There's some long explanations here. Skip to "The Heart Of The Matter", below, if you don't want the story.
Just to set the stage: the original structure of our house was built in
1920. From 1954 to '56, my uncle added a garage/office to the back (West), extended the bedrooms (North), and enclosed the screened-in porch to make a dining room (South - pretty neat: in the basement you can still see the "door" that was used as access to the area under the house, hinges and all, that's now floored over).Of course as the house has been built / added to over the years, the electrical system is one huge bowl of under-powered spaghetti. The main panel, a 60 amp fuse box (yep, fuses), powers most of the house. Another box beside it holds the "Main" and the "Range", plus four fuses which control the West addition, and under the stairs is _another_ box with 10 fuses, also for the West addition. The last box, the last one I've ever found anyway, is a double-pole breaker for the air conditioner. The box under the stairs appears to be wired directly to the meter, but that's another story.
By day I'm a mild mannered computer programmer. My office at home has two computers with all the trappings, plus a MIDI workstation, mixer, amp, etc etc etc. My wife and I also own a business making shirts and tights for renaissance festivals throughout the country, so in the basement are three industrial sewing machines, plus all the trappings that go with ~that~.
No, we're not blowing fuses. The problem is, I've got four boxes, and no more circuits - by rights, if I'm doing my math right, the costume shop alone should have two, for instance, but there was only one left in the box. Each computer should have its own circuit. I'm not overpowering the box, I'm just out of room.
--- THE HEART OF THE MATTER.
I called an electrician and gave him the situation, saying I was exploring having a 200 amp box. He told me flat out that 200 amp was for industrial applications only, and wouldn't do it. My contention is that the codes as they exist were by and large written at a time when a floor lamp, tv and vcr setup was considered a lot of electricity for a room. To setup one computer in my house takes an outlet for the computer; a monitor; a printer; a scanner; the DSL modem; a broadband router; a switch (I have a home network). That's seven. The entertainment center: a tv; vcr; dvd; an amplifier/receiver; cd player. That's five.
Thesis: We live now in an age where there is more Electical Stuff in common usage than anytime before, and that the conventional/traditional wisdom needs some updating.
Thoughts?