Thank you. I try to pay attention. My best friend growing up became an electrical engineer then a PhD Biomedical engineer. We both had similar hobbies (electronics) and both read the NEC (National Electric Code) book when we bought and redid our houses. Don't ask me why I read that stuff, I have trouble finishing novels, they seem like a waste of time to me.
Electricity is something I have always "gotten". I would recommend a few instruments to every homeowner. First and foremost, a voltage sensor. I call it a "tick". It senses AC volts and beeps when nearby without having to contact the wire. Very useful identifying the hot side of an outlet, the hot wire of a cord, and especially whether or not a circuit is energized. Fortunately, I had mine with me at my brother's before I went up a ladder to change the lightbulb of the outdoor fixture I mentioned. Best of all, that tool is the cheapest, less than $20 gets you a real good one. Never touch a wire without testing it first, the tick is the first tool out. Also makes a great gift. ONLY TESTS AC THOUGH!
I also have a clamp on ammeter/voltmeter and ac line splitter. Not as necessary as the tick, but it helps me identify how much current an appliance is drawing. Both can be had at Sears for less than $100.
Lastly, an outlet tester. Less than $10 and it lets you know if an outlet is wired correctly. Identifies reversed phase and missing ground. Very useful and simple especially if you have an older house where the previous owner did things himself without a clue, like the guy my brother bought his house from. An outlet with a reversed phase is probably the worst thing you could plug something into, unless it's a lamp. Instead of the power switch being on the hot wire, it is on the neutral wire, which means the device is always energized because the power didn't stop at the switch, the switch is now breaking the circuit back to neutral. If you have 2 connected audio components plugged into 2 different outlets wherein one outlet is reversed, you just energized the neutral/ground of everything resulting in hum.
