I will be doing a complete replacement for my grandmas house of the original fuse panel to a modern circuit breaker setup. Is there anything special I need to know, and what should the cost of parts only be for this. I have much experience with A/C and D/C electrical (I was the Sr. Site Manager of a multi-million gallon per year biodiesel refinery in Las Vegas. :D I dealt with all sorts of A/C wiring there from simple installing circuit breaker boxes for outlets or pumps to hooking up three phase converters and installing various motors and pumps powered from them) However, I have never done a conversion from a fuse panel to a circuit breaker box before.

This will be a full swap, everything electrical in the house needs to be switched over to a circuit breaker. I have not seen the box I am working with yet, it is a few hundred miles away, but will be going out there to evaluate all I need in two weeks. I will do the repair sometime after that based on when I can get all the parts. The house was built 55-60 years ago and still has the original electric system. It is located in Shreveport, Louisiana. I have really know idea what I am going to run into with this project, but would be open to any and all advice you could give me. My grandma is in a retirement home now and we are trying to get this home ready to rent out.

:confused::eek::confused:
Really some of the more specific things I need to know are what type of specialty tools will I need, do you recommend, and why? Are there any specific conversion kits designed just for the purpose of this style of upgrade? What dangers, besides the obvious, should I be prepared for? After I do the diagnosing should I have the electricty cut off for the actually installation of the circuit box, or do you think it is ok to do this while hot? And last, is there anything specific to that era home and location I need to know about?

Thanks in advance for any advice,
Growler30:cool:

You need to pull a permit.

If this is a service upgrade, then the utility needs to get involved. You have to know what part is your responsibility.

Usually the utility dictates the meter base which you supply and if overhead utilities, your responsible from the service drop (overhead connections) to the fuse box, including the meter base. Your not responsible for the meter.

No, you cannot do it live.

Not sure if your allowed to pull the meter base and then have the security clip re-installed. I suspect not.

Usually the utility and you do the work in tandem.

It can be disconnected at the service drop, but this is a live disconnect.

Local codes and/or the NEC might require an outside disconnect.

While your at it, you should get AFCI's and GFCI's for the required areas.

You can splice in the box, if needed.

There is a box made by amp that can be used to splice Romex within walls and not require a junction box.

You probably have a copy of the NEC rules, but in the sticky you can read them online for free.

The Fuse box is separate from the meter, but I will have to look into pulling a permit. I do not need anyone to allow me access to it, but I already know I have to have the utility company shut it off if I need to do that. What do yo mean splice in the box? Did you think I wanted to run all new wires? What do I need to do to get a permit for this in Louisiana?
I live in Texas now, and this is in Louisiana. All the electrical work we did at my biodiesel plant in Nevada was done by my maintenance staff an me, I was the one who had to come in a 3am when my 3 phase converter box fried out, spare was being repaired, and had to have a 3 phase generator brought out and hooked it up to the correct circuit. I am not a licensed electrician, just have experience doing this type work for he last 4 years. Nevada has different laws and unions and what we did was all legal. The problem there was if you ever had a union employee come out you had to pay them twice as much do to us being non union. There were no non-union electricians willing to come out either so we had to learn to do any of this work on our own as long as it was on the plant floor. If the work was able to be done outside of the plant we usually had a electrician do it and then installed it ourselves. Also there very few non-employees allowed on sight due to the secretiveness of our technology for our production. We were producing the highest quality biodiesel in north America at the time.

Just my opinion, but why don't you get some local bids from qualified electricians in the area? It seems to me that being a potential rental property, the local building inspector may not allow "do it yourself" electrical work. Perhaps you need to verify that when you pull the permit. There are no specialized tools other than the typical hand and power tools. If you can put the new panel in the same place as the old, splicing should be minimal. However you will be "in the dark" since you can't do it live. If you are allowed to do it yourself, make friends with a neighbor and you can run a cord to your worksite. Mark everything accurately before you start and approach it logically. It's a simple swap. But don't short cut the village or the utility company... that will come back to bite you.

But don't short cut the village or the utility company....that will come back to bite you.

?? What do you mean by this? I know it is a simple swap for the most part, and everything will be done up to code. I have all the tools to do this in the dark properly and know I can do this job. It will be an improvement to what is currently in there and do not need a professional. My grandparents had this house built over 50 years ago so we know the neighborhood people quite well. We would sell the house but it is more complicated than that. The land is on a natural gas pocket and we get paid from this lease. This pays for a lot of my grandma's care, what her other pensions won't or can't. If we sell we will not get much in this market and only maintain mineral rights for one year after sold.

I just wanted to know about the job, not about all the legalities to this. I am not going to pay somebody an outrageous $80.00 an hour or more for a job I know I can do. I am not a dummy, I learned how to do this type of work while running a 10 million gallon a year facility that was open 24 hours a day. I helped open this place when it barely made 2000 gallons a day and it was just the owner, plant chemist (From Cal-tech), me and my current roommate who were just techs, lowest of the low. I worked my way up to Sr. Site Manger with over 30 employees under me including 7 managers. I did this because I am SMART and CAPABLE of doing a lot. So please will people quit talking to me like I am an idiot and do not tell me I can't do it and just to hire somebody cause I AM NOT going to do this. I have started to review a lot of the questions on the site and see a lot of this going on so maybe I made a poor choice of places to ask my questions at. I am sorry if this offends, but I just need my questions answered. And don't say it seems like I know nothing about this just cause I do not know the Electrician Lingo cause you are right. I don't know your lingo, but I could bore your ears of about Transesterfication, Acidesterfication, Titrations, or how to properly calculate the proper amount of sodium-methoxide you need and so on... I am sorry, but it really feels that way. If someone wants to actually answer my questions without trying to tell me what I should do then great, otherwise just don't say anything.

He means: "village"; The county, the permit people
"The utility company" - just that, don't mess with their stuff

"They bite you" when you try to sell the house.

I tried looking online for some info with Loisiana, but was a bit unsuccessful just that they decided to follow one of the uniform ICC codes.

What's the name of the power company so I can try to look at that angle?

I wouldn't for a minute challenge your knowledge or skill level to do this work. I do challenge your knowledge of electrical codes as they apply to residential installations.

By definition, because you are doing a complete renovation of the electrical system, you may be required by the LAHJ to supply a complete electrical plan of what you intend to do. If the plan meets the LAHJ threshold of a major remodel, then you will be required to bring the wiring system up to the full level of the LAHJ current code specification.

That is where I believe you to be acutely deficient. Residential and commercial codes standards are different. Please do not be offended by my suggestion that you get several bids from local electricians to develop the electrical plan that meets the local code requirements for. You could do the work, providing you would be allowed by the LAHJ.

If you find you are allowed to Preform the work. Look at all wires in panel. Most are self explanatory, be careful when hooking up Multicircuits(2 circuits sharing a neutral)need to be on opposite phases.
Air conditioning control wires. Lable whatever is not understood.
Solid conduits from Above AND below can make it difficult. Good Luck.

Here are some of the regulations, hopefully:

http://www.entergy-louisiana.com/content/docs/ELL_Service_Regulations.pdf

And here:

Entergy Louisiana - Builder Information (http://www.entergy-louisiana.com/your_home/builder.aspx)

Not knowing where you are:

City of Gretna, Louisiana ~ Building & Regulatory Inspections (http://www.gretnala.com/department/?fDD=6-0)


Let us know how it goes.

KISS... you explained what I meant way better than I did... thank you.

Your welcome MB.

I also found this site for permit information: Permit Place - Do you need a permit? Look up permit requirements nationwide (http://www.permitplace.com/index.php/Do-I-Need-A-Permit-/Do-I-Need-A-Permit.html)