As part of my head-scratching discoveries in my new (well, newly purchased 50+ yr old) home, I found a circuit with 14 AWG wiring on a 20 Amp breaker powering no less than 4 rooms to include a ceiling fan, garbage disposal, outlets, washing machine, and the list goes on... I have learned 20 Amp breaker on 14 AWG wiring is essentially safety-defeating so I plan to change it to a 15 Amp breaker. The point of my post however is related to the washing machine. When it runs, I get a strobe light effect from my ceiling fan light. This is only with the ceiling fan light (no fan) and another overhead light on. I plan to run a new 12/2 line to the washer using that 20 Amp breaker that I just replaced. The current setup has the wire running from the roof joist directly on the masonry (the washer is in the basement) to a metal box where the outlet is. Is this an allowable setup or should I use some type of conduit? If conduit, can it be wiremold (which I think might be easier for a DIYer) or should it be steel/PVC conduit?

Rather seemingly contradictory? You can use such a spray, and do an ohms test, and it shows it does not conduct. Even if the probes are in the substance almost touching each other. Yet, when you spray two conductors with it, it conducts through the film of it?! You would think that if it is a non-conductor, it would behave in the same way as if the terminals say had oxidation on them. [BTW - I just conducted that very experiment(see next paragraph) minutes ago, to make sure I knew what I was talking about, and it is what I expected, and true to what I have described.] If you take say WD-40 and put some in a cup and put tester probes in it, even almost touching, it shows it does not conduct. An ohms meter does not move one iota from the "open" position. Yet, if you spray it in your distributor cap, it will displace the moisture, but the electrical current will be able to go to the contacts wirthout being "open", and without cross connecting between other terminals(as would happen if it WERE a condcutor). And if you spray it on battery posts and put the battery cables on the posts, current can get through the film. This is one of these things where many of you may have not really given this any thought. But now that I bring it up, it may elicit a....... "Yeahhhh, why IS that?" If you say that it behaves this way because even though it is a non-conductor, it is [i]electrically neutral[/i](as in......it doesn't 'conduct', but it doesn't 'not conduct', either), explain in detail what you are are trying to define. Just don't use terms, only. Explain the 'why'. The 'how come'.