Electrical question

Ned, when it comes to electricity, I need an instruction book and a Boy Scout to help me change flashlight batteries. I call the pros for everything.
But, your mention of a 20 year old modular caught my attention. We had a modular (about 20 years ago) that was partially wired with aluminum. That situtation caused so many problems that we almost adopted the electrician he was out so often. And that isn't far from not being a joke. When you get your electrician out, you might want to ask him if your place is aluminum wiring, or partially so. It is scary stuff, IMHO.

Ned,

Just reiterating what others have said. Take some time to educate yourself on this, it'll save you tons of money in the long run.

Just to share my experience: the house we're in now was built in the early 60s. Heat and range are gas, everything else is electric. Two stories, plus a full house-length basement, so three stories really, with six people living there. Service to the house is only 100 amps. When we first got there, the breakers were ALWAYS blowing. I got several books, both theory and practical, and started educating myself. After some research, I figured I needed 200 amp service to solve the problem.

I was wrong. The problem wasn't the size of the service, but some really poor wiring. When I first peeked behind the walls and cieling in the basement, I just stood there in shock. Believe it or not, I burned through over 350' of 12/2 w/g redoing all the things in the basement and first floor that needed do-overs.

The shop was a different story. When working on the basement, I put on a 50 amp subpanel near the main panel to give myself some flexability. Since it's only about 12' as the rat crawls from that subpanel to the shop, I decided not to add yet another subpanel. Instead, I ran three lines into the shop, each hooked into a GFCI, and then lines running off those. It worked for me because I don't have any 220 tools. I love those GFCIs... I may kill myself out there by doing something stupid, but it likely won't be by electrocution...

All that to advocate for a typical english major solution: get some books... several of them. Read up on the whole thing and give yourself some expertise. Like someone said, this stuff ain't complicated but needs to be done right. You'll be amazed how much you can save by not paying someone else to be an expert...

Best of luck,

Bill

Bill,
I'm more than willing to run wires etc, the LOML and I had a chat about that yesterday, and she's going to put the call out at the firehouse, a couple of the firemen are electricians, and she's going to see if they'll lend a hand. I'll run the wire etc... Between them and my lodge brother I should save a few bucks.