Trumbull Electric Panel Video

Someone asked to see this in my earlier "stove fuse replacement" video, so here it is.

This is the main service panel in my parents' home. It is old but in good working order, although a brownout and subsequent burning in two of the neutral out on the electric pole stressed it. We took it all apart, cleaned up all the contact surfaces and restored it to working order. Interestingly, it seems to handle the load better than a number of much newer electrical systems I have seen--lights don't dim as sharply as they do in some newer home when the air conditioner or other heavy loads kick on. It's certainly a darn sight better than the dangerous mess that is the Roach Palace's electrical system (much of which is disconnected or shut off).

When the brownout happened in 2001 or so, one of the fuses in this box blew, or really, kind of burned open a few minutes later. And, of course, half the power went out in the house. They were very old, dating from sometime in the 1960s or 70s. This is what caused the deformation in the plastic. It was never too hot to touch and cooled down within minutes of removing the power.

Does anyone have any more information on this panel?

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[paco9ify]

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

[uxwbill]

@paco9ify Do you have fuses (as shown here) or circuit breakers?

[fancysnake1]

I seems like I'm going to ave a black out every time I turn on my tv.. Our power sucks.

[uxwbill]

@fancysnake1 If that is really happening, you need to find out why. Otherwise something bad may happen.

[mrhomer57]

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

[theogt821]

@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.

[captain150]

@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.

[theogt821]

@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]

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?

[MaurizioM89]

@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]

@uxwbill Your A/C wiring (what is it, 10 or 8awg?) is "protected" by the 60 amp main fuse?! That should be corrected.

[captain150]

@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.