If you’re like most homeowners here in Dickinson, TX, you probably don’t think too much about your home’s electrical infrastructure unless something goes wrong with it. That’s a testament to the dependability and durability of home electrical wiring. However, the wiring in your home won’t last forever. There are a variety of reasons why you may eventually need to rewire your home. Here are the seven of the most common.
1. Your Wiring Is Over 50 Years Old
On average, you can expect a home’s wiring to last approximately 50 years. After that, the wires running throughout your home could start to deteriorate. That could include the disintegration of the insulation that keeps the wire from shorting out. It may also include breaks in the conductors themselves, which could create reliability issues. It’s also worth pointing out that any kind of deterioration to your home’s electrical wiring also carries the risk of starting a fire. Approximately 10% of all residential fires in the US that occur each year are electrical fires, so this is nothing to take lightly.
2. You Have Aluminum Wiring
Ever since electrification in homes took off in the 1920s, copper has been the material of choice for electrical wiring applications. The reason is that it’s an excellent conductor and is extremely durable. Unfortunately, it is also expensive compared to other metals. Between 1965 and 1973, a copper shortage caused metal prices to skyrocket. As a result, homebuilders went looking for a suitable substitute for new home wiring that didn’t cost as much. They eventually settled on aluminum, which was much cheaper and more readily available.
Unfortunately, aluminum electrical wiring isn’t as durable as copper wiring. Aluminum expands far more than copper when it heats up. Because of that, every time there’s a high electrical demand for aluminum wiring, it expands significantly from the heating that occurs. This can lead to loosened connections and eventually lead to stress-related breakage in the wires. According to experts, aluminum wiring is approximately 55 times more likely to cause a fire in your home.
Fortunately, it’s easy for an electrician to spot aluminum wiring since it looks different than copper wiring and typically has the letters AL printed on its insulation. So, if your home dates back to between 1965 and 1973, it’s a good idea to allow one of our electricians to look at your wiring to see if it’s aluminum. If it is, you should consider rewiring your home right away.
3. You’ve Outgrown the Electrical Capacity of Your Home
Another common reason for rewiring is outgrowing your home’s electrical capacity. Older homes may have as few as 60 amps of incoming electrical service. That was fine when most people only used electricity for things like lighting and small appliances. However, today, we depend on electricity far more and place an ever-greater demand on our home electrical systems. That’s why most new homes now come with 200-amp electrical panels.
If your home needs an electrical panel upgrade, it’s often necessary to rewire it simultaneously. This is because your existing wiring won’t allow you to actually use the upgraded amperage in the parts of your home where you may need it. The only solution is to run new wiring that can handle the demand you plan to place upon it. Plus, since an electrical service upgrade almost always necessitates the installation of a new electrical panel, it’s an ideal time to deal with rewiring your home, too.
4. The Electrical Layout Doesn’t Meet Your Needs
If you find yourself always wishing there were outlets in parts of your home that lack them or depend heavily on extension cords and power strips, you might want to rewire your home. During a home rewiring, our electricians can make changes to your home’s electrical layout to make it more suited to your needs. This may include installing new outlets in rooms that need them or adding additional outlets to augment the ones you already have. For most homeowners, a home rewiring represents the only opportunity they’ll get to restructure their home electrical infrastructure in the way that works best for them.
5. You Experience Frequent Breaker Tripping
If nothing about how you use electricity in your home has changed, but you find circuit breakers tripping all the time, you may need to rewire your home. This can sometimes be a sign of a faulty circuit breaker. More often, though, it’s a sign that the wiring in your home has a problem that the breaker keeps responding to. If multiple circuit breakers in your home begin tripping often, you should schedule an inspection to pinpoint the problem. After the inspection, the electrician will likely inform you that the best solution will be to upgrade your home’s wiring to eliminate the problem’s source and restore electrical reliability.
6. You Want to Improve Energy Efficiency
Although copper electrical wiring hasn’t changed much over the years, any new wiring you have installed in your home will offer some advantages over your old wiring. One of those advantages is higher energy efficiency. Newer copper wiring features superior metal alloys that suffer less electrical losses and offer less resistance to the flow of energy. Plus, it features superior insulation, which drives transmission losses down even further. That translates into energy savings, making rewiring your home an excellent way to upgrade the energy efficiency of your home and save money on your energy bills.
7. You Want to Increase the Value of Your Home
Finally, it could become necessary to rewire your home if you wish to increase its resale value and help shorten its time on the market when you do sell. Since electricity is essential to almost every part of modern life, homebuyers look for properties with modernized electrical systems, including recently installed wiring. If you’re planning to sell your home anytime soon, it’s a good idea to have it rewired to make it even more attractive to potential buyers. Plus, new electrical wiring will likely score you a discount on your homeowner’s insurance, lowering your costs while you work on selling your home.
Your Local Home Rewiring Experts
Mackey Services is your go-to electrical services provider in the Dickinson area. Our expert electricians can handle home rewiring jobs, both large and small, with precision. We also offer a comprehensive array of other electrical services, including EV charger installation, generators, surge protection, and repairs. We also offer heating and cooling installation, repair, and maintenance services to fit your needs.
As a Better Business Bureau-accredited business with an A+ rating, we strive to deliver superior workmanship, fair prices, and exemplary customer service on every project. Customer satisfaction is our top priority. Since we opened in 1992, it has been our pleasure to serve many customers throughout the greater Houston area. If you need your home in Dickinson rewired, call our team at Mackey Services today!
