As you may know, I live in a 120 year old home. Nothing is perfect in the house.. including the electrical. Lately everything seems to be dimming. I haven't blown a circuit in a while [only if I have all my computers on in my room, and my mom is vacuuming, do we blow one]. However, I am afraid I am going to overheat something, and possibly cause a fire. I have two outlets in my room, and both are connected to different circuits [house was wired weird]. I have 3 computers, 3 printers, tv, sat. dish reciever, speakers galore, small little ac adaptor devices [at least 10], monitor, and the list goes on. I just want to make sure that I am not going to blow anything. My mom'* computer is also on the same circuit, but she doesn't have anything more than a monitor. When my furnice turns on, the whole house dims, and with my old monitor, it would sometimes shut off when the furnice came on, and wouldn't turn back on until it turned off. My TV seems to get very scratchy with it'* reception when I have my laser printer going [not the photo or reg. inkjet], and if the furnice is on, forget about watching tv. We also don't have heat upstairs, so we have a small portable heater [electric] that keeps the upstairs warm.. or warm enough. When it turns on, my lights dim, and my tv flickers, but if the furnice and the portable heater are on at the same time, there is nothing worse that them alone. And just in case if it matters, 90% of the electrical drain, is my room. 9% for the electric drier, and the other 1% for lights and stuff.

Quite a paragraph there.. but anyways, I have had this setup for the past few weeks.. so, nothing has blown up yet. Am I safe? Oh yeah, the whole house has "new" wiring, nothing old in here, so that isn't a concern [don't worry, I have worked on the electrical.. but shh.. we don't need that getting out, otherwise we are sure to have a fire ].


-justin

Do you know what kind of amperage service your house gets? The average home is around 200-300. How many breakers are in your panel?

Personally, If I were in charge of the house as a project I'd install a 200A service and rewire the whole puppy. But that'* 30K easily...

Here'* what I'm thinking, Your service must be too small to handle the simultanious loads. Get an electrician, Have them look the house over. You ought to have at least a 15A circuit per bedroom and a plug every 12 feet...

BTW, if you have **** and Tube wiring in any part of the house, As soon as a permit is pulled for electrical it must be removed. That'* a fire waiting to happen.

your house most likley has **** and tube wiring
heres some info for you
http://www.allaroundthehouse.com/lib.def.na10.htm

The master breaker outside of the house is 100amps.

I believe there are 18 circuits.. i'll check again in the morning for sure.


-justin

**** and Tube is dangerous stuff, especially in the winter when things get moist. That'* almost certainly part of your problem. I replaced all of mine in my old house. I did that first. Next, I went after the snakeskin. You need to replace all that old wiring.

nope, don't have that.. we just have wires stapled to the walls and stuff.

I have no clue what you are refering to when you say "snakskin"


-justin

Check your attic for **** and tube. I bet you'll find at least some. Snakeskin is an early romex type wire. It'* silverish in color, and looks like snakeskin.

You always have a delema going don't you Justin?

Yes, I do. I am just worried, because I am only now noticing all the lights dimming, and I don't think its good.

I don't have an attic. I have a basement.. that'* it. Well, I have an attic, but the hole for it is 1' by 1', and I have tried millions of times to get in it, and I never will be able to.


-justin