I live in a rental townhome with three other houses connected. I believe they were built in the 50's if that matters. These are breakers with copper wiring and I noticed the other day just how crazy our electrical is run. First we only have four 15 amp breakers, one of them dedicated to our washer and entire kitchen including our fridge and microwave, and the window receptacle we would plug our window ac in to! The dryer has a dedicated 50 amp but the entire house runs off of those four 15 amp breakers. We recently bought a second fridge and i wanted to plug it in next to our washer but now that i know what is all running off that line i dont know what to do. I know this couldn't meet code in a home but is there some loophole rental units get away with doing this!? Would it be safe to plug my second fridge into that line?
Because it was good enough at the time it was built, pretty much. Meanwhile, relatively few need a second 'fridge even now, so that was not anticipated back then. Where I live (single family home neighborhood), the second is more often an old one in the garage, for a man-cave beer cooler, and are silly-expensive to run. One good fridge beats two old ones, everytime.
If this is a rental you are not in a good place to add more eletrical use. If you own the property it is past time to do a complete electrical upgrade to a 150 or 200 amp service. Not cheap but it will increase the property value make the use of more power easier. Really you have only one other choice if you rent, MOVE.
For a home that was built in the 1950s, that was the standard. The loophole is a grandfather clause that permits properties to be up to standard when they were built.
