Bloggus

Day Five Part Two, the sequel Because most of the first floor of the house is on one breaker, we've had the need for a lot of extension cords and 3-way power splitters. The kitchen is on the same switch as the basement lights, and the front part of the living room. The front entryway though, on the opposite side of the wall of said living room outlet, is on a separate circuit, as is the outlet on the opposite wall of the living room. I think we are seeing a prime example of the "tie electrical wire to a harness on a hamster and turn him loose in the walls" school of circuitry. We had to turn off the breaker for the kitchen, and most of the house, so in the living room we have a few work lights lighting, and an oscillating fan oscillating via an extension cord through the front entry way. In the kitchen there is another work light, plus the refrigerator, and a third space being occupied by power tools when needed and a small fan otherwise, all running from the living room outlet on the back wall. Considering that the wiring all over the house is old and probably made from baling twine and paper clips, it is surprising that we haven't had more trouble yet with all this. Last night finally we found the limits of the breaker currently supporting all of our improvement efforts. Running all of the aforementioned items in the living room, plus the refrigerator, worklight, and a circular saw: no problems. Replace the saw with a shop vac for some cleanup: the breaker shuts off. Apparently the amount of power required to rend tightly compressed stacks of wood fiber, glue, and Formica into neat little pieces with a deadly, mighty, rapidly spinning blade is significantly less than what is required to remove a little sawdust from the floor. Our power system was clearly designed by a man. You need to cut stuff, use powertools, and still keep your drinks cold? No problem! Time to clean up after ourselves? Sorry, all out of power.