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Roy DaltonThe Homeowner's Electrical Library

37 electrical mistakes, in plain language

Know what you’re paying for before the work starts

A quote, a warm outlet, a tripped GFCI, or a panel recommendation can leave you unsure what to ask next. I wrote these books to give you plain questions and observable details to bring to the conversation.

Sound on — Roy explains the whole set in under 3 minutes

Watch with sound on; Roy walks through the offer and the questions behind it.

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4 books · 258 pages · 37 mistakes · 12 printable tools

4Books
258Pages
37Mistakes, each with what to ask
30Day money-back guarantee

Sound familiar?

When the quote is bigger than the explanation

When a recommendation arrives in technical language, the useful question is often simpler: what was found, what does it affect, and what work follows from it?

  • A panel-replacement quote arrives before anyone has shown you the actual finding that prompted the recommendation.
  • A warm receptacle, a cheap replacement that droops again, or a two-prong outlet leaves you deciding what deserves attention first.
  • Two wires under one breaker screw, a breaker bigger than the wire it feeds, or a panel brand you don’t recognize turns a short conversation into a jargon test.
  • A space heater trips a power strip, or aluminum branch wiring enters the conversation, and the next question is what the evidence actually says.
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The books

Three books, 37 mistakes, and the field guide

The Mistakes in Your Walls, book one

The books / 01

The Mistakes in Your Walls

Book one · The homeowner's in-wall electrical handbook

Fourteen mistakes hiding behind your cover plates, and the sign each one leaves on the room side of the wall.

Most wiring mistakes in a house were made by somebody before you, and then the drywall went up. This book walks through fourteen of them: the outlet that tests “grounded” because someone put a jumper behind it, the terminal that was never tight, the splice buried in a wall with no box, the GFCI protection that was never there, the fixture hanging from drywall alone, and the aluminum-wiring question. I found the bootleg ground in my own second house, and a cheap replacement outlet in my first one went warm on me. For each mistake you get how to spot it, how urgent it really is, what the fix usually costs, and the question to ask the electrician who does the work.

Selected chapters

  1. The Outlet That Makes a Promise
  2. The Bootleg Ground
  3. The Terminal That Was Never Tight
  4. Heat, Buzzing, and the Burn Mark
  5. Where GFCI Protection Is Missing
  6. A Splice Needs a Box
  7. The Fixture Needs More Than Drywall
  8. Aluminum Wiring Is a Question, Not a Sentence

56 pages · 14 mistakes · PDF

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The Mistakes in Your Panel, book two

The books / 02

The Mistakes in Your Panel

Book two · The homeowner's panel-reading handbook

Eleven breaker-box mistakes you can spot without opening anything, and exactly what to ask the electrician who does.

The panel is where a small detail can turn into a large quote, and where a real problem can sit behind a closed door for years. This book covers eleven of them: two wires under one breaker, a breaker bigger than the wire it protects, open holes where a breaker used to be, a directory that tells the wrong story, tandem breakers past their limit, neutrals and grounds sharing a bar where they shouldn’t, rust, the split-bus panel, and the brand names that change the conversation. It ends with the upgrade that needs a load calculation before anybody prices it. Every chapter tells you what a photo can show, what it can’t, and what to ask before you say yes.

Selected chapters

  1. Two Wires on One Breaker
  2. A Bigger Breaker Does Not Make Bigger Wire
  3. Open Holes, Missing Fillers
  4. The Directory That Tells the Wrong Story
  5. Tandem Breakers Have a Limit
  6. Where Neutrals and Grounds Must Part
  7. The Brand Name That Changes the Conversation
  8. The Upgrade That Needs a Load Calculation

63 pages · 11 mistakes · PDF

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The Mistakes You Plug In, book three

The books / 03

The Mistakes You Plug In

Book three · The homeowner's add-on equipment handbook

Twelve mistakes with heaters, cords, generators, EV chargers and solar, and what to check before the next big thing goes in.

Most houses were wired for the life somebody lived in them decades ago. Then came the space heater, the window unit, the car charger, the hot tub, the generator. This book covers twelve mistakes people make adding load to circuits that were never sized for it: the heater on a power strip, the extension cord that became permanent wiring, the generator connected through a dryer outlet, the adapter that changes the plug but not the capacity, the plug-in solar product before the utility says yes, and the breaker you keep resetting. I made the power-strip one myself, in my first house. Same four answers for every mistake: how to spot it, how urgent it is, what the proper fix costs, and what to ask.

Selected chapters

  1. The Space Heater on a Convenient Outlet
  2. The Extension Cord That Became the Wiring
  3. The Power Strip Plugged Into Another Power Strip
  4. The Generator Connected Through a Dryer Outlet
  5. The EV Charger on a Circuit That Was Never Sized for It
  6. The Plug-In Solar Product Before the Utility Says Yes
  7. The Battery Backup With Nowhere Safe to Send Power
  8. The Breaker You Keep Resetting

62 pages · 12 mistakes · PDF

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Before You Call an Electrician, the field guide

The books / 04

Before You Call an Electrician

Included · The homeowner's field guide

For the ten minutes before you say yes: what’s dangerous, what it should cost, and what to ask.

This was my first book, and it’s the one to open when somebody is coming to the house. It starts with four pages for the moment there’s a truck in the driveway, then covers the 30-minute walk-through, the panels insurers won’t cover, old-house wiring, the twelve warning signs of an electrical fire, and eighteen common repairs priced low, typical and high, with the retail cost of the part beside each. The back of the book is twelve printable tools, including the Service Call Defense Card, the Fair-Price Reference and the Two-Quote Worksheet. On its own it sells for $27, the same price as the whole set.

Selected chapters

  1. The 30-Minute Walk-Through
  2. The Panels Insurance Companies Won’t Cover
  3. Old-House Wiring Decoded
  4. The 12 Warning Signs of an Electrical Fire
  5. What Things Actually Cost
  6. The Five Questions That Make a Crook Leave
  7. Do It, Inspect It, Never Touch It
  8. The Connections Behind the Plate

77 pages · 12 printable tools · PDF

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Inside the books

A practical way into the shelf

Start with the moment you are in, then move to the part of the house or equipment involved. The set is arranged to help you ask a clearer question before you decide what to do next.

  1. Before the visit — Before You Call an Electrician

    Open this first when you have a service call to schedule or a recommendation to question. Its four Start Here pages are written for the ten minutes before you say yes.

  2. When the evidence is in the walls — The Mistakes in Your Walls

    Choose this when the concern is an outlet, hidden wiring, a tester that says “correct” when you are not sure it is, or aluminum branch wiring. Start with what you can see from the room.

  3. When the issue reaches the panel or the plug

    Read The Mistakes in Your Panel for breaker and panel questions; read The Mistakes You Plug In for receptacles, power strips, space heaters, and appliance decisions.

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Look inside

See the pages before you buy

Four real pages, one from each book. Tap a page to read it full size. The whole Bootleg Ground chapter is free just below.

4 books · 258 pages

Page 12 — The Bootleg Ground, from The Mistakes in Your Walls
Page 12 — The Bootleg Ground, from The Mistakes in Your Walls ↗
Page 9 — Two Wires on One Breaker, from The Mistakes in Your Panel
Page 9 — Two Wires on One Breaker, from The Mistakes in Your Panel ↗
Page 9 — The Space Heater on a Convenient Outlet, from The Mistakes You Plug In
Page 9 — The Space Heater on a Convenient Outlet, from The Mistakes You Plug In ↗
Page 63 — The Fair-Price Reference, from Before You Call an Electrician
Page 63 — The Fair-Price Reference, from Before You Call an Electrician ↗
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Read a free chapter

The Bootleg Ground, the whole of Chapter 3 from The Mistakes in Your Walls: the outlet that tests “correct” because someone hid a jumper behind it, what that jumper is covering up, and what the proper fix involves.

Open the free chapter ↗

Your order

$27 once. No subscription. Yours the moment you check out.

The four books in The Homeowner's Electrical Library

The Homeowner's Electrical Library

All three Mistakes books, 37 mistakes from the walls to the panel to the things you plug in, plus my field guide for the day somebody is coming to the house.

What you get for $27:

  • Book one The Mistakes in Your Walls … 14 mistakes hiding behind your cover plates. 56 pages.
    $19
  • Book two The Mistakes in Your Panel … 11 breaker-box mistakes you can spot without opening anything. 63 pages.
    $19
  • Book three The Mistakes You Plug In … 12 mistakes with heaters, cords, generators, chargers and solar. 62 pages.
    $19
  • Field guide Before You Call an Electrician … 18 priced repairs and 12 printable tools. 77 pages.
    $27
Bought separately$84 $27

The field guide alone is $27. Get the set for the same price and the three Mistakes books come with it.

Get all four books · $27

One payment · Yours to keep

30-day money-back guarantee

If the books don’t help, message me within 30 days and you get every dollar back. No questions, and you keep the files.

All four books as PDF · Nothing is shipped · Payment through Whop

Roy Dalton

From the author

A homeowner with no panel to sell you

I’m a homeowner, not an electrician, and I’ve never held an electrical license. I’ve owned four houses and paid for electrical work in every one of them, two of them with two-prong outlets. That’s where I learned the difference between a problem somebody can show you and a recommendation you’re asked to take on faith.

I don’t sell electrical work, panels or inspections. What I do is read: the electrical code, product instructions, the safety agencies’ published findings, and the comments working electricians leave under my videos. They correct me when I get something wrong, and I read every correction. Each mistake in these books points to the code section or published finding behind it, so you can check me.

— Roy Dalton

Get all four books $27

Instantly after checkout · 30-day money-back guarantee · One payment, no subscription

30-day money-back guarantee

Use the books on a real quote or a real problem in your house. If they don’t help, message me within 30 days and you get every dollar back. No forms, no explanation needed, and you keep the files.

Get all four books $27

Instantly after checkout · 30-day money-back guarantee · One payment, no subscription

This is for you if

Who I wrote these for

This is for you if

  • You own a house, or you’re about to, and you want to know what you’re looking at before anybody quotes you.
  • One of my videos sounded like your house, and you want the rest of the list.
  • You’d rather ask one good question up front than argue about a bill afterwards.

What these books will not do

  • Turn you into an electrician. Nothing in them asks you to open a panel or work on anything live.
  • Replace the National Electrical Code, your local code, manufacturer instructions, a permit, an inspection, or a licensed and insured electrician who has seen your house.
  • Take sides against electricians. Most are honest. The books help you have a clearer conversation with the one you hire.
Get all four books $27

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For the questions that follow you home

For the questions that follow you home

AI-generated illustration of a potential reader.

You have a service call to prepare for

Start with Before You Call an Electrician. It gives you plain questions for the quote, the recommendation, and the conversation at your own panel or outlet.

AI-generated illustration of a potential reader.

You need to slow down a panel recommendation

Use The Mistakes in Your Panel to put double taps, oversized breakers, open slots and panel brands into words you can take back to the conversation.

AI-generated illustration of a potential reader.

You are sorting out walls and plug-in loads

Use The Mistakes in Your Walls and The Mistakes You Plug In when the question is a warm outlet, aluminum wiring, a power strip, a space heater, or what a plug tester really tells you.

AI-generated illustrations of potential readers.

Get all four books $27

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Before you buy

Questions

Do I need electrical experience to read these books?

No. I wrote them for homeowners who can start with what they noticed or were told, then ask for the relevant detail in plain language.

What books are in the set?

The Mistakes in Your Walls, The Mistakes in Your Panel, The Mistakes You Plug In, and Before You Call an Electrician. Four PDF books, 258 pages in all.

What format do I receive, and when can I download it?

All four are PDFs. Right after checkout you land on a download page with all four. They’re also saved in your Whop account under Files, using the email you paid with, and future editions show up there at no extra charge.

Can I read the PDFs on any device or print them?

Yes. They open on any phone, tablet or computer, and the printable tools in the back of Before You Call an Electrician are made to be printed.

What if the books aren't what I expected?

Message me within 30 days and you get every dollar back. No forms, no explanation needed, and you keep the files.

Is there a free sample?

Yes. The Bootleg Ground, the whole of Chapter 3 from The Mistakes in Your Walls, is free to read before you buy.

Are you a licensed electrician?

No. I’m a homeowner, not an electrician, and I’ve never held an electrical license. The books tell you what to look at and what to ask. The work itself belongs to a licensed electrician.

Can these books replace a code, permit, inspection, or electrician?

No. They are not a substitute for the National Electrical Code, your local code, manufacturer instructions, a permit, an inspection, or a licensed and insured electrician who has seen your house.

Do you sell electrical repair services?

No. I don’t sell electrical work, panels or inspections. This shop sells books.

Get all four books $27

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Start with the one you already know

If a video of mine sent you here, you’ve already seen what one of these mistakes looks like in a real house. The three books cover 37 of them, with the same four answers every time, plus the field guide for the day somebody comes out. Read the free chapter first if you like, then decide.

Get all four books $27

Instantly after checkout · 30-day money-back guarantee · One payment, no subscription