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chimpgrrl · Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Posts: 1 Location: nyc

We have a five-room apartment in a fairly old building in Brooklyn. We are constantly blowing fuses (or tripping fuses --- they just need to be reset by flicking the lever back and forth in the fuse box). I'm willing to believe that we just have too many things plugged into the one circuit that always blows -- it is always the same one, and as far as i can tell, it controls all the outlets in 4 of 5 rooms of the apartment. The thing is, there are 4 fuses for the apartment. Is there any way other than hiring an electrician to know how those fuses are mapped? It's mystifying to me that the whole apartment might be run off two circuits and the others might not be used at all, but i'm not sure what else to conclude. ANy advice would be helpful. thanks.

b · Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 12:28 am Post subject:

Turn off one breaker at a time and see what is off. (if you prefer you can do it in reverse by turning them all off and then turning on one at a time to see what is on) When you complete that you should have a fairly good idea of what is on each circuit. It is not uncommon for older apartments to need updating as the electricity was put in so long ago before the age of all the electric gadgets we have now. Never change out the breaker for a bigger one as the wire is rated for a specific size breaker. Too much amperage on the wire could melt the insulation and cause a fire. Your breakers are doing their job when they flip off on an overcurrent due to too many devices at the same time.
b