This seems odd...

[rvr6000]

The misses and I are in the process of buying some land up near where I grew up.....80 acres with a house. Getting a good price on the whole thing and honestly I'm not really buying it for the house. The realtor was busy the day we wanted to look at it so she just gave us the door code and we spent about 4 hours going over everything in the house. Something in the electrical looked strange to me.....

This fuse panel in the garage is directly opposite from the meter on the outside. Power from the meter enters from the lower left then exits again on the upper right to a breaker panel in the basement.

Now look at the service coming into the breaker panel. That looks like a completely different wire, doesn't it? So something must be spliced together somewhere.

I'm headed back up there in a little bit for the well and septic inspection but I'm gonna try and trace that wire from the garage to the house and see what's going on. Fortunately we have three electricians in the family so getting something fixed won't be a problem.

 

[nehog]

I read the first paragraphs looked at the pictures and said to myself "That's not right, different wire..." then read the final paragraphs, and see that is exactly what you are saying!

You are right, you need to do a bit more research. Maybe the in and out are exactly opposite from what you think?

 

[Lotek]

Are you sure that the feed for the basement doesn't come from the lower right on the first pic?

Upper right looks like an input. Generator?
(Not an electrician, didn't stay at a Holiday Inn)

 

[rvr6000]

Just heading up there now. Another thought I had.....there used to be a breeze way between the garage and the house which has since been finished off to be part of the house. That area sits over a crawl space while the rest of the house has the basement. Wonder if something didn't get changed around when that was done.

Funny thing...the father of the family that lived there while I was growing up was a lineman for one of the local power companies. There's still a really old map of the county hanging in the garage with all their lines and substations marked on it.....kinda cool.

 

[deter]

upper right on top panel most likely goes to the range. Also, the red is a taped black, the panel in the basement doesn't have tape

 

[Gary S]

Needs work. Lots of it.

 

[Executive]

Older type SE cable used black rubber insulation with black or red cloth wrap for ID.

The feed for the basement panel originates in the bottom of the garage panel and is fused by the main. Deter is correct in that the circuit that originates in the pull out at the upper right of the garage panel is likely a range.

Chris

 

[rvr6000]

Deter/Exec - Thanks for the help. Just got back from the water inspection. Honestly it's so flipping hot up here today I said the hell with it after realizing I would have to crawl up into the attic of the garage to find out where some of the wires are going. I'll check it out next time I'm up there.

I thought maybe that line entering the garage panel from the lower-right was hooked to a 120V circuit. No electric range or range outlet in the house but not to say something was changed along the way.....house was built in 1950 so who knows. The fuses in the garage panel are all 60amp fuses.

Thanks again for your input.

 

[Hawk]

Sounds like a great candidate for a rewire job.

 

[JakeKohl]

Deter/Exec - Thanks for the help. Just got back from the water inspection. Honestly it's so flipping hot up here today I said the hell with it after realizing I would have to crawl up into the attic of the garage to find out where some of the wires are going. I'll check it out next time I'm up there.

I thought maybe that line entering the garage panel from the lower-right was hooked to a 120V circuit. No electric range or range outlet in the house but not to say something was changed along the way.....house was built in 1950 so who knows. The fuses in the garage panel are all 60amp fuses.

Thanks again for your input.

It does look like ~maybe~ the wires exiting the garage panel on the lower right seem to be a similar wire type to the ones entering the breaker panel - though it's hard to tell if they are the same gauge.

However, I say it's a waste of time worrying about what wire goes where...it all needs to be replaced. Looks EXACTLY like my current house did when I bought it in 98.

 

[rvr6000]

JakeKohl - you are correct. This will all be corrected very soon after closing on the property. Gonna replace that fuse panel in the garage and just run some conduit for lights in the garage and replace that service line to the panel in the house.

Another side question - Are the overhead service lines the power companies run to the house a fairly standard size? I'm just curious if since I'm replacing this panel in the garage if I couldn't upgrade to a 100 amp panel relatively easily - subsequently upping the power available to the house panel where most of the circuits are located anyhow.

 

[nehog]

...
Another side question - Are the overhead service lines the power companies run to the house a fairly standard size? I'm just curious if since I'm replacing this panel in the garage if I couldn't upgrade to a 100 amp panel relatively easily - subsequently upping the power available to the house panel where most of the circuits are located anyhow.

Likely the power company will have to replace the drop to the house. The drop is based on the size requested, and considering its age I doubt it is that large.