Kitchen Sub Panel Pt.1

The modern kitchen usually needs an electrical sub-panel because nearly everything in the kitchen needs its own circuit. Basically the best rule of thumb is if there's power going to something, it needs a circuit.

How many circuits could this small, galley kitchen really need? I'm keeping the cabinets and layout for now because a kitchen remodel for the house will involve pushing out a wall that will probably need to be cantilevered etc. etc.... expensive.

I started marking out the circuits of this basic kitchen: 

The C outs 1&2 is for counter outlets. You need two circuits. I have two outlets on one side and one on the other. That's 2 20A circuits for 3 outlets. It's much more than adequate but that's code. 

This is a silly amount of circuits. A regular 20 amp outlet circuit is good for like 20 outlets that could have high draw things like electric space heaters. Why would you need a circuit for an outlet for the gas range? Most gas ranges only use the outlet for the clock or light (old school) or igniter which are WAY below the 20 amps afforded by the wiring and breaker.

One reason is cosmetic - the click of the igniter could make overhead lights flicker. Besides that, I'm not sure since you don't need to turn off the circuit to unplug a gas range, which would be another reason to have a breaker for something, so you could shut off power to change out the appliance. Just in case you need to move the outlet every time you change ranges? I don't know...

Anyway, I started making note of all the circuits and getting ready to put in the sub panel. 

Above you can see an 8 slot, 125A sub panel that will be sufficient for the current kitchen and future kitchen. The conduit formerly called BX now MC, is to protect the cable when it is exposed like under the house where it will be running. I used 3/4" for 4/3 copper because that's all they had but I recommend 1" conduit (also called FLEX). 

27' of 4/3 copper and 25' metal conduit is about $130! 

The max current draw (amperage) is determined by the application. Common amperage ratings are 15A for lighting, 20A for outlets, and 30-50A for an electric oven.  The largest draw of electricity is turning electricity directly into heat - like a space heater, hair dryer and electric oven.

Amperage also determines the wire size. 15A is 14 gauge, 20A is 12ga., 30A is 10ga. etc. When the wire has a lot of current going through it, it can get hot and spark and cause a fire. That's what the breaker is there to prevent - to much amps. You can have an undersized breaker or fuse for the wire, but not an undersized wire for the fuse because that would be dangerous. 

Here's a chart at Home Depot: 

WOW COOL! NOT CONFUSING AT ALL! 

If the sub panel is 120A, then we need #4 copper NM wire. But that's only rated for 70A you say. Ahh very observant, grasshopper! 4/3 is #4 wire, 3 conductor, with ground. You actually have 2 hot wires, each rated at 70A - so 140A for a 120A panel - we are good. The two hots are so that  each side of the panel has its own wire.

But the four slots on one side can hold more than 70A! you say. That's OK because we have a breaker upstream. This is a sub panel and has a main breaker going to it in the main panel. Since the main panel is going to be a huge expensive pain with PG&E, I will tie into the former range oven "safety switch," which is a dual 60A switch. 

Here is the electric range shutoff, which may be original but may be added in the 50s - not sure. Regardless the kitchen originally had an electric range, which was VERY unusual for '27, and also a common Maybeck feature. 

Here is our dual 60A safety switch formerly used for the electric range. I am using it temporarily as the kitchen sub panel shutoff, until I can afford a new main panel and service. 

Above: each hot (black and red) has a 60A fuse, allowing 120A of 110v, perfect for 4/3, each #4 rated at 70A max, plus a #4 neutral, white, and a smaller ground.

I don't recommend pulling 4/3 through a 3/4" flex conduit. Use 1" or bigger, or 4/3 MC cable (already wrapped), and save yourself a struggle. This is the line from the sub panel. 

On the left top and bottom are some 3/4" BX conduit. The bottom is the feed to the former electric range. The top is the power coming in, that comes from the main junction box, behind the main shutoff switch.

Cleared out the old stuff, pulling that 4/3 into the box  

The sub panel is hooked to a main switch now so when this switch is down, I can work on the sub. I had to turn off the main power to the house to work in this box. Fortunately, now I can simply switch off the sub panel and only the sub panel here now. The neutral and ground are "bonded."

Now I have the kitchen sub panel on a shutoff and I can safely work on wiring up these kitchen circuits. To be continued... 

Another broken 3-way Switch :/

As I've become familiar with the house wiring, I've been annoyed by the weird crap done to a house that was originally modestly, but cleanly wired. Most annoying is the fact that the house had 4 3-way switches that no longer work in very useful places. As you may know, a three way switch is a pair of light switches that can both turn on or off a light. This is VERY useful for a room that has multiple entrances. If a bedroom has a bathroom or back door connected to it, as well as an entry from a hall, you want to be able to turn on the list when entering from either door, and turn off the light when leaving through either door. Makes sense right? When people who have no business fiddling with home wiring mess with a three way, this is usually what happens:

Wouldn't it be great if the stair lights turned on and off at the switches at either end of the stairs, like they used to? 

To explain what is effectively happening: 

Another hint it's an incorrectly wired 3-way, besides the written clue and the two switches, is there is no "OFF" written on this part of the switch, because whether the light is on or off depends on the position of the other switch

If you have this problem in your house, either read my posts about three ways or leave it alone! Thank you

-Public Service Announcement from Residential Electricians

To fix means this again:

Yep it's a three way. Using your beeper lets you determine what's the hot wire and what's going to the lights. 

Lights go to the black/common pole

In these setups, the switch next to the light has the wire going to the lights that connects to the black screw while the other box has power going in and that goes to the black screw over there. The two other wires go between the boxes and the power goes through to the light when both switches are switched to the same wire. 

OK that's working. Now another one :/ 

Same situation as before in the music room also

More suitable MB sink

I sold the Crane Drexel and got an era-correct (for the house) sink for the master bathroom. As has been discussed earlier, the master bath had a sink from '40 which is when I believe the master bath was created in what was originally the only bedroom's changing room. 

Since the lower bath is pretty good shape and the upper bath, also from '27 it appears, is pretty good except for the shower. To make things cohesive, I decided to make the master bath into a '27 appropriate style. 

Naturally I started looking for a wall sink or pedestal sink. I found one in good shape for $275 from '28 that is 27" wide which is PERFECT. The plumbing fixtures in the house that are original are dated '28 because the house probably took a year to build since plumbing fixtures are installed very close to the end of construction since they get in the way during the finish construction (except the tub which goes in before the tile if it's a built-in). 

The faucets have been replaced but are style appropriate and don't need to be refurbished with gaskets etc. 

A side note - you can see the '28 sink is about 3" below where the Drexel sink was set. The '28 sink is 30" tall (to the flat top surface around the sink). That would make the Drexel 33" tall. Modern pedestals are 33-36" tall. Why are sinks getting taller? I was reading on deabath.com that was for two reasons. People are healthier 90 years later and therefore taller. Another reason is people used to wash up in the sink while sitting on a chair. The sink stopper is much less used these days because people used to boil a kettle of hot water to pour in the sink and use to wash up their hands, face and hair etc. for the majority of their washing needs. Now that hot water heaters are ubiquitous, people use the sink mostly for hand washing and to wash the face before and after bed. Everything else is done in the shower. Baths are less common because it was so much work to draw water for a bath, by lighting the boiler in the basement, that one really wanted to relish in the luxury of hot water.

Anyway I think the sink looks fitting for the house. It looks decent next to the $100 dual flush toilet from Home Depot that I think is pretty awesome.  That's a crazy price for a well made, good-looking dual flush toilet! A vintage toilet would match better, but  we're in California and we have a drought so you'll just have to get over  it.

Next I'm looking around for a good center drain tub for the master to replace the vanity make-up desk. It would look amazing for a center drain tub there because the window is centered on the symmetrical desk. 

HOWEVER - center drain deco tubs are insanely expensive because they are so rare (and so cool). I might have to get something new which is... 2K used if you're lucky. Sigh... 

Crane Drexel Repair

I decided to sell the pretty-cool-but-not-right-for-the-house Crane Drexler ca. 1940. I hooked up the new hoses to the new copper supply lines and turned it on and it acted like it was possessed, rusty water squirting everywhere. I needed to fix this if I wanted to get good money for it.

Off the wall ready for repair

Had to get clever with pieces of pipe and the crescent wrench to get the valves out

Since the spout of the sink is integral to the sink body, the valve bodies themselves are sealed to the body and empty into a chamber that mixes hot and cold and then they water goes out the spout. The valves were leaking where they were sealed to the body. 

Once I got that valve out of there - the part on the right is the valve body that seals to the porcelain body of the sink to go to the spout. The hole is where water from the open valve goes into the sink body. On the left is the cartridge which is two pieces and threads into the main body. At the bottom is the valve seat washer which combined with the valve body creates the "water gate" actuated by a threaded shaft and cross handle.

Valve body is 1&1/4" so 1&1/4" sink drain gaskets work well

Little Vaseline for good measure

This is the valve seat washer. Very warn compared to new

Cleaning out where the old gaskets were leaking

A little pipe thread sealer

The valve body should be tighter to the sink body than the cartridge because the cartridge is supposed to be serviceable so you don't want the rest of the valve to turn when you try to take out the cartridge to replace the seat washer. 

That thing in top opens the drain and was working. 

I got it working! 

So that's how you service a Drexel sink.