Question about fan noise/white noise to help sleep, and home security

[blake]

I've slept with one of these forever. I can't sleep without one unless I'm somewhere where I can't hear traffic or neighbors. For some reason if I hear other people up when I'm trying to sleep it keeps me awake. They travel well too - I'm in Nashville for work all week and have mine in the bedroom. It helps cover the idiots banging around upstairs at 4am. The problem is my wife is addicted too now so she has one at home.

Your dogs will wake you up if someone comes in.

Also, like someone above said, keep your bedroom door locked. A buddy of mine used to work security in South Africa during the border wars and said most of the time when "simians" came to "get you" the victims only woke up when one is straddling your wife and the other has an AKM to your head. Locked bedroom doors are the best alarm possible. If someone forces through your locked door there is no question that they need to be shot. Flashlights be damned.

 

[glockink]

We also keep a fan running, but between the alarm, dog, and a house full of light sleepers, think we got it covered.

 

[jglenn]

heck I'm slepping through it..... Let the wife shoot them. she's probalby a better shot than I am these days

"sjglenn, here is your sign" now that's funny

 

[sniper22]

It's a requirement of the electrical code that each bedroom be on an arc-fault breaker. That means the lights and outlets are on the same breaker. In retrospect, you would also have to buy a shunt-trip breaker for the project to work properly. Deliberately tripping the breaker by shorting to ground or to another phase could actually cause a fire in the panel depending on the fault-current ratings of the breakers (usually 10,000 AIC in a house) and the fault-current rating of the transformer the house is fed from. Just food for thought.

You are correct. Most people who use fans for "white" noise, use box style fans plugged into a hall way which should be on a seperate breaker from the bedroom. The only time lights and outlets should be on the same breaker is in bedrooms or closets. As far as shunting a breaker goes you can use a low voltage relay from the alarm system to trip a high voltage relay for the circuit which could be reset with the alarm system. I don't have the code book in the truck at the moment but I can look it up tonight if you want the code on lights and outlets. But you are correct as far as the arc fault breakers in the bedroom. And who know the code could have changed in the last two years.

 

[Wheeler]

I can give you the 2008 NEC references but not the 2011 at this time. (I've got a couple of code books too. ) The typical installation now is to run a branch circuit from the panel to each bedroom, feed the outlets, then feed the lights from the outlets. I had an issue with the wording in the code book because it didn't allow for separate lighting circuits should the home owner want to install a whole house dimming system without extra wiring to all the rooms.

Regardless, we've gotten away from the OPs original intent.

 

[sniper22]

Yeah. We've gotten way off. The reason I said the lights and outlets should be seperate is due to most houses us 12ga wire on the outlets so they can get more on them and lights "should" only use 14 ga and we both know you don't mix wire size on a circuit. It really depends on the age of the house. Either way it's irrelevant and to some point we are both correct. I don't think I've even looked in an 08 book. I believe mine is 03.