As with any feature of an older home, an electrical system’s components are likely to wear out over time. As components start to fail, you’ll begin to experience various issues. It’s important to address electrical issues when you notice that there’s a problem so that you can prevent further damage from happening. If you currently live in an older home, let us share with you some of the most common electrical issues you’re likely to face in the near future.

Outdated Wiring

One of the most common problems that you’re going to experience with an older home is outdated wiring. Most household wiring put in before the 1980s is rated to last anywhere between 50 and 70 years. Some common types of older wiring include knob and tube, cloth-insulated, and aluminum. As these wiring materials start to get up there in age, they tend to deteriorate and lead to an increased risk of a fire hazard. If any of your wiring is currently outdated or deteriorating, it’s necessary to get an upgrade in a timely fashion to enhance the overall safety of your home.

Not Enough Outlets

Another very common problem that people have with older homes is that there aren’t enough electrical outlets to supply their power demands. If you think about it, the average household used fewer appliances just a couple of decades ago. It was pretty standard to only have one or two electrical outlets in each room of the home. This simply isn’t enough to meet our modern electrical demands. Many homeowners will find that they need to call an electrician to have more outlets installed.

Low Amperage

Another concern when it comes to wiring in an older home is not having enough amperage. Today, homes are produced with between 200 and 250 amps of power going to them. This provides enough power for all of our modern appliances and electronics. Unfortunately, 200-amp power didn’t become standard until the 1980s. Homes built prior to this decade typically only had between 60 and 100 amps of power going to them. If you notice that your lights are constantly flickering or your circuit breakers are tripping, then you likely could benefit from upgrading the amperage going to your home.

Outdated Electrical Panel

As technology has grown, so has the amperage needs for different appliances. Many older homes simply don’t have the necessary breakers to handle the amperage demand of our modern appliances. For this reason, you may find it necessary to upgrade your electrical panel. This will allow your electrician to include a variety of different breaker sizes to accommodate all of your present needs.

No Grounding

All modern electrical systems have a ground wire that’s responsible for grounding excess energy back into the soil. Unfortunately, grounding wasn’t a practice implemented in the construction industry until the mid-1970s. You can typically tell that your home doesn’t have a ground wire if you only have two-prong outlets. Two-prong outlets only supply space for a hot and a neutral wire.

Modern three-prong outlets supply both the neutral and the hot wires alongside the ground wire. Grounding is very important to help prevent your risk of experiencing electrocution. If your home doesn’t have proper grounding, you should seriously consider having it rewired to enhance the safety of yourself and your family.

No GFCI Outlets

A GFCI outlet is a special type of outlet that is recommended to be placed in all the wet rooms of your home. These include your laundry room, kitchen, bathroom, and even the exterior of your residence. This type of outlet is specifically designed to react quickly to help prevent electrocution in the event of an electrical overload. You can easily distinguish these outlets from others because they have both a test and a reset button built into the outlet. If your home is lacking GFCI outlets in its wet rooms or on its exterior, it’s time to call an electrician to get an upgrade.

Uncovered Junction Boxes

To help save money, it was fairly common for homeowners in the 1900s to do their own electrical wiring and updating. Unfortunately, this led to some unsafe scenarios that modern homeowners are still dealing with. One of the most common you’ll find is an uncovered junction box. Anywhere that new power was run from an existing power wire, a junction box is installed.

Typically, this is a metal box that houses all of the wiring connections to protect them from issues like moisture. Unfortunately, without a cover, these junction boxes can be exposed to those issues. Plus, any of the exposed bare wiring can be a potential fire hazard or electrocution issue for you and your family. It’s important to put a cover on every junction box in your home and never drywall over the box. It must be easy to access.

Flickering Lights When It’s Windy Outside

On the exterior of your home, attached to one of its sides, is going to be a weatherhead. This is the name given to the area where the power line meets your house. Weatherheads tend to have a life expectancy of around 60 to 70 years. However, over time, you may experience frayed wires inside the weatherhead. When it gets particularly windy outdoors, these wires can short out and cause flickering of your lights. It’s important to have this issue remedied by an electrician sooner rather than later, as electrical arcing can occur and start a fire.

Aluminum Wiring

All modern wiring is made of copper due to its long life span and durability. Unfortunately, this wasn’t always the case. In the 1960s and ’70s, aluminum became a cheap replacement for copper in residential electrical wiring applications. Over time, aluminum has shown to be more susceptible to corrosion, especially when it comes into contact with newer copper wiring. This corrosion tends to result in a loosening of the connection, which can lead to arcing and potential electrical fires. If you have aluminum wiring in your older home, it’s best to have it upgraded to newer copper wire.

Loose Outlets

Normally, when you plug a device into one of your electrical outlets, the outlet will hold the plug in place. However, as your electrical outlet starts to wear out, the contacts inside it will start loosening up. This will allow items that you plug into the outlet to easily slip back out.

Apart from being very frustrating to deal with, exposed prongs that are still attached to the outlet’s internal contacts can be highly dangerous to touch. Furthermore, they can potentially lead to electrical arcing, which can cause a fire in your home. Most electrical outlets are rated to last anywhere between 15 and 20 years.

Reliable Electrical Repair Service

Mackey Services offers reliable electrical repair service for the entire Houston, TX area. We can also assist with all your air conditioning, heating, generator, landscape, and other electrical needs. Call our office today to book an appointment with one of our highly knowledgeable electricians, technicians, or other professionals.

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