Pic Dude wrote:

> > ....
> > to 15 screw connections, and it would only take one slightly loose
> > connection to become corroded and present another several ohms of
> > resistance in the circuit - a definite fire hazard.
>
> There lies my first thought -- a bad connection somewhere.  The
> housing inspectors should easily identify and flag incorrect wire gauge,
> but it would be difficult to notice bad connections.  And since this
> homebuilder is 1 or only 2 for this very large community, my guess is
> that the inspector knows the formen, team, etc very well and most
> inspections get completed with a certain level of complacency or
> nonchalance.
>
> Note: Not accusing anyone of wrong-doing here, just pointing out
> that it's very possible for something to slip thru the cracks once in a
> while.
>
> So perhaps the "easy"  test is to plug in a dozen 15Amp devices
> around the room, and switch them on to full load slowly.  At the
> same time, I'll run around the house with a couple fire extinguishers
> as see where the fire starts.  :-)  :-)  :-)

Close. Put a 15A load at the far end of your circuit, and then go to
each outlet on that circuit with a voltmeter and see were you get
a larger than average voltage drop. That one, or the one before
it in the circuit is where your poor connections lies.
You could also try measuring the voltage at each outlet when under
full load to see which one has a larger than average sag.

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