Often, when homeowners call an electrical contractor to fix serious damage caused by faulty wiring, the underlining cause is old and outdated wires. Many American households still rely on wiring installed 30, 40, or even 50 years ago. With time, families end up adding new, modern appliances and smart devices, but they never think to upgrade the home electrical system.
And this is why there are so many power outages, blown fuses, and other unpleasant incidents caused by old electrical wiring. Unfortunately, these incidents can escalate to electrocution or even an electrical fire. Thus, performing electrical updates on your entire home wiring is not a matter of convenience, but of safety.
If you do a Google search, you will find out that home electrical wiring lasts between 50 and 70 years. If the wiring is made of copper, its life expectancy is even longer – around 100 years. However, these numbers are misleading in several ways.
While the core of wiring may be long-lasting, the protective tube can fray, crack, and degrade much faster. Secondly, if you haven’t upgraded the home electrical system within the last 40 years, chances are you still have wiring covered with textile sheathing, which is much more prone to damage and catching fire.
So, how does electrical wiring work? Old wiring is sufficient for a much lower electrical load as homes used to have very few devices and appliances that need a lot of electricity – typically, one TV set, one washing machine, and one fridge. At the present, every family member has a laptop, sometimes there are 2 or 3 TV sets, plus many other smart devices. Thus, the rule of thumb is to upgrade the home electrical system every 30 years.
Notwithstanding the above guidelines, there are clear signs that you need to perform electrical updates in your home. These signs are:
If you notice your lights blinking or dimming, especially when you turn on a large appliance (the air conditioner or the washing machine), then you should consider upgrading electrical wiring as soon as possible. This is a clear sign that the system is overloaded because it was designed for less power use.
This is one of the most frequent issues with older wiring and delaying to upgrade the home electrical system will only make the matters worse. A constantly overloaded system may result in burnt wiring or meltdown of the electrical panel.
Any sounds coming from the wiring, plugs, switches, or appliances are bad news. You may be moments away from an electrical fire. Our advice is to turn off electricity at once and call a licensed electrical contractor. You will definitely be told that you have to perform electrical updates without delay.
Frayed home electrical wiring may heat up until the sheathing is scorched. This is very dangerous for your safety. An electrical fire can start inside the walls and spread outside through plugs and switches.
Just like in the situation presented above, you must turn off the electricity and call a specialist as soon as possible.
If your fuses keep blowing, then you have to upgrade the home electrical system because it is definitely undersized. Modern devices may be energy efficient, but you have so many of them that older electrical wiring cannot meet the power demands.
Last but not least, if you notice any portion of frayed electrical wiring, call an electrician to evaluate your overall system. While it is possible to replace damaged wiring, you should consider complete electrical updates to your home.
Whenever you have problems with the electrical wiring in your home, make sure that you hire a licensed contractor to perform the inspection and repairs or replacement. Electricity is very useful but also very dangerous when handled by untrained and unqualified hands.
A licensed electrician has passed your state’s list of requirements to perform such works at a satisfactory level of safety, competence, and quality. Electrical contractors will also offer you a warranty for the workmanship and the materials used for electrical updates.
McCarrick Electric is a fully licensed electrical contractor. We are a family-owned and operated business, with over 35 years of experience in electrical wiring installation and any other residential and commercial electrical works. We know that safety comes first in our line of work, thus we pay special attention to any electrical wiring work we undertake.
Our offices are in Commerce City, CO, but we are available 24/7 for emergency calls in our extended service area covering:
Always hire licensed specialists to upgrade electrical wiring. Call us now: 720-434-3960!
