1. I appreciate your concern, but the blower is in the compartment underneath the controls/heater strip area. No smell there. I blew out and vacuumed out the motor area just to make sure there weren't dust goblins everywhere, and then meter checked the motor wiring. I got a few ohms on all the motor wires so I ruled that out as a problem. Plus it was starting and running all the time. I'd figure if it was a motor problem, it would likely be more of an issue starting it instead of turning it off. My troubleshooting the circuits led me to only one problem, the relay board. The old relay board even made Yoda say "The smell is strong in this one." It was the relay that smoked and welded the N.O. contacts together making them permanently closed contacts. So far, for the heater, everything is running just as expected since the new board was installed. It's sitting there idle right now waiting for the next heat call when the temperature drops, although it's about 59 degrees outside right now. So next call might be late tonight.
2. With the separate shop, I had to submit the drawings for a mechanical permit and electrical permit, and then separate post-inspection of each. It has its own "address" (A and a B) and a separate bill of its own, even though it's on the same property. To save time and get it over with faster, I only showed ONE overhead light wired in on my drawing for each switch. The rest of them would just be piggy backed off the others, so it was just repetitive work I could do at my leisure. Inspector laughed and said that was a slick move he didn't see very often, and perfectly legal for home use as additions required no additional inspections unless the building structure changed, like an addition. He said they were mainly concerned with how the box was wired/grounded and how the wiring was installed and coming out of the box, not so much how many loads were on the circuits as long as they didn't see it being overloaded. He knew the deal. Plus, it is a personal home shop, not commercial, so conduit wasn't required everywhere which saved a boat load of money. You get the same requirements basically as house wiring. At least here you do. I even ran my own phone line as a guy at work had an extra half roll of underground CAT5 phone wire he was going to toss. I just crimped clip ends on it, dug a trench and routed it from the house phone box out to the shop.
Wiring up 110/220 is still pretty much the same amount of work. I have a few dedicated circuits. I worked in an industrial environment all my life so every trade imaginable was available for me to go ask those experts if I didn't know something. I'm not one for just crossing fingers. I ask questions because I don't like doing things twice. Or burning shiit up. Plus I had a master electrician working for me that used to work as an commercial electrician who wired up warehouses and homes for a living at one point. He's the one that told me to just put one light on each switch on the drawing. Neat tip and it worked. I basically had walking tech manuals around me everywhere. Now that I'm retired, I have to make sure I remember the things I learned along the way from these folks. I'm sure I could call these guys and they'd have the answers I need or even come help, but I don't really need to bother them unless I get really stuck.
Eh, probably spider webs in the contacts or some crap, doesn't take much.
