cc_rider wrote: 

fire waiting to happen...

 cc_rider wrote: 
There's electrical tape instead of duct tape, and there is a ground wire that goes somewhere.

 Antigone wrote:  Love it. No box, no wire nuts, no nothin.

It's actually kind of amazing more houses don't burn down.

 kurtster wrote: 
Yeah, I figure if anything - except for the HVAC - usage is probably less than what it would have been when the house was built because of the new light bulbs, more efficient appliances, etc.

 kurtster wrote: 
Um, are you suggesting 30 amp circuits?

 islander wrote: 
Ahh, good times! This is what I found when I took down my old kitchen light. At least I didn't have the green stuff!

 oldslabsides wrote: 
Then it sounds like you could benefit the most from some strategically placed new runs with say 30 amps instead of 20 and using heavy duty power strips for plugging in your TV, stereo and computer into one outlet.

As we do progress, our electonics do require less wattage and current, greatly reducing the overall load on a circuit.  Its resistance lighting (incandescent), heating and big things like dishwashers, garbage disposals, CRT TV's and things that need the overkill.

Do an assessment of what you need where and start with the biggest needs and easiest logistics.

 aflanigan wrote: 
Go see the sunset picture thread for the reasons I put up with it.

 islander wrote: 

Ahh, the charms of living with, and maintaining, an old house!

 oldslabsides wrote: 
Actually, I think it was a 350 Watt bulb. It looked like this:

I gave it to a neighbor before I realized it was a $50 light bulb. 

 islander wrote: 
  That looks very similar to what I saw in our kitchen.  P happened to come into the kitchen after I removed the old fixture and had everything exposed.  She asked: "Why is all the stuff black?"  I told her not to ask.

 aflanigan wrote: 
Yes, there's pleanty of room - seems like the box is only about half full of breakers.  In terms of usage, I'm not talking ablout adding capacity - except for adding a garbage disposal we're already using pretty much all the juice we're gonna right now.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
FYI, almost everywhere a GFCI outlet can be used to safely replace an old 2 prong with no ground circuit - but be wary for electronics that need/require ground.

I've done quite a bit of this in our current house.  Here's what I found when I replaced the kitchen light - over time as the globe got painted/dirty, they just kept upping the wattage on the bulb, I think it was a 300 watt unit when I opened it up (halogen thing inside another glass bulb), it created some excess heat in the box above:
 
The green is corrosion on the bare copper. 

Here is one of the wire chases we made as the wall is solid brick. This is on the 2nd floor directly above the breaker box on the first floor. Would have been to much work to cut that much brick out for that many wires. Originally there was only one circuit for the entire 3rd floor. The red wire hanging out is for a yet uninstalled bungler alarm panel..

 oldslabsides wrote: 

Is there room for additional circuits (empty slots in the box unoccupied by breakers) in your service panel?  If so, and if you have enough capacity, you might be able to get by with simply running new circuits and connecting them to the existing service box.

There isn't a simple, straightforward formula for figuring out whether your service capacity is being overtaxed or not (for example, it's not simply a question of adding up the ampacity of all the individual breakers in your service box and making sure the total doesn't exceed the ampacity of your main cut-off breaker.  In our house, for example, we have dedicated 20 amp circuits for window unit air conditioners, and another dedicated circuit for a hydronic boiler to heat the house.  Obviously they both won't be used at the same time).  See HERE

This is what the former owner of our house did; he put in new, larger capacity service (an FPE Stab-loc breaker box) and connected the old BX cable circuits to the new box along with the new Romex circuits he added for window units, etc.

 islander wrote: 
The one in particular I saw was in an old apartment building circa 1920 in Cleveland.  I didn't see them make the channels.  I'd say this plaster was 3/4" or so.  At least a 1/2".  IIRC, the wires were also in small diameter flexible conduit, clamped and very well anchored prior to recovering.

And depending on who did what, there is sometimes screen between the plaster and the lathe ala stucco. 

Its just the technique I saw.  Sure made sense at the time.

 kurtster wrote: 
My house is brick with the plaster right over it and the interior walls that are also supporting walls are that way also. We had to grind channels through the plaster and into the brick and then plaster over. In some places we built sheetrock inclosed channels. The house is also mostly on a short crawlspace making things fun there also. Some of the wiring we ran under the house and then we only had to cut channels behind the baseboard and set the outlet boxes into recesses in the brick behind the baseboard and then put the baseboard back in. The original outlets downstairs were in the wood floor and thats a no no now and doesn't meet code so we couldn't just reuse those places. Used over 750 ft of wire and used every breaker space in the 200 amp breaker box. Hopefully nobody will want to add something later. If they do they will have to reroute some of the stuff and put in a pony box elsewhere.
The new plumbing was a lot of fun also...
Nothing like living in an 1890 house..

The house is over eighty years old.  The wiring (with exception of the aforementioned breaker box & 220 curcuit) is the old, cloth covered stuff, placed in the attic and then down behind the lathe & plaster walls.  The outlets are a little sparse and only a couple of them are actually grounded, even though they've been replaced with modern, three-hole sockets.

I know from recent experience replacing the light fixture in the kitchen that the cloth insulation on this old wiring is very brittle and basically disintegrates with messed with at all.  I'm not reall concerned about it as long as it's left undisturbed, but it does need to be replaced eventually.

EDIT: no FP's - all replaced by new breaker box when the 220 was installed.

 kurtster wrote:
  Holy Carp that sounds like a lot of work. I'm betting Schlabs' digs are shiplap, not lath and plaster. He can probably come up through the bottom. That's what I've done for a bunch of new outlets.

 kurtster wrote: 
I'm hoping they used MC?  How thick is your plaster?