Nowell Dunwell
Member
I bought a house and the previous owner "rewired" some things over what I think was several decades, and the house saw several "updates" which significantly changed the original design. Husband and wife were deaf, so he cobbled in a flashing light system throughout the house that took forever to remove (actually found phone-type wire spliced to 120v and an exposed/open junction box behind plywood inside a wall which housed a Radio Shack flasher system that had the AC plug cut off and hardwired to an outlet with an exposed transformer near it....) and the guy apparently didn't believe in grounding anything, and would splice to whatever was convenient, and has AC outlets EVERYWHERE, and a secondary breaker box that was installed into a walled-in porch add-on. Main breaker is in master bedroom right next to outside power junction, but master bedroom gets power from the secondary box in the added-on porch. Make sense? Beyond infuriating.
Electricians relocated and updated the main box, etc., but there are several things I've found recently after the fact while adding new lighting once the lowered ceilings were pulled down (hiding 8.5' tall wooden ceilings with massive 36' x 8" x 4" beams every 4' with tongue and groove 1" paneling between them spanning the original house section) from the kitchen. Originally had a flat roof, and was changed to an A-frame style and original roof is now the attic floor, complete with galvanized steel covered with tar and insulation on everything. Original walls in some areas have redundant headers half way up, which makes running new wire impossible w/o ripping drywall down, which has blown-in cellulose; in other words, everything is a rpita. Added the extra bits just to give an idea of what I'm dealing with for added entertainment.
OK, so the kitchen had at LEAST 5 breakers supplying power. Used one to power dining room light instead, so still have 4 breakers supplying power but plan on only using 3. A 15, 20, and double pole 30 (60) amp. The 15 amp, which powered the original light in the kitchen, was spliced into somewhere and now powers something like 8 AC outlets too, many being in the enclosed porch add-on. The 20 amp, powers 1 outlet. The 60 amp, doesn't seem to power anything at the moment, but is live. The original wiring has twist ends that were taped and tucked under a baseboard if you can believe it.
What I'd like to do, is keep the lighting on the 15 amp, separate the majority of the AC outlets from it, and probably use the 20 amp for the remaining outlets (hallway and porch). Possibly use the 60 amp for a modern electric range/oven and microwave outlets. The wiring for this is 6 or 4 gauge.
Does anyone see any issues with trying to do that? Also, there are 2 outlets above the counter top. Assuming a toaster is used at some point, that's probably 1500 watts. This needs at least a 20 amp breaker?
Electricians relocated and updated the main box, etc., but there are several things I've found recently after the fact while adding new lighting once the lowered ceilings were pulled down (hiding 8.5' tall wooden ceilings with massive 36' x 8" x 4" beams every 4' with tongue and groove 1" paneling between them spanning the original house section) from the kitchen. Originally had a flat roof, and was changed to an A-frame style and original roof is now the attic floor, complete with galvanized steel covered with tar and insulation on everything. Original walls in some areas have redundant headers half way up, which makes running new wire impossible w/o ripping drywall down, which has blown-in cellulose; in other words, everything is a rpita. Added the extra bits just to give an idea of what I'm dealing with for added entertainment.
OK, so the kitchen had at LEAST 5 breakers supplying power. Used one to power dining room light instead, so still have 4 breakers supplying power but plan on only using 3. A 15, 20, and double pole 30 (60) amp. The 15 amp, which powered the original light in the kitchen, was spliced into somewhere and now powers something like 8 AC outlets too, many being in the enclosed porch add-on. The 20 amp, powers 1 outlet. The 60 amp, doesn't seem to power anything at the moment, but is live. The original wiring has twist ends that were taped and tucked under a baseboard if you can believe it.
What I'd like to do, is keep the lighting on the 15 amp, separate the majority of the AC outlets from it, and probably use the 20 amp for the remaining outlets (hallway and porch). Possibly use the 60 amp for a modern electric range/oven and microwave outlets. The wiring for this is 6 or 4 gauge.
Does anyone see any issues with trying to do that? Also, there are 2 outlets above the counter top. Assuming a toaster is used at some point, that's probably 1500 watts. This needs at least a 20 amp breaker?