I’m in a rental. Should I be concerned about the electrical?
This is a house built in around the 40’s, main floor and basement. There is the kitchen, 2 bedrooms, living room and bathroom on the main floor. There is one bedroom, utility room, laundry room, and family room, mostly all unfinished. I live in Washington state. There is only heat in my son’s room downstairs but not enough to keep it warm in the winter. There is like 3 outlets in the living room, one or two in the bedrooms, two in the utility room, one in the family room, not as much as a modern house so I have to run those strips with all the outlet holes in them to plug everything up everywhere. Then there’s no heat in the family room and it gets so cold in there, I had to put a space heater in there and one in my son’s room down there too.
The breaker kept going off when I had the heater plugged in the family room where my daughter was sleeping so I plugged it in the utility room, over time, it arched and melted the outlet and the strip that it was plugged into at the other end;the extention cord was very hot!
When I use to have this cheap vacuum, the breaker never went off but once I got rid of it and got a very good vacuum and very powerful, it makes the breakers break and sometimes the vacuum runs suggishly.
The landlord doesn’t like it that I use that powerful vacuum but I feel it’s
not my fault I have a good vacuum, he needs to fix the electrical but he consulted with his electrician that says everything is fine. I have 3 kids in this house and don’t want it to burn down with us in it. I also
wanted to add that the wiring seems to be screwed up because when the breaker goes when I’m vacuuming, the frig, my son’s things in his room in the basement, and different things in different parts of the house go off. Seems like one or two things per room don’t have power when it happens. Is this house dangerous?
Tagged with: Extention Cord • Room Downstairs • Washington State
Filed under: Maintenance & Repairs
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brighton electrical
The house is not dangerous. It is old and has some limits which you are exceeding. You should learn the limits and stay within them. It that is too big a pain then you should move or demand that the landlord increase the capacity of the electrical system. Until then you are more dangerous than the house.
brighton electric
It sounds like the wiring is out of date. I would speak to someone about it. And I would try to move out of there as soon as you can. Make sure you have good smoke detectors in there, and try not to plug too many things in at once. Unplug things when you’re not using them.
brighton electrics
any time you have breakers trip due to over loading its dangerous,and yes i would insist on getting some upgrades down to the house,its very possible to for it to catch on fire because your trying to keep your family warm.and no its not your fault that you have an up to date vacuum and the house has outdated wiring,so i would either push for upgrading the wiring or start looking for a new place to live,hope you have renters ins.,its not a matter of if you need it but when your gonna use it,and instead of the landlord having an electrician come out ,tell him to let you choose one and he pay for it,bet you get different results after its been checked,good luck,and don’t leave space heaters on at night after everyone has gone to sleep.try electric blankets they don’t pull near the amp load and not nearly as dangerous
sussex electrician
Just about everywhere, a property must have heat in all
‘living space’ in order to be legally offered for rental as a residence.
Call your local building department. They can require that the
deficiencies in the property be corrected.
Modern Codes require a lot more outlets and circuits to feed them
then you will have, but once it’s built and approved, it remains legal.
As long as the breakers function on overload, you’re not going to
start any fires in the house wiring.
(If a breaker trips, all the outlets on that circuit go out, and with
that old wiring there will be a lot on one circuit.)
Your overheating extension cords are another matter.
If those cords or plug strips fell hot, they’re dangerous.
That “Melted outlet” is scary!