household fuses

conservativecave ^ | February 18, 2009 | self

[franksolich]

Before anybody laughs, remember, one would be surprised at all the things I don't know. Which is a great deal more than what I do know.

Something happened with the electricity at this house today, and as no one else was around, it was something I had to deal with myself. This is an old house, and has fuses, rather than a breaker-box.

For the record, I grew up in houses that had only breaker-boxes, and if there were fuses in any of those ancient apartments I rented while in college, I never knew about it, because nothing ever happened with the electricity.

I immediately figured out the source of the problem; a hot-water vaporizer circa 40 years old that's been going for days and days and days, steaming a certain bedroom. To be sure, I lifted the lid, and oops, the water was cold.

[franksolich]

I'm sure the situation's under control, but perhaps this might be of interest.

[pfflier]

Having no idea what it might mean if I substituted a 15 or a 20 for a 30, this reinforced my speculation that I should just get a new box of 30-whatever.

That is the current rating and they are not interchangeable

Do NOT put a higher rating (i.e. 30A) in place of a lower rating (i.e. 15A) This could cause a fire because it allows the wiring to overheat.

The reverse is OK putting a lower rated fuse in place of a higher one although your circuit will blow out the fuse at a lower current draw.

Also keep in mind fuses blowing indicate a problem, they are not usually the problem. It sounds like you did OK isolating the circuit by unplugging all the appliances but if the fuse blows when the appliances are turned-on again, either you have too many on the circuit or one of them is bad.

[SunkenCiv]

See if you can track down “FuseBreakers” or maybe they were called “FuseBusters” (I have them, but don’t feel like going to the basement). Basically, they screw in to replace a given rated fuse (15 for a 15, etc; also btw, 14 gauge wire gets a 15 amp fuse, 12 gauge wire gets a 20 amp fuse, 14 for 15, 12 for 20), so when they blow, one needs to locate and fix the reason (as someone already said above) and then push the button back in the center.

[SunkenCiv]

Ah, here’s something like what I bought, uh, over 23 years ago.

http://www.allproducts.com/prc/jgc/s101.html