At the moment, I'm just looking for some general info because this whole thing has become ridiculous and I don't want to get railroaded (again) by maintenance whenever they finally decide to show up.
I live in an older apartment building, built in the 1920-30's, in Birmingham, Alabama if that might help with regulations or standards for those knowledgeable. Also, I've lived here for 6.5+ years. The fuse box still uses glass fuses which hadn't seem to be an issue until about 2 years ago.
About two years ago, during a relatively cold winter, I was trying to use a space heater but it kept blowing a fuse. Maintenance eventually just told me it was drawing too much power for the circuit and that I couldn't use it. They also, after the 3 or so blown fuses, replaced the fuse with a 20 amp mini-breaker. Of note, all other fuses (3) in the box are 30 amp. I realized live in 2015 and can show you a picture of the scary fuse box.
Let me stop here and list what is all on the 20 amp mini-breaker's circuit at this point in time two years ago when they installed the mini-breaker - essentially all of the living space:
- Refrigerator
- Gas stove (clock/stove controls, light, electronic starters)
- Microwave
- Kitchen light (one 60W bulb)
- Dining room light (two 60W bulbs)
- Two closet lights (60W bulbs, rarely on)
- Desktop PC (620W power supply) 1
- 24-inch LCD monitor 1
- Wireless router 1
- Cable modem 1
- Cable box (DVR, HD, Scientific Atlanta brand) 2
- Pre-2002 hand-me-down Sony 5.1 Surround Receiver 2
- 42-inch LG LCD HDTV 2
- A Lasko 26" tower fan
- Phone charger
1 Surge protector #1
2 Surge protector #2
Even after knowing that list, it still astounds me to have that much stuff on one circuit. But I didn't have a choice. This circuit covers three rooms - kitchen, dining room, and living room. There is only one outlet, in the living room, not on this circuit but it powers a window A/C unit.
So for the first few months, the mini-breaker worked fine. If I had my TV and computer on, occasionally running the microwave would flip the breaker. But then, it became more frequent, and I started having to power either all of my TV-related devices or my computer-related devices off if I wanted to run the microwave. I got told, again, that my devices are overloading the circuit. So, I began rearranging furniture and using the outlet on that A/C circuit in my living room for the TV-related devices to take the load off. That got me by for a while.
But now the mini-breaker has began tripping more frequently over the last month or so, even when I'm not changing the load on it by running something like the microwave. This culminated Friday night as I was watching TV (no longer on the circuit) and the breaker flipped killing my PC and lights. I reset it, but it was hot to the touch and the lights started flickering. I could hear a crackling coming from the fuse box, and after a bit watching the fuses I could see some sparks firing between the breaker and the wire/screw next to it. Thus I immediately began unplugging things and taking any load off that circuit. After about an hour the mini-breaker had cooled down, the lights stopped flickering when turned on. But now, my kitchen light was no longer working. Not a burned bulb, just not turning on. So I re-evaluated what I'd leave on that circuit - which was fridge and stove, dining room light, and TV-related devices. It got me through the weekend with no more problems.
And of course, then, here's the point. I contact my property managers this morning with this issue and they say they'll check it out. I re-stress the sparking and crackling, and get told, again, they'll check it out. No one came out. Not only did no one come out, but I get home today and flip on my dining room lights and right away they're flickering; fuse box is crackling; see sparks; unplug everything. I contact my property managers immediately and get told that they were "short handed" today, but they'd try to get someone out here "first thing" in the morning.
So that's my long ass story, but I hope it helps shape the incompetence and uncertainty I'm dealing with. At this point, the only "extraneous" devices and load I'm putting on the circuit is an LCD TV, cable box, and receiver. Basically something is decaying or attritioning (or whatever?) in this circuit. I can't go without a fridge, and the stove has a non-standard plug tied to that circuit. But at this point, that's all I can have on the circuit without overloading it. Obviously my maintenance people have a habit of blaming my devices. I don't think I have devices that are much different that other people in 2015. I think it's very lazy on their part to put ~60% of the apartment's power on one circuit. Am I wrong about that? Especially when there are 3 other circuits whose load doesn't add up to anywhere near this main circuit.
This is annoying and feels cheap on their part. But more so it feels so hazardous. Is it not?
Thanks for reading this far. Things I'd like to know right now, just as general knowledge and learning, but handy arguments also:
- Is having that many devices on one circuit out of the ordinary?
- Shouldn't the kitchen be on its own circuit, normally?
- Could some kind of short in the line (thinking kitchen light failure) lead to a regular overload and/or slow decay in this situation? Like some kind of "signal leak" for lack of better understanding on my part.
- But lastly, and most importantly, what is some of the bullshit my maintenance/property managers might try to continue to feed me that I need to shut down right away? I'd spent 4.5 years here with no problems with the electrical layout, but it's declined since then and at each juncture it has been blamed on me.
One of my neighbors told me to call an electrician out right, let them do the work, and forward the bill on to my property managers. I'm hesitant to bring in a third party, but they've got until 9:00 in the morning to send out someone to fix this likely fire hazard before I cut them out of the resolution.
Edit: Just to round out the entire electrical picture of this apartment, the other three fuses/circuits cover these three sparsely used electrical draws:
- 2 Hallway lights - 3x40W and one 60W
- Bathroom light (60/75W - never had to change it, CFL FTW)
- Bathroom outlet - used for air-freshener, mainly
- Bedroom ceiling fan
- 2 unused electrical outlets
- 1 Window A/C unit
That is, again, spread over three outlets. With 30 amp fuses.
Submitted June 09, 2015 at 10:24AM by MisterTito http://ift.tt/1cHOsLT electricians
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