10 Aug
2008
10 Aug
'08
10:01 p.m.
On Fri, 8 Aug 2008, Jules Richardson wrote:
Chuck Guzis wrote:
Okay, I have a similar configuration in my attic. What happened
was that the first electric went to that box. When the service
was upgraded, the new box went to the basement and a line
came up to the attic currently off of a fifty amp circuit
that goes to a fusebox in the basement and then to the attic
fusebox.
i have found old wiring positions in the wall that because of
long dead wiring had no voltage but were still on live lines.
They looked like a fire waiting to happen.
This house dates from 1930.
My previous house was wired in 1905 and I was an early user
of compact florescents because I felt a need to keep the
current down on some of the wiring. This had also been
upgraded at some point after WWII but in an interesting way.
The old box was a rat's nest of wires and they ran wire to
the new fusebox leaving the rest of the house as is.
You could tell when the fridge came on because the lights
dimmed. I'm surprized the previous owner didn't burn the
place down. The fridge was at the end of a medium duty
extention cord.
I upgraded the service and worked on the electricity line by
line starting with the most easily obtainable first floor
boxes.
bs
My own house has its share of "stream of
consciousness" wiring, but
it has a utilities plenum running the length of the building in the
basement where all of the plumbing, heavy-gauge wiring and large
heating ducts are run. So I'm better off than most.
Heh, no such luck here. The house has been semi-rewired in recent past and
it's a total rats' nest down in the basement. As the place was once a working
farm, the service panels look more like something befitting a factory -
breakers and wires aplenty! It's on the list to trace it all out sometime so
that when things do go wrong fault-finding will be a lot easier.
The various out-buildings are a real mix of above-ground and below-ground
power feeds, original 1940's wiring and fuseboxes, more modern cabling, and
"home-made" stuff using any old fixtures and power cord. There's even a
pair
of enormous 150W light bulbs in the garage that look like they might have been
hanging on since the '50s...
For the building where the vintage computers will live, I'm thinking I'll put
a new cable run out to there from the house, fit a new breaker unit, and give
it both 120V and 240V. Cat-5 for network, and RS-232 just for the heck of it -
I'm sure I'll find a use for it.
Oh, I found an ancient fusebox behind a panel in one of the bathrooms (really)
a few weeks ago - it's got power, but no amount of investigation has yet
revealed what it's there for :-)
cheers
Jules