Old Wires
The other thing I did this past weekend was some stop-gap electrical repairs: we had a bad outlet, and a couple of lights that weren’t working because of worn-out switches. In the process of replacing them, I learned – much to my chagrin – that all of the 2nd floor and the 3rd floor are on one circuit. We’re talking about 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms here. That’s just nuts.
On top of that, the breaker for that circuit is bad. I had to flip it half a dozen times to get the circuit to shut off. When we bought the house, the seller had the service panel replaced, and it looks like they put in all new breakers too, except for one: this one. So I’ve got to replace that breaker ASAP – it’s quite a fire hazard.
The 3rd floor is not original to the house, so my guess is that, when the house was built in the 1920s, one circuit for the 2nd floor was probably considered ok. Back then bedrooms just used electricity for lights and radios, right? Then when the 3rd floor was added, I bet they were just lazy and tied into the closest circuit, rather than running a new line to the service panel in the basement.
This will complicate my plans for replacing the wiring. As I go room-by-room, I’ll have to be careful to not mess up the existing lines, otherwise we’ll end up with no power in most of the house. It’ll be a pain when I want to put a new outlet in the same spot as an old one. Grrr.
