Home Improvement Today?

It depends on when your house was built. Today having your fridge on the microwave circuit is a violation. That said if it were my house I wouldn't give a second thought to adding LED under cabinet lighting to the microwave plug.

 

Any thoughts on what it should cost? I thought $325 was too much.

 

Are they pulling a permit? Relocating anything? 4 hour flat rate for most calls now a days covers getting the truck on the road etc… $325 for a permitted task seems like flat rate pricing. It’s probably a 1 hour job at best. Don’t rv plugs usually need neutral? If so running a neutral back to the main panel will cost money copper is not cheap.

 

If he needs to pull wire, it’s only going to be 2’ max

 

to this question: sounds about right.. as others have said theres a certain amount that someone is going to deem “worth” or not just to drive out.. also having to put their name on it and come back should anything go wrong..

to what you should look for: a finished product as quoted, if not then a new electrician

 

Sweeping all the sticks, pine needles, and acorns off the back roof of the shed. It’s hot up here. I think I can make it!

 

Yeah, but $300 an hour? I’m having issues with the price of everything right now.

 

Diy is gonna be cheapest you have power there already just swap out breaker and wires run it to new outlet below.

 

@308savage
Skip forwad 2 minutes past intro

 

I hear you! For that small of a job seems crazy… the electrician is probably in the same boat as all of us, having issue with prices at grocery store or whatever.. like everything else that has inflated, so has having a trade professional come to your house..

+1 DIY all the way if possible!

 

Box, 30 amp breaker, wire, breaker cover and connector for box and maybe a buss bar. Close to $100 in parts

 

also costs money to have tools!

 

Basic tools for that. Masonry bit to drill 3 holes to mount the box a screw driver and channel locks. Oh and wire cutters

 

not a violation, but also not at all ideal. in new code/construction, almost all microwaves are now rated to 1800 watts. 1800 watts converts to 15A at 120v. not so bad. but code also has an 85% rule. no circuit is supposed to be loaded more than 85% of it's rated ampacity. so a 20A circuit can supply a maximum anticipated load of 17A at any given time, by design. so now the circuit is within 2A of it's maximum rating.

ideally, the refrigerator shouldn't be on with the microwave because fridges draw somewhere between 2-15A at different times within their cycles--easily over-drawing that circuit if the fridge tries running while the microwave is running. and while not specifically currently listed in code, most fridge manufacturer manuals specifically require a dedicated 15A circuit per unit--so it's preferable to have a separate fridge circuit to avoid possible warranty-denial issues later on in the fridges lifespan.

that said, a lot of it comes down to usage. my kitchen is original to 1972. i have 2 kitchen circuits where i really ought to have 4. i've never once tripped a breaker despite all of my appliances being on either circuit. my parents house is even older, and does trip the breaker occasionally, but it's cheaper to deal with than to change.

undercabinet lighting doesn't take much more than 0.5-1A of power at the most, so if you're going to have issues later on, it likely won't be because of the undercabinet lighting, but because of the two major appliances sharing, but not something i'd suggest doing.

this old house also spent an entire episode once showing how to install a whole house fan, but insisted that one only needs to push the wire nuts onto the wires like one would with tape, and they don't require any twisting motion. pro tip-- you need to be able to tug the wire nut after installing it onto the wires. if any part of the connection pulls apart, that's a future loose connection, and the connection will fail most inspections. twist wire nuts on.

there's quite a few lively discussions as to what 'dedicated' means in electrical terms pertaining to national electrical code. dedicated actually isn't a definition within the nec.

a major part of complying with the nec to remain safe, is to anticipate the load on the circuit, and maintain the circuits within their capabilities.

so that said, i can't in good faith suggest you install undercabinet lighting on a circuit that is already has the capability to over draw on power. if it was only a fridge circuit, or only a microwave circuit, i would say it's no big deal to add the lighting to either. depending on how the house is wired, sometimes it's easier to either move the fridge over to the general purpose lighting circuit for the kitchen(sometimes it's dedicated to only the kitchen), or sometimes it's even easier to leave that circuit alone, and run off the current lighting circuit to a different cabinet.

alternatively, if you have a disposal, i've routinely used those for undercabinet lighting, as the plugs are typically under the sink, and typically entirely by themselves, with minimal usage.

wow, lucky. don't bother with the lottery ticket for a few months, you used up all your luck!

what's the code reference? as i stated earlier with how i listed the ampacity of the appliances, i agree that it's not correct, but neither appliance is specifically referenced within the code. the closest would be 210.19(3) referencing 'ranges and cooking appliances'.

it's one of the things i learned a long time ago in apprentice school. lots of old-timers love to do things a certain way and just label it 'code', without ever "showing their math" to where it is specified within the code.

you're not wrong-- the circuit is officially overloaded from a code perspective of circuit ampacity.

depends on the parts used. it sounds slightly high to me.
they'd likely need to change the breaker($10-80 depending on model), get a different plug($15-40) and enclosure(20-200), time to get there and back, plus some wire. i'd imagine closer to $200-250 without pricing all the parts out, but it also depends on the company and their structure as well.

i keep reminding myself of the old story:

one day a new guy gets hired onto the management team of a company. being the new guy, he immediately pours over the financials to see where he can shine and save the company money. the very first act of business became the maintenance man's wage.

so he immediately sets up a meeting and presents his findings. "we could easily hire anyone else for a fraction of the cost to change parts around! it's not that difficult of a job! we'd save thousands!"

the group, seeing no fault in his logic, agrees. they send down the order to fire the maintenance man they've had for the past 20 years shortly afterwards, and hire on a freshly-minted college degree holder the job, true to the new c-suites word, for a fraction of what they were paying the old timer.

shortly after, the plant grinds to halt. a critical machine has stopped working. the new maintenance man works day and night, unable to fix the issue. the issue is costing the company millions, and all the c-suite's are getting more hot and bothered by the day as the new maintenance guy is unable to solve any of it.

new guy that got the old maintenance man fired finally breaks the silence and decides to call the old maintenance man, who laughs knowingly as they describe the problem, but states calmly that he'll only fix it for 10 times his original salary.

at first, they balk at the rate. surely the old man is off his rocker, the company will try some other things.

and so they do. they try everything, but the company that made the failed system got bought out 10 years ago, and they don't have any staff that could help since 15 years ago.

finally, they've lost a significant portion of their annual productivity, no one's been able to figure anything out, and they break down and call the old man back up, agreeing to his terms. if he can fix it, they'll write him a check for the amount right away.

the next day they all follow the old maintenance man into the equipment room, curious to his process to fix what no one else has been able to.

as they walk into the room, he proceeds to grab a long pipe propped up in a forgotten corner of the room and then over to some of the pipes coming out of the failed machine. he then proceeds to bang on the pipes with all of the fervor as a chuck wagon dinner bell.

suddenly the machine springs back to life, and the plant is back to full capacity in an instant.

the c-suite, angry but relieved to rid of this problem hands over the check, but blurts out "all that money for 5 minutes of you to banging on some pipes like a homeless guy on his cup."

the old maintenance man just smiles as he takes the check and says "no, all that money to know WHERE to bang on the pipes to make them work."

 

here's the code -
The code doesn't address microwaves as a specific appliance, but NEC 210.23(A)(2) Utilization Equipment Fastened in Place limits equipment to 50% of a circuit when shared with lighting or other equipment not fastened in place.

So if it's fastened in place, which would likely place it on a designated kitchen circuit, a shared kitchen circuit would have to be 20A, so a microwave would not be able to exceed 1200W without requiring a dedicated circuit.
NEC 210.23(A)(2) Utilization Equipment Fastened in Place limits equipment to 50% of a circuit when shared with lighting or other equipment not fastened in place.

So if it's fastened in place, which would likely place it on a designated kitchen circuit, a shared kitchen circuit would have to be 20A, so a microwave would not be able to exceed 1200W without requiring a dedicated circuit.

And you're correct about the spirited debates of what is fastened in place equipment. To me it seems the code must be trying to address some edge case, because I see very little difference between a microwave sitting on the counter vs one mounted over the stove.

 

@soundman98

Under cabinet lighting on the disposal circuit...I'd never thought of that. I think that's my solution. Cabinets and back splash are coming out so it'll be super easy. Thanks.

 

@Delta09