We moved into an apartment recently but the wiring is done idiotically. Most of the rooms are powered by only two circuits, the "kitchen lights" and the "bedroom lights". The fridge is plugged into an outlet that is connected to the "kitchen lights", which also powers a large portion of the living/dining room. There are two split duplex receptacles in the kitchen, each on a double pole breaker, allowing you to plug in additional appliances. But they put the fridge on the "kitchen lights" so that you would be limited by what else you can plug in at the dining room and living room. The "bedroom lights" are even worse. They power two bedrooms, plus some of the living room, including the only outlet that the AC unit can plug into. That means if you have AC, you're again severely limited by what else you can be running in the bedrooms and living room. Additionally, there are no light fixtures in the bedrooms and living room. Instead, there is a half-switched duplex outlet for you to plug a lamp in. How have people been living in this apartment without constantly tripping the breakers, you may wonder? The breakers for the kitchen lights and the bedroom lights were 20 amp even though I have confirmed that those circuits are using #14 AWG, blatantly against code. 1/2
>>2683522I have decided to take it upon myself to correct some of the issues to make this place more liveable for myself and my wife. I would like to disconnect the living room from the bedroom circuit so that the AC isn't hogging up all of my power. Since the breaker panel was already filled with full size breakers, I already took out the oversized 20 amp kitchen and bedroom breakers and I put those circuits on a 15/15 amp tandem breaker, freeing up one slot in the panel. Based on the floor plan of the apartment, I can make some assumptions about how the wire is run. My guess (which I need to verify) is that since the kitchen and bathroom are on opposite sides of the breaker panel, those circuits must be pigtailed at the panel and I could put the bathroom onto its own breaker right away at the panel. With that done, I would need to figure out how to split off the receptacles in the living room from the bedroom lights and connect them to the bathroom. That's the strategy I have formed in my mind based on some assumptions. I would like to hear your opinions on this and some tips on how to proceed. I'm aware that I obviously should not be doing this. However, the property management company has not been helpful and the fact that they used 20 amp breakers that won't trip to cover up the fact that too much shit is on the same circuit tells me all I need to know about how much they care about safety.2/2
>>2683523Just call code enforcement on them. You're only going to make a bad situation worse.
>>2683524Maybe doing it “by the book” was a possibility before, but I already fucked myself by making changes. I already rewired the split outlet in bedroom 2 to be always hot, used the box where the original light switch was to run a pendant light to the ceiling using wiremold. I replaced those oversize breakers as well, as I mentioned before. If I complain now, I’ll fuck myself over because I already tinkered in the unit. Was hoping to just get done what I want and then leave and say it was like that when we moved in. Like everyone else does.
>>2683522Why would you fix this shit for a landlord for free? You goddamn cuck. Should've done like >>2683524 said.
>>2683522My parents condo had 11, yes 11, half-switched duplex outlets in the 14x25 living room. All on one circuit and all on one switch, that was also a dimmer switch.
