The last 20 years of Home Power Have Been Amazing

My relatively upscale neighborhood in north San Diego County was built in the late 80s.  the entire development was wired with Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) breaker boxes.  they were out of business about the time that the homes were built because their crappy breakers were burning down houses.  

Fortunately for me, I bought the house and promptly started adding circuits to power tools, an electric dryer (I work for the electric company, but have to admit I've gone back to gas now) and a few othe circuits including 2 circuits for audio.

I was surprised when I went to Home Depot and new breakers weren't available but they sold "refurbished" ones that were 4-10 times the price of new name-brand breakers like Westinghouse.  So I quickly did the math and concluded it was worth the effort to change to a 200 A Westinghouse panel with all new breakers, which I did.  total cost of parts about $300.  I did the work myself.  at the time I didn't even realize how dangerous the FPE breakers were.

Now, 30 years later, I am surprised no homes have burned down but several neighbors have done thermography and found significant hot spots in their boxes.  When they get a quote to change out the box, it runs up to $50,000 because of new regulations.  of course all the breakers have to be the new type which are 5-10 times as expensive.  but the big cost is a new code requirement that the gas meter and the electrical panel must be seperated (I think 10 ft).  This wasn't a requirement when the neighborhood was built so all the gas meters are directly below the electrical panels.    If you try to get a permit to upgrade your electrical panel, you have to meet all the new code requirements, that is,  move either the panel or the gas meter.  One neighbor just moved his gas meter.  what a pain in the rear and what a cost.  He had to take off a total of 7 days from work to be home for various appointments and of course there were the obligatory redos to make the inspector happy.  

One neighbor found an electrician who would do the work without a permit and without moving the gas meter.  that was probably the best answer.

Most of the neighbors are doing nothing because of the expense of moving the gas meter (generally seen as cheaper than moving the electrical panel).  Clearly this code change, along with the requirement to backfit any new code requirements in order to get a permit, is making the neighborhood much less safe.

Jerry

@goodlistening64 The gas company is quite aware of it. they are grandfathered. Nothing needs to change until you try to pull a permit to work on either the gas meter or the electrical panel. then CA makes you bring your installation up to code. While there may be a slight risk to having them right beside each other, it is tiny compared to the risk of the FPE breakers staying installed for who knows how long.

And the gas company has replaced the gas meter, the electric company has replaced the electric meter.  No indication of any interest in moving either of them.  they are grandfathered.

Jerry

@hickamore the amps don't generally have internal protection, they have good power supplies that handle the noisy sine waves of utility power.  the only protection they have is the mains fuse.

A surge protector is different than a fuse.  a fuse won't protect you from a lightening strike.  a surge protector doesn't always eitehr but makes an attempt.  

The whole house surge protector doesn't try to "clean up" your power or "condition" it.  it just opens a breaker very quicky when it detects a surge  So it doen't limit current like some power "conditioners" do.  It is this power limiting characteristic that makes your amp sound better plugged into the wall.

Jerry

In CA at least, all bathroom, kitchen, and garage outlets have been GFCI required since at least the 80s.  this results in some strange circuits where the builder puts garage, bath and kitchen outlets on the same circuit since one outlet protects the entire circuit.  they saved $3. apparently copper wire was cheap then.