We are renting a 50 year-old home, and are generally pleased with it, as it suits our needs well. The problem is I believe there are not enough amps available for the power needs we have. For example, we cannot run the dishwasher and the microwave at the same time, or the breaker will trip. Likewise, we cannot run both small window A/C units at the same time as my wife’s hairdryer. Is there a simple way to increase available power without having to rewire the home and pay an electrician several thousand bucks?
There is no SAFE simple way to avoid the cost of an electrician. In all probability you have a 60 amp service coming into the house which may or may not be sufficient for your needs. But you certainly need additonal circuits to handle the loads you mention. If the owners replaced the fuses with circuit breakers, wonder why they didn’t run a few extra outlets while they were at it?
As a tenant, why don’t you bug your landlord?
I think the first question is, are you tripping the main breaker (big one at the top) or the other ones. If it’s the ‘other ones’ you just need to separate the loads onto different circuits. If it’s the main breaker (as in the whole house goes out), you’ll need to have the electric company come in and bring you up to 100 or 200 amp service.
Joey P asks the important question, and has the solution.
If it’s not the main breaker, then there are just too many outlets strung together on one breaker. It’s usually not difficult to add another breaker to the existing panel, and splitting off some of the load to this shouldn’t require much re-wiring. Depending on access to wiring and such, you may even be able to do it yourself. (Though depending on regulations where you are it might have to be inspected).
Short answer = NO.
Better answer = Sounds like you’d only have to add two outlets; one in the kitchen for the microwave and one in the bathroom. Couple hundred bucks maybe.
Do not start running cords all over the place to make life more convenient for you, this is a fire hazard. You’ll either have to ask the owner to shell out a few bucks for the added circuits or you’ll have to be careful about what appliances you run at the same time (the most sane approach).
Upon inspection of the circuit panel you may find that some circuits are doubled up under the same breaker, though rare, may be as simple as adding a breaker or two to seperate the loads (when people switch from fuses to breakers (as is the case in your 50 year old home) they sometimes cut costs by not buying enough breakers to do the job right). Danger! Do not remove the panel cover yourself. Have the owner look into solving this problem first.
Good question!
Couple things about that. The electric company doesn’t update the service,- they only do the utility drop from the pole to the meter and it’s very likely that they already have at least 100 amp cable coming over to the meter. If you’re tripping the main, then you need to look into getting a 100 amp service installed by an electrician.
It’s not tripping the main breaker. It is only one that trips, and it seems to be scattered throughout the house. The outlets in the kitchen, both bedrooms, and bathroom go out, as well as everything in the living room. The overhead lights stay on in the kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms. There seems to be one breaker that has various things scattered throughout the house.
As far as the landlord situation goes, I am apprehensive about bugging her, because she is giving us a great deal on the home, only charging half of what anyone else would have to pay, she prewarned us that things weren’t gonna be perfect because it’s an older house, and her son-in-law just died and I don’t want to be insensitive. We didn’t sign a lease agreement, and I don’t want to anger her and get kicked to the curb, because we can’t afford higher rent right now.
Then there isn’t much you can do but use common sense. Or if you know someone comfortable with electricity you can have them help you install an additional breaker to help with one or two of the problems.
This is quite common. Especially in older houses, where wiring was added to at various times over the years.
It’s likely that this is because the new wiring was just patched onto existing wiring, so you likely won’t find multiple runs going back to the panel and then doubled up onto a single breaker. Still worth checking, though, because if there is any such, that’s an easy fix – add another breaker and split part of the circuit onto that breaker.
But you’re likely looking at adding new circuits for these appliances. That may not be too hard – most of the work is in running wires from the box to the locations where you want the new outlets. You might run into problems like all the breaker slots in the box filled, which means either half-slot double breakers (expensive) or adding a subpanel box with more breaker slots. Still not that hard.
I’d talk to the landlord about these problems (non-confrontationally). Ask if she’s OK with you having an electrician look over it and suggest possible fixes. Note that since these would be permanent improvements to her property, she should like the idea. And she ought to pay for it, or at least a part of it. If you offer to pay 1/4 of it, and her the remaining 3/4, she ought to jump at that deal. Also consider some kind of arrangement where you pay the electrician up front, but then deduct some amount from your rent over x months. (In effect, you finance the improvements to her property, and get it done quickly so that you have the use of it.)
[quote=by festiva76]
It’s not tripping the main breaker. It is only one that trips, and it seems to be scattered throughout the house. The outlets in the kitchen, both bedrooms, and bathroom go out, as well as everything in the living room. The overhead lights stay on in the kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms. There seems to be one breaker that has various things scattered throughout the house.
Fifty years isn’t that old of a house these days. My previous, 1951 house was built the same way with all original wiring. It was just code at the time that certain outlets and certain lights and certain random whatever were to be on different circuits or the same circuit, and given 60 amp service with 15 amps circuits, you often had to compromise.
I updated the service myself in that house for a kitchen remodel. I didn’t have an NEC booklet, but some electrician coworkers told me the basics and I came through inspection okay. Microwave (built-in) needed its own circuit. Refrigerator needed its own circuit. Dishwasher needed its own circuit. Garbage disposal was okay on the same GFCI circuit as the countertop outlets; countertop outlets had to be GFCI protected, and there had to be countertop outlets every x (don’t remember) feet.
Of course festiva76, your house won’t be up to current code, and there’s no requirement that it be so. Updates, though, have to meet current code. But maybe you can phrase things with the landlord such that she knows things would be brought up to standard code?
Oh, my current house annoys me – my microwave (built-in) I installed in place of a stove vent hood, which was hardwired into the same circuit as the countertop outlets. The gas stove has an electric booster to aid in browning. And toasters use a lot of juice. Any time I try to operate two of these things at the same time, I almost always pop the bloody breaker. I’ve just not gotten around to making the changes yet. It may be as simple as replacing the breaker from 15 to 20 or 25 amps. That may not be up to code, and you damn sure want to make sure your wiring is the proper gauge to support the protection of a larger circuit breaker. That means, I may have to run new wire. Glad I have a basement now instead of a slab :).