The Caffeinated Penguin

Posted By matt on August 3, 2005

First, an aside:

Liz got pulled over for properly executing a stop. She was on the 1N on ramp in Wakefield (the one by Shaw's). She stopped at the sign, let another car go, then turned the corner. A cop is on the bottom of the on ramp, and flags her down. He tells her that he pulled her over for failure to stop. Now, my mother is in the car with Liz, because they are finishing up at the old apartment as my father and I are installing the new dishwasher. My mother, being my mother, proceeds to yell and berate at the policeman in that voice that only mothers have, informing him that Liz most certainly did stop.

The policeman says that he was just checking for seatbelts anyway, so she was free go.

Anyway, back to electricity.

This house was built some time ago – I'm not 100% sure when, but I'd guess 25 years at least. While wiring in the dishwasher, we're playing with the electrical system. First, we find that this is all fused, not breakered: antiquated, for certain, but workable. Then, we start chasing wires looking for a circuit to take off of for the dishwasher. We find one – 2 outlets in the kitchen are on one 20A fuse. The other 2 are on a second. Excellent! Someone wired a kitchen halfway decently for once. One of the circuits has the fridge plugged in to it, so we take the other one for the dishwasher. No problem. However, we start looking at the other circuits. They seem older, using 14ga wire. For those non-electrical people, this is 15A circuits. But, what's this? A 20A fuse? On a 14ga line? Geesh! Again, for the uninitiated, this means that we could realistically pull more current through the wires than the wires can handle. This makes the wires get hot. Hot wires melt insulation, start fires, and basically are unpleasant. So, I changed the fuse to a proper size. It lasted about 12 hours before it popped, presumably because one of the A/C's switched on.

So, liz and I started mapping out circuits. One 15A circuit feeds my office, our dining room, and our bedroom. This means that this circuit is running (with peak currents given in parens)
8,000 BTU A/C (7A)
7,000 BTU A/C (6.5A)
6,500 BTU A/C (6A)
My computers (5A)
Laser printer (8A)
Total: 32.5A (peak)

Nice, hunh? No wonder it popped.

Now, the laser printer is off most of the time, and I've changed over to the heavy motor fuses (which allow time for motors to spin up before it blows). Also of note is the fact that air conditioners pull that load at peak – once the compressor is up, they drop off to like half that. So, realistically, we're talking:

8,000 BTU A/C (3.5A)
7,000 BTU A/C (3.25A)
6,500 BTU A/C (3A)
My computers (5A)
Laser Printer (0A (assume it's off)
Total: 14.75A

Well, that's not so bad. Still a bit high, so we moved the 7,000BTU A/C to another circuit. Remember the one with the fridge? Well, that's all that's on that 20A circuit, so a heavy duty extension cord (rated for 13A, of course) later and the 7,000BTU A/C is on the other kitchen circuit.

This brings us to:
8,000 BTU A/C (3.5A)
6,500 BTU A/C (3A)
My computers (5A)
Laser Printer (0A (assume it's off)
Total: 11.25A

To be safe, I'll probably turn my A/C off when I'm printing something…

Now, this brings us to another issue – fire protection. Not only are most smoke detectors in rentals really old, but if you check them, often the batteries are removed. The one which came with out rental looked to be about 10 years old, had a disconnected battery, and was mounted incorrectly (fewer than 4″ from the ceiling, and mounted on a wall). The landlord left a new one for us to put up, so it went on the ceiling outside our bedroom, and we're going to get another one (the more expensive kind designed for kitchens) and mount it at the junction of the basement stairs, hallway, and kitchen. This should make us pretty aware of any potential fire and brimstone.

Oh, Liz got me a grill for my birthday. I got to pick it. Charcoal, of all things. I know, it's tempermental, no instant gratification, etc., but what can I say? It's an art, or an exercise in a lack of convenience to achieve a specific goal. Life is so hectic, when I'm grilling, I can have a beer and slow down…

Category: LJ Import
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