BiggerPockets

Fuses? Yeah, I'd upgrade to breakers.

You can get a split breaker if you've got two circuits on a breaker, but as far as I know you can't do that with fuses.

Your wiring sounds like it is dangerous to me. Fuses aren't so good with tenants, because they are prone to do things like put in too large a fuse or a penny if they keep overloading the circuit.

If I ever upgrade the box, I have the electrician run me a couple of new circuits to the kitchen. Old houses aren't wired to cope with all the modern electrical appliances.

Upgrading to breakers will help a little with insurance; not enough to pay for the new box, but every little bit helps. It also helps if you don't burn your house down in an electrical fire.

Upgrading will also help your resale when you get ready to sell. Buyers might shy away from fuses, or expect a nice price reduction (I hope you got a nice reduction because of the wonky electrical panel)

Ted,

I am with Jon and PNM on this. Updating (or even replacing ) the current old penle with a new one is highly recommended, if nothing else, for liability reasons. Since you plav on renting it out, you now are aware there is an existing problem (electrically) and if something were to happen to a tenant or visitor, you could be found negligable and therefore liable for damages.

Question: $1300 to "upgrade" - does that mean replace old with new? If so , that is a reasonable price. Also, the box can have a brand new grounding rod installed along with new panel to dial in with todays codes.

You will also want your electrician to install all the GFI outlets in the wet areas to also comply with current codes and the electrician should provide you with a wiring diagram of the entire house so you know which outlets and which switches are on each breaker.

Your welcome tahts what we are all here for.

My last queote for a new panel with new grounding and the permit was $1600, but it was a larger home, over 2,000 sq. ft. so $1300 is reasonable, not the best, not the worst. Make sure to have it permitted and check the license and bonding of the electrician.

when you pull that permit and then have the city do a cert inspection..be Certain you know what you're getting in to.

Try to find out everything that the city is going to want done so you can get an Accurate total cost for the upgrade.

Absolutely do it! Great price for new pannel, breakers, rewire, GFI and hard wired smoke detectors to current code. I suggest Square D, reliable and the Home Package is very afforable @ 200 Amp service. Who is your electrician and does he travel? Bill

You've gotten some good responses here. I'll add my .02 as well since I know a fair amount about this. First, your price to replace sound pretty reasonable to me, especially if the electrician is putting in a 200 amp panel. That will alleviate the double tapped breakers/fuses, and so forth. Any electrician should run a driven grounding rod close to the panel and clamp on properly. In addition, there should also be a cold water bond run to a water line, preferably where the water supply enters the building.

To expand on what Steve said, it sounds like you have pretty old wiring and the odds are that you don't have a ground wire run to all the outlets. The work the electrician does will ground the panel but not the outlets. While having GFCI's above the kitchen and bath counters is a very good idea, it is also even better to make sure the other outlets are individually grounded to the boxes they are inside of. This can be done by installing a screw inside the box and running a short piece of copper wire from the outlet to the back of the box. The same testing device that trips a GFCI also shows if there is an open ground on an outlet. You can get it at Home Depot for around $5.

Lastly, make sure that once you are signed off by the city that you contact your insurer and show them the paper work from the inspections and the electrician. It should qualify you for a discount on your policy.

What a useful thread this is.

In the same vein, are there safety issues with a 100 amp box? Or is the issue that that they won't be able to run a bunch of appliances at the same time?

I'm planning to buy a smallish (1200 SF or so) house and rent it out. I was wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade from 100 to 200 amps, if I find a house with 100 amps.

Thanks.

Originally posted by Bienes Raices

What a useful thread this is.

In the same vein, are there safety issues with a 100 amp box? Or is the issue that that they won't be able to run a bunch of appliances at the same time?

I'm planning to buy a smallish (1200 SF or so) house and rent it out. I was wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade from 100 to 200 amps, if I find a house with 100 amps.

Thanks.

It really depends on what else you want to do with the house. For instance in CA, if you upgrade the kitchen you have to have a minimum of five dedicated circuits for things like the disposal, counter top GFI's, oven, DW, fridge, etc. Most of these would be 20 amps each and there goes your 100 amps (although there is room for something like140 amps on the load center).

In general, these days people have a lot of equipment like computers, entertainment centers, plasmas, etc., that eat a lot of juice. Window AC units do as well. You can overload the circuits pretty easily since the odds are half the outlets will be on one breaker and the other half on another breaker in an older 100 amp set up.

This doesn't mean the house will burn down. It just means you will have a pissed off tenant who is always rebooting the breakers because his/her gear is overloading them. You can always add a 200 amp panel later putting it right next to the 100 amp and turn the 100 amp into a sub panel.

Since you are doing this on a lease option to a tenant, you should do the work at that price. You do not want any problems with them getting loans or closing on the deal.

I work on 100+ year old buildings all day and the first thing we do when we buy one is get "sparky," the wire master, in there to evaluate and update anything needed. It might cost more up front, but it will save you time and sleep.