Electrical Outlets for the Dummy Homeowner

circuit tracer tone generator

We have to admit that, at times, the questions that people ask online make us shake our heads in utter astonishment. Unfortunately, the answers that people like the freelancers at eHow.com provide to those questions are even more amazing in their craziness. We're thinking of the combination of question (from some unknown person for an unknown reason) and the answer written by eHowian Elizabeth Punke. The question? "How to Find Hidden Electrical Outlets"; stashed over at HomeSteady.com by Leaf Group.

Punke's opening salvo suggests that she lives in a pretty scary world:

"If you have recently bought a new home, or have had renovations done by a professional team, there is a good chance your outlets might be covered by a wall."

We're here to tell you that any "professional team" that covers an outlet up should lose whatever licenses they have. At least in North America (where Punke lives), the electrical code expressly forbids this. You can't even remove the plug, turn the box into a junction, and cover it with drywall: that's considered a fire hazard.

Punke in all her expertise informs us that,

"By locating your hidden outlets, you can have peace of mind knowing all of your electrical wires are accounted for."

Yeah, sure: everyone has hidden outlets... so let's see how Elizabeth thinks we should do this. First, we get a tone generator. Ummm, yeah, I'll run right out and buy one, and then,

"Locate your breaker or fuse box to begin tracing wires. Turn the power off to the home so you avoid electrocution while working closely with wires. Select a set of poitive [sic] and ground wires that run from the box to the rest of the home... Connect the red wire from the tone generator to the red wire from your home electricity."

Wait, what? the red wire? Sorry, Elizabeth, there are no red wires in a 120-volt circuit (except within a three-way switch loop). And then there's,

"Connect the black wire from the tone generator to the black wire in the house. This is the ground wire, not the negative (standard white) wire."

Wait, what? Black is ground? White is negative? WTF? Well, we took the plunge and looked up Punke's "reference": She got this information from – get this! – an article at the Rainbird website telling people how to troubleshoot their in-ground sprinkler system!

That's right, eHow.com's "expert" knew so little about home wiring that she confused it with a sprinkler system. Not only is Punke ignorant of the National Electrical Code, she's just plain ignorant! But don't worry, Elizabeth: ignorance is chief among the criteria for naming our Dumbass of the Day... like you!

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