Lei

Replacing a Switch on the Fuse Panel

In this installment of 'How Do They Do That?' we look at replacing a switch in the fuse panel. Like everything else in my life, things seem to occur in multiples. If something goes wrong in my house, something similar will go wrong at the rental house or even the nursing home as well. At this moment, the fuse to the outlet which is always used for the thirty cup coffee urn has given up at the nursing home. Closer to home is a fuse which supplies power to an electrical outlet just outside the front door. The fuse no longer works reliably so today we are going to replace it.

First off, every house has a fuse panel which controls all the power in the house. If your electrician was thoughtful, he/she would have gone through the painstaking task of labelling each switch to show what they do. If not, well you'll just have to flick each one off and on and see what does and doesn't work in your house. The Stove? The appliances? The outlet in the bedroom? Livingroom? Luckily, we had a nice electrician when the house was built which has made life much easier and can proceed as follows.

To begin, we remove the four screws so that we can take off the upper panel.

Once inside, we have access to the wiring and everything else. Notice that I have not bothered to remove or do anything to the lower panel and switch. No power will go to anything if that large switch is turned off. Normally, one should turn off the main power before doing anything but being the rebel that I am, what could possibly haa....gzzzzzzzz....*thump*

Lying on the floor with a slightly charred screwdriver in one hand and the whole house in utter darkness for the past three hours, Lei regains consciousness. Outside there are people standing on the streets as a Hydro crew arrives to check out the neighborhood power box. A former non-white cat is found lying on the ground in the bushes beneathe the power pole. Its four legs are straight and the muscles have tightened. The shocked look in the cats eyes remain frozen.

"uhhhh...my head hurts....wha...huh...oh...uh.... welcome back folks. Now where was I. Ah yes..."

After loosening the screws which hold the two wires, we can begin to remove the faulty switch. The switch is held in by friction towards the center backbone of the fusepanel. The outside is held in by a tiny hooked feet built into the plastic switch body. Therefore, to remove it, we only need to pull outwards from the center of the panel. I used a pair of insulated pliers to pull on the individual on/off lever. This particular switch can control two separate lines. Notice the two free wires dangling in the air on the right. Also notice the switch directly above and how two wires are connected to it. Take care not to touch them on any of the other exposed wires or metal parts. There's between 115 VAC and 220 VAC which we don't want to play with.

Just for confirmation, we test the fuse with a digital multimeter. I have mine set to test for continuity. When the blue switch is in the on position, power should be able to flow through and the digital display should read roughly '001'. Anything else means that we don't have a proper connection.

First we test one of the wire connectors.

Then the other.

The second one is the faulty fuse. We replace the whole unit regardless with one purchased at the Home Depot nearby. Yet another trip to the big orange box...

Here we have a different view of the old fuse switch with the blue levers.

To finish, we just put the new switch in and follow everything in reverse order. As a test, we go out to the electrical outlet which was not working and plug in some device. And looking back at the first picture, you'll see the reassembled fuse panel with the new black switch in the lower right hand corner.

Note: Some events and a character may or may not be real. One person was harmed in the creation of this blog entry.

Posted by LeanPorkLei at February 9, 2006 01:29 AM | TrackBack