Been trying to untangle the mess that the previous owners left with regards to the wiring in the unfinished part of the basement. I took the residential wiring class at the local community college so I can do all of the basics pretty well, but as with anything the devil is in the details and the mark of the professional is when you don't have a textbook situation.
I spent the day yesterday replacing receptacles in the laundry room which is also on the same circuit as the one other unfinished room in the basement. The receptacles in the laundry room were easy, so I moved on to the unfinished room to replace a receptacle there.
This receptacle received power from the single pull chain light fixture. The receptacle then fed a smoke detector in the finished part of the basement. The light fixture also fed an over head light (separately switched) near the smoke detector. So there were two wires running 15ft across the room to the other room.
I ran one new cable from the pull chain (1st stop for the power) fixture to a junction box to feed the smoke detector and the switched light fixture (eliminated one of the two cables, the one from the receptacle). I then ran new wire to the receptacle because the old cable was in bad shape.
This receptacle was not GFCI protected, so I put one in.
I fear fire......so I always double check my work, which I did this morning.
Questions:
1. Why would the original owner (not the best of workmanship, for sure) have run those two cables to devices only 12" apart? The receptacle ran 15ft to power the smoke detector and the pull chain fixture ran 15ft to power the other overhead light. I eliminated a 15 ft run of cable by splicing the 2 devices into one junction box. A smoke detector pulls minimal amount of power so I don't see a problem.
2. GFCI circuit breakers are superior to GFCI receptacles, right? Should I just pull out the GCFI receptacle and wait for the electrician to replace the panel box (upgrading to 200 amps)? This is directly related to question #3 and my fear of fire......
3. Do GFCI receptacles produce heat? I went in there today just to check on things and noticed that the GFCI box was warm.
4. Should junction boxes EVER feel warm (not hot) to the touch? Is this a symptom of too small a box? My connections are all wire-nutted and then taped. The only thing that gives me pause to worry is that I know that my pliers scratch up the wire ends a bit, but I've been wiring stuff with those pliers for a long time with no problems.
That circuit is switched off at the breaker right now, BTW.