apparentgenius
New Member
My wife and I just embarked on a new career. We purchased a small motel on the Oregon coast. The place was built in 1949. There is some original wiring, some add on.
THe original room wiring (lights and recepticles) consisted of 6 20a circuits (fuses) feeding 17 rooms. I found the original panel in the garage. This was fine when there were no tv's microwaves, small fridges. When the panel was changed to breakers, they installed 30 amp breakers on 12 gauge feeds. I imagine it was because they were blowing fuses as they added the microwaves.
Obviously I want to upgrade the electrical but need to conserve cash especially since I can't do the work myself. There is a 20a 240V circuts in each room feeding the baseboard heaters. The rooms are small, about 230 sq ft. Currently there is a 8ft baseboard in the bedroom and a 3ft in the bathroom.
My idea is to speak with an electrician about changing this circuit to 2 120 v 20a circuits by adding a neutral run to each room. I would run a 1500 W electric fireplace type stove heater, a 500W baseboard on one circuit, on the other circuit, we would run the microwave, small dorm fridge,TV. That way the original wiring would only be used for lights and outlets as it was meant to be.
Hopefully the third wires can be fed thru the existing conduit, therefore greatly reducing the costs over feeding each room with a new circuit. I know that heating with 120 is less efficient, but am hoping that this would be a good tradeoff.
Advice?
Thanks,
glen
THe original room wiring (lights and recepticles) consisted of 6 20a circuits (fuses) feeding 17 rooms. I found the original panel in the garage. This was fine when there were no tv's microwaves, small fridges. When the panel was changed to breakers, they installed 30 amp breakers on 12 gauge feeds. I imagine it was because they were blowing fuses as they added the microwaves.
Obviously I want to upgrade the electrical but need to conserve cash especially since I can't do the work myself. There is a 20a 240V circuts in each room feeding the baseboard heaters. The rooms are small, about 230 sq ft. Currently there is a 8ft baseboard in the bedroom and a 3ft in the bathroom.
My idea is to speak with an electrician about changing this circuit to 2 120 v 20a circuits by adding a neutral run to each room. I would run a 1500 W electric fireplace type stove heater, a 500W baseboard on one circuit, on the other circuit, we would run the microwave, small dorm fridge,TV. That way the original wiring would only be used for lights and outlets as it was meant to be.
Hopefully the third wires can be fed thru the existing conduit, therefore greatly reducing the costs over feeding each room with a new circuit. I know that heating with 120 is less efficient, but am hoping that this would be a good tradeoff.
Advice?
Thanks,
glen