Hi, Guys.
Texas_Ranger: It's actually 'country wiring', not ghetto. The zoning out here is agricultural.
I believe I've isolated the electrical problems, including the 2 circuits in the basement sharing a common neutral. I did make sure to have those 2 circuits (even if they're seldom used) on different phases when I moved the household circuits to a 100A subpanel. I left the baseboard heat, air conditioning, dryer, stove, pump, and pool on the old panel.
Trumpy: Here's some more pics.
<img src="http://wiseowlnetworks.us/UtilityRoom1.jpg" alt="Utility Room">
<img src="http://wiseowlnetworks.us/UtilityRoom2.jpg" alt="Utility Room">
<img src="http://wiseowlnetworks.us/Old_Square-D_Panel.jpg" alt="Utility Room">
The first two show the panel and the surrounding area, which is crowded with water tank, water softener and 80 gallon water heater. The short container holds 240 pounds of salt pellets for the water softener so it's a pain to move around. The third shows the panel shortly after I moved in.
Most of this floor is below grade, and on the other side of the wall (behind the plumbing equipment) is a bathroom and laundry room. The previous owners vented the dryer indoors, so I believe the combination of high humidity from the dryer and salt air caused the rust on the panel because there's no rust inside the panel. You can also see the discoloration on some of the plumbing.
I'm a network installer, so I wasn't too pleased at seeing phone lines running parallel to the panel. The phone and electric lines were even sharing the same holes running through the floor joists overhead. The telephone NIC was originally "mounted" just below the outlet and held by 1 screw. I moved all of that to the board you see at knee height and added the ground bus.
James
[edited to fix html]
[This message has been edited by WiseOwl (edited 10-25-2004).]