1940 house can’t find main breaker?
We just purchased our first home! It was built in 1940 But we are having to put in some safeguards till we can get the house rewired ( no ground wires on electrical) and we can not turn off power to back half of our house ( addition, used to be a carport area). Unfortunately we have a Stab-Loc panel ( we are having it replaced with electrical rewiring ) that does NOT have a Main Shut Off! We have checked where the meter is and at our sub panel. There are 2 sets of breakers by the meter that control the AC and another for the washer and dryer. We have had ALL BREAKERS OFF and still have power to the back half of the house. What can we do?????
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Hi Jessica my first thought was that I'm willing to bet that that addition has its own separate panel that is probably un upgrade to the first panel. That addition HAS to be running on its own breakers somewhere and if it wasn't wired from your older panel than it has to have its own.
In my own situation in our 1915 farmhouse the power came in on a line that was from the pole, the highest point of the house and, following from there, that helped to local the second panel. I would check the addition, closet perhaps? Worst case scenario I would call your electrician to help locate it.
You might try contacting your electrical provider, see if they can help you. Or if you had an inspector come through prior to purchase, give them a ring, see if they can help.
If you had the house inspected before the purchase, it should be in the report. Otherwise, I would contact a professional.
Call your electric company. They should be able to trace the wiring with a signal tracer to it's origin. Another option is see in the home inspector can do this at no charge since he should have done it in the first place. Another option is to check with your local building department and see if they have any records of permits and plans for the addition.
Your home inspector recommended replacement because a number of these failed, resulting in house fires. If you type in "Stab-Loc electrical panels" into your search engine, you'll read more about this. Scottelectric.com also has a web page about these breakers.
Yes, bring a in a professional for documented licensed information that can be supported by their findings. They know the electrical business, even thought this building is very old, they can trace and locate what you need. I am not sure I would trust the electrical company, they hire subcontractors that work under the license of the electrical company. We had just such and issue, we needed a new electrical box and meter. The box went well the meter which was outside and sealed professionally. The contents of the box began arching and sparking, which threatened to set our house on fire, we settled out of court.
First off, I would check with the electric company. They should be able to tell you where the power is coming from when you have all of the breakers off. Of course, it may be you are not being charged for that power, which will be discovered. You can also go to you county and access the records for the addition, unless it was not permitted.
Your home inspector should have a report on the electric and if the addition was permitted. Our electric company will come out but they charge you. After getting the inspection report I would call a licensed electrician and get the proper permits for the work.
Contact the your local building department, home inspector and even your real estate agent.
No the assessors office compiles all of these property values into an assessment roll, which is a master list of the value of all the real property in a given county or jurisdiction.
The building department deals more with codes and regulations while enforces the City building code.
Call your local court house and they should be able to direct you to the correct department (at least where I live they do this).
My 1940s house has a box in the kitchen, and the main breaker is a box in the box with a handle to grab that pulls out, and it cuts all power. I have also seen them in the back of closets, even on an outside wall.
Does anyone know a rough roundabout cost to replacing a meter box? The meter itself is surrounded by concrete and stone. Honestly not sure how this house passed it’s inspection the more I read into these things. And no those breaker boxes to the left and right of meter are not the shut offs those are for AC unit and for Washer and dryer
Here is some info https://www.relectric.com/blog/2016/12/19/circuit-breaker-evolution/