Blue outlet box nailed to attic truss member. Cover. Power for an attic fan, etc?

[Robert Gift]

No voltmeter but assume 120 VAC. Appears 12/2 Gnd. How labeled in the circuit breaker box?
(May need to connect a turned-on radio with cordless telephone nearby and listen for which breaker turns off.)

Anything better than scrap 2x4s in the truss crotches to allow more comfortable stepping to the distant areas from theast bedroom ceiling hatch?

Probably should install a few outlets in the attic into which cheap thrift store clamp lights are plugged. The lights can be aimed where needed.

If I can get to the exterior wall top plates, is there much chance of getting a wind gauge electrical cable down the same hole as two 14-2 cables and three blue coax cables?
Or are they sealed with foam? Will have to lay plywood boards just to get to that top plate hole.

Thank you

 

[bigb56]

It will depend on the age of the house, older houses won't have foam in the holes but as far as getting additional wires through existing holes, unlikely. Not only because the holes are usually filled to capacity, but the way the Romex angled and is threaded in usually gets in the way of trying to feed more wire. Much easier to drill a new hole in my experience. I use a good sharp self feeding spade bit and if necessary, a Milwaukee right angle attachment on the drill for working at the eaves. If the top plate is triple you may need an extension. A good tip if you have a helper, the helper watches down below in the hole you have already prepared in the sheetrock and when the helper sees the sawdust fall this verifies that you drilled in the correct cavity and that there is no blocking further down. Flexible fiberglass fish sticks can be very useful here.

Walking around in an attic with trusses and deep insulation is a pain, I don't have an easy solution to that besides what you have already thought of. If the insulation is higher than the bottom chord you will have issues even trying to place 2x4s.

If you do outlets in the attic GFCI protection is required as that is an unfinished space.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

For walking in the attic, if there is not a lot of insulation, you can get 3/8 or thicker plywood ripped to 2x8, and fit that into many attics.

If insulation is higher, you have to fit strips on the top of joists to support the plywood. That is a lot harder.

 

[Robert Gift]

It will depend on the age of the house,
If you do outlets in the attic GFCI protection is required as that is an unfinished space.

Thank you.
Built 2000.
OK, drill a hole next to the existing cable and try to force it down the insulated exterior wall to the outlet.

May have to abandon the wind gauge mounted in the 2nd floor open loft. (Optional bedroom by adding a wall.)
With cathedral ceiling beneath the sloped roof even less space in the attic.

May be easier to get the wind gauge cable from roof ridge down the furnace/water heater vent chase - if even possible.
Would along a 2" PVC vent pipe be possible? The pipe goes to the basement for a future bathroom.
Bring cable up from the basement to wife's first floor office.
But as an amateur meteorologist I would like to view the two dials.

Years ago when I was learning to fly, never finished, my flight instructor asked if I had any previous experience.
Told him I was a farm pilot.
"Farmer had me take the manure and pile it here. Take the straw and pile it there."

 

[bigb56]

Thank you.
Built 2000.
OK, drill a hole next to the existing cable and try to force it down the insulated exterior wall to the outlet.

May have to abandon the wind gauge mounted in the 2nd floor open loft. (Optional bedroom by adding a wall.)
With cathedral ceiling beneath the sloped roof even less space in the attic.

May be easier to get the wind gauge cable from roof ridge down the furnace/water heater vent chase - if even possible.
Would along a 2" PVC vent pipe be possible? The pipe goes to the basement for a future bathroom.
Bring cable up from the basement to wife's first floor office.
But I am an amateur meteorologist and would like to view the two dials.

Years ago when I was learning to fly, never finished, my flight instructor asked if I had any previous experience.
Told him I was a farm pilot.
"Farmer had me take the manure and pile it here. Take the straw and pile it there."

If you are fishing wire down an insulated wall you will most certainly need a fish stick, and you'll need to push the stick along one of the wall surfaces so as not to bunch up the insulation. It would be a lot easier to come down an uninsulated interior wall.

Yes if you can get the wire to the basement it will be a lot easier getting it to a low mounted wall box on the first floor. Sometimes a small but long magnetic ball chain can be fed down a wall and picked up with a flexible magnet down below, then used to pull a string back which in turn is used to pull the wire.

Nwere homes make it a bit harder as there are rules about not leaving any draft gaps around pipes and wires and fire blocking is required at a minimum of every 8 feet in most places.

 

[Reach4]

A long flexible drill bit is useful for fishing wires.

Get one with a hole near the tip. You run the drill bit. Tie on a steel wire where it pokes thru. Use that to pull a cord or fish tape back to the drill end of the hole.

https://www.zoro.com/k/flexible-drill-bit/

for longer than 6 ft, you can get an extension.

 

[Robert Gift]

If you are fishing wire down an insulated wall you will most certainly need a fish stick, and you'll need to push the stick along one of the wall surfaces so as not to bunch up the insulation. It would be a lot easier to come down an uninsulated interior wall.
Yes if you can get the wire to the basement it will be a lot easier getting it to a low mounted wall box on the first floor. Sometimes a small but long magnetic ball chain can be fed down a wall and picked up with a flexible magnet down below, then used to pull a string back which in turn is used to pull the wire.
Nwere homes make it a bit harder as there are rules about not leaving any draft gaps around pipes and wires and fire blocking is required at a minimum of every 8 feet in most places.

Thank you.
Ha! In the hole drilled up from the basement through the plywood floor and interior wall sole plate, I used a magnet to attract a nail taped to a polypropylene line.
The line pulled 1/4-inch copper pipe down the wall for our illegal natural gas lamp in the livingroom.
(Now building code wants stainless steel tubing for natural gas.)

The white 14-2 strung across the attic is probably coaxial cable. Have never known of electrical cable not being fastened and just strung across an attic.
Would be nice if coax could pull the anemometer cable up from the wall outlet, but it is probably stapled to the wall stud. This L-shaped desk is in the corner of two 2nd floor exterior walls.

 

[Robert Gift]

LUCKED OUT!
Two coax cables and two 4-pair telephone cables from the attic down the insulated exterior wall to a wall outlet
Telephone and Internet use 3 pairs.
"A" coax for Wind Meter. (The spinning cups on the roof generate DC according to speed. Voltage moves Wind Meter needle.)
"B" coax cable can power the Wind Direction meter which has 8 neon bulbs to indicate direction.
#1 telephone cable has 1 pair unused.
#2 telephone cable has 4 pairs unused.
10 unused conductors = enough for everything.
I just need to get to them and open them to connect wires from the Cape Cod Wind and Weather Indicators.

 

[Robert Gift]

Cape Cod Wind & Weather: Handcrafted Weather Instruments

Bring the beauty & precision of Cape Cod weather Instruments indoors. Find out about our legacy of our handcrafted instruments

capecodwindandweather.com

- If anyone is interested.
Did not know they are that expen$ive.
Found at a garage sale probably because theyvere too difficult to install.

 

[bigb56]

Cape Cod Wind & Weather: Handcrafted Weather Instruments

Bring the beauty & precision of Cape Cod weather Instruments indoors. Find out about our legacy of our handcrafted instruments

capecodwindandweather.com

- If anyone is interested.
Did not know they are that expen$ive.
Found at a garage sale probably because theyvere too difficult to install.

I like that old looking nautical stuff. I'd like to find some old celestial navigation instruments and try my hand at it.

 

[Robert Gift]

I like that old looking nautical stuff. I'd like to find some old celestial navigation instruments and try my hand at it.

So would I.
But likely will never be found or pri¢e wilbe too much to ju$tify purchase.
Goodwill has had some great prices for telescopes. Presumably one has purchased a better telescope and donated their previous telescope to Goodwill.

 

[Reach4]

I like that old looking nautical stuff. I'd like to find some old celestial navigation instruments and try my hand at it.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=sextant In the left column are "Original/Reproduction" and "Time Period, War" selections and more.