ex. Houses. Someone buys an older house and they just assume the electrical system in it is "safe" if everything "seems to work".
Nothing could be further than the truth. I've done a lot of electrical work on older places, and even a relatively new place that's only 20 years old does not meet the same electrical code standards a new house would have to. Now some of those code changes in the past 20 years aren't "safety" related, rather they are convenience or usability related and that's fine. The place may be a PITA from a usability POV, but usability issues usually won't kill you, they're an irritant.
Some of the changes however were safety related. There are more locations calling for GFCI(ground fault circuit interruptor) protection now than 20 years ago. The last 5 years have seen the advent of the ACFI (Arc-fault circuit interruptor).
Does it make sense to spend $30,000 on a new SUV only to park it in a garage of a place that might burn down around it, or kill you before you even make it to the garage in the morning? Why do people resist spending a couple of grand to make a house electrically safer for themselves and their children yet they have all sorts of money for new cars, fancy kitchen/bathroom upgrades, tile floors, etc?
Seriously, what's up with this mentality? Lack of a fancy faucet never killed anyone - but lack of a $12 GFCI where one was called for kills people every year.
UPDATE: If you have a panel with breakers that look like the pic below, consider getting rid of it. It is a FPE panel and they are PURE EVIL and prone to starting fires.
9 comments:
Afternoon, PA! In my case it's lack of money, honestly. i had an electrician come over after the 2004 hurricane season was over, didn't say diddly about any of that stuff! Just said my box was the best ever built...oy, thanks for worrying me! where am I going to find the money? I refuse to go into debt, that's the only thing that's saved me so far from sinking up to my eyeballs! Heck my vehicle is 11 yrs. old!
tmw
GFCI recepticals aren't all that difficult to install yourself. The newest generation will refuse to work if they're hooked up backwards.
This was a common problem with homeowner intalled older generation units. They'd continue to provide power, but didn't protect anything when hooked up backwards.
If you can work a screwdriver and know how to turn off the breaker feeding the recepticle in question, you can put in a GFCI.
Thanks for the info! I have a new Lowe's about 5 miles away, so my son and I may take a little trip.
tmw
The one situation where things can get sticky and you might need the help of an electrician is if you find more than three wires going to a recepticle (white/black/green(or bare copper). If you see a red wire in there or some color other than the B/W/G, then the situation is more complicated.
If you open up a box and see wire with crumbling cloth/rubber insulations, you might want an electrician to deal with that too.
The newer plastic insulations that started appearing in the 50's hold up pretty well as long as they weren't allowed to get too hot by overfusing.
The house was built in 1957, paid off, which is what has saved us! After my husband died, I chose to continue homeschooling and eshewed a full time job and public school! So this info can be a huge cost saver. Might get my neighbor to help out, he's the helpful sort, taught my son how to maintain a generator and vehicle. So this might be a project he can assist me in!
Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!
tmw
1957 probably has plastic insulation on the wires, you can tell by taking the cover off the fuse box or panel and seeing what's there.
What you may be missing is a fully grounded system. Are there a lot of 2-prong recepticles in the place?
Type AC cable was common in that era (and still is today). Type AC can give a good ground even though it doesn't carry a dedicated ground wire. Its an armored cable. There are older cables that look like AC, but aren't internally. They are dangerous if left in stock form. The armor on the early stuff can get red hot on a short.
I updated the post with a pic of a Federal Pacific circuit breaker. FPE panels are dangerous. A Google search on "FPE fires" is pretty scary ;->
Nope, the box is Square D Co., with heavy duty breakers. Yes, most of the recepticles are 2 prong. I have a few 3 prong, but I believe they were added later(70's-80's) era, it was for a housewide a/c unit. We have a indoor unit with outside compressor now. Actually, I think about 1/3 of the recepticles are 3 prong.
tmw
SQ-D is a fine panel. Nothing wrong with those, even somewhat older ones are considered top of the line in residential panels
If it was original with the house in the late 50's, it would be a SQ-D "QO" breaker panel (QO line appeared in the mid 50's). The QO line is still sold today and the newer GFCI and AFCI type breakers would fit and work fine in it.
(relatively) recently, SQ-D introduced the "Homeline" line of panels. These are lesser quality than the QO (aluminum guts rather than copper), but the breaker internal trip mechanism are the same as QO breakers. The Homeline physical breaker format itself is different than QO though. It more resembles that of the GE, Cutler Hammer BR's and Murray/Siemens panels.
In any case, your SQ-D panel/breakers have no known failure modes like the FPE, so that's a good thing.
That the new high-tech breakers will work in it is good too.
Hurray! It is a QO, I looked. I guess that's why the electrician said I didn't need a new box! It is original to the house, I pretty much grew up in it. The house itself is concrete block, Fla. hurricanes, you know! Never had any problems that weren't because of the power company(Florida Flicker & Flash), or whatever. All the problems were from the pole( wish they'd go underground) or the line coming into the house! Great, another little project for this cooler weather!
tmw
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