Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Power is good!


Since buying this house in 2005 I have had many "happy homeowner" moments.  Some not so happy.  The electrical panel and wiring are a bit suspect thanks to the previous owner.  Every electrical project I've done has turned into an ordeal and way more work than anticipated.  As much as I would love to rewire the entire house, I don't think it's on the current list Tiffany so often refers to. The cost is just too much at this time.

Well, we were able to do part of the job this week.  Today the service panel was replaced along with changing the meter and mast location.  This is a good starting point because now this house is upgraded to 200 amp service, has a good panel with new breakers, has organized wiring inside the panel and not the pile of spaghetti that was there before, and the work has been done by a professional - something the old panel obviously lacked.  From here we can rewire the house as we can afford it since we have fixed the main hub of the system.

Behold the nastiness of the old panel.  Tiffany commented that today the electrician could be heard numerous times wondering aloud "what's going on here?" and "why is that going there?" along with "what is that doing there?".  Those are all terms I don't really care to hear a guy say as he's fiddling with the wiring on my house.

And here's the shiny new panel install.  You can see the big conduit at the bottom of the box heading off to the left towards the outside.  That's where the new meter location is, about 3 feet from the panel as opposed to the 30 or so feet away where the meter used to be.

This is the work that was done outside.  The meter used to be on the opposite side of the house from this spot.

And this is a picture of our super ferocious watchdog as the strangers were here working on things.  Clearly she's on high alert.  I sure am glad our house is safe!