we are looking into a house now that has 150 amp service but uses fuses at a panel. it has central air with its own circuit breaker with that. is it necessary or expensive to change out the fuse box with circuit breakers? they had just been checked out and were fine.....the house sits on almost 1 acre and has access of some sort for a farmer that can't be built on. so has what looks to be even larger yard. also has a 3 car garage. oversized 2 on the driveway side and one on a lower level around the back of the garage.
only a two bedroom though so trying to keep the price down. only the wife and i. were thinking of maybe an addition. it is an older ranch in a very uncongested area that i ride all the time past on my bike. anyway would love to hear thoughts there. i really hope i don't have to keep looking. been at least 5-6 months and getting tired of the games.

 

You should be able to update the panel to a 200 amp service for under $1,000. Now days with all of the electronics, you may want to include that in your purchase price.

 

Theres no need to switch to breakers. Only advantage to them is its a little easier to flip a breaker than to change a fuse in the dark

 

The ease of "repairing" a blown circuit would be the only advantage of a breaker panel over a fuse box. Kind of think of it like a manual transmission vs. an automatic transmission. Certainly no reason for it to be a "deal breaker".....

 

thanks, that is what i thought. i was told could be about 1k to change the box. just found out it is ok to build an addition if we want to....now to see if we can get the right price. they are asking about 30k more then comparable 2 bedroom houses in the area. that was why i was looking into possibly doing an addition later.....better resale value and more square footage to boot.

 

Another advantage the breaker has is if you don't have a new fuse, people have a tendency to just stick a penny in. Quick and easy way to burn a house dow. That fuse blew for a reason.
You can't do that with a breaker.

 

You will prolly need to upgrade when you build on,,,check with local codes,,they may require it when you get the permitLOL,,Also check the insulation on the wiring,it could be old and make sure the old wiring will carry the loads of the modern stuff you operate. I'm not a safety nut but I'm not crazy either. They made wiring to accommodate the appliances of yesteryear and you should make sure to be cutting edge with all your planned improvements

 

Just get the newer type fuses with the breaker built right into them. Fuse blows you simply push a button on the fuse and it resets .

 

A lot of mortgage companies require fuse panels to be replaced with breaker panels.