[Shop-talk] Next question: what the $%^& is this thing?

[Scott Hall]

Okay fellas,

This:

http://imgur.com/MGMpgzC

Thing lives in my basement, upstream of where the washer and dryer plug in.

I get that it seems to be some sort of primitive "fuse box", and the 'bulb
socket' is where a screw-in fuse goes. I know this because the thing has a
sticker that references fuses and I found fuses with light-bulb threads on
the back at home depot.

Issues:

1) The sticker references a 20 H.P. (I assume horsepower?) load. Not amps
or volts, "H.P.". The fuses at Home Depot are not listed by horsepower (or
H.P.). What the heck?

2) How's this thing...work? That black wire going out of the picture at
4:00 is the same one you see coming back in the picture at 2:00. I bent is
back that way because it looks like the cut ends should match up. I have no
idea why it's cut, or even if that's where that wire should go. How should
I re-wire this?

3) There's that open screw terminal at about 8:00 on the fuse socket. I
feel like there wouldn't be a terminal there unless something was supposed
to screw into it. Why's it there?

4) That big black thing in the middle is an On/Off switch. Should fuse
boxes have an On/Off switch? I thought they just work, and stop if the fuse
pops.

5) Basically, should I just get rid of this thing, or keep it, or replace
it with a more-modern something? I suspect it's there to keep the 220-volt
dryer from burning the house down (good idea), but the whole setup looks
pretty slapdash.

Any primers or advice welcomed.

Also, house has yet to blow up and no leaks detected with new gas lines. I
only did a very small section, but I'm pretty happy with myself. And hot
water is nice. :-)

Scott