I'm converting an small office building into a recording studio. Started the day using my chop saw and power went out as well as AC. Ok, the amature electrian in me began trouble shooting. First, checked the electrical panel for tripped fuses. None. Checked AC fuse/switch...fine. All bad outlets readin 24 volts. WTF??? Good ones read 124. Call brother who begins troubleshooting the panel. All breakers good, One outlet had a trip but it would not reset. Seems all others drive power through it....maybe. Called Jack of all trades handy man who came in today. Trouble shot from scratch. Could not figure it out. Then I told him about fuse box outside. Conclusion: power from provider after meter runs through parallel 110 fuses, one of which was blown.

Is it common to have this fuse set up like this? This is an older building with a federal panel.

Sounds like you just lost one leg of your 240 volt feed. Seems odd your pane voltage was fine. And yes it's normal to have a disconnecting means (your fuse or knife switch) on the outside of a building if you panel isn't within like 10ft.

If it is indeed fuses I would replace with a breaker panel.


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Get a metal ladder and check the voltage on the highlines feeding into the property before the transformer.


If that checks out make sure your ground wires are properly grounded in the ground.
Should look something like this when you're done....



GOOD LUCK BUDDY!

So have you replaced the fuse and all is well? Yall got a lot of that rain yesterday too didn't yall?

Yes, it has to be a metal ladder so you get a good ground. Otherwise your readings will not be accurate.

You can reset by sticking a butter knife into an outlet

Replacing fuse did the trick!!! Thanks for everyone's help.

Probably what happened was that your place was built by a shady contractor, when your high dollar subdivision was formed and now it is all coming back to haunt the rich and famous, who had to live in those fancy subs.

Uhh this was in a commercial building not his house

Don't be so cheap and hire a fricken electrician. Any good liberal should be more than happy to pull all the proper permits and hire all licensed contractors, file proper notice to Owner paper work etc etc etc

This looks like the solution except for not being able to use a surge protector.

"Is There an Easier Way?
If you don't have armored cable or access to the wiring, your best bet is to use ground fault interruptor (GFI) outlets. The way the GFI works is that it detects an unbalanced load (like a loose wire) and shuts down all current flow through the circuit. Determine the first outlet from the main electrical box in each circuit, and then replace it with a GFI outlet. You can then replace the rest of the outlets in that circuit with standard grounded outlets. These outlets must be connected to the load side of the GFI outlet, and should all be labeled to note that they are GFI protected. One caution: surge protectors will not work on a GFI protected outlet."

I think this is what is now in place on 1/2 of the outlets/circuit. The rest have no GFI outlet.

Federal pacific panels are scary. You can get good money for those breakers after you put the new one in. You may kill someone by selling them but at least you will have a few dollars in your pocket. I am sure you can write up some kind of waiver for the buyer.

First off it's not a neutral/ground. It is one or the other. They do totally different things. Second if you try the GFI thing it is useless without grounds in place. Third the first idea with running a ground for the surge protectors will work it will just be shade tree shit. And last you are on the right track not wanting to have ground loop problems cause they are a bitch. If you only have one source for ground and make it common on all plugs that are serving equipment you will not create a ground loop problem. If I were you I would call an electrician. If I were me I would change out that old panel. Get a good earth ground to the panel. Run new plugs with conduit on the outside of the block walls to the locations where my new electronic equipment will be. Then leave the rest of the old plugs as they are for you strobes and disco balls.


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I would get that panel out of there. I personally have witness a house catch on fire because a F/P breaker wouldn't trip.

If we decide to run exposed conduit to new external outlet boxes, would you electrical gurus run rigid or flexible conduit? Metal or plastic?

Plastic

I would run metal. If your not good at bending conduit you better go with plastic.


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Can't sleep so thinking about this. What are the odds I can pull two new wires into an existing outlet by pulling them in with one of the existing wires? But they're prolly stapled along the way aren't they so maybe not possible?

Dean,

I rewired an entire house that needed to be upgraded from knob and tube wiring that way kind of. I used a flat head screw driver to pry the outlet boxes off the studs drilled new holes to run wiring through the top plate and ran new wires from the attic using glow rods then replaced the nail on boxes with cut in outlet boxes. It can be done. Getting them into the panel could be tricky. I replaced that particular panel but...if you have empty cut outs available on the top side of the panel you can drill a big ass hole above it and try to fish the wire into the panel with a small nut or nail tied to a string.

Thanks Rob, but this building has a flat roof with brick walls and no access to a to plate from which to drop a fishing line. I was thinking I might be able to pull two wires through using an existing one.

we did this at my house Dean - we taped the new wire to the old wire and pulled them thru, took some "fishing" around corners. My place had wiring from the 20-30s.

just be careful - my buddy who is electrician is really good at fishin wires but he hated it

fishing.png

Sounds to me like a liberal government lover trying to skirt following the rules and doing unlicensed work. Typical of most liberals as the rules they love are always for the little people.

hey now JR. Achievement - I paid all my permit fees and county signed off on it

So tell me, the best way to do this might be to use an existing wire to pull fishing lead through than use that to pull back two new wires? Or, should I just try to pull two wires with one to start?

we did both 1 wire at a time and 2 for straight runs, if you got a wire fishing real that worked real good also taped to the wire your pulling out and then taped to the new wire your pulling back. Don't use the cheap electrical tape - get the good 3M tape about $4.00 a roll with the yellow cardboard base. Tape so you got a taper on the end of wire kind of like a spear point.
Remember a pro does it in about 1/100 the time you do it - take your time and back up if you have to. They do it by themselves - for us it's a at least 2 man job

Dean post that deadlift video again so he knows you mean business.

You gonna show up in his driveway like Jamie B?

You making a recording studio?