We knew that there was an issue with an overload on the room that we are working on. Figured that now would be the time to check into that, before the paint and while we have the furniture all out of the office.
Harry is an IATSE union electrician. Basically that's a "theatrical electrician". He also has had schooling with 5 years of electrical engineering, electronics technology and chip fabrication.
And honey? he's got his thinking cap on for this next leg of the job here at Squirrel Haven.
After going into the breach, down into the nightmarish basement last night and flipping breakers to check....he has found out some interesting and complicated news:
One breaker feeds THREE rooms of lights and outlets.... and also ALL the outside lights and outlets.
That's a lot of load and muddle...also ...one of the outlets in the office...is coming from the UPSTAIRS instead of being fed from the basement...splices in the wall....and intermittent power...
DANGEROUS.
Lights and outlets should always be separated. Also rooms should be on their own breaker.
And by the looks of it, when the original owners needed an outlet they just tapped wherever they felt like and well... check this out:
the neutral comes from wall switch from outside lights
and the hot lead comes from the upstairs bedroom.
Can you say CLUSTERFUCK?
In the past, when we remodeled our upstairs bedroom, and took out the walls, we discovered burnt insulation around the wires. Oh, did we tell you that that insulation was old newspaper pushed into the wall?
Beauty.
Yes, we've been very lucky....so far. Hopefully our luck will hold some more while we get it figured out....
Lesson to be learned here:
If your house was wired by a weekend warrior...get it checked.
So... it looks like we'll be punching some more holes in the walls and doing some untangling wires... putting in a new panel and sheetrocking before the fun painting and redecorating.
This is gonna take more time than I wished.
But we may also be blessed in the end with a house that isn't gonna burn down some day. (Which has been a backburner flash of thought in my psyche from time to time...)
But first.....
Harry is still in the midst of setting up for Screamer's Hollow in the interim.
Yah, It's a scary season alright.
1 comment:
The house I grew up in, a 200-year -old farmhouse, had extension cords as the wiring for the outlets, rags and newspapers for insulation. Running water was a pump in the kitchen, and in the attached shed was the outhouse. I feel your pain!!
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