs can conduct thousands of amps for the maybe 100 microseconds of a lightning surge. They will be rapidly destroyed by crossed power lines. No protector will say it can protect from crossed power lines. (UPSs and a few plug-in protectors disconnect on over-voltage and may provide protection.) westom wrote "Surges (ie lightning) may be 20,000 amps." The maximum surge current that has any reasonable probability of occurring is 10,000A per service wire - worst case. There is a reference to it in the IEEE surge guide. westom wrote "A protector is only as effective as its earth ground" Next worst surges to lightning are normal and abnormal utility operations including fault clearing and switching power factor correction capacitors. Many of them are line to neutral, not earth. I agree with brickeyee. Airplanes are regularly hit by lightning and have no earth connection. Understanding the protection is not that difficult.

On the topic of thrifty, I saw a commercial yesterday that I had to back up and watch it again to make sure I heard it correctly. It was recommending everyone should pee in the shower thereby saving water, no need to flush if you just pee in the shower. Never mind that you are standing in your pee. I am OK with an extra flush personally but feel free to pee in the shower if that's your thing. Lol The commercial actually showed a person in the shower from about the knees down, suddenly bright yellow water filled the bottom of the shower and the feet were standing in a big puddle of pee, pretty gross. Our shower is slow draining it would become a lake of pee. Ick I looked it up on Google it's real because I thought sure at first it was a spoof, joke etc. Does it really have to be on TV...

well, April is on its way out... I think all I've managed to do is some old laundry. I have a large comforter on the line now. the washer survived it - and didn't even try to walk around the laundry room! awesome. I found the 'small' load is very small which I think will work out for me since having only laundry for me, it isn't a whole lot at a time. I had wondered how long I'd have to let things like towels, wash cloths, dish towels etc build up to make a load. with the 'small' (tiny) load option it won't be long at all! I do have enough 'stuff' to last for weeks and weeks and weeks but I don't want dirty laundry hanging out here anymore. I've hated it in the past while waiting to go to a Laundromat. with a washer here, I don't want it to happen again. I'll just rotate things around to even out the usage. I'm super happy the washer didn't go bonkers on the spin cycle with the comforter in it. now I can safely wash up the other 3 or so comforters to have on hand and clean if someone should show up and need/want to stay here for a night or 2. Now that I've gone thru a series of load sizes and rinse options and it's behaved itself, I need to decide if I want to pay the extra $s to get a 5 yr warranty on it - covers parts and labor for about 60.00 $s. Sounds worth it to me from what I read on reviews and those who have had trouble a few months to a 1 or 2 yrs down the road. At the price they are, they should last 5 yrs or more - hopefully. eta - I forgot to post that on Tues (day to docs and errands that exhausted me) I stopped at the hdwr and exchanged the 2 wheels I'd bought for 2 larger wheels. the rear wheels on my wagon were 2" larger than the ones I'd bought. I figured those 2" would just make the wagon 2" higher for me and probably easier moving around on desert ground. they were 5$s more each but I think it will be worth it. They also had metal centers rather than plastic. Plastic doesn't last long outside in the AZ sun and my wagon lives outside. I haven't checked the 2 back wheels on my wagon yet to see if they are metal or plastic - but if/when they go, i'll replace them with the metal center wheels. It was the plastic part of the front 2 wheels that cracked and fell apart.

It looks like you have the links correct. What you have is when it is working properly what you have is that the "L" shaped piece - with one end to the spring and other end to the carb throttle, and it pivots on a shaft. That shaft that the "L" pivots is to the governer inside the motor. The governer applies pressure to close the throttle and the spring on the other end applies an opposing force to open the throttle. This is your balance that sets the normal engine speed. When u put a load on the motor like actually throw snow(or if the governer is not working properly), the governer does not apply as much pressure to close the throttle so that the spring pulls the throttle open more "giving it more gas" to compensate the load. -SO- If I was you- you say you bent the tab and the speed slowed down, I would bend it down more. It should run alot slower now. While it is running, from the top, manually pull the link to the left to raise the speed. Let go, it should immediately return to its original speed. Try it a few times, it should bounce back quick. -or- Do u need to manually hold the link to the right and when u let go the link just wiggles drifting to the left and the speed takes off again???? BTW don't run the motor for long. It doesn't have a shroud to cool the engine- it is setup to run in the winter to throw snow so don't let it overheat. a fan blowing on the engine fins would be good.