Hello, I know that the resounding answer here is probably going to be "get an electrician"... which I am going to do in a week or so. But in the meantime I am really wanting to know what's going on here. I have one circuit in my house that is fairly overloaded. Amperage wise maybe not, but it's just going to too many lights. I'm trying to trim back this circuit and use other circuits to get power. I converted my stove from electric to gas a while back, and turned that 40amp 240v circuit into a subpanel. When I measure the voltage from either the 'overloaded' circuit or from a circuit on the sub, things look fine. However, when I measure across the hot wire from the sub panel and the neutral from the overloaded circuit, I am getting a lower voltage.... about 70V. Instinct tells me that this is wrong, but I don't have much AC theory under my belt and this is just boggling my mind. I wouldn't expect exact voltages, but a drop of 50 volts seems pretty weird. Anyone have any clue what may be going on here? I really appreciate any honest help here... as I said, I am having an electrician look at this soon. Dave Cincy, OH

I am in the process of a kitchen remodel which involves moving and replacing my Oven and Cooktop. The current wiring for them is as follows: 1. The wiring from the panel in the corner of my basement is Aluminum (6-Gauge I think), Stabiloy Type SE, Style U. This is connected to a 40A breaker in the panel. 2. This wire runs about 50ft to the other side of the (unfinished) basement in to a junction box where it is junctioned with 2 branches of 8-3 Copper Wire (I am assuming it is using the correct wire nuts for Aluminum to Copper). 3. One 8-3 runs to the Cooktop, the other runs to the Wall Oven. I believe this is not appropriate because everything I read suggests that Ovens and Cooktops should each have a dedicated circuit. The Oven requires 30A per the User Manual, and the Cooktop requires 40A. Fortunately I have an unused 30A breaker in the panel, so my plan for rewiring is as follows: 1. Run a dedicated 10-3 line from the unused 30A breaker in the panel to the new location for the Wall Oven 2. Now I finally get to my question..... In an ideal world I would probably run a new 8-3 Copper line from the 40A breaker in the panel to supply the Cooktop. However, I would need close to 70ft of wire, and based on Lowes prices that would cost me close to $200 just for the wire. Therefore, I am wondering if it is OK to leave the current line and junction box in place to provide a dedicated 40A service to the Cooktop (in other words I will remove the 2nd 8-3 wire from the junction box to make this a dedicated circuit). Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Chris