OT - household electrician in the house?

Those Main fuse holders stab into copper blades. Originally they had a lot of spring tension to them, but over time heat causes them to lose their temper. That results in a higher resistance connection and *more* heat and on and on...

Get it looked at real soon. The house inspection wouldn't necessarily spot it and there is no reason to suggest it wasn't built to code at the time.

I would begin with a call to the utility; often they will check complaints like this and open live compartments that you don't want to get into. Some localities they will even fix stuff; at the very least they will advise you what to do.

Speedy Jim

As an electrician myself I will give you my .02, but another there is another sparky around that posts on sometimes and his name is Bob. I recommend having it looked at it by a professional electrician. What Jim told you about heat is common in those style of fuses. I'm with Jim though, I have seen those fuse holders become so loose that it wouldn't hold a fuse any longer. Hope this helps. I recommend having the panel upgraded to the breaker style panel which is a better and safer design.

Jeremie

Interesting. One set was a little warm to the touch.

That's all I need to hear, Jim. Deeply appreciated. I owe you. I will call the utility company first.

It's funny, but this system is breakers _and_ fuses. Maybe the PO did a half-job. :( Thanks for the second on Jim's tip. I'm calling the professionals tomorrow.

I'd pull the fuses and then lick the contacts to get them wet so that they help to conduct better. Just make sure your tongue touches both of the contact points at the same time. That should work for sure. :-) Disclaimer: This "advice" was a joke. Note smiley face.

I had this same/similar senario about a year ago. The original 120 amp fuse panel in my house had another circuit breaker panel added to it by the previous owner. Everything worked fine when we bought the house. However, twelve years later and with more appliances running, we nearly had a disaster. One evening some of our lights started flickering strangely. I went to the basement and I could smell something hot. It was coming from the fuse panel. I slipped my fingers into the T-handled main fuse puller and it was hot. I could see that the blades were discolored from the heat. I cleaned them up and found something insulated to try and push on the contacts in the box to tighten them up. It didn't help much. I pulled the cover on the box and found that the screw terminals on the main cable coming in to the fuse panel were also loose and the wires had crystalized. I turned off everything I could and it would not cool down. By next morning it was smoking with just a refrigerator and freezer running occasionally. I called every electric shop in town first thing in the morning and couldn't find anyone to come look at it until afternoon. They twisted and tightened to no avail. The next morning two guys came out and ripped out my electrical service all the way to the main cables, meter and all. Best $900 I ever spent.(invested) I hope yours isn't as bad but you can see where it could be going.

Before:

First, get 2 new big fuses. One may have an open that only opens with many lights on. Then clean the copper(i assume) contacts they fit into. May even want to put a dab of dielectric grease on them to be sure no corrosion appears, but I think the intermitant open is more likely.

-- the Grokdoc Tom Malmevik all that groks is god

If you have overhead power coming in have sparky check the leads at the weather head while he's there.

John