Stupid electrician!
I just discovered the fool that wired this home used 14 AWG to run power to:
The microwave
The range (which is gas, but uses a small amount of electrical power)
Two outdoor receptacles
The interior garage lights
All three exterior light fixtures
and they are all on the same 15 amp circuit. The microwave that is installed here can draw 1600W or basically 13 amps all on its own.
Who does this?!
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I'm going to go out on a limb and say, "stupid electrician". Don
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Someone with a 600 watt microwave?!
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Must of been the same person that wired my place. I just have a 15 amp circuit in my kitchen and can only run my microwave at 90% without popping the breaker.
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So, I am going to do some kitchen remodel and I guess run a new, dedicated microwave and fan hood circuit. And I will use 12 AWG like a normal person.
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14ga is very common now days. I DO NOT agree with it but I'm also not an electrician, stupid or otherwise.
Yeah, smart move to do it right @Mr. Perfect
I was pleasantly surprised when we bought this house. Entire house 12ga on 20 amp breakers. For most part outlets and light fixtures are separate.
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Might as well go 10ga 🤔
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mac10: 29981862068891/comments/29981854023963
Might as well go 10ga 🤔
Don't think I haven't considered that! lol
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Definitely not up to any code and not safe.
Don't forget to put GFI circuits in the kitchen.
Just reminded me of the fuse box on Green Acres.
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@...: https://forums.gunbroker.com/discussion/1913974/stupid-electrician
I just discovered the fool that wired this home used 14 AWG to run power to:
The microwave
The range (which is gas, but uses a small amount of electrical power)
Two outdoor receptacles
The interior garage lights
All three exterior light fixtures
and they are all on the same 15 amp circuit. The microwave that is installed here can draw 1600W or basically 13 amps all on its own.
Who does this?!
Sounds like an electrician with several rolls of 14 AWG he needs to use up
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Need to be able to hit both like and lol. ^^^^^^
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When I first bought are place, which is I figure 130 years old now, it only had 60 amp service and and there was power coming into the house at two locations, over the years people had there own way of wiring a house I guess. I ended up putting in 200 amp service and rewired the whole house for 20 amps using 12ga. I went a little over board and have about 30 breakers.
The other day I was in a couple of stores and I thought I would check out to see what 12-3 wire was running cost wise, they had no 12ga. wire at all, only 14ga.
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montanajoe: 29981862068891/comments/29981862511387
Need to be able to hit both like and lol. ^^^^^^
Hit it for you!
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dunbarboyz: 29981862068891/comments/29981848045211
https://forums.gunbroker.com/discussion/comment/11424306#Comment_11424306
Hit it for you!
Thank you, that got you a 'Promote'
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I bet he stayed at a holiday Inn express the day before doing the wiring
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220, 221. Whatever it takes.
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Gotta save a buck somewhere and I reckon the electricians are also gamblers playing the odds. You know popping the electrical panel switch or house fire.
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That's why there are permits and inspections. And electrical codes. When I was working as a plant electrician and instrument guy I did a little side work - very little. After doing electrical work all day I didn't want to spend evenings and weekends doing more but sometimes you have to help out. I always left it up to the owner to decide if they wanted to pull a permit and schedule inspections. Surprisingly, many did. Never had any problems; once in a while the inspector would have a suggestion and I appreciated a second set of trained eyes. But they were only suggestions - different guys do things differently - and my work always passed first time. Know and follow State and Federal electrical codes. If a person can't they should get someone who can. The National Electrical Code gets its authority from the National Fire Protection Act. There's a reason for this.
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20 Amp breakers are standard here & 12-2 Romex. Good catch
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I have wired 4 houses that I built. I use nothing but 12 gauge wire throughout.
Current code is that you have two, 20 amp circuits in the kitchen, on 12 gauge wire of course, and with 2 GFI.
My girlfriend owns 5 nice big rental houses and I have done all kinds of electrical repairs. One big ranch style house was just like the story in the OP, a kitchen microwave, 2 light fixtures, and 3 receptacles in the kitchen all on a single circuit with 14 gauge wire, no GFI. To make matters much worse, the dummy had installed a 20 amp breaker at the panel box, I guess the 15 amp breaker kept popping. Talk about a recipe for a house fire.
I ran a single, 20 amp circuit for the microwave alone. That one 12 gauge wire was 115 feet long. Big house.
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"all on the same 15 amp circuit"!!!
That might be just a lil' bit of overload... Glad you found it now and not when the Fire Marshall was trying to figure out why your house burned down!
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That sounds like the idiot plumber that did our house. Would his name be chris lovett? I've spent over $4000 fixing his screw ups.
Joe
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When we moved in this house it had a fuse box.....three breaker boxes....all in strange places. Its been an ongoing project to update things. We had plugs that didn't have grounds in one bedroom, they only had the two prongs for OLD appliances and such. We had that updated first, then got rid of the fuse box. We had to add some plugs to the kitchen...you still can't use the microwave when the toaster oven is being used, but we want to move the breaker box that is UNDER THE HOUSE first so we can update that problem. I swear....who puts a breaker box in the crawl space??? It took us forever to find it.
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Sounds just like the electrician's my friend Adam gets so upset about....
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Locust Fork: 29981862068891/comments/29981854545563
When we moved in this house it had a fuse box.....three breaker boxes....all in strange places. Its been an ongoing project to update things. We had plugs that didn't have grounds in one bedroom, they only had the two prongs for OLD appliances and such. We had that updated first, then got rid of the fuse box. We had to add some plugs to the kitchen...you still can't use the microwave when the toaster oven is being used, but we want to move the breaker box that is UNDER THE HOUSE first so we can update that problem. I swear....who puts a breaker box in the crawl space??? It took us forever to find it.
Holy cow! Breaker box down in a potentially wet area like a crawl space seems bad.
This house was built in 2015, so it's not like it's that old or anything. Honestly, this is the only real issue I have run across. There is GFI protection on this circuit and the other one that serves the small kitchen. I feel lucky in that regard.
@Bubba Jr. I don't know his name, but we can just pretend it's the same guy if it makes you feel better. :)
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Glad you caught it, Randy.
I've seen so many things done at/to my house, I'm not incredibly surprised anymore.
I am looking forward to addressing some issues this coming Spring.
*My place was built in 1972, as a "Summer Getaway," for people who lived on the Coast, from what I can ascertain.
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Mr. Perfect: 29981862068891/comments/29981896501019
https://forums.gunbroker.com/discussion/comment/11424357#Comment_11424357
Holy cow! Breaker box down in a potentially wet area like a crawl space seems bad.
This house was built in 2015, so it's not like it's that old or anything. Honestly, this is the only real issue I have run across. There is GFI protection on this circuit and the other one that serves the small kitchen. I feel lucky in that regard.
@Bubba Jr. I don't know his name, but we can just pretend it's the same guy if it makes you feel better. :)
Agree, a fuse box in a crawl space, unbelievable, maybe their spool of wire from the pole ran short.....
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@...: 29981862068891/comments/29981848549915
Glad you caught it, Randy.
I've seen so many things done at/to my house, I'm not incredibly surprised anymore.
I am looking forward to addressing some issues this coming Spring.
*My place was built in 1972, as a "Summer Getaway," for people who lived on the Coast, from what I can ascertain.
I caught it because I had installed some roof ice melt heaters and plugged them into the outside receptacle. Any time we ran the microwave when the heaters were on it was tripping the breaker. Initially, I thought it was because the microwave was dying a slow death. I went into the panel to see if I could upgrade the 15 amp breaker (thinking that might be one, easy solution) and no dice, since the circuit uses 14 AWG. I then tried to figure out what all was on that circuit and couldn't believe what they had lumped together. I am going to have to run a new electrical line in my attic. I just had additional insulation blown in all my attic space including above the attached garage where my panel is, so I am not super excited about being up there to do that, but it is what it is, I guess. I am not going to live with this. And knowing that I can do it myself makes me too cheap to hire it out.
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A house I once owned also had a fuse box. Built in 1950 and had 60 amp service before I upgraded everything. The scariest thing I found was a copper penny under one of the fuses!
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This place was built in the 50s....then a second story was added to the house in the 70s. So, you can imagine what craziness we've got going on here. The weirdness isn't limited to the electrical nonsense. We've got two large closets in one room that both have windows in them. The room is huge......two small windows on the right end of the room....then, no windows along the longest wall....and BOOM, two closets with windows in them. If this place was in New York I could rent those closets out as apartments.
There is also an entire set of ductwork and vents that are not connected to anything.....I'm guessing they planned to run one A/C and tried to tie the downstairs into what was built on when they added the upstairs. So, when that wouldn't work they put ductwork in the attic and added vents to the ceiling.
The house is not as bad as I'm making it seem....we're lucky to have what we have and its built better than most with lots of character, it just has a few crazy features.
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I have seven duplex receptacles in my kitchen. All on separate 20 amp breakers with 12 ga wire and 20 amp rated receptacles. Kitchen fires are a real danger if not wired correctly.
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