Are Circuit Breakers Over-rated?

[hallerb]

more breaker capacity is always a good thing.....

[RicodJour]

Is it Oppie of Jeffy...? ;)

Not sure where you are, but around here if an electrician gave me that number I'd either kick him out the door figuring he was not legit and/ or crazy, or kiss the guy. Are there permits involved? How does the utility figure into the changeover?

In any event, figuring materials are roughly the same, and the amount of time involved, it is a good price wherever you are.

I would suggest that marking all circuits would be a good idea, and should be done at the time of changeover. It's easier if you start identifying circuits at the time of the disconnect. Put on all the lights and plug in some low wattage things to most of the receptacles (radios and lamps are good) and turn them on. When he turns off a circuit, you'll be running around making a list of what got killed. Staying in contact with the guy on a cell phone or walkie talkie helps a lot while you're doing this.

To the extent that the existing wiring allows it, put lighting and receptacles on different circuits (might not be possible at all). Have a GFI breaker installed to cover the kitchen wet location receptacles unless you already have GFI receptacles. If it's only one outlet, such as in a bathroom, ask the guy which he would do more cheaply, swap out the receptacle or install a breaker. It's kind of an odd question normally as a single GFI is about four times cheaper than a GFI breaker, but he'll already be in the basement and won't have to go messing about elsewhere in the house. Obviously if you can protect a number of outlets, the GFI breaker is the way to go.

I think you are going about this in an intelligent way. Asking the questions up front and posting back with follow up information. Going off half-cocked can get you half-killed or half-angry. ;) Good luck with the project.

R

[Jeffy3]

Thanks. I appreciate the kind words. I always tell my friends that these forums are the way to go to get all kinds of information, especially when it comes to home repair and computer problems. You just need to be careful at sorting out the information because you never know who the guy on the other end is!

My electrician has always been reliable. It's a nice quote as the neighbor across the street paid $1200 for essentially the same job, but with a different contractor.

[HeyBub]

I guess then I should have sought your counsel before I did it. As it turned out, I must have been beyond extremely fortunate I didn't kill myself, four of my neighbors, a passing flock of sea gulls and started a fire that not only destroyed the house but started a conflagration that consumed eight more homes, twelve vehicles, and an abandoned burrito.

Maybe you have more experience than I in determining the level of common sense of your fellow man. I hold that most people can figure out the simple stuff involved in swapping out an electrical service box while other nay-sayers here seem to be convinced that the OP stands a non-neglibible chance of being dumber than a crate of anvils.

If so, your criticism might better be leveled at my Pollyanna attitude toward the OP and the complexity of the project. You may very well be correct that we have to modulate our advice to the stump-stupid level lest some defective puts his finger in the saw.

Or, it could be you've been influenced by too many eight-page warning brochures that come with step-stools ("do not use over much when wind is coming" etc.).

It's a difficult call.

[RicodJour]

Not really. Let's review the events and weigh the facts: You like to act like a bumpkin and give stupid advice to people on Usenet. You give bad advice when you have no clue where the person is located or what their abilities are, and somehow these things are unimportant to you. You spout bullshit about conditions where _you_ live that is wrong. You then call anything not in your area, or people that don't ignore the things you do, benighted. You make bad assumptions on pretty much everything.

So the call is...you give bad advice and don't know what you are talking about. Not really difficult at all to see when you look at it objectively.

At first I didn't believe you when you said you went to law school. I have changed my opinion. You did not say you are a lawyer, you said you went to law school, so that means either you couldn't hack it in law school (my guess), or didn't finish for some other reason (you couldn't hack it), or finished school and couldn't pass the bar (pretty fair second guess), or you were a lawyer and got disbarred.

Most people have a low enough opinion of lawyers as it is, so you would be doing the legal profession a favor by not mentioning your failed attempt at law.

You would be doing everybody a favor if you thought before you started tapping the keyboard. It's a lot to ask, I know, but why not give it a shot - you might surprise everyone.

R

[HeyBub]

Actually I went for a year and a half (about half way). At the end of my first year I was ranked 18th out of 193 freshmen. I came to the view that, while your lawyer is a nice guy and mine is a prince, the rest are thieves. So your surmise, based on incomplete information and preconceived notions is at least as faulty as your evaluation of my contributions.

It wasn't failed; I made the Dean's List.

I've given your suggestion all the consideration it deserves and have concluded that it would be shameful indeed to deprive those, such as yourself, the opportunity to rise up in righteous indignation. Fulminations don't bother me; in fact I think advanced adrenaline levels are good for some people.

So, until someone asks what to do about a red, oozing and fungating mass on their inner thigh (or similar), just bide your time. I'll be back with more outlandish suggestions. But all is not lost.

In deference to your refined sensibilities, I'll try to preface my remarks with the following prelude:

"If you have (advanced, moderate, basic) skills and observe all the legal niceties in your jurisdiction, then the following may be considered..."

Will that satisfy you?