Dedicated AC Circuits: It's not the noise, it's the upstream problems

Every time I read about FP breakers it's a new type of horror:

@erik_squires Yep, Federal Pacific, aka FPE.  Many of my heighbors still have them.  One did thermography recently and has some pretty warm spots.  It is much harder to change your breaker box now than when I did it.  Our gas meters are right below our breaker boxes.  New code requires them to be seperated by I think 10 feet.  So my neighbors can't get a permit to replace the breaker box unless they move either the gas meter or the breaker box.  Adds $10k to the job.

@ozzy -

While you’re at it, also check the connections in the breaker box. I was surprised that a couple of mine were not fully tightened down.

ozzy

     Some folks neglect to come back in a little while to retighten connections, after a new conductor has completed it’s compression, following a fresh install of whatever. (ie: breakers, outlets, power supply caps, speaker terminals, anything with compression/screw terminals).

      Doing that three times per new connection, over the course of a couple hours, has always seemed a good idea, to me.

While you're at it, also check the connections in the breaker box. I was surprised that a couple of mine were not fully tightened down. 

ozzy

My box and breakers were a brand whose name I can't remember that went out of business for starting too many fires. 

@carlsbad 

Federal Pacific??  Oh man, those things were notoriously bad.

The breakers were still available at home depot "refurbished" for $20 each when new Westinghouse breakers were $3 each

Well I sure as hell hope you got rid of 100% of the Federal breakers.

@erik_squires Exactly as you guessed.  My home was built in 1986, had 100 amp service, and was limited on breaker positions.  I have upgraded my service to 200amp service. 

My box and breakers were a brand whose name I can't remember that went out of business for starting too many fires.  The breakers were still available at home depot "refurbished" for $20 each when new Westinghouse breakers were $3 each.  It was a no-brainer to do the upgrade.

--Jerry

@brunomarcs I follow the AC discussions on these boards pretty regularly,and no its not safe to assume someone is joking.😀

@carlsbad The NEC would agree with you. For as long as I can remember, back to the 1990’s I believe, each bathroom gets it’s own dedicated circuit now, and therefore it’s own GFCI outlet.

Before homes were routinely supplied with 200A service there were a lot of buildings with far too few circuits. It’s a little crazy now, my modest 2-bedroom home without a garage has about 24 separate circuits. I remember living in a 3 bedroom in the 1990s, with expanded fuse boxes that started with 6 screw in fuses and had been expanded to 10. The number of times fuses had been re-used/re-appropriated to service multiple circuits was a testament to the need for a lot more in even simple homes.

Exactly.  

I'll add that a dedicated circuit ensures that a load of laundry isn't running on the same circuit causing a large power draw.  Seems like an extreme example but indeed the outlet behind my system (before I installed a dedicated circuit) was on the same circuit as the laundry room, bathrooms, kitchen and garage.  You can probably figure out from those hints that it is the GFCI protected circuit.  Seems like it would be easier to install a GFCI outlet in every bathroom than to run the same circuit all over the house but for some reason my house has only one GFCI circuit and it has an outlet behind my stereo system.

Jerry

I almost have 1" thick cable feeding mine. Okay, maybe not that big but it is 8 gauge.

Anyone should've gotten the 1'' thick conductor joke! It's absolutely true if you have an old service it's time to upgrade everything that you can. I removed a cord from an outlet in my kitchen one time, don't remember what I unplugged, it sparked smoked and caught on fire for a second or two then it tripped the breaker. I thought I was gonna burn the house down, it was pretty scary. I was able to pull the wires out enough to cut off the burnt section and I installed all new outlets and a few gfi's at that time. An old outlet can go bad at anytime. 
 

I hired a reputable electrician to replace my service panel,  he had the power company come out and replace the overhead line from the street all the way to the house, using larger wires, they also put in a new larger transformer and pole closer to my house, the old transformer was at the street, I can look out the window and see my own big transformer in my yard. It's not my own anymore, it was replaced with a larger one five months ago and is now feeding my sons new house also. I can't tell a difference in sound quality. 

Oh good I was wondering what kind of doctors could treat someone using 2 ought conductors for a 20 receptacle circuit would be.😀

@bikeboy52  I was making fun of users attempting to use giant/oversized power cables between the breaker box and their outlet.

Eric what exactly are the one inch conductors? Im curious,gauge/ material etc. Thanks.