[GrampaDave]

My childhood home was built in 1942. 2 bedroom 1 bath, partly-finished partial basement. Oil furnace, water heater, and dryer converted from gas to electric sometime before my parents bought it in 1964.

The service panel had two main disconnects, pull-out modules with 30A cartridge fuses. One was range, the other powered four 115V branch circuits using Edison-base fuses.

There were two sub panels, a little bitty thing with two more Edison-base fuses, and a Square D QO Load Center with two double-pole breakers for dryer and water heater.

It seems clear to me that the QO panel was added sometime after 1942 as part of the gas to electric conversion.

The breakers were labeled "Main Disconnect". This would have changed compliance from rule-of-two to rule-of-six IIUC.

1. Was it kosher to tap the service conductors over to the QO? When was it likely done?

2. Was the two-fuse panel installed in 1942 to save cost vs a bigger panel, or was it added later?

I can't remember for sure what the two-fuse panel powered, but I'm thinking the attached garage, and receptacles in the basement laundry area for washer and a freezer. I know for sure that one of the four fuses in the service panel powered some of the basement: primary lighting, and the furnace.

What do you think? I'm looking for a historical reconstruction.
Thanks.

 

[surferdude2]

I guess the first little sub panel could have been original but may have been added when someone wanted to add some basement branch circuits and none were available in the main panel. That likely happened in the late 40's or early 50's. Then later when converting from gas to electric, it was decided to do a main feeder tap to get more power than the original main could provide, so the QO panel got installed. The timeline would likely coincide with the advancing home appliances such as washers and dryers after WWII and A/C's in the late 50's. It's a poor setup as it exists and should be corrected by installing a new properly sized main panel.

 

[Old Thomas]

I think Square D QO devices were introduced around 1955.

 

[GrampaDave]

Thank you very much!

I sold the house in 1986 when my parents died. It's changed hands again, so I'll ask the new owner sometime. I'd love to refresh my memories - I lived there from age 4 to 20 and almost everything interesting in that part of my life happened there.

Was that four-circuit service panel the norm for modest wartime housing?

 

[surferdude2]

That 60 amp panel was the "panel du juor" from the 30's through the 40's. Plug fuses were still the standard (with pennies occasionally). Nobody ever dreamed that a residence would need more than 4 branch circuits but some did have electric ranges.

The pullout cartridge fuse holder on the left was the main and the one on the right was ostensibly for a range but was in essence a main tap. Many or possibly most homes in my area didn't have a range so that pull out was nice for subfeeding whatever presented itself later... mostly an A/C or sub-panel.

 

[dj3]

I have a friend in Upstate NY who bought an older house in a cul-de-sac 3 yrs ago.
One day, while painting the exterior, he noticed a car that he's never seen before stop in front of the house, and a lady came out.
Hi, she said, I grew up in this house, and since we moved out of state a long time ago. I had a chance to visit today and wanted to see my childhood home and neighborhood.
My friend took a break, and they chatted a little and she took a couple of pictures of the house, Then she said goodbye and left.
A little strange, IMHO, but certain folks do recollect things like these.

 

[surferdude2]

The rural house where I was born is now occupied by strangers. I have driven by it several times while on the way to somewhere else and often wonder if they'd let me tour the place if I stopped and asked. My grandfather built that house after the original home burned to the ground the previous winter. He had just finished it in the December of 1918 when he came down with the spanish flu. He died the next day and dad became the man of the house at age 11. Evidently grandpa did a good job, the place still looks great after these 102 years later.

Another place I'd like to revisit is the one room school I attended that is now being used as a storage shed, having been bought by the local farmer when schools were consolidated in the late 40's. We had a pie supper/auction to raise money there in '46 to get electricity installed.... so that get us segued back on the electric subject from my hijack by the ghost of the buildings past.

 

[chetwisner]

I'd love to tour the old house in the country my mother grew up in from the 30s. Grandpa built that house, and it appears it has had an addition to it. Sadly, we never thought to visit the new owners/residents while mom was still with us.

There's nothing strange about people visiting their old homestead decades later; I hear it's done all the time.

 

[seharper]

Well, you're certainly allowed to have dual main panels. Most Class 320 (400A) service is provisioned that way - two 200A main panels. (Because 200A main breakers are affordable, and 400A main breakers are not. Heck our 400A-protected service wires use fuses).

Back then, power was largely for lighting, that being the "killer app" that brought electricity to people's homes in the first place. Most houses didn't need electricity to run their furnace, because they transferred their operating fluid by convection. (steam rises, condensate falls; warm air rises in a very carefully architected gravity vent system). Active pumping of the operating fluid was a later innovation. An interesting side effect is the older heat systems worked absolutely fine when the power was out.

A small WWII house might have had an Empire style gas furnace which distributed heat via convection. Like stick-shifts in San Francisco, Empire furnaces are still favorites in places the power never fails, and unheard of in the snow belt.

And countless electric kitchen and bathroom appliances like we have today, weren't feasible until the Depression/War period, and then not *possible* due to poverty/war effort, until the end of the war.


However it would also be possible that the QO became the solitary main panel, and the fuse array became a subpanel. That's how things are in my house.

 

[GrampaDave]

I've seen those gravity furnaces in old houses I've been through during estate sales. The furnace in my case was a Whitney No. 2 (or was it 12?) with a blower. I think dad told me it was originally a sawdust burner. I had a crude workbench beside it and spent many happy hours repairing antique radios and blowing up Tesla coils. The sound of it firing up was a comforting constant all through my early life.

I can't see the QO powering the fused panel, the service mast went to the fused panel, and the QO and 2-fuse panels were pretty obviously downstream via one 1/2" conduit each. (Two more conduits exited the QO.) All this was surface-mount in the garage. The owner after my parents converted the garage to a room, but he wouldn't let me in. Distinctly unfriendly. New people now so I'll give them a try sometime. I'd love to see whatever became of it all.

When did Code start permitting more than one main disconnect? Or were two always okay?