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light control wiring help
- Thread starter dub bud
- Start date
sorry, im tryin to keep up=] thanks again for the help.
this is the only fuse box in the whole house so im guessing its the main panel. i dont think i have another one or a sub box. and were its fed from? im not sure? i do know on the other side of the wall (outside ) is the electric meeter.. so im guessing its comming from the telephone pole? sorry for my ignorance..
this is the only fuse box in the whole house so im guessing its the main panel. i dont think i have another one or a sub box. and were its fed from? im not sure? i do know on the other side of the wall (outside ) is the electric meeter.. so im guessing its comming from the telephone pole? sorry for my ignorance..
No sweat, we'll get through it. Take your meter and put it on the 200 ohm scale (the upside-down horseshoe symbol) with the horn honking symbol. When you short the two leads together, it should make a tone and when you pull them apart, it should stop. Check that, please.
Ok, now we want to verify exactly where the wires from the fuse panel go. You need to turn off the fuse panel (pull the handle down), and trip all of the breakers in the panel. You want to make sure that all of the power is off, because you will zorch your meter if anything is hot.
When the breakers are all off and your meter is set for the tone test, put one lead on the white wire in the fuse panel and the other lead on the white wire in the lug on the left side (middle of the panel) of the circuit breaker panel and make sure that the tone sounds. Then move to the black wire and check it the same way. Read this over carefully and ask me if you have any questions before doing it.
When the breakers are all off and your meter is set for the tone test, put one lead on the white wire in the fuse panel and the other lead on the white wire in the lug on the left side (middle of the panel) of the circuit breaker panel and make sure that the tone sounds. Then move to the black wire and check it the same way. Read this over carefully and ask me if you have any questions before doing it.
nukklehead
Active member
Awesome rives is giving us a troubleshooting101 class . I am not a electrician and awed with his professional knowledge. this should be a stickey but maybe not for the less educated. Seems like the above is doing well. I will butt out and continue to lurk. Hell Rives I would have said trash the whole thing and run a new service but with your knowledge he may be GTG...you da man
well i tried to look it over very well, even tried to clean it off a little, i cant see any markings.. no numbers or letters... and it looks like there are 2 fat red and black wires comming from the bottom of the box that connect to that breaker. they have some kind of writing on them but i cant make it out.....
Well, as I said earlier, you have a mess. If there is a main breaker outside that protects that heavy cable, we have some options, but as it is there is no protection on that romex feeding your fused panel other than the main breaker. That appears to be around 100 amps. The heavy wires feed through that lower-left breaker, heating up the busses in the panel. The lugs on the left that the romex is attached to are bolted directly to the busses. That in itself is illegal and a very poor idea, but then it gets worse by leaving the panel, goes up through the wall cavity, makes an illegal penetration of the wall and goes into the fuse box.
You could replace the romex with a heavier gauge wire with 4 conductors, and then feed a new circuit breaker panel. You could then feed your washer, dryer, and new lighting panel off of breakers in the new panel. Actually, if you used the same gauge wire as the feeders, the main breaker would then be adequate protection for it, but the panel should be placed so that the wires came directly into the back of it rather than being exposed and entering through the side.
You could replace the romex with a heavier gauge wire with 4 conductors, and then feed a new circuit breaker panel. You could then feed your washer, dryer, and new lighting panel off of breakers in the new panel. Actually, if you used the same gauge wire as the feeders, the main breaker would then be adequate protection for it, but the panel should be placed so that the wires came directly into the back of it rather than being exposed and entering through the side.
