Forum Archive: Electricians

I’m almost in contract for a pre-war apartment. I asked the seller to change the archaic fuse panel for the lighting to a breaker panel, thinking we’d outline the work agreed upon in the contract, and work would commence after going into contract. In fact, the seller (sponsor sale) went ahead and had the work done by their electrician. Now my electrician is saying that since they did not pull permits for the work, if a DOB inspector ever comes to look at any future work I may do, he might notice the breaker panel, and I’d get hit with a violation. Is this the case, even though they did the work before I even signed the contract? How likely is this? How much is the fine? As long as the work is done correctly, would I be on the hook for any more? Would it mean I’d have to go back and actually file for permits after the fact? Thanks!

We need to have work done regarding electrical lighting in our basement.

Any recommendations on a good licensed electrician?
Thanks

I’m almost in contract for a pre-war apt with an electric stove, but there are two issues that concern me. There’s a dedicated 40 amp line for the stove with an (old!) fuse panel containing two fuses (see photo).

Concerns:
1) Stove is GE Hotpoint 30″ freestanding electric range model RB540SPSA. Specs here: http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher
The specs say Amp Rating at 208V is 40 amps, but Kw rating at 208V says 9.9. That’s 9900 watts / 208 = 47.6 amps. My electrician feels based on this, a 50 amp line is the safest min line. But the manufacturer specs say 40 amp rating for stove. Should I be concerned there’s not enough power in the 40 amp dedicated electrical line if the stove could draw as much as 47.6 amps? Seller insists the 40 amp line is sufficient. All stoves in the building have a 40 amp dedicated line.

2) The fuse panel for the stove contains the two fuses in the photo. I could not tell what they were but the super say my apartment and all the apartments in the building have a 60 amp fuse on the top and a 40 amp fuse on the bottom. I talked to my electrician about this and he says they both need to be 40 amp fuses because it’s a 40 amp line. The super could be wrong, but I don’t think so. It seems to me there should be 40 amp fuses so the fuse would blow if the stove uses above 40 amps. If the stove was able to draw up to 60 amps before the 60 amp fuse blew I thought it could cause an electrical fire. But maybe there’s some reason a 60 and 40 amp fuse work together?

Appreciate your input!

Just wanted to share my experience with Alex from DLC (973-617-6943). We used him for a variety of projects, icluding the installation of a ceiling fan, new wiring for kitchen island lights, moving several electrical outlets and switches, and wiring for undercabinet lights.

He was excellent. He works quickly and cleanly and did a fantastic job. We will definitely use him again!

Has anyone had good experience with a good A/V consultant. I’m looking for someone who’s not too expensive and could help us work with what we have as well as add to it where we need it.
thanks

I’m looking for someone to do a rather small outdoor plumbing job (replace and move natural gas line from house to barbecue – about 25 feet of pipe) and a slightly more involved electrical job (lighting and outlets installed on new deck) and would love to have the same person or company do both if they are licensed and skilled at both. Any recommendations?

Our backyard doesn’t have any electrical outlets on the back wall, so rather than running an outdoor extension cord again this year, I’d like to have an electrician come out and do this work. Any recommendations for an electrician, or ball park ranges on what this would run? They’d have to tap into the electricity inside the house and then drill through the building, then we’d probably want 2 outlets installed on the outer wall.

We’d also like to have a couple lights run off the same work, and mounted to the wall. Any suggestions for places that have good outdoor fixtures?

Right now there’s a floodlight that is mounted above the rear door, but it’s on a switch that’s controlled indoors. So, we wouldn’t want to just tap into that since we don’t want it run off that switch.

I’d like to add a few electrical outlets to our basement – currently we have overhead lighting, but no outlets. We’d like to run a dehumidifier down there. Any idea what this would cost ballpark to have done?

I’m buying a three-story two-family attached house that has enough outlets to support the number of appliances I might have had in 1956. I want to upgrade the electric so that a)I can run a multitude of modern appliances simultaneously, including A/C’s, without tripping a circuit, b)I will NEVER have to worry that my upstairs tenant blows a fuse (s/he won’t have access to the basement, and a number of our fuses probably overlap), c)the ungrounded outlets in the two kitchens and three bathrooms are up to code, and d)I can convert the basement (a fourth story) into a man-cave in about five years without having to re-upgrade anything.

If I remember correctly, I have 16 switches on the current panel in the basement, and the house is on one meter.

What am I looking at for cost and work time?

Thanks.