electrical upgrades to our 4-plex

[Edita D.]

Hey guys,
we bought a 4-plex a year ago for a good price, but it needs upgrades. We are installing 5 new water heaters (6500$), and also wanted to upgrade electrical since it's only 30 amps (built in 1950).
Property is located in a low-to-mid-class neighborhood, San Diego, CA. Minimizing expenses while keeping our tenants comfortable and safe is our goal. If we upgrade the electrical (main panel upgrade and 4 fuses in the closet in each unit), we will have to spend A LOT... We want the property to be safe, but in the same time cost-effective for us, owners. Is it worth putting a lot of money into an upgrade, when nobody even has any washers/dryers, or a/c in the units??? We don't have anything that uses a lot of power... So what's the point? We can just "grandfather" it in, right? My fiance claims it will add value when we decide to sell it, but I say before we start spending money, let's see where the neighborhood and economy is going.
People have been living there just fine for the past 60 years. Nobody FORCES us to upgrade electricity, my fiance assumes it's not SAFE. I disagree with him. I think instead of REWIRING the whole complex, we can just have breakers in the units instead of FUSES. I am afraid if we start touching it, we will have to bring everything UP TO CODE, which can be extremely expensive.
Thoughts??? Thanks!!!

[Brian Levredge]

You are right that it can get pretty expensive. Speaking of which why are you paying $1300 per wh and what size/type are they? That seems like a fortune even by CA standards. You should be able to get a 40 gal (which is overkill) installed per unit for half that price.

As far as the electrical goes it would probably be in your best interest to replace any fuses with breakers. Unless the wiring is in bad shape you shouldn't have to replace it though as long as it's the right gauge in the first place. Even on a 30 amp panel you have room for another two breakers in addition to the load already in place. You probably won't be able to go to larger sub panels though. That will more than likely require replace the home runs from each of the sub panels to the main with larger wire to handle the load. That could also mean having to upgrade the main, which could mean electrical engineering depending on how many amps you want to bring in. That can start to get expensive. Depending on how your insurance policy is written, you might be able to save a couple bucks by changing some stuff out.