Understanding An Old School Fuse Box

Here's a quick review of how to use a fuse box (with the screw-in fuses) safely and some discussion about what to look out for in an old house.

[Kennedy]

Thanking you in 2024!! The apartment my husband and I live in is 40 years old, and I blew a fuse this morning for the first time! This video was super helpful at calming my nerves around changing 🥰

[PhoenixPhenom]

Both of my parents are gone, single momma. Ours blew last night. Something did anyways, lol. About to hit the hardware store, thank you for helping those of us who don't have any help!!! ❤🥰 this stuff sticks with ya forever!

[xphillyfan]

Dude thank you! 1.] Wasn't sure my house could only have a fuse box;so I spent hour looking for my breaker box
2.] You saved me about 65-100$ doing it myself instead of having an electrician come out.
So for that I thank you for your knowledge shared

[irissnyder]

Thank you for posting this, everything I read said I needed to unplug everything - which is difficult since the plug is behind the refrigerator, but after watching you unscrew the fuse controlling the light without blowing up the house, I felt comfortable enough to replace mine.

[eloveswinning]

Thank you bc I'm in an old Apt. Blog with 20 amp fuses in my unit.
I was afraid to change a blown fuse but was successful after watching this video...Girl Power

[venichen]

There's still a good number of homes in my city that still has this type of fuse box. It's also a bit on the expensive side to upgrade to a breaker box as (I believe) local regs require the whole home's wiring to be redone up to modern code if you decide to upgrade to a breaker box, so a lot of older homes kept this style of fuse box.

[Delita]

Very informative, thank you.
My brother plugged in a sketchy 1800W AC without testing it first and blew half the rooms in our apartment, this helped a lot because I didn't even realize we had the bulbs

[rodneydawn]

very nice to see videos still teaching this. I have a really nice well maintained fuse box here. Its 100 amp 120/240 and has 3 240v cartrighe fuse pullouts, 10 screw in edison base fuses, and the big main with two 100a cartrige fuses. The 50a 240 is the water heater, and the tow 30a 240v circuits feed sub panels for a large window ac and power in the workshop. 100 amp service is plenty adequate, as its powered from a single 10500w surge/8500w continuous generator. I actually installed the 100 amp fuse panel myself to replace an existing 110v 30 amp (two screw fuses) service when I replaced the old kohler light plant with the modern Honda. I also replaced the old Knob and tube wire with modern romex at that time.
One thing I recommend, for anyone using fuses and on generator power, use the 'fast blow' fuses in as many circuits as possible, as while this may cost more in replacing fuses, it will also help protect your (likely expensive) generator. and of course make sure to use the proper size fuse for each circuit. I dont plan on further upgrading. I've always preferred fuses anyway, but also a fellow off-gridder who upgraded to a modern breaker panel said he uses more gas (same generator, and roughly similar electrical demands) so yeah I'll stick to fuses, and save that extra half gallon a day for blasting the A/C when its really hot like it is now.

[bryanmcavoy]

Very informative. Thank you. I bought a Federal Pacific fuse box assembly at an auction because it looked cool, but wasn't sure how it worked (or heck, exactly what it was). Makes a nice man cave item.

[joshhill]

Heh, lightswitch went out, went to flip the breaker (at my uncles) and ran into this for the first time. I had worked in an industrial building and seen the large standalone fuses (and im talking these were huge by my standards) but never saw where they belonged. Thanks for the info!!

[garrisonmcgrath]

Always love helpful youtube tutorials, thanks for saving my brother and I from some minor electrical frustrations

[brokendreamsandrevelations]

These things are still all over the place in Chicago because the city's electrical code incentivises them. The code was negociated with union electricians, and they wanted more fuse boxes because they're harder to install and maintain, leading to more work hours for them. There's even a decent amount of new ones in the suburbs, since city-based electricians and engineers go there for work on occasion and don't know how to work with anything but fuse boxes.

[potatocore]

Thank you so much! One of ours blew while the dryer was going. I was able to replace the fuse and get it back up and running. 👍👍

[aquikhione]

many thanks for the video, super helpful as I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at haha

[mattcasdorph]

Just so you know if someone hasn't already stated, screw in fuses are still sold and a little extra tip, you can get breaker fuses, they are essentially little breakers that screw into the fuse slot and acts like a breaker, it has a little button that you press if it trips. They are a little more expensive but worth it if you dont have to purchase regular fuses. I have a fuse panel on my house built in 1962, I would rather have a breaker panel but the house isnt that great of condition anyway and rather than replace it I may just start a new house and put a breaker panel in it. Current house was all block walls and broke footer just cracking all over.

[Sparky-wwre]

Reminds me of the box in an estate sale home I helped to redo the wiring and plumbing. Very interesting history to the home. About 7 years ago. The home in question was built in 1887, originally had gas lighting. The 60 amp box similar to this one had the installation date 10/'52. The home still had the 1953 kelvinator electric range. The earliest that home could have gotten electricity was 1908, when we went to replace the old galvanized iron plumbing on the 2nd level, which was originally an attic but the home had been extended over the years, found behind the wooden wall panelling, what used to be the original service panel to the house: mounted in a wooden like box lined with asbestos was a knife switch and 3 ceramic edison fuse holders, fused on both the hot and neutral, the ceramic block had the year 1908 stamped on it. 6 fuses together, but 3 circuits feeding the whole house, again, because the hot AND neutral were fused. And the two wires on the outer wall going to the knife switch were 10 awg if I remember correctly. Meaning the home originally had a 120 volt 30 amp main service. But because the house was 2 miles from town, we are not sure exactly when it was electrified, but we suspect it may have been in the later 1910s or early 1920s. So with the 240 volt 60 amp fuse box in the basement from 1952 and the 1953 electric stove, we suspect the homeowner had the service upgrade to 240 volts 60 amps for the electric range. Also found some knob and tube spliced with romex in the wall (fire hazard!) Now home has a modern 200 amp square D breaker box. Pretty interesting about the known dates. Lol

[Nsmaynard]

Thank you! Trying to change a water heater in an old house with this type of fuse box, and this video was just what I needed.

[dw]

Thank you for making this. Helps real people.

[aeonschoir]

Thank you for the explanation! Very helpful. Found this ancient technology in my house today, needed the knowhow.

[richardhall]

The top two fuse pullouts are both 240V (each one will have 2 fuses). The feed coming in from the street goes into the left pullout (which is 60 amps I'm guessing, based on the label on the door of the panel), which powers the rest of the panel. The right pullout is for a 240V appliance circuit, typically an electric stove.