Couldn’t the landlord just tell the OP not to run a microwave? Is there any requirement to support a microwave, like there is for a refrigerator or stove?
Can your friend try running the microwave from different outlets, that maybe don’t have as much other stuff on them already? Whenever the breaker trips (or if you shut off the breaker manually), you can check the outlets to see which ones are on the same circuit, and try one on a different circuit.
ETA: This almost certainly isn’t the case for your friend, but check the cupboards above the stove for an outlet. It’s remotely possible that an outlet on its own circuit was added for an above-stove microwave. (And there’s possibly a pile of gold coins there too…)
The whole flat is in a single circuit, ZenBeam. It even shares the circuit with the next flat. I’m reasonably sure that sharing is against code, the problem is that raising a stink would probably not help Reply’s friend.
in many cases old installations remain legal and only have to brought up to date when modified or added to but can be repaired or maintained in kind (that is why 2 prong outlets are still sold to repair 2 wire ungrounded systems).
i lived in a duplex where the unit had 2 15A fuses which was good when it was built 80 years prior. i replaced the fuses with fuse shaped circuit breakers because of frequent overloads, most often the microwave.
The only thing I can offer is to turn off or unplug everything else in the apartment when using the microwave. Except for the refrigerator, because he’ll inevitably forget to turn it back on sometime.
San Francisco has rent control ordinances which would affect such an attempted raise. Also, raising rent in retaliation for reporting unsafe conditions is strictly prohibited.
Put the computer on a UPS system and let the computer run off that while the microwave is running. Or shut down and reboot, which most computers seem to need regularly these days anyway. Or if its a laptop, it can run on the internal battery for a bit
Turn off the TV.
Dont run the microwave if it sounds like the neighbor is doing something high powered like running his microwave or hairdryer or whatever.
And, despite the ungodly expense, put some frackin flourescent bulbs in the OP friends flat AND the neighbors flat. They can’t be happy about power outages either. These are flats in San Fran right ? How many light bulbs are even in these places?
Just 4 measely “100 watt” screw in fluorescent bulbs, will drop it from 400 REAL watts of load to about 100 REAL watts used for the same amount of light.
Last resort, put a power strip in for the fridge as well, making it easy to turn on and off and turn it off too.
Our microwave is 900 watts. Doing all the above probably gets you there.
And one electrical repair that might not cost a fortune and piss off the landlord.
Circuit breakers sometimes go bad where they trip at a much lower load than they should.
These are usually pretty easy to replace. Just make sure the electrician or landlord doesnt do something sneaky like replace the original 20 amp breaker with a 30 amp to solve the problem. IT MUST be replaced with the same amperage (or lower).
Thanks for all the replies so far! They’re much appreciated.
I’m probably going to talk to the housing people on Monday.
In the meantime, I’ve done everything I can* except deal with the fridge… is it bad to have the fridge cycle off and on every time the microwave is used?
Also, if I use a powerstrip with the microwave instead, would it trip the strip before the whole-circuit breaker or does it not work like that?
*The lights are exclusively CFL and the apt is normally sun-lit anyway. The only computers are laptops and netbooks and most of them are asleep or off through the day. The TV is LCD and usually off. The one thing we can’t really control is the neighbor, who is sort of… different… and we’re loath to ask him anything we don’t absolutely have to.
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[spoiler]Everyone that’s met him has found him to be… well… different. Put it this way: If we were kids, we’d probably be scared shitless of him and hiding in our closets. But we’re not, so we’ve tried talking to him on a few occasions, always to be met with a rather… different… form of social interaction.
Once I asked him a question about mail by ringing his doorbell. At first he stopped moving around and pretended he wasn’t there (the walls and fogged glass doors are so thin you can usually hear/see movement). I rang again, and this time he slowly crept up through his darkened living room and whispered a monosyllabic “Yes…?” I explained what I was there for. He was silent for a good while and then said only “You’re not John… [my friend]”, in this oily, calculated enunciation. He reminded me of a mix between Wormtongue and the guy from Psycho. He knew me already from having tripped the breaker a few times in the last week, so I told him who I was and asked again. He stayed behind his closed door and darkened lights and answered with another calculated “No”. I said thanks and walked away before I became a living room ornament…
Ugh. I don’t want to call him a creep because he’s actually really nice at times, which really just makes him that much more terrifying. He makes us extremely uncomfortable. At night we have running jokes about the thin walls between us – “Wanna play some Rock Band?” “I dunno. Is it worth dying for?” “I’m starving! Should I cook something?” “Only if you want it to be your last meal.” Etc. We swapped the living room and the bedroom on account of this guy (so the TV would be further away from his part of the building), and well, he’s certainly made us appreciative of every day we’re alive. I don’t think either of us really want to risk that on account of a microwave. It’s been sitting unplugged the past few weeks for fear of invoking the Wrath of Neighbor. I really don’t want to know what this guy’s like when he gets angry.[/Spoiler]
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Back the complaint truck up. I have no idea of the actual relationship between you and your landlord, but I will say this. I cant imagine how going to him/her FIRST with this problem puts you at any disadvantage. Of course there are probably better/safer ways to go about this I aint going to cover at the moment. If I was a landlord (and I am fairly reasonable and easy going guy), if one of MY renters went to the authorities FIRST, those renters would be on my shit list. The first legit chance I had to get rid of them I would. You sure aint going to garner any good will by doing that. Bad landlords are the bane of renters. And bad renters are the bane of landlords. Don’t get labeled a bad renter if you can help it IMO.
Remember, this complaint may go on his “permanent” record. And it could hurt him in the long run later. If the landlord is a decent person, give them a chance to fix it first before calling out the calvary. If your party is making a bit too much noise, do you prefer the neighbor giving you a heads up, or do you want the police showing up at your door ?
As for the power strip and fridge, IMO its unlikely to cause fridge problems doing that if its a “good” powerstip and it has a switch, though I wouldnt bet my soul on it.
I cant really see how the powerstrip for the microwave itself would help, but hell try it just in case. And again, a significantly lower powered microwave IMO is the safest bet. I imagine the biggest problem aint the cost but actually finding one that is low power.
As for the creepy neighbor, give him a bunch of flourescent bulbs as a “gift”, along with an explanation as to how you think it will help the problem. Again, the power outages have gotta be irritating to him as well. If he’s that creepy one talk has to be less dangerous than constantly irritating him.
That’s a really good point, actually, thank you. I’ll do that before involving any authority. (I wasn’t going to report the landlord or anything, just ask for help finding the relevant code sections so I can bring that to the landlord’s attention).
Sounds perfecty reasonable IMO. Do some more research and consider your options.
Given that the technological aspects of this have been covered, maybe start a new thread on how to complain about something to a landlord?
Every few months here on the board there is someone with a “MAJOR” problem, usually one they have been suffering from for a long time, they ask for advice, and before the dust has even settled, they go off half cocked, usually ingoring the predominate advice in the process.
When you’re in a place with a power surge issue, the life of these things are greatly reduced and you’ll find yourself spending more on polluting the world through cfl production than deplating fossil fuels by using incandescent. I know this thread is old but someone else might stumble on it even a few years from now I just blew out six LEDs and five CFLs while experiencing voltage spike issue bin my house.
I just blew out six LEDs and five CFLs while experiencing voltage spike issue bin my house.