PART 1: THE AGE OF YOUR HOME MATTERS
If you’re checking out this blog post, you most-likely own a home or are considering purchasing one. There are so many variables to consider while navigating the home purchasing process so we wanted to create our list of the Top 5 items that every homeowner should know regarding their home’s electrical systems. When we purchase a home, there is a lot of focus on visible systems, such as the roof, the foundation, whether it contains lead paint or asbestos, etc. But most of us don’t know a whole lot about what’s going on inside the walls and ceilings with our electrical wiring. Usually, a home inspector takes a cosmetic look at the property and gives a report based on what’s visible. Unfortunately, most of your home’s electrical components exist behind layers of drywall or plaster and we have to just trust that everything is in working order. After all, when you flip a switch and the lights come on, we assume that all is well. What else could there be to consider? It turns out, there’s a lot to consider, so we wanted to begin the process of describing some of these systems so that our clients will have a better understanding of their home’s electrical systems so that they can better care for their home’s electrical health and, in turn, their family’s safety.
We’re always surprised at how little the general public actually understands about the electrical systems in their homes. But, when we examine that, it’s obvious… why would they know? You are not a Master Electrician and this is not your vocation. You most-likely lead a very busy life and are focused on a plethora of details on the day to day, so factoring in an education of residential electrical systems is not very feasible or even necessary. That’s what the pros are for. And, to be clear, we’re not sharing this information as an alternative to contacting a qualified electrician to handle your home’s electrical issues. We just happen to believe that an informed client is a client who better appreciates the services we offer and one who understands when it’s necessary to contact a pro. That being said, here are the 5 things we believe it’s important for anyone who owns a home to know about their home’s electrical systems.
The Age Of Your Home Matters
We’ve seen so many advancements in residential electrical systems since electricians started inviting lightning into homes to help us with our chores. Yes, you heard us correctly: the electricity that runs through the conductors inside of your walls and ceilings is the same electricity that discharges between the ground and sky during a lightning storm, it’s just being produced and distributed in a controlled fashion. With that in mind, electricity is inherently dangerous so please, never handle your home’s electrical systems on your own. Always hire a professional, even with basic, mundane electrical projects. The reason we suggest this is that, while residential electrical work isn’t necessarily “rocket science,” it’s the execution (or lack there-of) that gets homeowners in trouble. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve discovered a simple receptacle outlet that was tragically mishandled by the homeowner doing some “simple outlet swaps.” Even if it seems like an easy task, its always best to leave it to the pros.
Before we dive into this topic further, its best if you have a rough understanding of the history of residential electrical wiring. When electricity was first being brought into homes (roughly between the 1880s and 1930s), there weren’t many appliances to power. Back then, we didn’t have the modern conveniences of today, such as washing machines, dryers, coffee makers, microwaves, etc. So, early electrical wiring was intended primarily for electric lighting. This was intended, primarily, to combat the burning of combustible oil in kerosene lamps throughout homes. This is important to understand, especially if you’ve purchased a home in an historic part of town. During that era, standard outlets we’re fairly unheard of and at first were accessed from the existing light socket in the ceiling. Some of the first electrical “outlets” were a “screw-type” outlet that fit into the lighting socket in the ceiling. These would be daisy-chained together as the appliances increased. Eventually, wall outlets were installed and were, more-times-than-not, powered from the central ceiling light location. So, if you home was built between the 1880s and, in many cases, the 1940s and 50s, there’s a good chance that the power that’s feeding the outlets in a given room is coming from the central ceiling light location.
Let’s discuss the evolution of residential electrical wiring starting at the beginning:
A. Knob & Tube Wiring (1880s-1930s/40s)
Since we operate out of beautiful, historic Frederick, Maryland, we see this type of wiring technology all the time. We’ve even written an entire blog post dedicated to this era of wiring. You can read more about it here:
https://www.lumenbrotherselectric.com/blog/glu65cwacd8q4qqy3cfida9h4eu5gt
But here’s the basic idea: Knob and Tube wiring is named after the 2 porcelain devices that were used to support and suspend the conductors as they ran throughout your walls and ceilings. Porcelain tubes were install inside of holes that were pierced through joists and studs to protect the independent conductors from damage and porcelain “knobs” were used to suspend the independent conductors are they ran vertically and horizontally along your home’s joists and studs. Unlike modern electrical cables that feature 2 “current-carrying” conductors and a “branch circuit grounding conductor” inside of a single color-coded sheathing, knob & tube wiring featured independent conductors, not always together, not protected by an exterior sheathing and without an independent grounding conductor. As you can imagine, this outdated technology, though ground-breaking at the time, is not nearly as safe as modern cables.
While the National Electrical Code still allows provisions for knob & tube wiring in homes, there are 2 major issues with it that will deter most electrical contractors from even touching knob & tube wiring. The first is that the conductors are so old, that in many cases, especially in attics or other places where the conductors are exposed to extreme heat and cold, the protective insulation surrounding the copper conductor is very brittle and in many cases has worn away entirely, leaving long lengths of exposed, bare, LIVE conductors, still energized and powering your modern appliances. This is obviously a huge fire hazard. If you find that your home has knob & tube wiring, it’s best to have a trained professional take a detailed look at it and provide you with remediation options. The other major issue with knob & tune wiring in homes is that, when knob & tube technology was installed in homes, houses themselves were designed differently, and therefore, the wiring technology was designed for the home’s of the time. The biggest example of this is the way we currently insulate our homes.
Back when knob & tube was a new technology, homes did not have modern heaters and air conditioners. Back then, homes were designed to “breath.” This means no insulation inside the walls (if the walls even had framing in them) and no insulation in the attic and basement. Knob & Tube wiring is designed for “Open Air Installation.” This means, it does not possess a heat rating for being smothered in modern insulation. In other words, it was not tested in scenarios where it was blanketed by insulation and can therefore be a fire hazard in such a situation. Nowadays, even in historic homes, insulation is the key to interior comfort. We tend to make our modern homes”air-tight” and control the temperature with our modern heating and cooling systems. If your home still has knob & tube wiring, but also has modern insulation, there is a genuinely higher risk of fire in your home.
It’s also important to note that wiring practices during this era were drastically different than they are now. What does that mean and why is it relevant to your historic home? There are some wiring methods that we uncover while diagnosing historic wiring and some of them have been outlawed by the National Electrical Code due to the unsafe scenarios they create. For example, there is a style of wiring 3-way switches called the Carter Method. A 3-way switch controls one set of lights with 2 switches. You’ll typically see these at separate entryways or at the top and bottom of staircases. The Carter Method, which was outlawed by the NEC in 1923, is a way of wiring 3-way switches using 1 less conductor. The reason this method of wiring presents danger is that sometimes, when the light is “off,” both connections at the light socket are “hot.” This is dangerous because a home-owner may want to change out a light fixture or even just a bulb and they’ll make the mistake of thinking that there is no power at the socket because the light isn’t on, when in reality, the entire socket is hot and waiting for a “path to ground.” This is just one of the many dangers presented by outdated wiring systems.
For houses wired during this era that still have power flowing through these historic conductors, we always recommend remediation. The downside to this recommendation is that remediation (or re-wiring) is a cumbersome, costly endeavor. Anyone who has purchased an historic home, who has been told by their inspector that the home doesn’t have “active knob and tune wiring” can attest to the frustration of hiring an electrician to replace a light fixture or an outlet, only to be told that most of their historic home is, in fact, still powered by this antique wiring technology. Unfortunately for us, we are always the bearers of this bad news. A complete remediation can cost anywhere between $10,000 - $70,000 depending on the size of the property and the extent of the wiring that needs to be replaced. Sometimes, the cost can be higher. This can be quite a shock (no pun intended) for someone who just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their home. Also, because the remediation process is so cumbersome and due to the fact that lead paint and horse-hair plaster will be filling the air during the process, we always recommend that the homeowners evacuate during the remediation. All-in-all, it’s a hard pill to swallow.
If you are planning to purchase an historic home, we recommend hiring a qualified electrician to take a detailed look at the home before you sign on the dotted line. We tend to find things that the inspector doesn’t find and can give you a realistic idea of what your potential home’s electrical history looks like before you commit. This can provide you with some bargaining chips during the negotiation process and could potentially lead to the seller taking care of this issue before you even purchase the home. We think its a crime that someone who just purchased a home to have to turn around and drop $30k on completely re-wiring the place. Many people who purchase historic homes are saddled with this dangerous situation that they’ve inherited and it’s up to them to choose whether or not they feel safe in their home or whether a remediation is worth the cost.
In our next installment of this blog post, we will discuss the next evolution in home wiring and why it’s important to understand for homeowners. Thanks for reading this post! Feel free to leave any questions you have in the comment section.
B. Residential Wiring Methods from the 1930s through the 1960s
-NOTES
Split Bus Panels - Lighting loads then vs LEDs now in home
BX cable / Rag Wire
From push button to snap switches (discuss mercury switches)
Fuse panels were still en vogue
Discuss Fed Pacific and Zynsco panels and UL listing / now panels are larger to accomidate more circuits
C. Residential Wiring Methods through the 70s, 80s & 90s
-NOTES
GFCI protection / exterior outlets controlled by bathrooms or bathrooms stacked on 1 circuit
aluminum wiring / installing devices not intended for aluminum wires
bulbs went from incandescent to CFL to LED
Romex wire was introduced as well as the branch circuit ground conductor
D. Modern Homes (2000-Present)
NOTES -
We’ve come a long way
Low voltage lighting / Home EV Charging / Solar battery backups / Home lighting automation / GFCI protection improved & AFCI technology was introduced
Home energy monitoring
Downsides to modern home’s (electrically speaking) - Poor craftsmanship and in many cases, non-electricians doing the work.
PART 2: SURGE PROTECTION (WHAT IT IS & WHY IT MATTERS)
An electrical surge is defined as a sudden increase in electrical voltage. This can happen in a number of ways, some of them big and some very small. Lightning strikes are probably the most commonly thought of incidents that can increase the voltage in your home’s electrical systems but more commonly, big electrical surges happen when the power goes out and then comes back on line. This type of surge can shock your home’s electrical appliances and in many cases, completely destroy them, leaving you with major costs to replace expensive modern appliances like ovens, microwaves, TV’s, etc. Modern electronics are very sensitive to surges in voltage and they’re expensive to replace.
What we’re learning more and more is that small surges known as micro-surges are more responsible for the degradation of your home’s sensitive electronics than large surges. What is a micro-surge and how are they caused? Good question! A micro-surge is a small increase in circuit voltage. They are caused when an appliance inside the home comes on. For example, every time the compressor in your refrigerator kicks on, a small surge is created in your home’s electrical system. This small surge from the fridge has a slight affect on your TV or your dishwasher, etc. Overtime, these micro surges can diminish the overall lifespan of your other appliances and electronic equipment.
The National Electrical Code has begun requiring whole-house surge protection in all new builds and in any instance that an existing electrical service (panel and outside electrical equipment") is replaced. This new requirement takes the guess work out of surge protection for owners of new homes and homeowners replacing old electrical systems, but what about the rest of us? How can we ensure that surge protection is in place to ensure our home’s electrical health? New whole-house surge protection devices are available for all existing electrical panel types and Lumen Brothers can help with the installation. It’s a painless procedure that increases the longevity of your home’s sensitive electronics. Reach out via our contact page to request a consultation and check out this video describing our process for whole house surge protection:
PART 3: YOUR ELECTRICAL PANEL (ALSO KNOW AS A FUSE BOX OR BREAKER BOX)
Your home’s electrical panel is the heart of your home’s electrical systems. This is the electrical distribution center for everything that operates electrically within your home so it’s imperative that it remain healthy in order for your home to be as electrically safe as possible. As a homeowner, it can be hard to tell when it’s time to change your home’s electrical panel so we’re providing you with a few indicators in this post to help you identify issues and understand when it’s time to reach out to a professional.
The first big indicator that it’s time to upgrade your electrical service (panel and outside equipment) is age. We typically give electrical panels a life span of 25-35 years, give or take. This can be affected and accelerated by a number of things, such as, moisture getting into the panel, either through exposure to humidity in a damp basement or perhaps the panel has been mounted directly to a cinder block wall that is seeping moisture over time. Some dead-giveaways that moisture is an issue inside your electrical panel are rust and corrosion. Because electrical panels are usually made of steel, you should be able to spot rust around the edges of the panel itself. Usually, a rusty spot will tell you just where water is coming into or making contact with the panel. You can also spot corrosion when you look inside of the panel by checking all of the terminals or contact points where the electrical conductors are making contact with a screw or clamp.
Corrosion is an issue because as a conductor becomes corroded, it loses a portion of its conductibility. This can cause serious resistance in a circuit, which inevitably produces heat in the wire. This can begin to melt the plastic insulated jacked around the wire itself initiating the beginning stages of an electrical fire. We’ve found wires so corroded, due to moisture buildup in damp cellars where electrical panels are located, that the wire insulation had melted back like a lava lamp. In one such instance, the neutral conductor was so corroded that it no longer registered as being connected to the circuit. This is an unhealthy electrical situation.
So, how can I determine the age of my electrical service? The first way is to look for an inspection sticker on the interior of the door of your electrical panel. Inspectors are required to mark their inspections with a date to help hoe owners, future buyers and service electricians understand just how old the equipment is. If you don’t see an inspection sticker listing a date of installation, there are a few rules of thumb that can help you understand roughly how old your system is and when it might be time to replace it. First, take a look at the circuit breakers. Are they simple on/off switch-style breakers or do they have a small button on the front of them that trips the breaker when pushed? These breakers with the small button could be an indicator that your panel is on the newer side. New breakers don’t only protect your home’s branch circuitry from “over current” (more current that the breaker allows) buth they also protect for arc-faults and ground-faults depending on what type of breaker is being used. These “specialty” breakers have been on the market for the better part of 20-plus years now, so it’s not a 100% fool-proof plan for identifying the age of your system, but it’s a good start. Also, does your existing electrical panel have whole-house surge protection? If so, it was more-than-likely installed within the past 20 years, most-likely sooner.
The big takeaway is, if your electrical panel looks old, if it has old-style screw in fuses or is rusted / corroded, it’s time to replace it. Below is a short video describing everything we just added here.
PART 4: AFCI & GFCI PROTECTION (WHEN & WHERE YOU NEED IT & WHY)
We touched on arc-fault & ground-fault protection briefly in the previous section. We’ll go into it in a little more detail here. What is an arc? What is an arc fault? What is a ground fault and why do these matter in regards to your home’s electrical health?
An electrical arc is a discharge of electricity between a conductor and whatever it is attempting to connect to, whether thats a terminal on an outlet, a switch, an electrical breaker, etc. An arc takes place whenever electricity has to “jump” from point A to point B. This jump can be very small, minuscule even but anytime electricity has to jump a tiny gap, heat builds up. Picture a welder, using an electrical arc to weld two pieces of metal together. The heat generated by the electrical arc that takes place between the welder and the piece of metal being welded reaches insane temperatures. The same is true for electrical circuitry in your home, just on a smaller scale. An electrical arc in a residential setting typically occurs when there is a loose connection between a conductor and it’s point of contact. We’ve seen it so many times. You remove an outlet from a wall box only to find that whoever installed it years ago failed to tighten the terminals properly and overtime, the tiny arc that was created melts the wire insulation as well as a portion of the outlet itself. We’ve found some electrical devices severely melted throughout our years of working in homes around Frederick. Electrical arcs are dangerous, they cause fires and they should be taken seriously.
Luckily, we’ve got arc-fault breakers to help us monitor these invisible threats to our home’s electrical health. An arc-fault breaker mounts inside of your electrical panel the same as your other breakers accept these devices have electronic sensors that monitor the electrical waveform for distortion. If they sense the slightest bit of sine wave distortion (an electrical arc) the breaker opens and the threat is lost. When this happens, you’ll need to reach out to your local electrical team so they can troubleshoot the circuit and restore power safely.
The next technological advancement that aids in your home’s electrical safety is ground-fault protection. You may be familiar with this type of protection already because it’s been around for a few decades. You may recognize ground-fault protection by its acronym GFCI (or GFI in layman’s terms). A GFCI or Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor is an electronic device that monitors the difference in potential between the hot (black) and neutral (white) wire of a circuit. If it senses even a tiny amount of voltage differential, it will open the circuit. These devices are life savers in any area of the home where water or moisture is present. Kitchens, bathrooms, outside outlets, these all should have ground fault protection. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the rectangular outlet with the small “reset” button in the middle of its face. This is a GFCI device and it’s designed to keep you from being electrocuted near water.
Modern GFCI protection is more present at the electrical panel, as opposed to local devices. With the advent of newer and “smarter” GFCI breakers, homeowners are able to GFCI-protect all of their required circuitry at the panel itself. This offers simplicity in troubleshooting GFCI faults. With both arc-fault and ground-fault protection in place, your home is on it’s way to being the healthiest place on the block… electrically speaking anyway.
PART 5: SMOKE DETECTORS (WHAT’S REQUIRED AND WHY)
We don’t have a lot to say in regards to smoke detection aside from the fact that its very important to your home’s electrical health. New advancements in smoke detection technology have made residential smoke detectors more safe and sensitive than ever. Newer models come with smart options, such as Google’s Nest model, which can be paired together using bluetooth technology and monitored from your phone. The latest electrical codes call for smoke detectors with a 10-year sealed lithium battery, which takes the guess work out of replacing the old 9-volt batteries and offers home-owners a no-nonsense way to make sure they’re always monitoring their home’s for fires. New code also insists that smoke detectors be located in many places throughout the home. Ideally, 1 smoke detector per floor (smoke / CO2 combination if any gas appliances are in the home) and 1 per living space (this typically means bedrooms but can refer to offices, dens, etc is cetrain cases.
We hope that this post helps you gain a little better understanding of the core electrical systems in your home and how to better monitor them. Your home’s electrical safety is very important. Make sure you reach out and find a local electrical team that you feel you can trust and that takes the time to explain these things to you. Have them check all of these systems routinely and keep your home as up-to-date as possible.
Cheers
-The Lumen Brothers Team