Home Electric Help

[THEWOOD]

I have recently purchased a condo. The original structure is some 80 years old. The condo was rehabbed with all new appliances before we bought. The electricity is still the same, the breaker/fuse box looks very old.

He is the problem, we keep blowing fuses. I just had to go down to the box twice within 5 minutes because we blew a fuse in the kitchen. Do we need a new breaker/fuse box? If so how much can this cost?

Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks!

 

[Best Buckeye]

I have recently purchased a condo. The original structure is some 80 years old. The condo was rehabbed with all new appliances before we bought. The electricity is still the same, the breaker/fuse box looks very old.

He is the problem, we keep blowing fuses. I just had to go down to the box twice within 5 minutes because we blew a fuse in the kitchen. Do we need a new breaker/fuse box? If so how much can this cost?

Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks!

You probaly have a 100 amp fuse box which you need to upgrade.
You definitely have too many appliances on each circuit that blows.
I recently upgraded mine to a 200 amp box by myself.
I could have gone to a 100 circuit breaker box but the cost was only a few dollars more and I am able to put large appliances each on it's own circuit.
ie refrig. microwave , toaster etc. this is what need s to be done to prevent blowing fuses
for more info just ask

 

[THEWOOD]

About how much does upgrading the circuit breaker box cost?

 

[sandgk]

I have recently purchased a condo. The original structure is some 80 years old. The condo was rehabbed with all new appliances before we bought. The electricity is still the same, the breaker/fuse box looks very old.

Congratulations on your new home!

He is the problem, we keep blowing fuses. I just had to go down to the box twice within 5 minutes because we blew a fuse in the kitchen.

Clue 1 - repeatedly throwing a breaker, or blowing a fuse means one thing and one thing only, you have too much juice being drawn through the circuit.

Do we need a new breaker/fuse box? If so how much can this cost?

I'm hoping that your problem is solely limited to the kitchen area. That would limit the damage (to your wallet).
First, take a gander at the breaker box (if that is what it is). Determine the max AMPS the breaker box can hold. Are there spare breaker points that can be opened up and activated for instance? If you do open them up what is the max AMPS you can put into the open spot without exceeding the breaker box capacity.
If it is a fuse box that you are wrestling with then the answer becomes more expensive as the best option is to replace a fuse box with correctly sized breakers.

Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks!

The last suggestion I have is to get in a licensed electrician to survey the wiring and breaker box. (Unless you have such a survey from the Home Inspection Report). I suggest this because you mention that the fuse/breaker box is old (80 years old?). This raises some hackles, what if some or all of the primary distributional wiring is also old, or at best WWII vintage, aluminum not new copper Romex and the like. You know were that leads of course. $$$$$. Still, if worst comes to worst rewiring is not a completely overwhelming task, I'd rate it a 6 visit task on the Home Depot sliding Scale of Futility and Difficulty.

 

[BuckeyeRyn]

I have recently purchased a condo. The original structure is some 80 years old. The condo was rehabbed with all new appliances before we bought. The electricity is still the same, the breaker/fuse box looks very old.

He is the problem, we keep blowing fuses. I just had to go down to the box twice within 5 minutes because we blew a fuse in the kitchen. Do we need a new breaker/fuse box? If so how much can this cost?

Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks!

Sounds like you are wired back in the stone ages... when you say do you need a new "breaker" box, I would assume you currently have a fuse box? Go get yourself some 220V wire, climb up the pole outside, drop the old lines, connect the new lines, run the lines into the basement, get a new BREAKER box, depending on how many breakers you need make sure the currrent is equally divided at the busbar connector (to avoid surges and brown-outs) wire the breakers and you are good to go...

Hell, who am I kidding, HIRE AN ELECTRICIAN! (you will continue to blow fuses) your electricity needs to be updated.

 

[Best Buckeye]

About how much does upgrading the circuit breaker box cost?

By a license electrician here in Ohio about 8 -9 hundred, in chi prob about 3,000 lmao
One thing , there are ways of spreading out the load and running some new circuits. ie adding a side breaker box but this depends on the overall load

 

[BuckeyeRyn]

we bought our house about 4 years ago, prior to even moving in we had service upgraded from 100 amp to 220... it ran us right around 1800.00

 

[Best Buckeye]

one more thing. if the electricity in the house is that bad you might want to check to see if it was brought up to code before it was sold to you. The bldg inspection dept may make the seller upgrade it

 

[THEWOOD]

Congratulations on your new home!


I'm hoping that your problem is solely limited to the kitchen area. That would limit the damage (to your wallet).
First, take a gander at the breaker box (if that is what it is). Determine the max AMPS the breaker box can hold. Are there spare breaker points that can be opened up and activated for instance? If you do open them up what is the max AMPS you can put into the open spot without exceeding the breaker box capacity.
If it is a fuse box that you are wrestling with then the answer becomes more expensive as the best option is to replace a fuse box with correctly sized breakers.

It is not just in the kitchen. My girlfriend has also had the electricity shut off in the bathroom when she is getting ready in the morning.

It is definitely the breaker box that I am talking about. There are not any open slots at least from what I can tell. One of the other condos in the building has an upgraded box which is about twice the size of mine. Definitely think it is due for a upgrade.

I really hope I am not in need of all new wiring, that would really piss me off.

 

[fourteenandoh]

Tell your girlfriend to quit drying her hair in the kitchen. Or do like we used to in the fraternity, buy a generator

 

[Best Buckeye]

Sandgk has some very goood ideas and points. your fuses blow because you over load a circuit. Say you have a 30 amp fuse controling the kitchen. If you run several appliances at once and the total amp draw of those appliances is more than 30 then the fuse pops. the only two options (both of which spread out the amp draw are 1, don't run a lot of things at the same time. 2 add capacity by upgrading or running wiring.
Don't run the toaster when the microwave is running or both of those when the coffee machine is running and so on

 

[Pheasant]

I have recently purchased a condo. The original structure is some 80 years old. The condo was rehabbed with all new appliances before we bought. The electricity is still the same, the breaker/fuse box looks very old.

He is the problem, we keep blowing fuses. I just had to go down to the box twice within 5 minutes because we blew a fuse in the kitchen. Do we need a new breaker/fuse box? If so how much can this cost?

Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks!

Unless you are pretty handy and would like a challenge you need to have a professional do this, but at a minimum you should have one assess the situation. Not knowing the difference between a breaker box and a fuse box lends itself to only 2 outcomes if you do it yourself. Since one of those is incinerating yourself and/or all your belongings I would be hard pressed to tell you to do it yourself. If you do go the DIY route have a blast, running wiring in an older structure is a lot of fun.

 

[THEWOOD]

Hopefully an electrician is going to be coming out here tomorrow afternoon to take a look at my problem.

Thanks for all the help and I will keep you posted on the outcome.

 

[jimotis4heisman]

im all about doing it yourself. but sometimes its smarter to have a profesional do it. electrical is a big time thing. so much can go wrong. that being said you will likely (or certainly depending on how "pro" the electrician is) have it fixed and do so safely. that being said a few things i never ever do by myself.

complex electrical work
hanging a door
garage doors

 

[sandgk]

Hanging a Door can be difficult - the noose just keeps on slipping off.