Do you do this?

When I see these I usually recommend an upgrade to a breaker box do you do this?

No, but I do check the wire size compared to the fuse size. It also looks like some coating is coming off a wire.

No, unless there are issues to be repaired.

thanks guys

Although recommending an upgrade might not be necessary there are plenty of other issues with this installation. The conductor in the middle that seems to have been abraded by the knife section of the switch and the multiple conductors under one screw. Also the fuses appear to be oversized for these conductors.

Ooops! I missed the double tapps. Am I bad.

Yes, because some insurance companies and some lenders require an upgrade.

True,but main reason is the wiring may be old.
OK,most likely their reasoning.

This was a wierd inspection, the house had 2 or 3 of everything…2 ac compressors, a breaker box, a fuse box, 2 water heaters but no garage, 2600 sq ft but only had 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 3 fireplaces.

Sounds like a Cape Cod style with basement.
Am I guessing correctly?

Oh just glanced at the picture.
Is that a frayed wire I see? Also is that a sub panel main.
#30 amps is not enough for the whole house, or is that for an individual appliance?

Yeah its frayed…Its for the furnace…Good eye

Probably not. One can replace an electric panel without replacing all the old wiring. Their reasoning probably has a lot to do with fuses being much easier to alter than are circuit breakers. If one has too many appliances on a pesky 15-amp fused circuit, well, just buy a 20-amp fuse and stick it in there. Heck, why stop there? Double it and put a 30-amp fuse in there. Problem solved.

One could even do away with the fuse altogether and put a penny in there (see All In The Family, episode 153 from February 19, 1977).

In that case ,the same reasoning could be applied to them insisting on outlets all having child proof covers and GFCI or AFCI be installed everywhere,even when not required by code.

Most likely it is as I said , an indication of age.

Older wiring is more likely to cause a fire and a penny placed in a fuse socket would be caused intentionally by the owner, rather than a random act of God .

I bet an Insurance company would care less about the fuse issue if that was the only concern, as they would not need to pay out anything .

Ah,knew I had a spliced comment laying around here somewhere.

FUSE PANELS ARE GENERALLY SEEN AS BEING MORE RELIABLE THAN BREAKER PANELS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THEY WILL ALWAYS TRIP WHEN OVERLOADED BY EITHER LOADS IMPOSED ON THEM OR UNDER DEAD SHORT CONDITIONS. BREAKERS ON THE OTHER HAND HAVE BEEN KNOWN NOT TO TRIP AT THE SPECIFIED AMPERAGES.

MANY INSURANCE COMPANIES HOWEVER WILL EITHER NOT INSURE, OR INSURE AT A HIGHER PREMIUM HOMES THAT STILL HAVE FUSE PANELS. THIS IS NOT DUE TO ANY DANGER FROM THE FUSES THEMSELVES, RATHER IT IS INDICATIVE OF A GENERALLY OLDER UNIMPROVED SYSTEM WHICH STATISTICALLY WILL PRODUCE MORE ELECTRICAL FIRES.

Nice comment, Bob! :wink:

Yes, it could. Unfortunately, I’m not the one in charge of insurance companies.

And as I said, not necessarily.

And your point?

There are many insurance companies that don’t pay for random acts of God.

Ah,knew I had a spliced comment laying around here somewhere.

I have that one, too, except that I don’t yell at anyone so I changed it to standard sentence capitalization. I don’t use it because I have not been able to find the statistics that prove that older unimproved systems statistically produce more electrical fires.

If you also have the statistcs, well, please enlighten us! :wink: