So I’m sharing these recent events because they’re sadly comical and I could use some advice from any of you that have extensive knowledge of electrical wiring.
I just moved back to Boston, Brighton actually, but same thing if you live here. Anyway, I love my new apartment but starting this last Sunday we've blown the power in the apartment 22 times in 4 days. The apartment is on the 3rd floor of an old Boston building. The entire apartment is running off one 15amp breaker. It seems the higher floors have gotten less 'love' than the lower apartments because the landlord could just drill a hole in the floor in the others and do the wiring himself. But since this is an old Boston building wiring is expensive so my landlord has been unwilling to do it in the past (he also says this hasn't been a problem from previous tenants). I don't know about the other tenants but this is how it works for us. If you run any one major piece of appliance such as a: microwave, vacuum or computer monitor and the fridge cycles it blows the breaker. If two major appliances are running and one has a surge from turning on/off, or you just bringing something small into the equation...it blows. The lights flicker when anything big turns on or switches gears (fridge, AC). We've swapped out all the light bulbs with energy efficient fluorescent bulbs. We've gotten in the habit of unplugging EVERYTHING in the apartment at night so we can run our AC's on low so we can sleep.
We've both talked to the landlord and he was hesitant at first to do anything (cost), especially since it wasn't a problem for previous tenants. But when we explained how bad it was he started to be sympathetic. The thing that did it was the fact that if nothing else was running and you were heating something up in the microwave (bought in the last year I might add) and the fridge cycles the power blows. It’s also getting progressively worse and that ‘blend’ of stuff that would work fine will now blow the power. Of note is that the wiring leading from the breaker box is sufficiently warmer than every other apartment’s. Also, our meter is 3 times as high as everyone else’s as well. When my roommate called the power company to create our account he mentioned this and they said we had to deal with the landlord. When I last talked to the landlord he said he was going to have his electrician friend look at it. What I’d like to see done is the 15amp fuse replaced with a 20 or 30amp fuse (though I’m sure this will depend on wiring) and a separate line run up to the kitchen which will have it’s own breaker. I had a similar problem in a house out in Arlington when I lived in the area before and while not ideal made the problem more bearable.
Anyway advice or comments? If I wasn’t having to go down to the basement 5-8 times a night I’d find this hysterical.
I just moved back to Boston, Brighton actually, but same thing if you live here. Anyway, I love my new apartment but starting this last Sunday we've blown the power in the apartment 22 times in 4 days. The apartment is on the 3rd floor of an old Boston building. The entire apartment is running off one 15amp breaker. It seems the higher floors have gotten less 'love' than the lower apartments because the landlord could just drill a hole in the floor in the others and do the wiring himself. But since this is an old Boston building wiring is expensive so my landlord has been unwilling to do it in the past (he also says this hasn't been a problem from previous tenants). I don't know about the other tenants but this is how it works for us. If you run any one major piece of appliance such as a: microwave, vacuum or computer monitor and the fridge cycles it blows the breaker. If two major appliances are running and one has a surge from turning on/off, or you just bringing something small into the equation...it blows. The lights flicker when anything big turns on or switches gears (fridge, AC). We've swapped out all the light bulbs with energy efficient fluorescent bulbs. We've gotten in the habit of unplugging EVERYTHING in the apartment at night so we can run our AC's on low so we can sleep.
We've both talked to the landlord and he was hesitant at first to do anything (cost), especially since it wasn't a problem for previous tenants. But when we explained how bad it was he started to be sympathetic. The thing that did it was the fact that if nothing else was running and you were heating something up in the microwave (bought in the last year I might add) and the fridge cycles the power blows. It’s also getting progressively worse and that ‘blend’ of stuff that would work fine will now blow the power. Of note is that the wiring leading from the breaker box is sufficiently warmer than every other apartment’s. Also, our meter is 3 times as high as everyone else’s as well. When my roommate called the power company to create our account he mentioned this and they said we had to deal with the landlord. When I last talked to the landlord he said he was going to have his electrician friend look at it. What I’d like to see done is the 15amp fuse replaced with a 20 or 30amp fuse (though I’m sure this will depend on wiring) and a separate line run up to the kitchen which will have it’s own breaker. I had a similar problem in a house out in Arlington when I lived in the area before and while not ideal made the problem more bearable.
Anyway advice or comments? If I wasn’t having to go down to the basement 5-8 times a night I’d find this hysterical.
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