Amp it up.
July 25, 2012 3:46 AM Subscribe
How common is 15 amp electrical service in the US? Is it viewed as highly negative by people who purchase older homes or rent apartments in older buildings?
The United States is home to many aging houses and buildings, and I'm noticing that 15 amp service is fairly common, accompanied in some cases by fuses that attach to screw in (or "Edison") bases.
Is 15 amp service viewed by most buyers and renters as problematic, requiring a quick conversion to a higher amp standard? Is this type of service, if you subtract everything else, inherently more dangerous--prone to causing fires or electrical shocks?
Are there instances in which 15-amp service is a milder negative that homeowners and renters can live with? If the answer is "yes," what are common workarounds prevent blown fuses? Have changes in technology, including the proliferation of energy-saving green products, made 15 amp service easier to cope with?
The United States is home to many aging houses and buildings, and I'm noticing that 15 amp service is fairly common, accompanied in some cases by fuses that attach to screw in (or "Edison") bases.
Is 15 amp service viewed by most buyers and renters as problematic, requiring a quick conversion to a higher amp standard? Is this type of service, if you subtract everything else, inherently more dangerous--prone to causing fires or electrical shocks?
Are there instances in which 15-amp service is a milder negative that homeowners and renters can live with? If the answer is "yes," what are common workarounds prevent blown fuses? Have changes in technology, including the proliferation of energy-saving green products, made 15 amp service easier to cope with?
Response by poster: Actually, I should have said, "exclusively 15-amp service." For example, a newish (2006) addition on my house has a mixture of 13 15-amp breakers and 7 20-amp breakers. However, I've seen some older houses and apartment buildings with exclusively 15-amp fuses, with no 20-amps mixed in.
posted by Gordion Knott at 4:42 AM on July 25, 2012
posted by Gordion Knott at 4:42 AM on July 25, 2012
You mean 15 amp branch circuits? "15 amp service" sounds like you're talking about the service delivered to the residence. 100 or 200 amp service are examples of common service offerings.
Most older houses, I want to say up to around the 1970's, were commonly wired for 100 amp service, with a relatively small number of 15 amp branch circuits. A typical house might only have two or three 15 amp circuits powering both lights and outlets on the main floor, plus a 20 amp circuit or two for the kitchen. Older houses might only have one branch circuit serving half the house.
More recently, the practice is often to separate out lighting circuits from outlets, so you can see your way to the panel when you blow a breaker, and to have several branch circuits for various zones in the house.
For the most part, 20 amp circuits are used for kitchen, garage, bathroom, and workshop outlets. I believe the code requirements for these have been getting tighter. The logic is that anywhere you might be using a high amp appliance (hair dryer, deep fryer, air compressor, etc) should have 20 amp capacity.
15 amp branch circuits are often daisy-chained through a bunch of outlets, and the "weakest link" chain rule applies. You probably don't want to be plugging heavy draw appliances in to the far end of a 15 amp branch circuit, because EVERY SINGLE BREAK in the copper (all the other outlets and splices) represents a place where poor contact can result in heat and eventually fire if you're running that circuit at the maximum draw for an extended period of time. Don't get overly paranoid, I'm answering what you asked, but do be aware. More likely you just damage the appliance from brownout. Ever see your room light dim a bit when you turn on your vac?
Most 20 amp circuits tend to be dedicated runs or with a very small number of outlets. A competent electrician can usually add a dedicated circuit if there's someplace you need it.
Fuse panels are considered archaic and evil in this day and age, and Really Need To Be Replaced With A Modern Breaker Panel.
posted by jgreco at 4:46 AM on July 25, 2012 [3 favorites]
Most older houses, I want to say up to around the 1970's, were commonly wired for 100 amp service, with a relatively small number of 15 amp branch circuits. A typical house might only have two or three 15 amp circuits powering both lights and outlets on the main floor, plus a 20 amp circuit or two for the kitchen. Older houses might only have one branch circuit serving half the house.
More recently, the practice is often to separate out lighting circuits from outlets, so you can see your way to the panel when you blow a breaker, and to have several branch circuits for various zones in the house.
For the most part, 20 amp circuits are used for kitchen, garage, bathroom, and workshop outlets. I believe the code requirements for these have been getting tighter. The logic is that anywhere you might be using a high amp appliance (hair dryer, deep fryer, air compressor, etc) should have 20 amp capacity.
15 amp branch circuits are often daisy-chained through a bunch of outlets, and the "weakest link" chain rule applies. You probably don't want to be plugging heavy draw appliances in to the far end of a 15 amp branch circuit, because EVERY SINGLE BREAK in the copper (all the other outlets and splices) represents a place where poor contact can result in heat and eventually fire if you're running that circuit at the maximum draw for an extended period of time. Don't get overly paranoid, I'm answering what you asked, but do be aware. More likely you just damage the appliance from brownout. Ever see your room light dim a bit when you turn on your vac?
Most 20 amp circuits tend to be dedicated runs or with a very small number of outlets. A competent electrician can usually add a dedicated circuit if there's someplace you need it.
Fuse panels are considered archaic and evil in this day and age, and Really Need To Be Replaced With A Modern Breaker Panel.
posted by jgreco at 4:46 AM on July 25, 2012 [3 favorites]
At first, I misunderstood your question. When you use the term "service", it usually refers to the service at the panel. Typically, that's 100 amps in the United States and Canada.
To the best of my knowledge, 15 amps is the standard for household electrical branch circuits. I've only ever see 20 amp service in commercial applications; I believe the outlets are then required to have one keyed slot (sort of T-shaped; these will also accept standard two-pronged plugs) if the circuit is 20 amps.
Note that the circuit is rated to 15 amps, but the breaker protection is supposed to kick in around 12 amps plus.
You have to really plug in a LOT of stuff to overload a 15 amp circuit. Lots of motor loads, like big honking vacuum cleaners, or large appliances like refrigerators, or space heaters.
If you want to calculate it out yourself, you can approximate it pretty easily by taking the rated wattage of the appliance and dividing by the line voltage:
P (power, in watts) = V (voltage) x I (current, in amps):
I = P/V
The general guideline is that if you need more outlets, you add more branch circuits.
posted by rhombus at 4:49 AM on July 25, 2012
To the best of my knowledge, 15 amps is the standard for household electrical branch circuits. I've only ever see 20 amp service in commercial applications; I believe the outlets are then required to have one keyed slot (sort of T-shaped; these will also accept standard two-pronged plugs) if the circuit is 20 amps.
Note that the circuit is rated to 15 amps, but the breaker protection is supposed to kick in around 12 amps plus.
You have to really plug in a LOT of stuff to overload a 15 amp circuit. Lots of motor loads, like big honking vacuum cleaners, or large appliances like refrigerators, or space heaters.
If you want to calculate it out yourself, you can approximate it pretty easily by taking the rated wattage of the appliance and dividing by the line voltage:
P (power, in watts) = V (voltage) x I (current, in amps):
I = P/V
The general guideline is that if you need more outlets, you add more branch circuits.
posted by rhombus at 4:49 AM on July 25, 2012
Very few home appliances ever draw anywhere near 15A; it's the aggregate load on any given branch circuit that's the likely cause of blown fuses or tripped breakers. So, you can solve that problem by either increasing the capacity of the branch circuit (to 20A) or by installing more 15A circuits. In some ways it's probably better to have more 15A circuits than fewer 20A circuits.
And yeah, you're misusing the term "service," which refers to the total amperage you have available from the power company. There's no such thing as 15A service.
posted by jon1270 at 4:56 AM on July 25, 2012
And yeah, you're misusing the term "service," which refers to the total amperage you have available from the power company. There's no such thing as 15A service.
posted by jon1270 at 4:56 AM on July 25, 2012
While it is true that the aggregate load is often the issue, I'm going to disagree on the "very few". A vac or a space heater are easy examples.
There's also a proliferation of devices that each individually take "not too much" but are used together. These days, with modern flat panel TV's (300 watt plasma!), it isn't too unusual to find people adding a receiver for better sound (200 watts) plus a BR/DVD player (50 watts) which totals around 5 amps. Now the thing about a 15 amp circuit? Due to something called "derating", you really shouldn't use more than 12 amps of that circuit continuously. Before someone calls me on that, I realize that's not exactly accurate, but let's keep it simple, eh. The point is that a modern TV setup can, on its own, eat up about half the capacity of a branch circuit. Plug in a vac and turn up the sound a bit to listen to TV while cleaning the house? Pop, blown breaker...
It's very easy to be dismissive of individual loads, but that gaming PC that eats 400 watts and the two monitors that each eat 120 watts - well this setup eats about half a 15 amp branch, and even though the PC idles at a lower wattage, it'll be funny to watch as you start playing your game, the watts go up, the aggregate load of other stuff on the branch causes the breaker to trip and your game goes byebye at the worst moment...
Do you have a nice TV setup and a nice gaming PC rig both in your den on a single branch? You could be closer to fully using a 15 amp branch than you expect.
posted by jgreco at 5:22 AM on July 25, 2012
There's also a proliferation of devices that each individually take "not too much" but are used together. These days, with modern flat panel TV's (300 watt plasma!), it isn't too unusual to find people adding a receiver for better sound (200 watts) plus a BR/DVD player (50 watts) which totals around 5 amps. Now the thing about a 15 amp circuit? Due to something called "derating", you really shouldn't use more than 12 amps of that circuit continuously. Before someone calls me on that, I realize that's not exactly accurate, but let's keep it simple, eh. The point is that a modern TV setup can, on its own, eat up about half the capacity of a branch circuit. Plug in a vac and turn up the sound a bit to listen to TV while cleaning the house? Pop, blown breaker...
It's very easy to be dismissive of individual loads, but that gaming PC that eats 400 watts and the two monitors that each eat 120 watts - well this setup eats about half a 15 amp branch, and even though the PC idles at a lower wattage, it'll be funny to watch as you start playing your game, the watts go up, the aggregate load of other stuff on the branch causes the breaker to trip and your game goes byebye at the worst moment...
Do you have a nice TV setup and a nice gaming PC rig both in your den on a single branch? You could be closer to fully using a 15 amp branch than you expect.
posted by jgreco at 5:22 AM on July 25, 2012
I would consider exclusively 15A branch circuits wired to a fuse box (rather than a breaker box) to be an indication that the bulk of the house wiring was substantially out of date and would need to be replaced at some point. If I were renting that would not be a dealbreaker unless there were other safety issues, but if I were looking to purchase I would mentally factor in the cost of dealing with all the electrical when considering an offer.
I would consider 15A circuits to a breaker box along with a handful of 20A circuits to kitchen counter / bathroom outlets to be perfectly acceptable.
posted by true at 6:22 AM on July 25, 2012
I would consider 15A circuits to a breaker box along with a handful of 20A circuits to kitchen counter / bathroom outlets to be perfectly acceptable.
posted by true at 6:22 AM on July 25, 2012
Trailer parks commonly have 15A *service*. And yes it is a huge problem -- no electric ovens, for one.
posted by rr at 7:07 AM on July 25, 2012
posted by rr at 7:07 AM on July 25, 2012
I can answer this for the fuse box portion of your question. Yes, when we bought our 50 year-old home I wouldn't move in until we upgraded the fuse box to a 200 amp circuit breaker panel and wired up the GFCI outlets. Also, in many areas your homeowner's insurance may require it.
With modern appliances and electronics, it just makes sense that you'd need more amperage. Especially with TV, Cable Box, Computers, Monitors, Speakers, etc.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:18 AM on July 25, 2012
With modern appliances and electronics, it just makes sense that you'd need more amperage. Especially with TV, Cable Box, Computers, Monitors, Speakers, etc.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:18 AM on July 25, 2012
I have 200A service with mostly 15A branch circuits now, but in my old apartment I had 100A service with many fewer 15A branches.
It wasn't the overall service capacity that was the problem (the 100A / 200A issue) but the way the branch circuits were laid out that was terribly annoying. For some reason, the outlets were attached to breakers pretty much at random. One breaker might control one outlet in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the upstairs bedroom, and the outdoor light. Another had the bathroom, one downstairs outlets, and the rest of the upstairs, and a couple of light fixtures. I have no idea if this was some sort of crude attempt at "load balancing" or if the electrician was just drunk. But it meant that I ended up tripping breakers all the time. E.g., I'd have the air conditioner running, go upstairs, and without thinking about it plug in the vacuum. [lights go black] Or the dehumidifier and the toaster. [black] Etc.
So I'm of the opinion now that how the branch circuits are laid out makes a huge difference to whether you will need to be on intimate terms with your fusebox or not.
Of course, how many outlets are on each branch may be directly determined by the overall size of the service (200A may permit many more branches than 100A, so less stuff hanging on each branch), but I don't think 15A versus 20A branches is really that big a deal.
Not-a-pro Tip: If you do live in an apartment or house with drunken-electrician branch circuit layout, go get one of those circuit-breaker-finding tools, the ones where you plug one part into an outlet and then scan the breaker box until the thingy beeps, and label all of the outlets with which breaker they are attached to. This will help a lot in making sure you don't plug the vacuum into the same outlet as the toaster or whatever. Also, it's a huge red flag if, while you are doing this, the detector says that one outlet is connected to two breakers.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:08 AM on July 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
It wasn't the overall service capacity that was the problem (the 100A / 200A issue) but the way the branch circuits were laid out that was terribly annoying. For some reason, the outlets were attached to breakers pretty much at random. One breaker might control one outlet in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the upstairs bedroom, and the outdoor light. Another had the bathroom, one downstairs outlets, and the rest of the upstairs, and a couple of light fixtures. I have no idea if this was some sort of crude attempt at "load balancing" or if the electrician was just drunk. But it meant that I ended up tripping breakers all the time. E.g., I'd have the air conditioner running, go upstairs, and without thinking about it plug in the vacuum. [lights go black] Or the dehumidifier and the toaster. [black] Etc.
So I'm of the opinion now that how the branch circuits are laid out makes a huge difference to whether you will need to be on intimate terms with your fusebox or not.
Of course, how many outlets are on each branch may be directly determined by the overall size of the service (200A may permit many more branches than 100A, so less stuff hanging on each branch), but I don't think 15A versus 20A branches is really that big a deal.
Not-a-pro Tip: If you do live in an apartment or house with drunken-electrician branch circuit layout, go get one of those circuit-breaker-finding tools, the ones where you plug one part into an outlet and then scan the breaker box until the thingy beeps, and label all of the outlets with which breaker they are attached to. This will help a lot in making sure you don't plug the vacuum into the same outlet as the toaster or whatever. Also, it's a huge red flag if, while you are doing this, the detector says that one outlet is connected to two breakers.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:08 AM on July 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
Disclaimer: I Am Not A Licensed Electrician, although I've certainly had my hands in a wide variety of breaker panels & fuse boxes for work purposes, and had many conversations with licensed electricians.
How common is [exclusively] 15 amp electrical service in the US?
As others have pointed out, the standard is essentially that your average wall plug will be on a 15 amp breaker or fuse, with 20 amp breakers/fuses used in "high-draw" areas like the kitchen, bathroom, garage. So 15 amp outlets are very very very common, but exclusively 15 amp houses are not.
Is 15 amp service viewed by most buyers and renters as problematic, requiring a quick conversion to a higher amp standard?
Most people, as far as I can tell, pay absolutely zero attention to this, until or unless there's a problem. There's a plug here, they plug stuff in & go on with their lives. 15 amp? 20 amp? They don't know or care. For renters, especially, I don't see this being a major factor in deciding whether to rent a particular house or not. They're just gonna assume that the owner has taken care of any electrical issues.
Except . . . . accompanied in some cases by fuses that attach to screw in (or "Edison") bases. I have serious doubts that this is up to the current electrical code standards, so a buyer is likely to look at this and figure there will need to be extensive & expensive electrical work done before they can legally inhabit the building/get insurance/get financing. But this is an "old fuse box" issue, not a "15-amp circuit" issue.
Is this type of service, if you subtract everything else, inherently more dangerous--prone to causing fires or electrical shocks?
I'm not quite sure what kind of information you're looking for with this question, so lemme kind of start from the beginning.
One of the MAJOR factors in determining what size breaker/fuse gets put on a branch circuit is the gauge or size of wire running from the breaker panel to the outlets on the circuit. The heavier the wire, the higher the breaker/fuse rating. The type of insulation on the wire and the construction materials the wire is running through may also be factors - I think they are, but I don't have a copy of the electrical code to check. This is to prevent the wire overheating and starting a fire in the walls.
So a 15 amp breaker is no more inherently dangerous than a a 20 amp breaker, as long as the correctly sized & insulated wire is used. If anything, it's actually probably theoretically safer, as the breaker will trip long before the wire is in danger of overheating.
Conversely, putting a larger breaker on any given circuit (which, reading between the lines, is what you seem to be contemplating) CAN be dangerous. If you put a 20 amp breaker on a circuit that only uses 14-gauge wire, it's possible that the wires will overheat, melt the wire insulation, and start a fire.
I believe part of the current code also has rules about minimum number of circuits per size of room. Again, possibly important to buyers, probably not to renters.
Shocks are a matter of proper grounding, not breaker or fuse size.
Add all this up, and one answer to your question is, "No, 15 amp breakers are no less safe than 20 amp breakers, all other things being equal & correct."
Again, however, a fuse box is definitely a sign of an older electrical system, and so yeah, that might be "more dangerous", because older houses & apartments were built using less strict standards, people had fewer electrical things to plug in so there are more outlets on any given breaker, grounding was not considered all that important, wire insulation may have deteriorated over time, etc. etc.
I'm really kind of curious why you're asking this question - I get the impression that you think that buyers/renters will look at your house and think, "Well, it's mostly 15 amp circuits, that won't do, we won't move here." I really think you're drastically overestimating the amount of attention people will pay to this, although buyers will pay more attention than renters, because it's gonna cost them money to fix any problems or add more circuits.
And if you're thinking of getting around this "problem" by installing larger breakers, that is very likely NOT safe.
The Circuit Detective would seem to be a good site for you to check out.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:32 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
How common is [exclusively] 15 amp electrical service in the US?
As others have pointed out, the standard is essentially that your average wall plug will be on a 15 amp breaker or fuse, with 20 amp breakers/fuses used in "high-draw" areas like the kitchen, bathroom, garage. So 15 amp outlets are very very very common, but exclusively 15 amp houses are not.
Is 15 amp service viewed by most buyers and renters as problematic, requiring a quick conversion to a higher amp standard?
Most people, as far as I can tell, pay absolutely zero attention to this, until or unless there's a problem. There's a plug here, they plug stuff in & go on with their lives. 15 amp? 20 amp? They don't know or care. For renters, especially, I don't see this being a major factor in deciding whether to rent a particular house or not. They're just gonna assume that the owner has taken care of any electrical issues.
Except . . . . accompanied in some cases by fuses that attach to screw in (or "Edison") bases. I have serious doubts that this is up to the current electrical code standards, so a buyer is likely to look at this and figure there will need to be extensive & expensive electrical work done before they can legally inhabit the building/get insurance/get financing. But this is an "old fuse box" issue, not a "15-amp circuit" issue.
Is this type of service, if you subtract everything else, inherently more dangerous--prone to causing fires or electrical shocks?
I'm not quite sure what kind of information you're looking for with this question, so lemme kind of start from the beginning.
One of the MAJOR factors in determining what size breaker/fuse gets put on a branch circuit is the gauge or size of wire running from the breaker panel to the outlets on the circuit. The heavier the wire, the higher the breaker/fuse rating. The type of insulation on the wire and the construction materials the wire is running through may also be factors - I think they are, but I don't have a copy of the electrical code to check. This is to prevent the wire overheating and starting a fire in the walls.
So a 15 amp breaker is no more inherently dangerous than a a 20 amp breaker, as long as the correctly sized & insulated wire is used. If anything, it's actually probably theoretically safer, as the breaker will trip long before the wire is in danger of overheating.
Conversely, putting a larger breaker on any given circuit (which, reading between the lines, is what you seem to be contemplating) CAN be dangerous. If you put a 20 amp breaker on a circuit that only uses 14-gauge wire, it's possible that the wires will overheat, melt the wire insulation, and start a fire.
I believe part of the current code also has rules about minimum number of circuits per size of room. Again, possibly important to buyers, probably not to renters.
Shocks are a matter of proper grounding, not breaker or fuse size.
Add all this up, and one answer to your question is, "No, 15 amp breakers are no less safe than 20 amp breakers, all other things being equal & correct."
Again, however, a fuse box is definitely a sign of an older electrical system, and so yeah, that might be "more dangerous", because older houses & apartments were built using less strict standards, people had fewer electrical things to plug in so there are more outlets on any given breaker, grounding was not considered all that important, wire insulation may have deteriorated over time, etc. etc.
I'm really kind of curious why you're asking this question - I get the impression that you think that buyers/renters will look at your house and think, "Well, it's mostly 15 amp circuits, that won't do, we won't move here." I really think you're drastically overestimating the amount of attention people will pay to this, although buyers will pay more attention than renters, because it's gonna cost them money to fix any problems or add more circuits.
And if you're thinking of getting around this "problem" by installing larger breakers, that is very likely NOT safe.
The Circuit Detective would seem to be a good site for you to check out.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:32 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
My ancient apartment building exclusively 15-amp branch circuits with old-school screw-in glass fuses. It's common in many of the old buildings around here and I know many people don't notice or care, but after living here for 6 years my partner and I have decided we will never again live anywhere else like this.
After many blown fuses we had to actually map out what devices were on which circuits, carefully monitor our daily device use (f'rex, many things have to be turned off when we use the hairdryer or microwave, and even plugging in the vacuum cleaner will blow a fuse unless everything else is completely off), and do math to decide whether or not the next device we want to purchase will overload our system (that nice high-end-but-still-consumer-grade espresso machine I want? Not happening).
We don't even have that many devices--pretty standard setup for a modern 2-person geek household--but what we do have continually tests the limits of our apartment's electrical system, and it's really frustrating to have to be always thinking about it.
So while it's probably not a problem for most people, people who've had to deal with it before--or who have lots of computers and plug-in gadgets--might be wary.
posted by rhiannonstone at 10:10 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
After many blown fuses we had to actually map out what devices were on which circuits, carefully monitor our daily device use (f'rex, many things have to be turned off when we use the hairdryer or microwave, and even plugging in the vacuum cleaner will blow a fuse unless everything else is completely off), and do math to decide whether or not the next device we want to purchase will overload our system (that nice high-end-but-still-consumer-grade espresso machine I want? Not happening).
We don't even have that many devices--pretty standard setup for a modern 2-person geek household--but what we do have continually tests the limits of our apartment's electrical system, and it's really frustrating to have to be always thinking about it.
So while it's probably not a problem for most people, people who've had to deal with it before--or who have lots of computers and plug-in gadgets--might be wary.
posted by rhiannonstone at 10:10 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
As someone who prefers to rent in older houses in the US, I wouldn't move into a place with fuses, because I think it's a sign of long term neglect, and makes me think that there's 30-40 years of upgrades that have also been left undone. It makes me wonder if the roof is about to fail, or the plumbing is about to burst, for instance. I get that upgrading electric is a huge, disruptive job, but still. Fuses? Those were old school when I was a little kid.
That said, I imagine most renters don't examine the breaker box the way I do (I also check the water pressure and turn on the stove burners, and apparently that makes me an edge case), but sufficient electric service is a good safety measure, given the electronics the average person will want to plug in.
posted by mgar at 5:44 PM on July 25, 2012
That said, I imagine most renters don't examine the breaker box the way I do (I also check the water pressure and turn on the stove burners, and apparently that makes me an edge case), but sufficient electric service is a good safety measure, given the electronics the average person will want to plug in.
posted by mgar at 5:44 PM on July 25, 2012
(Jessamyn said I HAD to post this.)
Two houses down from me the whole electrical system was a single phase 120V 20 A service. Knife switch disconnect.
House was 1905 vintage. Original owners sold it in 1950 to a couple who died about 5 years ago. They lived a modest life with few appliances. So TECHNICALLY, such low amp services are possible, just really uncommon.
Current owner had the place rewired and a big ass panel installed. 200A service now. don't know about the branches.
Fuses, incidentally, will carry their full rating indefinitely, and most won't blow until a serious overload is presented. Seek ye the info on I2T for fun reading on the subject. Here be a link to some.
lower current ratings are also common for aluminum wire, more common in 50-60's era circuits.
posted by FauxScot at 11:34 PM on July 25, 2012
Two houses down from me the whole electrical system was a single phase 120V 20 A service. Knife switch disconnect.
House was 1905 vintage. Original owners sold it in 1950 to a couple who died about 5 years ago. They lived a modest life with few appliances. So TECHNICALLY, such low amp services are possible, just really uncommon.
Current owner had the place rewired and a big ass panel installed. 200A service now. don't know about the branches.
Fuses, incidentally, will carry their full rating indefinitely, and most won't blow until a serious overload is presented. Seek ye the info on I2T for fun reading on the subject. Here be a link to some.
lower current ratings are also common for aluminum wire, more common in 50-60's era circuits.
posted by FauxScot at 11:34 PM on July 25, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by octothorpe at 4:26 AM on July 25, 2012