I have no clue...

March 4, 2009 8:08 PM

Please help me identify these electrical thingies in the house we are buying.

We are buying a house built in 1980. There are two electrical-looking thingies and we don't know what they do--neither do the home inspectors, current owner, nor the electricians that we have asked. Please help!

Mystery thingy #1
It is a "green" house from the 1980s, with passive solar heating (internal brick walls heated by sun through southern-facing windows) and it also has two fireplaces. It is possible that these fireplaces were an integral part of the heating system at some point. There is a box attached to the wall next to the basement fireplace. It looks like this inside. What is it?

Mystery thingies #2
These black-and-white capsule-looking thingies are under the porch. There are kennels under the porch, and there is a sprinkler system in the back yard. It is possible that the thingies have something to do with these, but also possible they are unrelated. What the heck are they?

posted by Eringatang to home & garden (21 comments total)

Maybe just me, but I couldn't get an image to appear when I clicked on the links (I turned my adblock off)
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 8:21 PM on March 4

I'm totally guessing here, but could that box be the remains of a thermostat?

Also, like womble, I don't get an image in Firefox. It worked in IE, though.
posted by katillathehun at 8:23 PM on March 4

Links work in IE, not in Firefox. The box thing looks like a timer of some kind, the little capsule things look, inexplicably, like capacitors.
posted by gjc at 8:26 PM on March 4

I could only get the images to load in Safari on OS X for people who have problems.
posted by Science! at 8:28 PM on March 4

The black and white things look like a kind of wire marrette. However the wire looks pretty fine; might be for a phone line or intercom or to control relays.

The MT#1 looks like a timer to me. What does the writing on the circular disk say?
posted by Mitheral at 8:29 PM on March 4

The inside one very much looks like a timer, does that lead out to the kennel area as well? It might have been an old timer for lights, positioned in the house where it was easy to access.

One of your captions says that the wires are seen on the way to the kennels. Those might be capacitors for some old electrical fencing, or some weird wiring for something that used to be in the kennels, can you take closer pictures?

Did you hire an electrician to look at these items, or to verify code compliance? A good electrician who you hired to figure this out will be able to find out what kind of circuit (amps) each is on, and spend some time looking up part numbers etc, he or she will also be able to test them and then disconnect them from the mains so you can pull them out safely.
posted by Science! at 8:36 PM on March 4

This is helpful. There is a control relay box of a kind...I think...here?. Sorry about the link issue, by the way. I don't really have another good place to post them.
posted by Eringatang at 8:38 PM on March 4

The box is definitely a thermostat; you can see the curled bimetallic strip used for sensing the temperature and there's a terminal labeled "FAN." I'm guessing the black and white things are some kind of weatherproof splice protectors.
posted by contraption at 8:38 PM on March 4

The box looks like some sort of HVAC control (which is supported by the fact that it is made by Honeywell and has the word "FAN" on it). The round thing in the middle has numbers from 100-250 on it, but I can't read any of the other writing. It isn't likely to be a thermostat because it is right beside the fireplace, so some sort of ventilation control seems most likely.

The little capsules under the porch look like a splice to me. I think you'd have to follow the wire to see where it goes to get an idea what it is for. Sprinkler system is probably not a bad guess.
posted by ssg at 8:41 PM on March 4

I only have the picture to go on, as the house is in Iowa and I am in Boston. To answer Mitheral's question, I can pick out these words "Honeywell" (suggests thermostat), "Load limit line" and "Fan Line." And it looks like there are numbers on the dial.

Science! We will need to hire an electrician, but I think we need someone who is "specialized." But...specialized in what?
posted by Eringatang at 8:44 PM on March 4

Good point about being right next to the fireplace, ssg. I'd go with not a thermostat for the house, at least.
posted by Eringatang at 8:45 PM on March 4

That Raychem box leads to links mentioning anything from internal telecom systems to T1 lines. I doubt it has anything at all to do with the external bundle or the internal thermostat/timer device and those might not have anything to do with each other at all.

If you're going to be buying this house and no one has given you the facts yet, hire an experienced electrician yourself and ask that the fee be taken off the cost of the house. Even in MeFites can point out exactly what each things is we can't tell you that it's all wired correctly and up to code.

It's off putting that the current owners don't know what this is (if it's disconnected it's really no big deal, unless someone connects it mistakenly in the future), who hired the electrician you mentioned? You need a guy selected by you and who reports only to you to figure this out and how to deal with it at all, let alone point out other oddities in the house's wiring.
posted by Science! at 8:50 PM on March 4

Once I figured out how to get to the full-sized image I was able to see that what I thought was a bimetallic strip is actually just a slot cut into the metal disc, so I'm no longer so sure of my thermostat diagnosis. Could it be a timer that controls a blower fan for the fireplace?
posted by contraption at 8:52 PM on March 4

Sorry, didn't preview. Call out an electrician or two on the same day for a free quick inspection, you're looking for quotes on what needs to be done and if they can handle it (I bet everyone could). Gather quotes from each. Best case, they spend half an hour and say it's all disconnected and you can pull whenever you want. Worst case they say "Holy Cow! and submit a bid for what it will take to bring it up to code, either with their company or with a subcontractor.
posted by Science! at 8:54 PM on March 4

The box-with-disk has connections for load, "fan line", an auto/manual switch(?), and I can't make out the writing on the disk but it would probably be informative if you got a human to, like, read what's written on it. (The picture is also upside-down.) For an 80's-era green house I'm guessing it's a timer+thermostat+fan device either for the trombe wall or for the fireplace.

Not sure about the wiring under the porch but my guess is a splice.

(The gallery thing works in Firefox if you go to "my gallery" and then back to the gallery in question, but it's still a really annoying awkward ui.)
posted by hattifattener at 11:32 PM on March 4

Mystery Thingy #1 is a circulating fan control for some sort of heating device. (scroll down for diagram)

My parents old oil furnace had one of these, newer models are electronic.

#2 is just some hacked together alarm, telephone or intercom wiring.

Not really anything to be too concerned with in either case, in my opinion.
posted by davey_darling at 3:41 AM on March 5

#1 looks like a timer.

Can't see #2 to tell what they are. Where does the wire run?
posted by Pollomacho at 5:14 AM on March 5

Mystery Thing #1 is some kind of thermostat / monitoring system of some type. Some one needs to trace the wire to see were it goes. The wire is surface mounted in that wire mold. follow it to the source - it probably goes to the fire place, if that is so close. It may have controlled an automatic fan in the fire place.

Mystery Thing #2. Each white thing is a splice in wire. It looks like there are a bundle of several together. If it is thin phone wire, then no big deal. phone and cable tv wire are low voltage, and no big deal. If it is thicker electrical wire, then it is a big deal, then it is a fire hazard like that, and it needs to be in an electrical box.
posted by Flood at 5:47 AM on March 5

If the timer thing is near the fireplace, it probably is a thing that circulated hot air away from the fireplace to cooler areas of the house so that the whole house could be comfortably heated with a big fire going.
posted by gjc at 6:41 AM on March 5

The way the conduit runs up the side of the chimney makes me suspect a chimney fan, to solve a smoke problem.
posted by dhartung at 10:06 AM on March 5

Thanks for all of the help, again. Another electrician came by today and they didn't know what the wires under the porch are (again), but they suggested we try the phone company. What I think may have happened is when they put in those kennels they cut a phone or cable line by accident, and that was their splendid repair job. I am nervous b/c our inspection period is over tomorrow and we still don't know what they are, but I'm thinking telecommunications, and they may be totally useless at this point anyway. So, I'll try to relax about them. The fireplace control I'm with everyone who thinks it controls some sort of ventilation and circulation system. Can't wait to learn more about that, but I'm not worried about it.
posted by Eringatang at 9:25 PM on March 5