Circuit box upgrade question(s)

Texas Kingsnake · 2016-02-05T09:31:33+00:00

I am having my electrician buddy help me replace an old circuit box in a fairly old house. Much of the wiring is old and cloth covered from the 40's. What happens if one of the wires we are replacing breaks or is too short to reach the breakers in the new panel? Do those broken wires have to be spliced with wire nuts to a new piece of wire and then the splice section mounted in a new junction box outside of the new panel? That could get ugly very quickly but my limited knowledge of the NEC says splices have to be with approved connectors and inside junction boxes. Will he have the tools to determine if any of the wiring in the house has decayed enough to present a fire hazard? Do you measure the resistance of the wire from the panel to the eventual load? I know that one very long run to the kitchen reads 105 volts with the microwave on when the voltage at the breaker serving that run is at 119 volts. This is a run that has been used, apparently, for years with a 20A breaker even though the wire apparently is only 14 gauge. We will be correcting that by wiring it to a 15A breaker Also, he talked about "balancing the load" within the panel. Why is that important? This may sound like a stupid question but why are the breakers staggered? I thought the A hot coming in on the left fed all the breakers on the left and the B hot of the right fed all the breakers on the right. Apparently not. Why? Any other pointers on panel upgrades or sites where I could learn more about the process? I've been watching a bunch of so-so YouTube videos, but they don't seem to answer the questions I have. I've already gone through the panel and marked down which wires go where by shutting each breaker off in turn and making note of what outlets and lights were no longer powered. My buddy said that's often the worst part of a panel replacement. I assume the wires have to be properly labeled as they come off the old panel and get attached to the new one. Would a Brother label...