Ever since we've been in this house, we've had issues with the electricity. There haven't been any fires or anything major that hasn't worked, it's just always *felt* flaky... And the vast majority of the house isn't grounded, which is a real frustration - especially with all the computer equipment we have.

Those of you that know me, know that home repair isn't currently my strong suit, but I can read as well as anyone and I do have a book :-D so, I figured I can at least take a look without having to call the electrician.

So today while I was at work, Betsie went to The Home Depot and bought a neon circuit tester and a continuity tester so I could do some very basic tests on a couple of the light fixtures we suspect are bad. I did some reading tonight and learned quite a bit about basic home electrical wiring (a subject on which I was embarassingly ignorant until tonight) and it really isn't that complicated.

I tested a great deal of the outlets in our house and confirmed that even some of the outlets that have three-pronged receptacles are not grounded. We also discovered that the outlet Betsie's Mac is plugged into is grounded, while the outlet my servers are in is not. :-(

I also learned that the current minimum standard circuit breaker for normal houses is 100-amps. This house has 90. Nice.

I have some more checking to do and can possibly even make some improvements in the computer room and maybe an outlet in the kitchen. It was kinda fun testing, though. :-)