They have electricity in West Virginia?

Change the fuse and breaker. Material cost should be less than $10.

What I'm seeing in the pictures is a potential problem if the fusebox is no longer the sevice disconnecting means. if the fusebox can be de-energized from the breaker box, then the feeder (big black cable on the upper left of the fusebox) needs to be replaced with a 3 conductor plus ground cable and the fuse box should be replaced since the neutral bus is permanently attached to the sheet metal enclosure. Or, move the 2 circuits in the fusebox over to the breaker box if there is room to connect them there.

Not only do we have electricity here, we've got indoor plumbing too, not to mention a lower crime rate than most places.

BTW, West Virginia is the leading electricity exporter amongst the states.

Good point Tom. I was so shocked to here they had electricity there, I missed that.
Indoor plumbing too! Wow. Is it true they have more 4 lane highways to nowhere than any other state (thanks to Sen Byrd)?

Actually, it's a beautiful state Tom. You should be proud.

Hi Tom! my husband and I are very excited and nervous about this move. He will be working at a funeral home in Clarksburg while I attend school at WVU. Hopefully, the commute in the winter will not be any worse than the commute I have daily into Atlanta! The only thing we have not seen in the area and will miss is Waffle House. LOL

Do you live anywhere near Clarksburg? We have discussed getting a quote on completely re-doing the electrical. We expect to be in the house 4 years while I am in school. Since the house was built in 1910- I am guessing the electrical was retrofitted and wouldn't be stapled to the wall studs- possibly making slightly easier to rewire???

We sold a 1950's house last fall and thought we had an "old one" then. this should be an adventure! At least this house comes with copper and PVC plumbing- the last house had galvanized that had to be replaced.

Looks to me like there might be some empty spots in the lower right of the breaker box that could have the fuse wiring moved over. So the black square things are fuses- not the four little round things?

Actually, the correct name of the state is West By God Virginia. My Mother's people are from Wirt County where I spent most summers as a child.

"Actually, the correct name of the state is West By God Virginia. My Mother's people are from Wirt County where I spent most summers as a child."

That explains a lot. :)

Tom_o is right. There's no legal ground in the old fusebox (neither incoming cable nor the provision for it).

I'd move the circuits to the main panel if I could. You could just make the junction in the old fusebox if you have to.

If you don't see any signs of heat or burning on the over-fused circuits in the box, then the circuits themselves are probably OK. Just get them rated properly. However, there's the question of why they were over-fused in the first place. What do these circuits serve?

fa, that is a question I have posed to the seller. We are guessing they are to the kitchen since most appliances are there.

Does anyone have a link to a website that provides a list of amps required by various appliances- I know they vary but it would give me an idea once we map out which outlets go to which circuts.

Oh- anyone know how much it cost to install a gas connect for a dryer? There is already a gas furnace and water heater in the area. There is an electric connection but seems it would be better to have gas since it wouldn't use the amps an electric one would.

Janie in Ga,

The commute to WVU should be about 45 minutes from Clarksburg to the campus, barring accidents on I-79.

The fuse box that you have is very typical of this area. Thousands of them were installed by contractors working for the power company after WWII. The two big black things in the fuse box are pull out blocks that contain cartridge fuses in the range of 40 to 60 amps. The one on the left typically kills power to the four round fuses and the one on the right was usually used for a range circuit.

I live just North of Clarksburg. I don't do re-wires any more, my body cannot take all the crawling.

Drop me an e-mail when you get here. Tom45acp@aol.com

Mountaineers are always free.

Tom

janie: You could go through some of your existing appliances and get the current ratings off of their name plates. Think about what you typically use together. Code today requires the kitchen to have at least two appliance circuits, plus a separate circuit for the fridge. In general, if an appliance heats, it probably needs a lot of power (toaster ovens, coffee pots, and microwave ovens are frequent culprits); if it doesn't heat, it probably doesn't draw a lot of power. So things like mixers, blenders, disposers, electric carving knives etc. you can usually ignore. (A sort-of exception is the larger food processors, but typically you only run them for a few seconds at a time.)

The exception is the fridge, and this is what kills the deal for a lot of older homes that only have one 15A circuit for the whole kitchen. If a dishwasher was added to the kitchen without a new circuit being pulled, this can also be a problem.

So yes, if the over-fused circuits served the kitchen, there's a good chance that's why they were over-fused. If that's the case, you can probably figure you will need another circuit or two.

"Code today requires the kitchen to have at least two appliance circuits, plus a separate circuit for the fridge."

While two 20 A small appliance branch circuits are required, you are permitted to put the refrigerator on these circuits.
A separate 15 A or greater refrigerator circuit may also be installed, but is not required.