I plugged in a lamp and it blew a circuit out in one of my rooms and how should i get the power back in that room and my circuit box has no map. PLEASE HELP ME S.O.S
something similar happened to my great granddad's place had an older house, modernized the circuit breaker by my grandfathers request and everything was fine that is until one day all the light bulbs and one tv blew all the same day. need less to say city was called and couldn't find anything wrong. well 4 more tvs, an a/c, and a refrigerator later it was found out by the city that a transformer was pumping too much power into the meter.. i still never learned why that is or what caused it
My grandpa's house was built in 1958 and still had the fuse box up until seven years ago. It originally had ten 120v circuits and was added onto three times. The first add-on had four 120v circuits, the second one had two 240v circuits and the third one had one 240v circuit. It served its purpose well until he decided to convert to all-electric and update the wiring, which required him to go to circuit breakers. He has more breakers than he ever did fuses. What year was your house built?
The only real problem with fuse boxes is that there was a temptation for people to install larger amp fuses in place of proper size fuses when the proper fuses kept blowing. Like any other device, when used and maintained properly, there is nothing unsafe about a fuse box. I actaully prefer the build quaility of older electrical equipment, they used ample amounts of brass and copper in conductive parts, and beefy bakelite and porcelaine for insulators.
These kinds of things are very reliable. My house also has a older fuse box - I believe the production date is early '50s. In great shape and I'll never replace it unless it actually fails.
These older boxes are nice and reliable, mostly because when you get right down to it, there isn't a whole lot to them. Unless a contact point or something similar physically breaks/oxidizes/etc there isn't much room for a screwup.
The house I grew up in was built in 1941 and it had the original fuse box in it up until about two weeks ago. Never had an issue with but the main cable coming into the house started to fall apart. Since it all had to be ripped anyway, they put in circuit breakers. Let's see if the new stuff lasts 70 years. Old stuff is just fine as long as the wires themselves are in good condition. Some of that old wire will just fall apart if you touch it, though. :) JC
@BadEditPro I think some modern electrical service equipment could last that long, at least as long as whoever installs it stays away from the really cheap stuff. (I typically insist that stuff like Square D's "Homeline" be avoided. It works, but it's cheap and low end.)
Our wiring is in pretty good shape, apart from some mess that was done in the 1970s. All of that crap has been ripped out and redone properly.
@clubcar98 Not everyone agrees with what I feel is OK, and that's fine. I'm the kind of person who says "if it's working well and looks OK when inspected, what problem is there?" Not everyone feels that way, and that is fine with me. I feel that most of the feedback I received on this video was constructive, and the 30 amp fuses were a problem that should have been (and now is) fixed.
way to put a foot in modernization's ass.. xD Just goes to show that newer isn't always better, but yeah.. I 2nd them branch fuses being too high.. but see if you can get REAL glass ones, not chinkieland replacements that'll burn the place to fuck..
@Sansui350A The local hardware store still carries a few glass bodied fuses, along with the "tamper resistant" S-types. Pretty much everything they carry is a Buss branded fuse, and I think they haven't lost all semblance of quality just yet.
If the neutral burned you end up passing neutral through earth ground which fluctuates with ground moisture. Very dangerous if you walk barefoot in the yard.
The fuse size should match the current rating of the wire on the branch. 14AWG is 15A, 12AWG is 20A and so on. Either 10AWG or 8AWG for 30, I forget but if you put a 30A fuse on a 14AWG branch you risk a fire in the wall. I pulled two of those main/range and 4 circuit fuse boxes out of this house when I stripped the 60A service and went to 200A w/ a Square D breaker box. Each room was on a branch so if you blew a fuse with a plugin, you lost the lights. Separated now w/ 20A outlets 15A lights
this apartment i lived in once for a couple months wean you turned on the microwave the lights would dim in the kitchen i bet that wiring was not up to code
I's good you've gotten an electrician to verify, like everyone else has pointed out, you should replace that fuse box. Before replacing anything, get an electrician to verify that your current wiring system is safe to use. If you have the old Armor Clad wiring, in many cases it should be grandfathered in. You may need to replace only the fuse panel.
Brillent video! Very intresting! and only 60amps whooo, here in my small aparment here in the U.K i have 100amp service thats amazeing as your lovely old house is like twenty times the size woooo but like you sed you have a lot of gas applyances. I know i always ask you this but has there been aney progress on the garage electrics? Keep the videos comeing :-)
Nice vid. I remember a friend of my grandmas having her washer and tv not working right and her husband could not figure out what it was so he called the city and they came out and found that a tree had grown around the neutral wire and the swaying and rusting from the years broke it.
My Dad will enjoy this video. He is an electrician and installed many electrical services. I have helped him on many occasions and this has got to be the cleanest old fuse box I have ever seen !
Something you may consider is having a 200 amp service with a disconnect box installed that has smaller branch circuit slots in it. Attach this fuse box like I did the AC in the video I'm about to send you .
Don't kid yourself. That box is dangerous. Anyone can put in 30 amp fuses or a coin behind them. Same results. Also, carefully check the wires where they exit the weather head. There is likely to be cracked, frayed insulation. Get someone to check it with an IR viewer. Amp readings don't tell the whole story.
@maplewoodsp I'm not kidding myself or anyone else, yet I do stand by what I said and I was clear in the video that the 30 amp fuses do not belong there (and have since been changed--because I should have done it ages ago). There are no issues at the weather head or anywhere else.
I wasn't making things up when I said this service equipment handles the load better than some newer installations I've seen (some of which were questionable).
one of the safest electric wireing ive seen is the old scholl knob n tube wire its air space isnulates aside from the 2 single wires own insulation theres now way for them to contact each other unless they are done intentionaly and andother part knob n tube is even safer if it hasnt been hackup and spliced a million times
@compwiz878 Knob and tube is actually one of the most dangerous. wire covered by rubber covered by cotton and made/installed an era ago is dangerous. if there's a stray spark or the wire is overburdened (resulting in buildup of heat), that stuff'd go up like a bone-dry christmas tree. suffice to say that the modern building code makes K&T installation a violation and most insurance companies absolutely will not insure a house with such wiring.
I think it's a little too modern to be '30s stuff. Knob and tube lasted until the late 20's, do you see any evidence of that? I would guess that's mid '50s or a little later.
'50's conduit in a house is that braided-type that has shellac on it or some kind of tar-type. After that it went to the rubber/plastic sheathing that I see around the box. I'm not a professional so I welcome corrections on this info.
@WhoSaidTyler What I consider to be the "initial" electrical system in this house used knob-and-tube wiring. All that's left of this are a few small lighting circuits. This equipment was added later, and at that point, the wiring was massively modernized. The upstairs was also wired for the first time at this point, as it had not been furnished previously. The "newest" wiring was done in the 1970s and much of it was scary. It has all been ripped out and redone correctly.
You say that old service eqiupment is safe when used correctly, you have 15 amp equipment being "protected" by 30 amp fuses. This is not safe and not legal.
And, just to try and win the pedantry prize...for all you know, there could be 20 amp outlets at the end of those wires. They are heavy enough to run it.
@uxwbill "needed to be changed", change them then dude. You speak in the comments about fuses never blowing, probably because they're double the rating they should be.
Wrong again dude, 30 amp would require 10awg wiring and 30a receptables. You would not be allowed BY CODE to install a 15a or a 20a receptacle at the end of a wire protected by a 30 amp fuse. You're very interested in electricity, I can tell, but I do this stuff for a living.
@rockemsockemredneck I don't mean to sound annoyed or rude. I don't have a very good reason for not having changed these fuses to more appropriate capacities. Maybe I'll take care of that this afternoon because there is "no time like the present". Absolutely everything else is fused appropriately for 15 or 20 amps. That said...my fuses don't blow because I don't push the limits of or abuse the electrical system.
@uxwbill that being said, do change them. It's just not fair that you're preaching your well maintained and safe fuse panel, meanwhile you're doing exactly what you shouldn't putting the wrong fuses in. This is exactly why fuse panels aren't installed anymore, to much is left to the homeowner. In reality, when used properly, a fuse will trip long before a breaker will, so they are safer. What made them unsafe, was people putting in the wrong sized fuses.
@thepaashaas I doubt that, both the NEC and the CEC require that 30a circuits have 30a rated receptacles and 30a rated wire, aka 10awg. 12awg for 20a and 14awg for 15a. This is a North American standard.
I notice by this video that here in Italy we don't use fuses in houses! In my house, until 2003 we didn't even had a RCD, a really dangerous thing to do, we had a really susceptible electric meter when we overloaded over 3kW, then we had half house with new wiring and an RCD, but no fuses, not even really old houses used fuses, to make everything cheap some of them had everything connected right outside the meter!
@MaurizioM89 Fuse boxes are no longer used in North America either. Since the 1950s or 60s, new houses have been required to have circuit breakers instead of fuses. The reason is because it's more difficult for the homeowner to abuse circuit breakers.
I find it hard to believe Italy doesn't use fuses or circuit breakers though.
@captain150 most country houses and like 90% of small town homes didn't had fuses installed under the meters, but that's because most houses were made in the 50s, when like 1% of people owned real electrical equipment so the house had barely lightbulbs (sometimes one used for different rooms). When the 60s economic boom arrived homes were still built cheaply and no fuseboxes.
@captain150 I think it was actually the late 1970's or the 80's that the fuse box was banned in new construction, because my grandpa's house was built in 1958 and still had the fuse box until seven years ago. Plus, my uncle's house was built in 1973 and interestingly enough it has had a fuse box since it was built, although there's a lot more fuses in it than the one in this video. Goes to show how the electrical demand has changed over the years.
@theogt821 That's possible, it may also depend on which state you are in.
The house I'm in currently has a 70 amp main service, which is actually sufficient. The house is almost 100 years old and probably had knob and tube at one point, but appears to have been completely re-wired in the 1960s some time and has a breaker panel.
When I bought my house it had a GE 100 amp panel somewhat like yours except the wiring was knob and tube I lived with it for 1 year or so then replaced the panel and the wiring . Had it inspected by the building inspector and a old electrical excellent guy . He said is was great then my 8k btu came on lights flickered in 2 parts of the house never did that with knob tube . He said it was normal with new boxes . Old boxes made with much better copper he told me.
You are probably right. I don't know what the requirements are for a rental, but here we have breakers. My landlord did indicate one time that one of the other properties they all still has fuses.
Hey Bill, nice panel. I have always been told that people are encouraged to upgrade to break her panels.'s what year was your house built in? Do you blow fuses that much? I live in an older house, and we have breaker panels. Since it is an apartment house, there is one breaker box for every apartment. In my case, my apartment has a main and three breakers. Perhaps, some day I will try and upload a video of yet. From talking to my landlord, my apartment house was built some time in the 20's or 3
@manyvideoinerests This house was built in the early 1900s. It was originally planned to be larger than it is, but the owner went bankrupt. We haven't blown a fuse in a long time, which is as it should be. (Any time fuses blow, the cause needs to be determined and fixed.) Fuses and circuit breakers have their own distinct advantages--circuit breakers can be reset and fuses aren't as sensitive to powerline disturbances that pop breakers.
Your wiring was probably "modernized" in the 50s or later.
@Jerkwad152 This house has copper wiring. What's really bad is the aluminum wiring debacle of the 60s and 70s. Thankfully, that was a bullet dodged by this wiring system.
Aluminum wiring does come into this service equipment, but it seems that the city is still supplying aluminum wire for new service. That is what they provided when the new garage was electrified.
@uxwbill Another Youtube user known as poopoogarret has a video showing exactly how dangerous aluminum wiring is through example with an outlet that arced like crazy. He of course had it repaired and things seem to have been working fine ever since. I will ALWAYS insist on using good old copper wiring in electrical circuits due to its longevity and safety even if the price of copper gets high.
@bratina501 I saw his arcing outlet. It looked very dangerous to me! I use copper wiring only. It's just not worth the chance to me. I'm not sure what to make of the aluminum wiring that the city provides (and apparently insists that anyone use) for the hookup to a building.
@uxwbill I don't know what to make of them providing aluminum wiring other than cutting corners but at the cost of safety. They say that aluminum oxidizes and insulates its self from the terminal strips on whatever is connected with that type of wiring which causes heat build up and arcing. Sounds like an idiotic cost cutting measure to me and nothing else.
@uxwbill I don't think it's worth using aluminium wire even to save money on a service cable, I do believe that aluminium wire is illegal to install for standard 14 and 12 guage house wire now. It was popular to use in the late 60s and early 70s since the price of copper was high at the time. The problem with aluminium is that you need to use the correct wire nuts, outlets, switches, and a special paste to prevent the circuits from opening up or to join onto a copper wire onto it.
@OlegKostoglatov Very true. Aluminum wiring is indeed illegal in modern construction due to the fact that connections can come loose with time due to expansion and contraction. It's a definite fire hazard, so I'm quite surprised that service entrance cable is allowed to be that as I would think the service entrance cable would have the same issues as the wiring within the house. Copper is definitely much safer and has a lot fewer issues with coming loose overtime.
i agree with uxwbill like some of the guys have said before my house was orginial built in 1854 back then it had natural gas lights then in 1904 it was updated with power they rewired the old gas lights for power and them and the orginial 4 breaker fuse box is still in service to this day i did have to add a 220 box for the stove ,water heater and dryer other wise ive never touched the house lights , plugs and even light switches are all orginial
Well made and well maintained vintage equipment is fine!
Everything today is made to a price and rarely has the quality of older products.
My home has the original underground electrical supply dating from 1936...The main distribution panel has circuit breakers which are 25 years old...I've never seen so much as a light flicker...No matter what the load.
You may need to change old wiring in time...But that panel will last for ever treated with respect! :)
Had my service replaced just last month. My home was built in 1902 and it had knob and tube wiring with not a grounded plug in the house. The company that provides my home owner insurance insisted I replace the old wiring immediately, with a threat of cancelling my insurance in early 2012. The wiring was finished and all the power bars with grounds removed were disposed of. The cost of rewiring a home is not cheap but plan on getting the money back when I sell next summer.
The central A/C dimming the lights when it kicks on actually has very little to do with the service distribution, it just has to do with how healthy the compressor in it and start and run capacitors in the air conditioning unit are. Most A/C units don't dim lights at all when they have a hard start kit installed.
@84randomdude There would be a tremendous inrush current to charge the capacitor and start the compressor motor (usually about three times the steady running current, but I'm sure you know that :-) ). Depending upon the health of the electrical system, lights and things may dim due to a voltage drop caused by the sudden high demand for current.
I don't know much about hard start kits or how they change the rules, only that they exist and can get a troublesome compressor going again for a while.
@uxwbill Hard start kits are just put in series with the normal start capacitor to give the compressor a little extra "kick" when it starts. It holds a constant charge from the time it's installed. So, the compressor pulls A LOT less amps on start up, so there's not as much of a sudden demand of current.
You have a gas fired closes dryer????????? I thought only coin launderettes had those, I didn't know people had them in their homes, they mustn't be common down here at all, all clothes dryers I've seen and used here in Australia are completely electric, except of course for public coin launderettes.
@Lachlant1984 Here in the US, you can buy either gas or electric. This house was originally set up for an electric clothes dryer. However, something had gone wrong with the sub-panel, and someone actually hacked out the burned fuse socket and put a wire across it. (!!!!) We ripped all of that out and went to a gas dryer. It already time for a new clothes dryer anyway.
nice old box you have. its odd the way your wiring is done over their. old stuff is good if serviced when needed. you should get gas stove much cheaper to run and cooks better the electric stove tops.
@V8Jagnut when you did a vid of some of your electrical i thought it was strang how it was done down there whatt people aren't used to they find strang and countries are different
@joeyf504327 you are right but it is a bit odd the way you have 110vac and 220vac and all them sub boxes around the house. it normal simple hear. i power box per house with the meter and fuses for the hole house all 240vac with 8A fuse for lighting and 16A fuse for power outlets and sometimes a 30A or so fuse for a/c or stove.
@V8Jagnut well we use 120 volts as our main voltage to use normally house 1 or 2 big breaker pannels near the meter in uxwbills house he has few spread out but we have 2 120 volt main feeds and 1 neutral and to get 240 you combine the 2 120 volt main feeds to power 240 volt appliances normally room out lets and lights are tied to gather on a 20 amp breaker i will make a vid of my house breaker panel next week
@V8Jagnut That's normally how it's done in North America; one main breaker panel.
We have 120v and 240v. Two hot lines come in, along with a neutral and ground. Hot to neutral is 120v (lighting and general purpose outlets), hot to hot is 240v (used for electric clothes dryers, ovens, water heaters and central A/C).
Canada and the US are a bit different. In Canada, receptacle circuits MUST be 15 amp if 15 amp outlets are installed. In the US, 20 amp circuits are allowed with 15 amp outlets.
@V8Jagnut There is so much difference in the way electrical distribution is handled in different parts of the world...it's amazing. I grew up cooking on electric, so it's what I'm used to (and I absolutely love our classic dual-oven Hotpoint stove).
The Roach Palace had a gas stove, but it was a cheap and crappy model that had trouble bringing water to a boil. I am not sure what kind of stove I will buy when it comes time to put a new house on the Roach Palace property.
there is a funky thing relating to brownouts the street i live on gets at least a once a year brownout if not fewer then that. there happens to be a trip switch at the top of a power poll at the end of the street and for the last few years at least once a year after working hours the switch will trip. it was in october last year 2010 they replaced the switch and not more then maybe a month or how ever long later i think it may have been january or so the switch tripped again not a fun time.
This reminds me... 10 years ago when I was still in the Philippines, We have a electric panel, which is in the kitchen cabinet (first floor), and that kitchen cabinet is below the bathroom (second floor). Everytime somebody takes a shower, the panel starts to spark (because there's a leak). As soon as we found out. We didn't use the bathroom.
My parents house which was built in the late teens was know & tubing. My father replaced it in 1970 when he bought the house from his parents. I also remember the old push button switches also.
You showed the wires for your central A/C coming into that box, but where do they tie into? are the A/C wires tapped right into the service with no fuse? I've seen quite a fair share of old screwed up wiring in my life, not too often GOOD old wiring. Only place I can think of that had OK old wiring was my grandma's house (built in 1950 originally with 4 circuits) When we started tearing into it I found all kinds of scary things done with it throughout the house though.
@gusherb94 The A/C wiring is fused by the main, and there is a fused disconnect as well. Probably not the best, but I don't see it as highly dangerous either. Much of the wiring in this house is clearly visible from the basement, in the little "attic" areas and stuff like that. The only truly dangerous stuff we have was a bunch of work done in the early 1970s and done very poorly. All but one example of it has been removed from service and replaced.
@uxwbill Is all the wiring romex? Obviously it looks like old Romex at the panel there. As you would probably know, everything up here in Chicagoland is done in EMT. Only recently have building codes in some suburban towns started to allow romex (which is a wiring method for me that would cause many sleepless nights) Our EMT in our apartment building and our home have saved us from a few potentially tragic disasters over the years.
@gusherb94 Much of the wiring is Romex, only a little knob-and-peg (or knob-and-tube, which seems to be a more popular name) still exists, and it's only been left in place on low wattage lighting circuits.
Nearly all of the work I see done here outside of business and commercial stuff is done with simple Romex wire. For a real eye opener, I ought to tell you about the Roach Palace wiring...
@uxwbill Allegedly, the RP has 100 amp service coming in, but it goes upstairs (of all places) over what looks like stove wire. Not good. There were thirteen or so breakers in the box, only about seven or eight actually seemed to do anything. A couple would mysteriously pop, especially during bad weather. Someone ran Romex underground to an outdoor light (!!!) there. They also tied a bunch of wires together in a bundle, shoved 'em under a rug and baseboard, and called it done.
@uxwbill Perhaps the most startling thing done there was the kitchen wiring--nearly every outlet on one breaker, except for one where the microwave plugged in. Gee, I wonder why?
I've completely disconnected the kitchen and many other things over there. It wasn't worth the chance to me before I can tear the place down.
@uxwbill About the scariest thing i encountered in my grandma's house was finding that the kitchen, dining room, garage, and sunroom were all on the same 15 amp rated circuit with a 30 amp breaker. It was freaky to see the power on when the whole basement and up to 1" before the main level was completely filled with water Looking at the house from up the block you could see the lamp post on during the whole flood (river spilled over it's banks and pumping stations were failing from 3 days rain)
@uxwbill Knob and Tube was very common outside of Chicago. I haven't seen any still in use in person though. Our building in the city wired for electric sometime I suspect in the early 1920's was done in EMT, all of the original wiring (and then some) is in use on the top floor. the two floors below have been rewired. From what video's you've done on the Roach Palace it sounds like a real treat there. If I see electrical that is so worn down or screwed up I just refuse to mess with it at all.
While I would agree with ya on old equipment this is one I do not. I don't like unknown variables. You will never know if there is a defect that will show itself when the proper conditions are met with it whether or it be from wear and tear or etc.Though that can be said about modern stuff as well to. I will for the sake of the record say I've been close to having a my house burn down cause of a fuse block. So I'll admit being biased here.
@JinzoDefiler Personally I'll take any chance I can get to upgrade old wiring. Pretty much all the time chances are many people have come by and hacked the old wiring one way or another over the years. You don't really discover and realize how BAD things really are until you start tearing it all out
@JinzoDefiler There's not much unknown about this. We've had it inspected a few times since moving in here, and we have also taken the time to identify what is controlled by every fuse and circuit breaker in the system--in case there were ever an emergency where someone had to shut off power quickly.
Much of the wiring is pretty clearly visible in some way or another. There are plans to someday upgrade the service to something more modern.
@bburris123 A brownout is the name for a voltage drop beyond the "safe" limits (usually 108-130 volts here in the US). They can happen for many reasons--overloading, transformer failure, distribution faults, poor quality wiring. Incandescent light bulbs tend to glow dimly, while other electrical devices can be harmed from the stress that operating on low or unstable voltage can put them under. The voltage during a brownout is also usually unstable, which causes more havoc.
@redneckbryon The Roach Palace has newer wiring and service equipment than my parents' home, but it's built around cheap service equipment (Square D Homeline) and some truly haphazard wiring. It just goes to show that you can't judge a "book by its cover".
I plugged in a lamp and it blew a circuit out in one of my rooms and how should i get the power back in that room and my circuit box has no map. PLEASE HELP ME S.O.S
paco9ify 1 week ago
@paco9ify Do you have fuses (as shown here) or circuit breakers?
uxwbill 1 week ago
something similar happened to my great granddad's place had an older house, modernized the circuit breaker by my grandfathers request and everything was fine that is until one day all the light bulbs and one tv blew all the same day. need less to say city was called and couldn't find anything wrong. well 4 more tvs, an a/c, and a refrigerator later it was found out by the city that a transformer was pumping too much power into the meter.. i still never learned why that is or what caused it
mrhomer57 3 weeks ago in playlist More videos from uxwbill
My grandpa's house was built in 1958 and still had the fuse box up until seven years ago. It originally had ten 120v circuits and was added onto three times. The first add-on had four 120v circuits, the second one had two 240v circuits and the third one had one 240v circuit. It served its purpose well until he decided to convert to all-electric and update the wiring, which required him to go to circuit breakers. He has more breakers than he ever did fuses. What year was your house built?
theogt821 3 months ago
The only real problem with fuse boxes is that there was a temptation for people to install larger amp fuses in place of proper size fuses when the proper fuses kept blowing. Like any other device, when used and maintained properly, there is nothing unsafe about a fuse box. I actaully prefer the build quaility of older electrical equipment, they used ample amounts of brass and copper in conductive parts, and beefy bakelite and porcelaine for insulators.
OlegKostoglatov 5 months ago
I seems like I'm going to ave a black out every time I turn on my tv.. Our power sucks.
fancysnake1 5 months ago in playlist More videos from uxwbill
@fancysnake1 If that is really happening, you need to find out why. Otherwise something bad may happen.
uxwbill 5 months ago
you got some really interesting video's :-)
TheMrmagnetophon 6 months ago
These kinds of things are very reliable. My house also has a older fuse box - I believe the production date is early '50s. In great shape and I'll never replace it unless it actually fails.
These older boxes are nice and reliable, mostly because when you get right down to it, there isn't a whole lot to them. Unless a contact point or something similar physically breaks/oxidizes/etc there isn't much room for a screwup.
eliw4232 6 months ago
God Bless you Bill. It's a nice piece. And you are right, keep it clean and in good order, it'll run forever.
0Fluxor0 7 months ago
The house I grew up in was built in 1941 and it had the original fuse box in it up until about two weeks ago. Never had an issue with but the main cable coming into the house started to fall apart. Since it all had to be ripped anyway, they put in circuit breakers. Let's see if the new stuff lasts 70 years. Old stuff is just fine as long as the wires themselves are in good condition. Some of that old wire will just fall apart if you touch it, though. :) JC
BadEditPro 7 months ago
@BadEditPro I think some modern electrical service equipment could last that long, at least as long as whoever installs it stays away from the really cheap stuff. (I typically insist that stuff like Square D's "Homeline" be avoided. It works, but it's cheap and low end.)
Our wiring is in pretty good shape, apart from some mess that was done in the 1970s. All of that crap has been ripped out and redone properly.
uxwbill 6 months ago
I see this video got some people to blow their fuses, by some of the comments!
That has got to be one of the cleanest, or cleaner boxes Ive ever seen that is old. I have not seen many, though. Very interesting none the less!
clubcar98 7 months ago
@clubcar98 Not everyone agrees with what I feel is OK, and that's fine. I'm the kind of person who says "if it's working well and looks OK when inspected, what problem is there?" Not everyone feels that way, and that is fine with me. I feel that most of the feedback I received on this video was constructive, and the 30 amp fuses were a problem that should have been (and now is) fixed.
uxwbill 6 months ago
way to put a foot in modernization's ass.. xD Just goes to show that newer isn't always better, but yeah.. I 2nd them branch fuses being too high.. but see if you can get REAL glass ones, not chinkieland replacements that'll burn the place to fuck..
Sansui350A 7 months ago
@Sansui350A The local hardware store still carries a few glass bodied fuses, along with the "tamper resistant" S-types. Pretty much everything they carry is a Buss branded fuse, and I think they haven't lost all semblance of quality just yet.
uxwbill 6 months ago
If the neutral burned you end up passing neutral through earth ground which fluctuates with ground moisture. Very dangerous if you walk barefoot in the yard.
rhblakeman 7 months ago
The fuse size should match the current rating of the wire on the branch. 14AWG is 15A, 12AWG is 20A and so on. Either 10AWG or 8AWG for 30, I forget but if you put a 30A fuse on a 14AWG branch you risk a fire in the wall. I pulled two of those main/range and 4 circuit fuse boxes out of this house when I stripped the 60A service and went to 200A w/ a Square D breaker box. Each room was on a branch so if you blew a fuse with a plugin, you lost the lights. Separated now w/ 20A outlets 15A lights
rhblakeman 7 months ago
this apartment i lived in once for a couple months wean you turned on the microwave the lights would dim in the kitchen i bet that wiring was not up to code
dos541 7 months ago
I's good you've gotten an electrician to verify, like everyone else has pointed out, you should replace that fuse box. Before replacing anything, get an electrician to verify that your current wiring system is safe to use. If you have the old Armor Clad wiring, in many cases it should be grandfathered in. You may need to replace only the fuse panel.
cgillyard 7 months ago
Brillent video! Very intresting! and only 60amps whooo, here in my small aparment here in the U.K i have 100amp service thats amazeing as your lovely old house is like twenty times the size woooo but like you sed you have a lot of gas applyances. I know i always ask you this but has there been aney progress on the garage electrics? Keep the videos comeing :-)
flipflop595 7 months ago
Nice vid. I remember a friend of my grandmas having her washer and tv not working right and her husband could not figure out what it was so he called the city and they came out and found that a tree had grown around the neutral wire and the swaying and rusting from the years broke it.
jdman1930 7 months ago
My Dad will enjoy this video. He is an electrician and installed many electrical services. I have helped him on many occasions and this has got to be the cleanest old fuse box I have ever seen !
Something you may consider is having a 200 amp service with a disconnect box installed that has smaller branch circuit slots in it. Attach this fuse box like I did the AC in the video I'm about to send you .
jefferyb304 7 months ago
Don't kid yourself. That box is dangerous. Anyone can put in 30 amp fuses or a coin behind them. Same results. Also, carefully check the wires where they exit the weather head. There is likely to be cracked, frayed insulation. Get someone to check it with an IR viewer. Amp readings don't tell the whole story.
maplewoodsp 7 months ago
@maplewoodsp I'm not kidding myself or anyone else, yet I do stand by what I said and I was clear in the video that the 30 amp fuses do not belong there (and have since been changed--because I should have done it ages ago). There are no issues at the weather head or anywhere else.
I wasn't making things up when I said this service equipment handles the load better than some newer installations I've seen (some of which were questionable).
uxwbill 7 months ago
one of the safest electric wireing ive seen is the old scholl knob n tube wire its air space isnulates aside from the 2 single wires own insulation theres now way for them to contact each other unless they are done intentionaly and andother part knob n tube is even safer if it hasnt been hackup and spliced a million times
compwiz878 7 months ago
@compwiz878 Knob and tube is actually one of the most dangerous. wire covered by rubber covered by cotton and made/installed an era ago is dangerous. if there's a stray spark or the wire is overburdened (resulting in buildup of heat), that stuff'd go up like a bone-dry christmas tree. suffice to say that the modern building code makes K&T installation a violation and most insurance companies absolutely will not insure a house with such wiring.
HappyDiscoDeath 7 months ago
I had a fusebox like that. I repelced it with a 100 amp circuit breaker.
Paulywint 7 months ago
I think it's a little too modern to be '30s stuff. Knob and tube lasted until the late 20's, do you see any evidence of that? I would guess that's mid '50s or a little later.
'50's conduit in a house is that braided-type that has shellac on it or some kind of tar-type. After that it went to the rubber/plastic sheathing that I see around the box. I'm not a professional so I welcome corrections on this info.
WhoSaidTyler 7 months ago
@WhoSaidTyler What I consider to be the "initial" electrical system in this house used knob-and-tube wiring. All that's left of this are a few small lighting circuits. This equipment was added later, and at that point, the wiring was massively modernized. The upstairs was also wired for the first time at this point, as it had not been furnished previously. The "newest" wiring was done in the 1970s and much of it was scary. It has all been ripped out and redone correctly.
uxwbill 7 months ago
It's nice to seem something manufactured so long ago still on the job. They used to build stuff to last.
MAG315 7 months ago
You say that old service eqiupment is safe when used correctly, you have 15 amp equipment being "protected" by 30 amp fuses. This is not safe and not legal.
rockemsockemredneck 7 months ago
@rockemsockemredneck ...which I said needed to be changed in the video.
And, just to try and win the pedantry prize...for all you know, there could be 20 amp outlets at the end of those wires. They are heavy enough to run it.
uxwbill 7 months ago
@uxwbill "needed to be changed", change them then dude. You speak in the comments about fuses never blowing, probably because they're double the rating they should be.
Wrong again dude, 30 amp would require 10awg wiring and 30a receptables. You would not be allowed BY CODE to install a 15a or a 20a receptacle at the end of a wire protected by a 30 amp fuse. You're very interested in electricity, I can tell, but I do this stuff for a living.
rockemsockemredneck 7 months ago
@rockemsockemredneck I don't mean to sound annoyed or rude. I don't have a very good reason for not having changed these fuses to more appropriate capacities. Maybe I'll take care of that this afternoon because there is "no time like the present". Absolutely everything else is fused appropriately for 15 or 20 amps. That said...my fuses don't blow because I don't push the limits of or abuse the electrical system.
uxwbill 7 months ago
@uxwbill that being said, do change them. It's just not fair that you're preaching your well maintained and safe fuse panel, meanwhile you're doing exactly what you shouldn't putting the wrong fuses in. This is exactly why fuse panels aren't installed anymore, to much is left to the homeowner. In reality, when used properly, a fuse will trip long before a breaker will, so they are safer. What made them unsafe, was people putting in the wrong sized fuses.
rockemsockemredneck 7 months ago
@rockemsockemredneck
It is where I come from (A)
thepaashaas 7 months ago
@thepaashaas I doubt that, both the NEC and the CEC require that 30a circuits have 30a rated receptacles and 30a rated wire, aka 10awg. 12awg for 20a and 14awg for 15a. This is a North American standard.
rockemsockemredneck 7 months ago
I notice by this video that here in Italy we don't use fuses in houses! In my house, until 2003 we didn't even had a RCD, a really dangerous thing to do, we had a really susceptible electric meter when we overloaded over 3kW, then we had half house with new wiring and an RCD, but no fuses, not even really old houses used fuses, to make everything cheap some of them had everything connected right outside the meter!
MaurizioM89 7 months ago
@MaurizioM89 Fuse boxes are no longer used in North America either. Since the 1950s or 60s, new houses have been required to have circuit breakers instead of fuses. The reason is because it's more difficult for the homeowner to abuse circuit breakers.
I find it hard to believe Italy doesn't use fuses or circuit breakers though.
captain150 5 months ago
@captain150 most country houses and like 90% of small town homes didn't had fuses installed under the meters, but that's because most houses were made in the 50s, when like 1% of people owned real electrical equipment so the house had barely lightbulbs (sometimes one used for different rooms). When the 60s economic boom arrived homes were still built cheaply and no fuseboxes.
MaurizioM89 5 months ago
@captain150 I think it was actually the late 1970's or the 80's that the fuse box was banned in new construction, because my grandpa's house was built in 1958 and still had the fuse box until seven years ago. Plus, my uncle's house was built in 1973 and interestingly enough it has had a fuse box since it was built, although there's a lot more fuses in it than the one in this video. Goes to show how the electrical demand has changed over the years.
theogt821 3 months ago
@theogt821 That's possible, it may also depend on which state you are in.
The house I'm in currently has a 70 amp main service, which is actually sufficient. The house is almost 100 years old and probably had knob and tube at one point, but appears to have been completely re-wired in the 1960s some time and has a breaker panel.
captain150 3 months ago
This is a really cool video! its no wonder i like watching your vids cause they are so informative and what not :)
walkingfreak 7 months ago
When I bought my house it had a GE 100 amp panel somewhat like yours except the wiring was knob and tube I lived with it for 1 year or so then replaced the panel and the wiring . Had it inspected by the building inspector and a old electrical excellent guy . He said is was great then my 8k btu came on lights flickered in 2 parts of the house never did that with knob tube . He said it was normal with new boxes . Old boxes made with much better copper he told me.
ncrdisabled 7 months ago
You are probably right. I don't know what the requirements are for a rental, but here we have breakers. My landlord did indicate one time that one of the other properties they all still has fuses.
manyvideoinerests 7 months ago
Nice my ant lives in a 144 year old house and it has that same thing and it works great for it age,
Hv1245 7 months ago
Hey Bill, nice panel. I have always been told that people are encouraged to upgrade to break her panels.'s what year was your house built in? Do you blow fuses that much? I live in an older house, and we have breaker panels. Since it is an apartment house, there is one breaker box for every apartment. In my case, my apartment has a main and three breakers. Perhaps, some day I will try and upload a video of yet. From talking to my landlord, my apartment house was built some time in the 20's or 3
manyvideoinerests 7 months ago
@manyvideoinerests This house was built in the early 1900s. It was originally planned to be larger than it is, but the owner went bankrupt. We haven't blown a fuse in a long time, which is as it should be. (Any time fuses blow, the cause needs to be determined and fixed.) Fuses and circuit breakers have their own distinct advantages--circuit breakers can be reset and fuses aren't as sensitive to powerline disturbances that pop breakers.
Your wiring was probably "modernized" in the 50s or later.
uxwbill 7 months ago
gas dryer?
itouchhacker241 7 months ago
That old box is nothing to worry about. It's every bit as safe as a modern box.
What you have to worry about is the old ghetto 1920's aluminum wiring and ceramic ground setup. That's burned more houses than arson. o_o;
Jerkwad152 7 months ago
@Jerkwad152
William, I wish I had half your skill as an electrician. :(
Jerkwad152 7 months ago
@Jerkwad152 This house has copper wiring. What's really bad is the aluminum wiring debacle of the 60s and 70s. Thankfully, that was a bullet dodged by this wiring system.
Aluminum wiring does come into this service equipment, but it seems that the city is still supplying aluminum wire for new service. That is what they provided when the new garage was electrified.
uxwbill 7 months ago
@uxwbill Another Youtube user known as poopoogarret has a video showing exactly how dangerous aluminum wiring is through example with an outlet that arced like crazy. He of course had it repaired and things seem to have been working fine ever since. I will ALWAYS insist on using good old copper wiring in electrical circuits due to its longevity and safety even if the price of copper gets high.
bratina501 6 months ago
@bratina501 I saw his arcing outlet. It looked very dangerous to me! I use copper wiring only. It's just not worth the chance to me. I'm not sure what to make of the aluminum wiring that the city provides (and apparently insists that anyone use) for the hookup to a building.
uxwbill 6 months ago
@uxwbill I don't know what to make of them providing aluminum wiring other than cutting corners but at the cost of safety. They say that aluminum oxidizes and insulates its self from the terminal strips on whatever is connected with that type of wiring which causes heat build up and arcing. Sounds like an idiotic cost cutting measure to me and nothing else.
bratina501 6 months ago
@uxwbill I don't think it's worth using aluminium wire even to save money on a service cable, I do believe that aluminium wire is illegal to install for standard 14 and 12 guage house wire now. It was popular to use in the late 60s and early 70s since the price of copper was high at the time. The problem with aluminium is that you need to use the correct wire nuts, outlets, switches, and a special paste to prevent the circuits from opening up or to join onto a copper wire onto it.
OlegKostoglatov 5 months ago
@OlegKostoglatov Very true. Aluminum wiring is indeed illegal in modern construction due to the fact that connections can come loose with time due to expansion and contraction. It's a definite fire hazard, so I'm quite surprised that service entrance cable is allowed to be that as I would think the service entrance cable would have the same issues as the wiring within the house. Copper is definitely much safer and has a lot fewer issues with coming loose overtime.
theogt821 3 months ago
i agree with uxwbill like some of the guys have said before my house was orginial built in 1854 back then it had natural gas lights then in 1904 it was updated with power they rewired the old gas lights for power and them and the orginial 4 breaker fuse box is still in service to this day i did have to add a 220 box for the stove ,water heater and dryer other wise ive never touched the house lights , plugs and even light switches are all orginial
andrewcrawfor1381 7 months ago
Way to go Bill!
I'm behind you 100%
Well made and well maintained vintage equipment is fine!
Everything today is made to a price and rarely has the quality of older products.
My home has the original underground electrical supply dating from 1936...The main distribution panel has circuit breakers which are 25 years old...I've never seen so much as a light flicker...No matter what the load.
You may need to change old wiring in time...But that panel will last for ever treated with respect! :)
GarrardAT6 7 months ago
Had my service replaced just last month. My home was built in 1902 and it had knob and tube wiring with not a grounded plug in the house. The company that provides my home owner insurance insisted I replace the old wiring immediately, with a threat of cancelling my insurance in early 2012. The wiring was finished and all the power bars with grounds removed were disposed of. The cost of rewiring a home is not cheap but plan on getting the money back when I sell next summer.
captaincough 7 months ago
The central A/C dimming the lights when it kicks on actually has very little to do with the service distribution, it just has to do with how healthy the compressor in it and start and run capacitors in the air conditioning unit are. Most A/C units don't dim lights at all when they have a hard start kit installed.
84randomdude 7 months ago
@84randomdude There would be a tremendous inrush current to charge the capacitor and start the compressor motor (usually about three times the steady running current, but I'm sure you know that :-) ). Depending upon the health of the electrical system, lights and things may dim due to a voltage drop caused by the sudden high demand for current.
I don't know much about hard start kits or how they change the rules, only that they exist and can get a troublesome compressor going again for a while.
uxwbill 7 months ago
@uxwbill Hard start kits are just put in series with the normal start capacitor to give the compressor a little extra "kick" when it starts. It holds a constant charge from the time it's installed. So, the compressor pulls A LOT less amps on start up, so there's not as much of a sudden demand of current.
But otherwise, yes you are correct. :)
84randomdude 7 months ago
You have a gas fired closes dryer????????? I thought only coin launderettes had those, I didn't know people had them in their homes, they mustn't be common down here at all, all clothes dryers I've seen and used here in Australia are completely electric, except of course for public coin launderettes.
Lachlant1984 7 months ago
@Lachlant1984 they do that in the north a lot from what i have seen. i think its because its so cold in winter so something like that.
V8Jagnut 7 months ago
@Lachlant1984 Here in the US, you can buy either gas or electric. This house was originally set up for an electric clothes dryer. However, something had gone wrong with the sub-panel, and someone actually hacked out the burned fuse socket and put a wire across it. (!!!!) We ripped all of that out and went to a gas dryer. It already time for a new clothes dryer anyway.
uxwbill 7 months ago
nice old box you have. its odd the way your wiring is done over their. old stuff is good if serviced when needed. you should get gas stove much cheaper to run and cooks better the electric stove tops.
V8Jagnut 7 months ago
@V8Jagnut when you did a vid of some of your electrical i thought it was strang how it was done down there whatt people aren't used to they find strang and countries are different
joeyf504327 7 months ago
@joeyf504327 you are right but it is a bit odd the way you have 110vac and 220vac and all them sub boxes around the house. it normal simple hear. i power box per house with the meter and fuses for the hole house all 240vac with 8A fuse for lighting and 16A fuse for power outlets and sometimes a 30A or so fuse for a/c or stove.
V8Jagnut 7 months ago
@V8Jagnut well we use 120 volts as our main voltage to use normally house 1 or 2 big breaker pannels near the meter in uxwbills house he has few spread out but we have 2 120 volt main feeds and 1 neutral and to get 240 you combine the 2 120 volt main feeds to power 240 volt appliances normally room out lets and lights are tied to gather on a 20 amp breaker i will make a vid of my house breaker panel next week
joeyf504327 7 months ago
@V8Jagnut That's normally how it's done in North America; one main breaker panel.
We have 120v and 240v. Two hot lines come in, along with a neutral and ground. Hot to neutral is 120v (lighting and general purpose outlets), hot to hot is 240v (used for electric clothes dryers, ovens, water heaters and central A/C).
Canada and the US are a bit different. In Canada, receptacle circuits MUST be 15 amp if 15 amp outlets are installed. In the US, 20 amp circuits are allowed with 15 amp outlets.
captain150 5 months ago
@V8Jagnut There is so much difference in the way electrical distribution is handled in different parts of the world...it's amazing. I grew up cooking on electric, so it's what I'm used to (and I absolutely love our classic dual-oven Hotpoint stove).
The Roach Palace had a gas stove, but it was a cheap and crappy model that had trouble bringing water to a boil. I am not sure what kind of stove I will buy when it comes time to put a new house on the Roach Palace property.
uxwbill 7 months ago
there is a funky thing relating to brownouts the street i live on gets at least a once a year brownout if not fewer then that. there happens to be a trip switch at the top of a power poll at the end of the street and for the last few years at least once a year after working hours the switch will trip. it was in october last year 2010 they replaced the switch and not more then maybe a month or how ever long later i think it may have been january or so the switch tripped again not a fun time.
rmx77 7 months ago
This reminds me... 10 years ago when I was still in the Philippines, We have a electric panel, which is in the kitchen cabinet (first floor), and that kitchen cabinet is below the bathroom (second floor). Everytime somebody takes a shower, the panel starts to spark (because there's a leak). As soon as we found out. We didn't use the bathroom.
yelnam2manley 7 months ago
My parents house which was built in the late teens was know & tubing. My father replaced it in 1970 when he bought the house from his parents. I also remember the old push button switches also.
muchosa1 7 months ago
You showed the wires for your central A/C coming into that box, but where do they tie into? are the A/C wires tapped right into the service with no fuse? I've seen quite a fair share of old screwed up wiring in my life, not too often GOOD old wiring. Only place I can think of that had OK old wiring was my grandma's house (built in 1950 originally with 4 circuits) When we started tearing into it I found all kinds of scary things done with it throughout the house though.
gusherb94 7 months ago
@gusherb94 The A/C wiring is fused by the main, and there is a fused disconnect as well. Probably not the best, but I don't see it as highly dangerous either. Much of the wiring in this house is clearly visible from the basement, in the little "attic" areas and stuff like that. The only truly dangerous stuff we have was a bunch of work done in the early 1970s and done very poorly. All but one example of it has been removed from service and replaced.
uxwbill 7 months ago
@uxwbill That said, we do have plans to perform a service upgrade and near-complete rewiring of the house.
uxwbill 7 months ago
@uxwbill Is all the wiring romex? Obviously it looks like old Romex at the panel there. As you would probably know, everything up here in Chicagoland is done in EMT. Only recently have building codes in some suburban towns started to allow romex (which is a wiring method for me that would cause many sleepless nights) Our EMT in our apartment building and our home have saved us from a few potentially tragic disasters over the years.
gusherb94 7 months ago
@gusherb94 Much of the wiring is Romex, only a little knob-and-peg (or knob-and-tube, which seems to be a more popular name) still exists, and it's only been left in place on low wattage lighting circuits.
Nearly all of the work I see done here outside of business and commercial stuff is done with simple Romex wire. For a real eye opener, I ought to tell you about the Roach Palace wiring...
uxwbill 7 months ago
@uxwbill Allegedly, the RP has 100 amp service coming in, but it goes upstairs (of all places) over what looks like stove wire. Not good. There were thirteen or so breakers in the box, only about seven or eight actually seemed to do anything. A couple would mysteriously pop, especially during bad weather. Someone ran Romex underground to an outdoor light (!!!) there. They also tied a bunch of wires together in a bundle, shoved 'em under a rug and baseboard, and called it done.
uxwbill 7 months ago
@uxwbill Perhaps the most startling thing done there was the kitchen wiring--nearly every outlet on one breaker, except for one where the microwave plugged in. Gee, I wonder why?
I've completely disconnected the kitchen and many other things over there. It wasn't worth the chance to me before I can tear the place down.
uxwbill 7 months ago
@uxwbill About the scariest thing i encountered in my grandma's house was finding that the kitchen, dining room, garage, and sunroom were all on the same 15 amp rated circuit with a 30 amp breaker. It was freaky to see the power on when the whole basement and up to 1" before the main level was completely filled with water Looking at the house from up the block you could see the lamp post on during the whole flood (river spilled over it's banks and pumping stations were failing from 3 days rain)
gusherb94 7 months ago
@uxwbill Knob and Tube was very common outside of Chicago. I haven't seen any still in use in person though. Our building in the city wired for electric sometime I suspect in the early 1920's was done in EMT, all of the original wiring (and then some) is in use on the top floor. the two floors below have been rewired. From what video's you've done on the Roach Palace it sounds like a real treat there. If I see electrical that is so worn down or screwed up I just refuse to mess with it at all.
gusherb94 7 months ago
@uxwbill Your A/C wiring (what is it, 10 or 8awg?) is "protected" by the 60 amp main fuse?! That should be corrected.
captain150 5 months ago
While I would agree with ya on old equipment this is one I do not. I don't like unknown variables. You will never know if there is a defect that will show itself when the proper conditions are met with it whether or it be from wear and tear or etc.Though that can be said about modern stuff as well to. I will for the sake of the record say I've been close to having a my house burn down cause of a fuse block. So I'll admit being biased here.
JinzoDefiler 7 months ago
@JinzoDefiler Personally I'll take any chance I can get to upgrade old wiring. Pretty much all the time chances are many people have come by and hacked the old wiring one way or another over the years. You don't really discover and realize how BAD things really are until you start tearing it all out
gusherb94 7 months ago
@JinzoDefiler There's not much unknown about this. We've had it inspected a few times since moving in here, and we have also taken the time to identify what is controlled by every fuse and circuit breaker in the system--in case there were ever an emergency where someone had to shut off power quickly.
Much of the wiring is pretty clearly visible in some way or another. There are plans to someday upgrade the service to something more modern.
uxwbill 7 months ago
I gotta ask, what's a "brown out"?
bburris123 7 months ago
@bburris123 A brownout is when the power is not completely off, but has just enough power to cause lights to glow dimly.
Fuzy2K 7 months ago
@bburris123 Brown outs are when the the electrical grid in a said area is not running at 100% due to something going out or beginning to.
JinzoDefiler 7 months ago
@bburris123 A brownout is the name for a voltage drop beyond the "safe" limits (usually 108-130 volts here in the US). They can happen for many reasons--overloading, transformer failure, distribution faults, poor quality wiring. Incandescent light bulbs tend to glow dimly, while other electrical devices can be harmed from the stress that operating on low or unstable voltage can put them under. The voltage during a brownout is also usually unstable, which causes more havoc.
uxwbill 7 months ago
Very interesting, the rochplases it has a new servers right?
Because in one of your videos it looked newer, do you know when it was upgraded and why?
redneckbryon 7 months ago
@redneckbryon The Roach Palace has newer wiring and service equipment than my parents' home, but it's built around cheap service equipment (Square D Homeline) and some truly haphazard wiring. It just goes to show that you can't judge a "book by its cover".
uxwbill 7 months ago