A/c Fuses?

I have a fuse box for a part of the house. I would like to add a breaker box.



I am going to just use the old fuse box as a conjunction box, and add the breaker box on it.



My questions is:



how exactly am I going to do the wiring for this fuse box/conjuction box?



Do i keep the fuses in the fuse box?
      

I'm new to this site.  But would appreciate some troubleshooting.  I just renovated my kitchen, gutted and all, finished in the Fall.  I did not replace wiring to the dryer, nor tamper with it, to my knowledge.  We did have an electrician add a small fuse panel.  We did not add more appliances then before, added some lights, but mostly used the room to separate things out.  Had a mentor do the wiring, many years of experience, very tidy and careful work, though not electrician by trade.  We have a standard 200 amp box as far as i know.  The house is 100 years old, but the wiring isn't.



In October my mother in law heard a very loud bang.  The electric dryer had been running.  She smelled smoke.  At the dryer receptacle was molten plastic sprayed onto the wall, caused by overheating at that point, due to I don't know what.  I thought maybe I had knocked something loose in the receptacle when i was drywalling around it.  I can't remember now if the breaker had tripped.  The receptacle and plug were toast. 



I replaced the receptacle, I replaced the dryer cord, not the breaker.   The dryer worked fine until february, when it stopped heating.  I found a bad thermal fuse and replaced it, the very common two pronged white one. 



The dryer worked fine until early April when it stopped heating again.  I checked all the fuses/thermostats on the back and the heating element, as I had done the first time.  Nothing was bad.  I checked the voltage coming out of the wall, as I had done the first time, only this time I did it correctly and got a reading that told me to check the breaker in the panel, which had not thrown.  When I checked the voltage between the Nuetral Bus and the two terminals on the Dryer's 30 amp breaker I only got a good reading on one of them, telling me that the breaker was bad.  While at the box, i noticed that to the main breaker, from where the conduit comes into the box from outside, the nuetral wires are bare all the way up, no insulation, and at the terminal of the main breaker they appear to have all melted together, even a couple small pieces have melted off of the "bundle." 



Switched the range 50 amp breaker with the dryer, dryer worked fine, nothing was back fed either.  Bought a new 30 amp breaker for the dryer and installed it on Saturday.  Also on Saturday we were given a dryer, about 4 years old, same as ours, so i hooked it up and saved ours for a spare, which I deemed still good since it seemed the breaker was the issue.  New Dryer worked fine from saturday until today.  Now it won't turn on, though it didn't cut out mid load yesterday either.  The breaker did not trip.  I repeat, no tripped breaker.  I just checked the voltage at the wall and it seems to have that same problem where one side of the receptacle gets a reading of 120, and the other a reading of about 5.  The problem must be bigger than the breaker.  I am not an electrician, I am a welder.  I have gone as far as I could on my own.  Thank you.
      

Hey guys,



I am trying to convert several 2 prong to 3 prong outlets throughout my house that was built in 1959. I have attached 2 photographs of the outlet, one from the right, and one from the left.



You will see the right side of the outlet has a RED and a BLACK wire attached to it. The left side has a WHITE wire.



I took the Menards employees advice that the black wire was most likely the ground, hooked it up, and blew a fuse (time delay fuses....). When I tried screwing in another fuse, it blew right away. This happened about 4 times and I got frustrated and decided to try this forum.



Any ideas as to which cable would be the ground, if any?? I'm pretty new to all of this. Any advice?



Thanks!
      

Hey guys,

we have a 4-plex in San Diego that we bought several months ago that was built in 1950. According to inspector's report, we needed electrical upgrades. One of the electricians told us city is under a project to underground all the electrical lines, and if we do not do upgrades the way city EXPECTS us, once our neighborhood is due for undergounding, we will have to REDO the whole thing again (like changing the location of the MAIN electrical panel from where it is now).

Can they FORCE these upgrades to the owners? I am talking about a 15000-20000$ that will be required... It is not cheap...



What we wanted to do is the very minimum, but to make sure our tenants are safe: just replace fuses in each unit with BREAKERS and leave it in the closets as we "grandfathered" them in and replace the main panel fuse with a breaker.

But according to the advise of an electrician based on the city undergrounding requirements, we will have to RELOCATE the fuses from closets to the OUTSIDE of the building AND RELOCATE the main panel from where it is now to an opposite direction (closer to the main street).

Can the city ENFORCE us to do this?
      

Hi, we drove past a triplex we are considering for purchase tonight. When we got out of the car to have a look around a bit, one of the tenants saw us and came out. He was telling us what he knew of the house and said the fuse box is on the outside of the house. This is a concern for us, because a) it is fuses and not breakers, which is preferable and b) we live in MN, which has extreme weather of all type. I have never heard of an outside fuse box before. Is it common? Will it pass an FHA inspection if we do decide to buy it? How difficult is it to relocate the panel to inside the house? Will it need to be moved? Thanks in advance for any advice.
      

Hello All,



I'm a DIY'er for most things except things that I want perfectly done and I know my limits. My brother is a licensed Master electrician but has really only dealt with Commercial last several years - his company are commercial electricians who setup new building contruction etc..

Anyway, my wife and I are getting Central Air from our tax money this year. That project starts in two weeks. My brother is going to tie everything together for me (electrical) but I had to do the research and buy everything. The HVAC installer said I need a 30A 2P GFI breaker to a 30A disconnect on the side of my house. I have the breaker specific to my panel, 10-2 wire and PVC conduit, etc.



Question:

I did purchase a 30A fusible pull-out disconnect box and 2x 30A NOS type H fuses. Will this work? The condenser is a new Trane XB13 and I can't find any documentation stating it needs fusible over non-fusible.



Thanks,

~S
      

Hi all

I'm renovating a rental home I bought. It has the original 90 year old fuse panel  and I'd like to replace it with a modern panelboard. Here's a picture of the current setup:







I'd like to demo the inset fuse box cabinet and then mount a new panel on the wall to the left.

The service conduit goes inside the stucco into the building. I'd like to cut it, put in junction box, and a sweep and extend the service to the left to the new panel



I called our electric co. to get the power disconnected and strangely the rep told me "Oh, people usually just work on it hot". Is this true/feasible??



Your advice is appreciated
      

I have a 5 hp, guess it's a 80 gallon, 220 volt Ingersoll Rand compressor and had problems with the motor not wanting to start. I found a replacement box that included the Siemens starter and a new reset. The only thing this new box doesn't have is the two 5 amp fuses and didn't figure I needed to use them so I didn't add them to the new box.(?) After wiring the unit I have found the only way the compressor will kick on is if I hold down the Siemens starter re-set.



I know I have the motor wired properly and the wires from the pressure switch expect the white one. It originally went to one of the two fuses and than to where I currently is.(?)



The black motor wire was connected to the bottom of the reset (lower left), which is out of view in the pic

The white motor wire was connected to the bottom right of the Siemens starter

The motor ground was connected to the ground terminal on the box.



The pressure switch black wire was connected to the top right of the starter.

The pressure switch with wire was connected to the top left of the starter.

The ground was connected to the ground terminal on the box.



The incoming black hot wire was connected to the top left of of the starter.

The incoming white hot wire was connected to the top right of the starter.

The ground was connected to the ground terminal on the box.



Any idea what's wrong and have I included enough information?



Thanks, Shawn
      

Hello again Gurus,



Will a double pole 15A 277v light switch work as a shut off for my air handler? I had to run all the electrical prior to them installing the central air and I wired a double pole switch from my 15A double pole breaker. I ran to the line/load ie black/white to the bottom posts on the switch. Thinking they can just run black/white from the air handler to the top. When the switch is UP> Live power to air handler. If it it's down (OFF), it means they can service the unit. Is my thinking correct on this? I couldn't find any other switches.



Thank You



~S
      

I'm installing a new outdoor light on the house (replacing a single flood with a motion sensor security light). I didn't realize until I took the old one off the house today that it's got a small rectangular junction box. The brackets that came with the new (round-based) light won't even fit in there. Is there any kind of adapter you can get, or is it a DIY kind of thing?



My biggest concern is keeping insects and water out of there. It's under the overhang, but I'd rather keep it sealed well if I can.