It will absolutely catch fire if you run a standard load (120V at 15A) through it. 14 gauge is the standard for in-wall wiring, 12 gauge for 20A circuits.
The full (incidental, not continuous) load you can push through a 15A circuit is around 1800W (this is your standard hair dryer) but that’s unsafe for continuous operation on 14 gauge. 1500W is the highest continuous draw you can safely put on 14 gauge (microwaves, space heaters, many appliances).
Not only will 16 gauge wiring in your walls catch fire, but your circuit breaker will be unable to do anything about it because the load never exceeded the circuit breaker’s capacity.
This is also why most of our extension cords are extremely dangerous, they’re usually 16 gauge and don’t have fuses that will blow if their current rating is exceeded, they’ll happily heat right up and burn your house down.
The house in question has one 10 amp fuse for every outlet in the house, one ten amp fuse for all the lights, and then the oven does not have a breaker of its own, it's just somehow connected into the "entire house" breaker.
It's about a 450 sqft house built in the 40s on a lake 2 hours from the nearest place you could call a village or town. There is no way to get internet or a phone signal there, and I'm shocked it even has electricity. It was cool to visit for a few weeks but I would never live there. Insane motherfuckers out there.
the fuses are actually fine safety-wise, just horribly impractical compared to actually running 14 gauge wire and 15A outlets. gonna blow a fuse any time you put more than 1200W on a single circuit (trivially easy, but at least the house won’t burn down). I guess this might be less of a problem if it’s a cabin-tier residence that doesn’t rely on electricity for cooking, heating, or AC
Are the fuses located in the outlets themselves? I have been doing this stuff for a long time and I’ve never seen those in the US
They're not, they're in a, and you're going to hate this, breaker box that is outside of the building next to the water hookups and the garden hose spigot. There's a ground level grate next to the house that you pick up to go into a little vertical coffin sized dug out area with the water shut-off for the building and the breaker box is just above that grate at ground level.
I live in the apartment with the mystery light switch that kills WiFi. I've done some home lab radio nerdery with a software defined radio and determined that there is something in the wall about at ceiling level directly above the lightswitch that emits a very strong 2.4 GHz signal. Like, so strong that I should call Industry Canada instead of the landlord.
I've been here six months and the walls and ceiling are now bleeding brown ooze.
Having said that, all of these places (other than the shack with the sketchy wiring which I was just visiting a family member in), including this apartment which I've dubbed The Radio Zone, have been considered luxury rentals. It's fucked up that like even higher end stuff is like this. There are a handful of buildings in Toronto that I almost refuse to even visit friends at because they have such a sketchy rep, like the ICE Condo building which has false fire alarms going off all the time, and it's become just a hellscape of AirBNB morons.
They were more common in the 90’s. As a kid we always had gigantic second-hand microwaves with insane wattage ratings and adjusting the instructions for microwaved food was a fun game of chance.
Higher gauges means thinner wire. Like the mains lines you see on poles are usually 4-6 AWG, 16AWG is like what you'd see in a laptop power chord and 20AWG is like a USB phone charger.
:agony-shivering: :agony-acid: :agony-immense: :agony-consuming:
I'm no electrician, what's the problem with 16 gauge wire?
It will absolutely catch fire if you run a standard load (120V at 15A) through it. 14 gauge is the standard for in-wall wiring, 12 gauge for 20A circuits.
The full (incidental, not continuous) load you can push through a 15A circuit is around 1800W (this is your standard hair dryer) but that’s unsafe for continuous operation on 14 gauge. 1500W is the highest continuous draw you can safely put on 14 gauge (microwaves, space heaters, many appliances).
Not only will 16 gauge wiring in your walls catch fire, but your circuit breaker will be unable to do anything about it because the load never exceeded the circuit breaker’s capacity.
This is also why most of our extension cords are extremely dangerous, they’re usually 16 gauge and don’t have fuses that will blow if their current rating is exceeded, they’ll happily heat right up and burn your house down.
The house in question has one 10 amp fuse for every outlet in the house, one ten amp fuse for all the lights, and then the oven does not have a breaker of its own, it's just somehow connected into the "entire house" breaker.
:agony-4horsemen:
It's about a 450 sqft house built in the 40s on a lake 2 hours from the nearest place you could call a village or town. There is no way to get internet or a phone signal there, and I'm shocked it even has electricity. It was cool to visit for a few weeks but I would never live there. Insane motherfuckers out there.
the fuses are actually fine safety-wise, just horribly impractical compared to actually running 14 gauge wire and 15A outlets. gonna blow a fuse any time you put more than 1200W on a single circuit (trivially easy, but at least the house won’t burn down). I guess this might be less of a problem if it’s a cabin-tier residence that doesn’t rely on electricity for cooking, heating, or AC
Are the fuses located in the outlets themselves? I have been doing this stuff for a long time and I’ve never seen those in the US
They're not, they're in a, and you're going to hate this, breaker box that is outside of the building next to the water hookups and the garden hose spigot. There's a ground level grate next to the house that you pick up to go into a little vertical coffin sized dug out area with the water shut-off for the building and the breaker box is just above that grate at ground level.
You’re right, I do hate that
Me too.
Gotta say I’m glad you’re not there anymore. Hopefully wherever you are now is less of a nightmare than any of these places.
I live in the apartment with the mystery light switch that kills WiFi. I've done some home lab radio nerdery with a software defined radio and determined that there is something in the wall about at ceiling level directly above the lightswitch that emits a very strong 2.4 GHz signal. Like, so strong that I should call Industry Canada instead of the landlord.
I've been here six months and the walls and ceiling are now bleeding brown ooze.
Having said that, all of these places (other than the shack with the sketchy wiring which I was just visiting a family member in), including this apartment which I've dubbed The Radio Zone, have been considered luxury rentals. It's fucked up that like even higher end stuff is like this. There are a handful of buildings in Toronto that I almost refuse to even visit friends at because they have such a sketchy rep, like the ICE Condo building which has false fire alarms going off all the time, and it's become just a hellscape of AirBNB morons.
Oh, shit.
I don't think I've seen any 1500W microwaves, though. All the ones I've bought run at 1100W.
They were more common in the 90’s. As a kid we always had gigantic second-hand microwaves with insane wattage ratings and adjusting the instructions for microwaved food was a fun game of chance.
Higher gauges means thinner wire. Like the mains lines you see on poles are usually 4-6 AWG, 16AWG is like what you'd see in a laptop power chord and 20AWG is like a USB phone charger.
They use it because copper is expensive