YES you need the protection of a breaker box!!! It's not only code, but it's extremely important from many aspects, the least of which is burning down your house the first time you connect something that would normally pop a breaker or fuse.
In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, snipped-for-privacy@aol-dotcom.com typed: :: I bought an old house in the country. Someone must have :: stolen the breaker box. I got those two fat wires that :: come in from the outside pole.
Those are the two 120 Vac wires coming in. There should be another large, bare wire for Earth Ground.
Then there's about 12 to :: 15 small wires, some balck soem white. I know all the :: white ones go together as well as all the blacks.
You are wrong! All the black wires do NOT go together! That would be the same as connecting the two hots coming in from the pole together. Immediate explosion and fire!
Why :: cant I just wrap all the white wires to one of those fat :: wires and all the black ones to that other fat wire and :: tape them up real well. Breaker boxes are expensive and I :: cant afford one. I dont see why I'd really need to shut :: off the power ever, and I dont plan on using a lot of :: electric stuff anyhow. No one is going to inspect this :: either. I just want to get the power turned on as cheap :: as I can. If I ever get a lot of money maybe I'll put in :: a breaker box at a later date, but not now.
Well, if that's what you want to do, go ahead and do it. It'll never work for you and will have power limited only by the transformer outside, which is many, many watts of power and fire! :: :: One thing. Both fat wires are black. Does it matter which :: one I put the white wires on?
The whites don't go to the "fat" wires. They go to earth ground.
I noticed that outside one :: of them is bare silver colored and the other one is black :: where they go to the pole, but in the house both are black. :: :: Jose
If you're for real, you may be about to die unless you get someone to come in and do that job properly. I suspect you are a troll, but ... you sure sound like this isn't for you to do!