No mownie. "Because electrical flow must be maintained, any "excess unregulated current" remaining (after the Zener diode establishes "regulated output" into the main buss) will be diverted, or "shunted" into the ground conductor of the overall machine." A flash light battery has EMF and none of its current is diverted when it is not under load. Current-voltage characteristic of a Zener diode with a breakdown voltage of 17 volt. Notice the change of voltage scale between the forward biased (positive) direction and the reverse biased (negative) direction. A Zener diode is a type of diode that permits current to flow in the forward direction like a normal diode, but also in the reverse direction if the voltage is larger than the breakdown voltage known as "Zener knee voltage" or "Zener voltage". Named for Clarence Zener, discoverer of this electrical property. A conventional solid-state diode will not let significant current flow if it is reverse-biased below its reverse breakdown voltage. When the reverse bias breakdown voltage is exceeded, a conventional diode is subject to high current flow due to avalanche breakdown. Unless this current is limited by external circuitry, the diode will be permanently damaged. In case of large forward bias (current flow in the direction of the arrow), the diode exhibits a voltage drop due to its junction built-in voltage and internal resistance. The amount of the voltage drop depends on the semiconductor material and the doping concentrations. A Zener diode exhibits almost the same properties, except the device is specially designed so as to have a greatly reduced breakdown voltage, the so-called Zener voltage. A Zener diode contains a heavily doped p-n junction allowing electrons to tunnel from the valence band of the p-type material to the conduction band of the n-type material. In the atomic model, this tunneling corresponds to the ionization of covalent bonds. The Zener effect was discovered by physicist Clarence Melvin Zener. A reverse-biased Zener diode will exhibit a controlled breakdown and let the current flow to keep the voltage across the Zener diode at the Zener voltage. For example, a diode with a Zener breakdown voltage of 3.2 V will exhibit a voltage drop of 3.2 V if reverse bias voltage applied across it is more than its Zener voltage. However, the current is not unlimited, so the Zener diode is typically used to generate a reference voltage for an amplifier stage, or as a voltage stabilizer for low-current applications. The breakdown voltage can be controlled quite accurately in the doping process. Tolerances to within 0.05% are available though the most widely used tolerances are 5% and 10%. Another mechanism that produces a similar effect is the avalanche effect as in the avalanche diode. The two types of diode are in fact constructed the same way and both effects are present in diodes of this type. In silicon diodes up to about 5.6 volts, the zener effect is the predominant effect and shows a marked negative temperature coefficient. Above 5.6 volts, the avalanche effect becomes predominant and exhibits a positive temperature coefficient. In a 5.6 V diode, the two effects occur together and their temperature coefficients neatly cancel each other out, thus the 5.6 V diode is the component of choice in temperature critical applications. Modern manufacturing techniques have produced devices with voltages lower than 5.6 V with negligible temperature coefficients, but as higher voltage devices are encountered, the temperature coefficient rises dramatically. A 75 V diode has 10 times the coefficient of a 12 V diode. All such diodes, regardless of breakdown voltage, are usually marketed under the umbrella term of 'zener diode'. I conclude: you leak off all your excess current you want. I think I will keep mine.

Are you saying that GM should bust the union ? I can hear the caterwalling and cry for a boycott already, Boxer and Kennedy screaming in outrage. You are under estimating the pension problem. Unions were necessary, but now the pendulum has swung too far their way. You don't see any brick chimney's around here anymore as their unions have priced them right out of a career, chimney's are framed in wood now. I'll bet the packages for foreign car makers in the U.S. are nothing like UAW gives. I probably should state that I have never belonged to a union -- in fact, for 'most any job I ever held, union membership wasn't even an option. Similarly, the only person who ever fights for my job and compels companies to pay what they pay me is -- me. With that out of the way.... Bust the union? No. But GM could have stood a lengthy strike to make the point that benefits were getting "out of hand." The time to do that was years ago, when GM was strong and the UAW was just starting to build on their great benefits. Now all GM needs is one more solid punch and they're down. I still don't understand the "liberal" characterization unless you're using the sloppy meaning in which "liberal" is used to mean "not-pro-business-at-the-expense-of-workers". Didja ever notice that Southwest Airlines is about the only airline out there making money now? While American/Delta/Northwest/United/USAir/etc. are trying to force their employees to work for cheap, SWA keeps right on going. Funny thing is, they're as unionized as the bankrupt carriers. But they've figured out that working with the necessary unions is a better way to go than constantly being at each other's throats. Detroit never learned that lesson, so in addition to some stupid short-term thinking, they have an enemy in the UAW. Brilliant. Motor vehicles is not the only business facing huge pension liabilities. So are airlines. So are city, county, and state governments, because accounting practices let them defer the real cost of paying pensions and now those pensions are coming due. Speaking as someone who has never had anyone guarantee my pension, I think current and future retirees are in for some nasty surprises. What was promised (either by the business or their union) is just not sustainable. Especially if SSI will be handed out indiscriminately and especially for a generation or two that has seen the biggest increase in personal wealth in the history of the U.S. There will be a lot of caterwauling as people realize either they get stiffed a little bit now or they get stiffed a lot later when whoever is providing the pension and health care goes bust. FWIW, my next-door neighbor retired from one of the Big Three about four years ago. He was a line worker and was making in the mid-50s when he left after his 30 years. Including full health coverage for his family. Minus UAW dues. Not too bad for a guy who has no degrees and no certifications. He's d@mn good at what he does, but people in fields requiring far more education and certification are making far less than that even today. Not a bad deal at all.

I so understand the ugly chime box problem! We had a good hardwired doorbell with a pleasant chime and a hideous 1950's plastic wood-grained curlicue-infested box. I had a piece of 4" x 1/4" light wood (it might have been balsa from the craft store) with a bull-nosed edge, so I made a box out of that. I started with an interior frame I nailed together out of scrap 1X2 strips. I stapled a double layer of copper screening over that, and cut the balsa to fit snugly around it. I mitered the cuts on the balsa so the box would look cleanly finished, and painted the box to match the wall. Then I cut two little bits of sticky-back velcro, and stuck them on the upper edge of the chime works and the upper inside edge of the box. It was so light in weight that it only needed a little encouragement to stay up there. Worked like a charm, looked good, and made me inordinately proud of myself!

Thanks to all who posted here and inspired some great discussions and creative ideas. I've been down the Internet rabbit hole and am reporting back on what I've found. Hopefully this can help the next person. First off, it seems there is a reason why all the wireless bells are plastic: "However, wireless signals are affected by metal, so bell pushes should not be placed on UPVC door frames (because of the metal security frame behind the UPVC frame), metal gate posts or where there is foil backed insulation in the path of the chime unit. Similarly some 434MHz systems can suffer interference in particular circumstances (although this is unusual), and the 868MHz models (these are generally the more expensive) do not suffer in this way." (from DoorbellWorld) But there are options! The British in particular have some great solutions and the website DoorbellWorld.co.uk is an amazing resource! The options I like best split into two core categories that I'll summarize below. Mechanical Doorbells: There were doorbells long before there was electricity, and there are some good-looking mechanical options. The second post on this thread shows an antique-style "Mechanical Twist" doorbell. These are designed to go through the door panel with the 'twist' portion on the outside connected via a square rod through the door (or wall) to the 'bell' portion on the inside. You can buy antique or reproductions in a number of popular finishes. Twist Doorbell at Home Depot There are also more modern-looking options - Wind-Up Doorbell and Turn Bell. You can also search for 'Butler Pull Bells' and 'Shop Bells' and see tons of cool options using pulleys, pull chains and ropes. Wired to Wireless: The other main option seems to be connecting a conventional (good-looking) wired doorbell button to a wireless operator and having the wireless doorbell do the work. The YouTube video mentioned above does this: YouTube Wired to Wireless The DoorbellWorld site I mentioned above sells the exact system this person used, but I also found a US equivalent Honeywell Wired to Wireless Converter that says it will do this. This is the route we plan to take and I'll let you know how it goes. If you're not a DIY'er, the following Already Converted Wired to Wireless buttons work with the British wireless operators. They're a little pricier, but come ready to go in a box. Some of the British wireless units are battery-powered, so they should work here as well.