NYS Elect Code


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Old 04-04-08, 01:16 PM
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NYS Elect Code

Hi. New to this forum, and looking for a little info. I live in Ca., but my wife's parents still live back in western New York. The house they live in was bulit in the mid-fifties and is starting to need a little work. One thing I was looking at was upgrading or replacing the house wiring. They have a fuse box, not c/b's, and that seems to be a problem. We've been told by relatives back there that you can't sell a house with a fuse box, it must have c/b's. This is hard for me to believe, since I'd consider fuses safer than c/b's, although I'd believe the wiring might need replacing, and add a ground wire. Anybody out there confirm this, about needing to replace the fuse box ?
 
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Old 04-04-08, 01:37 PM
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Ok this will be pretty instering sisuation what you have there however if some of the New York guys and ladies correct me on this just say so.,,

ok the NYS is on 99 NEC but recentally upgrade with two diffrent code cycles.

let get to the point here i will try to be very straghtfoward with this because i dont want to thread this in wrong way.

most states what they are reqired when you sell the house to new buyer most will required a min of 100 amp service per state and National code [ there are few area have specal extempt from this but i will leave this out for now ]

to upgrade from 60 to 100 amp is pretty common almost everywhere. but few go from 60 to 200 amp service pretty fast.

really for myself i don't have much issue with fuse box but the trouble is too easy to abuse it by putting in oversized fuse what the wires can not handle at all like example use the 30 amp fuse to handle 14 gauge wire size which it is way too much and the 14 gauge wire only can handle 15 amp per NEC and CEC codes reqirement.

[ i did see few pretty nasty result from this ]

and many time with older home most insurance company will try to encourge the homehowner to upgrade the wires due some of the wires can be pretty bad shape over the years.

anyhow there are few other issue will crop up when you sell the house you can have a choice to just upgrade the service alone or do the whole 9 yards it pretty much depending on the cost it will be involded.

but however there is one spot which i will tell you when you upgrading the meter itself that part you must get ahold of electrician to do this due the safety issue and the electrician can able tell you what the option to go from there to meet the local codes.

hope this will help you with some details if need more question just ask us here

Merci,Marc
 
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Old 04-04-08, 02:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Malibujim
We've been told by relatives back there that you can't sell a house with a fuse box, it must have c/b's.
Most places it's not required to upgrade to breakers, but an old fuse service can present some roadblocks to a sale. Buyers (by way of their home inspector) can require it as a contingency of the sale. Some insurance companies charge an extra fee. I believe FHA also requires a minimum 100A service with breakers if you have a buyer using that financing.

From a practical standpoint you can run into some major issues with remodeling. Modern code requires AFCI breakers in many locations which cannot be retrofitted into a fuse panel, so upgrade to breakers would be required if you plan on any major wiring change.

This is hard for me to believe, since I'd consider fuses safer than c/b's,
There are a couple big problems with fuses. The big one is human error and intentional tampering. It's too easy to accidentally install an oversized fuse or jam a penny into the socket which creates a major fire hazard. Also you have the danger of fumbling around in the dark trying to change a fuse which has exposed energized metal inside the fuse socket.

The other big problem with fuses is that you cannot have the protection of new technologies like GFCI, AFCI and common internal trip.

although I'd believe the wiring might need replacing
Usually with a house this age, I would recommend that you leave the existing wiring as-is and add new 20A grounded circuits where they will be utilized. Some typical places where new circuits may be desired are kitchen countertops, PC / home office, digital TV / entertainment system. Many other home appliances (lamps, etc) use only two prong plugs so the grounded circuits add no value to those locations.

For the existing ungrounded circuits, you can add GFCI protection to the circuit by replacing the first receptacle with a GFCI receptacle; then you may replace the old 2-prong receptacles with 3-prong receptacles so long as you attach stickers to the faceplates that state "NO EQUIPMENT GROUND" and "GFCI PROTECTED OUTLET". This remedy meets code for dealing with ungrounded circuits.
 
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Old 04-05-08, 07:17 AM
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Local codes will take precedence over the NEC or NYS. This is true everywhere, not just WNY.

In my WNY community, any electrical upgrades require circuit breakers and a minimum 60 amp service. As others have said, 60 isn't really much these days and upgrading to 100 isn't much more (since you're doing it anyway). My house had 50-amp service when I moved in. I negotiated a lower price with the seller to offset the cost of the upgrade.

The easiest way to be sure is to call the building inspector in the city or town where the in-laws live. Search the town or city name. Most have websites and contact info for the Building Inspectors.
 
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Old 04-05-08, 04:53 PM
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The current NEC minimum service size is now 100 amps.

I am not familiar with NY codes but this may be as much as an issue with certain insurance companies.
 
 

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