Splitting a household circuit into two or more circuits?

We moved into an old farmhouse recently, and find that almost all the house is on one circuit. Is it possible to split this circuit into two or more? If so, how affordable is it?Splitting a household circuit into two or more circuits?
1- You need to look at your fuse box first.


2- It sounds like you may have two main fuses in the box coming in from the meter.


3- They probably will be 30 or 60 Amp cartridge fuses. (used for the old 60 Amp services).


4- In another box there should be screw-in fuses (15 or 20 amps).


5- Check the wiring around the boxes (if not buried in the wall) to see whether it comes out of the box through porcelain insulators or in armored cable (2 wires in each).


6- This old wiring (rubber coated and fabric covered) is usually dried and brittle in the fixture boxes and switch boxes and receptacle boxes and is is extremely difficult to work with.


7- I would advise you to get a good electrician to see if he can separate the lighting into 2 separate circuits and the receptacles into 2 separate circuits. Using the existing wiring. If not then just add a small load center (6 to 8 breakers) near the incoming power box and run new wiring to where you need it most. Leave as much as you can where it is.


8- Depending on the size of the house and load of electrical the minimum back in 1999 and those 60 Amp Services had to be brought up to 100 Amps and in some cases 200 Amp residential Services.


Good Luck and be very, very careful you need good help and no monkeying around.


It won't be cheap but look around, take your time and most important take time for a good but reasonable price.Splitting a household circuit into two or more circuits?
An electrician should be able to split the circuit into multiple circuits. Depending on if theres room in the circuit breaker box for more circuits and the way the house was originally wired would determine how much it would cost as well as the area you live. Also it would depend uppon how old the wiring is, if its the old knob and tube wiring it could involve alot of new wiring. As for a guestimate I would say if its a simple job with only minimal new wires it could be a few hundred dollars if its more complex it could be several thousand. Around here electricians get around 90 dollars an hour so it is a quite expensive undertaking but it beats the expense of an overloaded circuit causing a fire.


Good luck!
if it is a very old house it probity only has a 50 or 60 amp service. so even if you create more circuits in the house you will experience lights dimming when different electrical appliances turn on and off. your best bet would be to upgrade your electrical service from the street to at least 100 or better yet 200 amp service the difference between 100 and 200 isn't that much and you will be a lot happier in the long run.
I don't know how affordable it is, but I'm sure you can. I'm assuming you have the old fuse box and not a circuit breaker box. That is out of my realm of knowlegde, but if you have a breaker box, you can always add to it. You can add outlets so everything isn't running off the same circuit. That's what we did here. I eliminated the kitchen and bath and then rewired it, but we had the walls torn out. It sounds like for you it could be pricy. But to be honest, I just don't know. It might help to add some info to your question so someone else can answer it better. Like what kind of breaker box you have and if you are in the process of remodeling or not.
In an old house, it's usually a better option to add circuits where the highest loads are (kitchen, bathroom) rather than trying to split up existing circuits. When you remove appliance loads from the few existing circuits, the existing circuits will probably be sufficient for the rest of the house. The additional advantage is that you can ensure that the new circuits are properly grounded in the places where a solid ground is most important (again, kitchen and bathrooms).