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Thread: What did *you* upgrade today?

  1. #1
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    What did *you* upgrade today?

    Well, finally got the electrician in. Seeing as my main breaker panel in the house was a 100AMP 20 position model that only had bus for 16 positions, I've been stuck running my home equipment on whatever shared circuits I could scrounge up. I didn't upgrade the service to the house, but did replace that panel with a 32 position breaker panel and immediately consumed 6 new positions. So the crunchers now have 2 dedicated 20 AMP 230Volt circuits feeding them, plus a new shared 20 AMP 115Volt for oddball things like the cable modem and speaker power bricks.

    Once I finish re-installing the rest of the basement outlets, I'll get around to spinning up a few more home boxes.

    Oh, so I guess my answer to the question I posed is "I upgraded my house!"

  2. #2
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    Re: What did *you* upgrade today?

    I also have a 100A 20 position fuse box and was looking to upgrade to 200A or 225A 32 positions. How much work was it and how expensive was it?


  3. #3
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    Re: What did *you* upgrade today?

    Wow. That's a serious upgrade. You just went up to commercial grade power. Do they have 3 phase to your neighborhood?

  4. #4
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    Re: What did *you* upgrade today?

    Well, I upgraded our Netflix machine in the living room from what might be the crappiest "smart" DVD player ever manufactured to a Win7x64 i7-950.

    Translation: I moved a computer to the living room.

    That's the best I can say I upgraded this week...

  5. #5
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    Re: What did *you* upgrade today?

    Quote Originally Posted by John P. Myers View Post
    I also have a 100A 20 position fuse box and was looking to upgrade to 200A or 225A 32 positions. How much work was it and how expensive was it?
    I still haven't received the bill for the electricians part. He did it as a side job and I provided all the materials. As soon as he tells me how much he wants for his 8 hours of labor, I'll post back here with a breakdown. Keep in mind mine did not include an upgrade to 200 AMP, so there will be a lot more involved with you going that route. Especially if your utility has to get involved in an upgrade of the facilities to the building.

    Personally, I'd suggest you check first to make sure you truly need 200 AMP. With todays appliances and all being so much more energy efficient, you may be using a lot less than you think. For me, when the electrician used his clamp meter on the two hots, he only came up with about 13 AMPs consumed even with all the computer stuff I had running at that moment. (Although, I don't have central air, the furnace is gas and the stove, dryer and refrigerators were all probably not running at that moment either.) I can confirmed I've tripped multiple 20 AMP breakers here in my day, but never more than one at a time.

  6. #6
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    Re: What did *you* upgrade today?

    Quote Originally Posted by DrPop View Post
    Wow. That's a serious upgrade. You just went up to commercial grade power. Do they have 3 phase to your neighborhood?
    Well, it's not really 3-Phase, but residential service always includes two independent hots. So it works out to the same 230 Volt that is used for an electric dryer or stove, rather than the 240 volt you get by using two phases out of a 3-Phase 480Volt commercial source.

  7. #7
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    Re: What did *you* upgrade today?

    Upgraded one more of my CyberPower UPS with an APC. This is the 3rd of 4. I will never own CyberPower junk again. They all failed within 6 months after the warranty ended. When I called them about repairs I was bluntly told they don't repair their own equipment. Unbelievable. My 5 year old APCs are still working like champs.



    You'll never know what you're living for until you know what you're willing to die for.

  8. #8
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    Re: What did *you* upgrade today?

    And with APC's, you can walk into a BatteriesPlus and buy replacement batteries off the shelf for small change. Very easy to replace.

  9. #9
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    Re: What did *you* upgrade today?

    I ran APCs for years and swear by them and as Mumps said you can get the batteries at Batteries Plus and they are relatively inexpensive. In fact, I bought 3 of my APCs at their store for a super price. They had come out with newer models and Batteries Plus had them on a 1/2 price sale.


  10. #10
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    Re: What did *you* upgrade today?

    I definitely need more than 100A. I don't need 200A, but for convenience i might as well get it. I do have central air, electric oven, electric fireplace, etc. If i use the fireplace, i can't use the Nvidia GPUs in the 3770K box. If my wife irons her work clothes in the bedroom, i have to turn off the electric heater there or a fuse blows. The main reason i want 200A is because all my standard circuits are 15A and need to be 20A. The extra fuse slots in the higher amp mains would allow for more dedicated outlets. Every time i look at an outlet in my house this feeling of restriction always comes over me


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