I'm a frequent DIYer, but I admit I'm a complete novice when it comes to electrical. That being said, I have no real intent to do any electrical work on my heating system, but I think we've come across a huge problem, and I need to check in with people who would know! This weekend we were trying to map out the circuit breakers in our 100+ y.o. house. We've lived here for 4 years, and the previous owners (a single family for the entire 100+ years) did not take good notes. Our intent was to figure out which breakers are no longer being used, because although wires are running out of all spaces in the box, there's no way we're using all of it. We want to add literally two outlets in our first floor kitchen, and realize we can't add them to any of the existing circuits. There are some newer electric baseboard heaters on our first floor that are on dedicated 240V breakers. We thought this was the case throughout the house. What we discovered is that ALL of the electrical on our second floor is on a single 120V breaker. That includes the three old Singer thermostats and baseboard heaters in the three rooms up there, plus all of the lights and outlets. So far we've had no issues with the circuit being tripped. The heat is comfortable. But is this a safety issue? We're considering our options. When faced with rewiring versus converting to another heating option, I think we would just wait until we finish up a couple of other projects and then convert the whole house. But is there reason for concern and quick action?????? Thanks!

Hello, I live in a house that is a hodge-podge of various wiring, everything from knob and tube to modern NMD-90 wiring. We have just re-done the living room, and one of the things to go was an old fluorescent tube light fixture. They had three of them chained together, and then plugged into an outlet that is tied into the living room light switch. I have found a replacement fixture that I like, but it says that it must be used with at least 75 C wiring, and I have found that the plug is supplied with 60 C wiring (NMD-3). From what googling I have done, it seems that as long as the wiring directly around the light fixture is rated properly, it doesn't matter if the rest of the circuit is under-rated. Does this mean that it would be safe to install the fixture as long as I have adequate wiring from the plug to the fixture? Thanks.