How the house actually works. Breakers, GFCIs, P-traps, and the rest.
Setup
Below are 20 items about how our house works, five in each section. Go through each one. Use Grok, Google, the library, or any people you know to figure out what it does, where it is in the house, and be ready to answer questions about it.
Task
Kitchen and bathrooms first. Find one. Press TEST (the outlet should die), then RESET. What is it for, and can one GFCI protect a whole circuit?
Try RESET on nearby GFCIs first. If that doesn’t wake it, go to the panel and look for a breaker that isn’t fully ON. How can you tell which one tripped? Don’t flip breakers without a parent.
Look at a regular wall outlet. The slots have shutters so a single object won’t go in. Find one, and figure out why ours have them.
Find the panel. A breaker is a switch that can shut off one circuit. Try to match a room to a breaker. Don’t flip anything without a parent.
Start outside. Find the meter. What is it counting? Then follow the path to where power comes inside.
Task
Look under a sink. Find the U-shaped pipe. What does it do, and why is it shaped like that?
Follow the incoming line. Find the valve that can stop the whole house. Know it. Don’t shut the house off unless a parent says to.
Outside, near the street. That’s the city’s side. Find it so you could show someone where to shut it off there too.
Find the tank. What does it do, and what problem in our water is it solving?
There are two: reverse osmosis (RO) and the one at the fridge. Find both. What is each for, and what water do you drink from each?
Task
Find the supply vents. Feel for air with the system on. That’s how heated or cooled air gets into the rooms.
Look for return grilles. They’re often larger, on a wall or in a hallway. That’s where stale air leaves the rooms and goes back to the system.
This house brings in outdoor air on purpose. Find that path, not just a cracked window.
Find the indoor unit and the outdoor unit. Which one is which, and what does each do?
The wall-mount Lunos in the basement move air through the walls. Bath fans dump moist air outside. They are not the same job. Find one of each, and say what each is for.
Task
These are the light switches that can be programmed. Find a few. What can they do that a plain switch can’t?
This is the brain of the house Wi-Fi. Find the box. What does it do, and what plugs into it?
Look up in the basement. Find a speaker. What plays through them, and what do they connect to?
It’s in the attic. Find it (or ask how to). What signal is it catching, and where does that feed go?
Start outside. Follow the path from the yard to the inside, then to the router. Where does it arrive, and where does it come in?
