J Burns wrote:
RBM wrote:
"J Burns" wrote in message
...
I've seen old houses where all circuits enter the breaker box as
cables, but some rooms still have knob-and-tube wiring. (A homeowner
who needed to upgrade wiring for his kitchen may have found the old
wiring adequate in a bedroom.)

That leads to a question that didn't occur to me before. Was there a
proper way to connect K & T to a cable?

Originally, the K&T would have entered the fuse panel through screw in
ceramic insulators. When that panel was replaced they probably ran a
piece of BX cable to a junction box, and ran the K&T insulators into
knockouts in the J box, then either spliced with wire nuts or solder
depending upon when it was done. Here is a picture of an old K&T fuse
box. Notice the fused neutrals:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...seboxlocat.jpg



Thanks. Comments by others are interesting, too.

In the 1980s, my parents moved into a house where they wanted grounded
outlets, more outlets, and fluorescent lights. Cables went from the
breaker box to junction boxes in the attic, but much of the lighting was
on K&T.

Instead of making connections to K&T, I was removing it. I wasn't aware
that the insulation was unreliable, so I didn't think about how the
electrician who had installed the junction boxes had made safe
connections to existing K&T.

The K&T I have run across has insulation that is in good condition after
all these years. The exception is at light fixtures, where the heat of
the lamp, or especially a ballast, has raised the electrical insulation
temperature far beyond what was intended. The same problem happens with
BX, and other wiring.

K&T is actually still in the NEC (article 394 - with very limited use)
and is intended to be concealed (some exceptions in attics).

The refeed I have seen is to put a j-box near the knobs and run wires
into a box with "loom" over the wire from the knob to inside the box.
RBM's picture show loom. I have seen the loom just go through a knockout
(preferable both wires through the same knockout). The K&T is spliced
inside the box to Romex, or some other wiring system.

--
bud--