How Do You Know When It’s Time? Part II

All of us have annoying things in our homes or offices that we live with but don’t have to. It’s good to watch for the adaptive behavior these things make us do. It tells you there is probably something in your home or office you are making do with, that could be changed to make life easier for you. Sometimes it’s a door or lock that sticks. In this case, we’ll take a look at electricity issues.

In our office, we have a tiny, rudimentary kitchenette. You’d think that a Design to Build remodeling company would have a showplace kitchen. When we move to our new office, we will.

We put in our little kitchen about 10 or 12 years ago as a kind of ad hoc answer to the needs of a growing, but not wealthy, little company. In it, we have a small counter with a toaster oven, a microwave and a plug-in electric teapot. Above that, we have some metal cabinets we salvaged from the Breyers Ice Cream factory before it was demolished. Below the counter, we have a second-hand, dormitory-sized refrigerator and some storage.

All of the electrical appliances in our little office kitchen are on one circuit. So we can’t make hot water and run the microwave at the same time without tripping the circuit. Then we have to climb over the tool-storage area to flip the circuit breaker.

This is exactly how the kitchen was in our 1957 split level before we renovated. All the outlets were daisy chained along with the single ceiling light switch. The appliances were also on one circuit, so if you ran the dishwasher and the little oven at the same time, strange power surges would happen.

That is all reconfigured now. Our modern kitchen has many high performance appliances,
and each one has its very own circuit now. There are outlets every three to four feet along the countertop and on each wall near the floor. Modern code allows up to 12 to a circuit. The counter circuits are all GFCI so you aren’t electrocuted. The dozen or so ceiling lights also have independent circuits. It’s now a high-performance, modern room. Still, because of the funny little kitchen I use at work, I catch myself at home thinking I shouldn’t start the microwave when the toaster is running.

It’s probably time to think about renovating the office kitchen.