How You Can Inspect the Electrical System of a House

Inspecting the electrical system of your home or one you intend to purchase is a very important thing to do. An outdated electrical system or poorly installed electrical wiring can cost you thousands of dollars or even result in a fire and the loss of your home, but there are some simple things that you can look for that will tip you off and send up the red flag.

Let’s start off with the main electrical panel, if it’s an old fuse box instead of circuit breakers you know right off the bat that the electrical system is outdated and will need updated. Even if the electrical panel has circuit breakers there are two manufactures that you should be on the lookout for, they are Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels.

Federal Pacific electrical panels have been known for not working properly and even being a fire risk, there have actually been law suits against the company and they are not manufactured in the United States anymore. Some insurance companies will not even provide new insurance policies to homes with Federal Pacific electrical panels.

The Zinsco panel is another one the should raise a red flag, while it dose not present the same fire risk as the Federal Pacific panel it is an outdated panel and is not manufactured anymore. This will tell you right away that it is an older electrical system and the wiring will most likely not even come close to current electrical codes, and since the Zinsco panel is not manufactured anymore if you need to replace a circuit breaker or add a new one it will cost you around five times as much for a reconditioned circuit breaker for the panel than it would for a circuit breaker for a newer electrical panel.

The next thing to do is to inspect the visible wiring; most of this will be in the basement or attic. This is very simple if it looks old it is old. If the smaller electrical wiring is a darker color it is old wire, if most of it is white, black or gray than it’s not too old. The new cable is color coded and is white for 14g wire, yellow for 12g wire, orange for 10g wire and black or gray for larger sizes. In most cases upon visual inspection you will be able to tell of the house has newer wire or old wire.

While you are inspecting the wiring in the visible areas also look at any electrical junction boxes you may be able to see. If the junction boxes are metal the wires should have a connector at the point at which they enter the box and not brought in through an open hole. If they are plastic they will not have a connector and be an indicator of newer electrical work. Each electrical junction box should also have a cover on the box with no wires sticking out. This can be an indicator of the quality of the past electrical work done in the house.

These tips are not a replacement for a qualified home inspection, but will make you better informed as you shop for your new home purchase or inspect your homes existing electrical system.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 5:45 am and is filed under Kitchen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.