Electrifying Friday June 19, 2009, 0 comments

Breaker Box

This is the breaker box in our new house. When we took possession, there were breakers in 11 of the 24 slots. Some were single-pole breakers, some took up two slots (oven, hot water heater, dryer all use double-pole breakers). Now 19 are full, and the wiring is nowhere near done yet.

Some of the breakers in the upper row were moved from the lower row in order to have a more logical layout. You see, the upper row of breakers are breakers that haven’t been changed yet, they were in the box when we got the house.

The lower row, on the other hand, is the kitchen. Yes, the kitchen by itself takes up half of the space in our electrical panel. This is because the kitchen now boasts fully up-to-date wiring.

There’s a double-pole 40A breaker for the cooktop, and a double-pole 30A breaker for the wall oven. Then each of the fridge, dishwasher and over-the-cooktop microwave/hood vent/convection oven gets their own 15A single-pole breaker. The kitchen lights are on their own single-pole 15A breaker. That makes for 8. The final four are single-pole 20A breakers, each one powering one of these:

20A outlet in kitchen

That’s a 20A ground-fault countertop-height outlet.

It’s amazing how much breaker panel space a kitchen can take up, but it makes sense. It’s where most of the high-current appliances in the house live.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on the renovation, but that’s partly cos we’ve been busy as hell, and partly due to the fact that most of the changes being made are structural or infrastructural in nature, and don’t photograph well.

We had to re-route the sink vent and plumbing in order to relocate the sink, which necessitated a trip to the attic with a reciprocating saw, and a pile of galvanized pipe in the back yard.

Sarah spend many thankless hours with a chalk line, a cordless drill, three batteries and two boxes of deck screws firmly attaching with two screws each 1×4 subfloor plant to each floor joist, in preparation for the plywood that will go on top of them, and the slate tiles that will go on top of that.

But we’re really close to being able to drywall the ceiling and walls. All the wiring in the back half of the house (which required access through the opened kitchen ceiling) has been replaced – no more knob & tube back there! Just have to get the conduit for the central vacuum in place, and the kitchen sink drain pipe and water supply pipes in place in the wall, and we’re ready to close it up and make it look like a room again.

Good times!


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