My 1946 cabin has a fuse box. A local is trying to get me to upgrade to a breaker box. If I don’t upgrade wiring would there be any benefits to that other than looking newer?
If I did upgrade and converted to 220volt could that damage the existing wiring which is 110 and probably the old sheathed type.
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Hello
Why does he want you to upgrade? I live in a home that was built in the 1920s and I have both a fuse box and panel. As I remodel I update the electrical.
Drake
Fuses are very reliable, more reliable than breakers. The main advantage to breakers is they serve as disconnects, and don't have to be replaced if they trip.
Fuses are very reliable, more reliable than breakers
Lots of qualification there for the fuse method - e.g no vibration, bolted in, scheduled replacement, etc.
Also, are you including zinsco and FPE breakers in those statistics (source?, -217??)
Well, any poorly maintained electrical system is suspect. Give me a fuse over a pushmatic breaker any day.
I replaced a fuse box with a new service entrance with breakers a number of years ago. When I had my insurance agent out to update values due to remodels, he noticed the breaker box. Ended up with twice the coverage for half the price. Insurance companies like the fact that you can't 'overfuse' a breaker box.
<<you can't 'overfuse' a breaker box>>But you can 'overbreaker' a breaker box. It's just a little harder.
Since 1975 plug fuse panels are required to use type S adapters so you can't over fuse the circuit.
The thing to remember is a fuse fails "open". A breaker usually fails closed (fails to trip on the overload).
Some ins companies have been refusing to insure newly purchased homes with fuse panels -- around here agents are having potential sellers w/ fuse boxes to upgrade before listing....I agree with the "fuses are safer" if not misused" school....
"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurmanhttp://rjw-progressive.blogspot.com/
I have been helping out friends (now in their mid 80s) opening and closing their cabin for years, same issue, they have a "fuse" box in a location that isn't very condusive to pulling fuses. The big issue with this type of setup in a vacation home is that to leave some circuits on while away, and others off, select fuses, fuse/cartridge blocks have to be pulled. This is a never ending routine at vacation homes. The next step, after being away for a while is to try to put them all back in the correct spot, a breaker panel would greatly simplify their and my lives.
If your short of power, a 100 amp service would help, your existing wiring is fine, but you would have to change your mast and upgrade the wiring from there into the panel.
Edited 8/5/2009 8:13 am ET by wane
The existing interior wiring wouldn't be harmed (much). 240V service is just two 120V services side by side, so the voltage rating of the wire doesn't need to change.
The only problem with the interior wiring might that it's too brittle to be easily transplanted into the new panel.
Obviously, to convert to 240V the "drop" from the transformer to the house would have to be upgraded, and possibly the transformer itself. Depending on utility policy this might be cheap or quite expensive.
unless the US is really backward, all service are 120/240 volt, I think he is talking about upgrading from 60 - 100 AMPS
I does n't have anything to do with being backwards.We don't have any idea of how old that cabin is.And being a cabin it might be out in the middle of nowhere.No AC, no electric WH (and maybe no kind of WH), etc. Might be all that they wanted was a couple of lights.Could well be 120 only service..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
No, there are lots of services installed before about 1960 that are 120V only. Especially those installed before 1940 or so.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz