Are Circuit Breakers Over-rated?

Posted by Jeffy3 on November 2, 2009, 10:12 am

Our 55 year-old house still runs on fuses . We have never upgraded to
a circuit breaker . We hardly ever blow fuses (it's been years
actually). We even run our heater and air conditioner off an
individual fuse box installed 25 years ago. We have an electrician
coming out to give us an estimate to upgrade to a circuit breaker, but
since we've made the appointment we've heard from two people who say
fuses are better and why bother spending the money if we don't have
any problems. Thoughts ?

Posted by dpb on November 2, 2009, 10:20 am

Jeffy3 wrote:

> Our 55 year-old house still runs on fuses . We have never upgraded to
> a circuit breaker . We hardly ever blow fuses (it's been years
> actually). We even run our heater and air conditioner off an
> individual fuse box installed 25 years ago. We have an electrician
> coming out to give us an estimate to upgrade to a circuit breaker,...

OK, _WHY_ did you do this, then?

Unless you're intending or needing to upgrade service from (say) 100 to
200A in view of an impending remodeling or other anticipated increased
loading or also replacing a 2-wire system w/ 3, what's the point?

--

Posted by EXT on November 2, 2009, 11:13 am

> Jeffy3 wrote:

> > Our 55 year-old house still runs on fuses . We have never upgraded
> > to a circuit breaker . We hardly ever blow fuses (it's been years
> > actually). We even run our heater and air conditioner off an
> > individual fuse box installed 25 years ago. We have an electrician
> > coming out to give us an estimate to upgrade to a circuit
> > breaker,...

> OK, _WHY_ did you do this, then?
> Unless you're intending or needing to upgrade service from (say) 100
> to 200A in view of an impending remodeling or other anticipated
> increased loading or also replacing a 2-wire system w/ 3, what's the
> point?

Agreed. Unless your fuse panel is failing, rusting, has broken parts, or
lack of capacity, I would vote to stay with it. I don't think new fuse
panels are made, so any replacement would have to be a circuit breaker
panel.

Posted by dpb on November 2, 2009, 11:24 am

EXT wrote:
...

> ... I don't think new fuse panels are made, ...

Yeah, I was astounded to recently discover that appears to be the case
that there are apparently _none_ other than for very large industrial
applications any longer available. (I wasn't needing/wanting
particularly, just curious after somebody else had made the comment and
thought surely they could be had still even though not used much in new
construction.)

--

Posted by DerbyDad03 on November 2, 2009, 11:53 am

> EXT wrote:
> ...

> > ... I don't think new fuse panels are made, ...

> Yeah, I was astounded to recently discover that appears to be the case
> that there are apparently _none_ other than for very large industrial
> applications any longer available. =A0(I wasn't needing/wanting
> particularly, just curious after somebody else had made the comment and
> thought surely they could be had still even though not used much in new
> construction.)
> --

re: "I was astounded ...thought surely they could be had still even
though not used much in new construction."

I, on the other hand, am not in the least suprised.

If I look at this from a supply and demand perspective, I can't see
enough demand to justify the cost of maintaining a manufacturing line
and/or storage facility for fuse boxes.

If there is an alternative device available (i.e. the circuit breaker
box) that will fit both new construction and upgrades/add-on
situations, it's cheaper to manufacture and store just the one device.

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