How to tell if my house electrical system is up to code

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Asked by
Geralyn

Is my electrical system in my house up to code

In Wiring

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Dorsey

"A quick check and eventually bring the electrical system to code..."

From time to time you must have an electrician coming to your house for a quick check and eventually bring the electrical system to code . Anyway, if tehre is any problem with your wiring you should notice it by the time you start having problems with electrical devices and light bulbs in your house. Leo Collins

This answer closely relates to:

Q. Old house with old electrical system?
i am contemplating buying a 60 year old house with an old electrical system in it. the inspector said it should be upgraded, and i wanted up-to-code grounded plugs in every room. the one electrician i got (out of 15 or so) to come look at the house said he would just leave it. he said i could plug surge protectors into the old 2 prong sockets and it would protect my expensive tv's, stereos, etc. i am dubious. i was willing to spend $6,000 to $8,000 to bring it up to code. should i leave well enough alone, or is this electrician an idiot?

"Of all knob and tube wiring and bringing the home into compliance with the..."

He is an idiot. What electrician would turn down work? Electricians in your area must have to much work. Go with the rewire job. And be careful talking advise from the untrained and unqualified people on yahoo. Especially the ones pretending to be electricians. Some of the answers you got are outrages and one is dangerous. BX is not an acceptable ground. Good grief people. You can replace your 2 prong receptacles with GFCI receptacles or protect the circuits with GFCI breakers and put in 3 prong receptacles. But you still will not have a ground wire protecting your electronics. GFCI only protects you. There is also the reliability of 60 year old wire. Undisturbed, it may be fine. But take down a light fixture and all the insulation falls off the wires. Been there and done that. I do these re-wire jobs often in old homes. They can be difficult and time consuming, but profitable for me and worthwhile to the home owner. If you need more information, just email me. As for price. In my area these jobs run from $7000 to $14000 with a service upgrade included. The last one I bidded on I lost with a $10300. bid. The winning bid was $7600. That job was for a new 200amp service and replacement of all knob and tube wiring and bringing the home into compliance with the 2005 National Electric Code as well as our state code. With minimal damage to the lathe and plaster. And I know the contractor who got the job, they do top notch work.

This answer closely relates to:

Q. Upgrading electrical and boiler system?
need help! i need to know how much approixmately and any challenges or other useful info. looking at buying old house, almost 100 yrs old. it has the old electrical system with fuses, i would like to have that changed. is the house not up to code if i don't? could i do it myself? also it has a very old, very huge boiler system, i beleive it is natural gas. should i just change it to a new boiler system? nothing fancy. anyone know the cost of that, work involved? could i do that myself legally? thanks to anyone who can help me.

"100 years old you should upgrade the electrical panel at the very least..."

If your house in 100 years old you should upgrade the electrical panel at the very least . Old houses had about 60 amps of power which is minimal by todays standards. You should have at least 100 amp panel or even 200 amps which standard in new houses. Check with your building department for permits etc. The one draw back to upgrading your panel is you might be forced to bring your entire house up to code which means GFCI plugs in the kitchen and bathrooms 3 prong plugs and such. If you do upgrade you will have a much safer house with less risk of blowing a fuse or having a house fire

This answer closely relates to:

Bring electrical up to code

Q. If my electric system of a house i am contracted to buy is out of code will homeowners insurance refuse me?
i seriously need help. i signed a short sale agreement and the electrical is not to code. today the appraisal came in $5000. short without the appraiser knowing about the $2000. needed to bring to code. i am worried i am going to be stuck with a lemon house. i know i will not go to closing now. i have some signed contracts in the bank's favor. if i call my insurance can i get them to not insure me due to the electrical not to code? the bank is waiting on some paperwork i will not supply although they approved me. the low appraisal means nothing in this loan as i am putting down a substantial downpayment. i do have an attorney and sent him my questions this evening. can the bank sue me? this is a short sale and they approved it on 4/30. i feel exploited on all accounts and know in my heart i am not showing for closing. this house is "as is". i don't want it at all now.

"The low appraisal means the house is not worth what you offered..."

The low appraisal means the house is not worth what you offered. It doesn't matter how much you are putting down. The house may be offered "as is" but it doesn't mean you have to buy it as is. Do you hae a real estate agent? He should be helping you.

Q. Ungrounded electrical system?
i have been tasked with adding exhaust fans to two different circuits in a house with an ungrounded (mid 1930's) electrical "system".as a licensed electrician, i know that i would be better off (one hell of a lot safer) if i where run a whole new (grounded) circuit for these two fans. i have not been able to find anything in 2008 nec that states anything against doing what i have been tasked to do (install fans).does anybody know of any code against this?

"Allows that a properly grounded ac system does provide an adequate ground..."

I expect that you are refering to a bathroom fan and a kitchen exhaust fan in this house for a total less than 1 amp. Your customer may well question why you are spending their time looking in the NEC for a reason not to do their work. Admittedly, I live in one area of the country that has not fully adapted the NEC. I notice electricians from other areas of the country quite deathly surprised at our "ungrounded" systems. The local law and customary practice (as well as the NEC) allows that a properly grounded AC system does provide an adequate ground. The problem comes when electricians comfortable with NM-B systems and untrained with our AC systems don't know the proper proceedures to work with our equipment. By all means provide an additional ground especially considering existing conditions, what you are comfortable with and to meet local codes, but I suspect that you have a Bx cabled system and the cable is providing the ground. If you need the work I am sure you can easily build up the danger to rewire the entire house and why not new service as well while you are about putting in these two fans. The mid 1930's is absurdly late for knob and tube wiring.

This answer closely relates to:

Home insurance wiring system with fuses

Q. Why is electrical bonding necessary?
in a house wiring system, it would seem shorting hot to earth ground (not bonded) should cause the same amount of current to flow as if hot is shorted back to the service neutral via bonding. however, the nec code is clear that the ground bus must be bonded to the incoming neutral, and i have seen experiments on the web showing this is true. why isn't grounding without bonding sufficient? i'm not asking why grounding is needed. that makes lots of sense. i don't know why bonding (connecting the grounding bus to the incoming neutral of the power company) is needed. basically, why must the grounding wire have a path back to the power company instead of just to earth.

"Permanent joining of a metallic from any electrical conductive path that will ensure electrical..."

The union guy has the best answer here. He knows his theory. Bonding as you call it is the permanent joining of a metallic from any electrical conductive path that will ensure electrical continuity and large enough to safely carry the current yo ground or earth. In your service in your home (if in the US) you have 2 hot wires that carry 120 volts each split between them at the transformer is a neutral yes it is grounded and this is a grounded conductor. When you plug in a 120 volt device the current flows through from the transformer through your breaker through the device and back through the neutral bar back to the transformer to complete the circuit. That is why the neutral is called a grounded conductor it does carry current. When you plug up a 240 volt appliance it merely uses the 2 hot wires and they go back and forth with out a neutral and complete the path. The ground is there in case of a short in your 120 volt side to anything that it can come in contact with and if it is grounded to earth it will short out and you do not get a shock or worse. Even though the neutral is grounded at the transformer it has to be grounded in your panel as well to ensure the shortest path to ground. If your home was not grounded and you took a hit from lightning it would go through your home before it made it back to the transformer. The bulls eye is the ground bar in your home. If you can you always have as many grounds as you can water pipes Ground rods and other ways to ensure that the path of any conductivity is going back to earth which has a zero potential to save lives and equipment.

Q. Plumbing code question: can i use pvc electrical conduit for a plumbing vent?
wait, don't shoot from the hip... i know what material is made for what but here's my proposal. i'm building a new house. the dwv system is all schedule 40 pvc (white). i have a charcoal gray metal roof and would rather not have the vent stack sticking out like a sore thumb, so is there any problem with making the last couple feet (from attic, through roof & 12" high from there) the gray electrical pvc conduit? it's about the same color as the roof material. i haven't seen any plumbing pvc in gray around here but the vent coming off my new amana furnace is gray pvc, unmarked so i don't know what it's rated for. i know it's all up th the plumbing inspector but before i look like a fool to him i thought i'd toss it out here. thanks in advance, rick

i wouldnt think so.but codes here differ than that of where you live.dont worry about looking foolish to the inspector,he gets alot of this sort of thing from homeowners.besides what do you care what someone thinks that you will never see again.on the other hand you could wait till he has given the okclimb in the attic cut off the last 2 feet and add a coupling and the 2 feet of grey.it just pushes through the rubber seal with little to moderate resistance.if you have a tuff time of it (i doubt you will) use vasaline lol it will not affect the rubber

Q. Changing an old boiler and updating fuse electical panel?
upgrading electrical and boiler system? need help! i need to know how much approixmately and any challenges or other useful info. looking at buying old house, almost 100 yrs old. it has the old electrical system with fuses, i would like to have that changed. is the house not up to code if i don't? could i do it myself? also it has a very old, very huge boiler system, i beleive it is natural gas. should i just change it to a new boiler system? nothing fancy. anyone know the cost of that, work involved? could i do that myself legally? thanks to anyone who can help me.

Sounds as if you are in the UK. If so, you cannot touch the gas - not even plug the oven into the gas supply - without being Corgi registered. It is illegal. Your electrics should be replaced. If you don't know a small local trusted firm, ask your friends and colleagues. Then ask the contractor for names and addresses of people he has done work for. It is a case of priorities - and budget. But personally I would sooner have plenty of power points in every room than an expensive carpet in the lounge. That can come later. If you get the carpet first, it will have to be moved when you update your electricity. Remember, once the rewiring is being done, then power points work out at a couple of quid each. So get as many as you can, on as many walls in each room as you can afford. And get some placed at waist height for the vacuum cleaner. No excuse to bend down to the skirting board nowadays. And your old boiler could be copper. Think of the scrap value when you budget. Good luck.

Q. Nec code question- dream home?
would it be safe(within the national fire prevention agency's national electrical code) to run every circuit (except a few for some appliances and security/fire alarms) in my house going from my main panel to an enclosure,(not sure on size, probably a little bigger than the traffic control ones) in order for plc switching? what i am doing is basically making a home automation system from scratch. have been working in the electrical field years, specializing in control ckts and fire alarm systems. what i want to do is run a ton of low voltage sensors of all kinds in and around the perimeter of my house. my goal is to have little or no switches in the dream home i am planning. if this is within code, how would i go about getting a permit for this? (i already have wiring diagrams and have estimated the cost of material to be over $50,0000) i am very serious about this and will follow all codes related to house wiring

"This elaborate control panel and have an electrical inspector want to see a ul..."

Depends, you may end up building this elaborate control panel and have an electrical inspector want to see a UL listing for it, don't laugh, happens here in Minnesota all the time, but you can save yourself a lot of problems and buy the stuff all ready made from the factory with UL listing, just put your PLC in an approved enclosure and use whatever output cards you need to control the equipment you buy, you may even be able to do what you want without the PLC, we put in a bunch of GE stuff like that a couple years ago, the controller that came with it would do about anything you wanted to do, and cheaper than putting all of it together yourself.

Q. Does anyone know about state codes for circuit breaker boxes electrical systems for section 8 approved housing
jkp/southeast mn/approved by inspector "kristine" probably from wabasha/winona mn office. inspection sticker yellow in color last inspection date 1997. is this legal do you think? how could that pass inspection?? plus air conditioner is not working properly....i have had it on high cool for last 36 hours with all doors closed except master bedroom door, and temperature is at 74 degrees at 12:22am. checked air flow, and air is only flowing out of three quarters of the vents and i personally cleaned the filters myself before installing them again, personally. which i know per lease all maintenance is to be conducted by designated person (who happens to be related and a really nice guy) but when reported ac unit in 106 leaking all over floor to mgr, told "oh don't worry about that, just stick a pail or something under the drip",started raining hard, leak worse, called wrc and told her i discovered what the problem was, filter was almost inch thick with dust,i cleaned,reinstalled106ok now

"After i posted i noticed that you thought there was an electrical problem..."

The codes are the same for section 8 as for anyone. A/c systems need to be balanced (designed right in the first place) and clean(filters). Maintenance will not fix a poor design. Leaks of course do not indicate a poor design but inadequate maintenance. Too many conflicting problems here to diagnose without adequate info. By the way, most rentals do not require maintenance within the units, such as filter cleaning, to be part of staff work. The renter needs to clean the filter once a year. (Someone does anyway.) It is not surprising that the filter is clogged. My ex and I made a lot of money (for us anyway $100 per hour) going to fix gas furnaces for rich people who didn't know they ahd to clean their filters once a year! It was great! They thought we were geniuses for nothing. Of course we made a big show after cleaning the filter about adjusting this and that ad giving them a little lesson how to program their HVAC controllers.... OK end of story. The inspector only inspected the system design....maintenance is up to you or the property manager EDIT: After I posted I noticed that you thought there was an ELECTRICAL problem??? Why? You cleaned the filter and it worked!!!

Q. What's your opinion about this engineering program curriculum?
i want to work on renewable energy,do you think this program is enought? also which is the focus of this career. semester 1 subject name hrs/wk * engineering physics and chemistry * building systems: practical overview * energy and resource conservation overview * house as a system * college english introduction to engineering and built environment introduction to computers and applications * mathematics semester 2 subject name hrs/wk heating air conditioning * heating practices * air conditioning and refrigeration practices * cad fundamentals * electricity fundamentals general education option co-op professional theory * co-op work term semester 3 subject name hrs/wk * air handling * electrical * building systems cad * codes and regulations * energy technologies plumbing and pipe systems general education option co-op professional practice semester 4 subject name hrs/wk renewable energy technologies i * controls * water treatment * energy efficiency - large buildings * site maintenance and building safety * effective technical writing xxxxxx general education option semester 5 subject name hrs/wk * renewable energy technologies ii * fire protection systems and procedures * intelligent and integrated buildings * commercial contracts * thermodynamics * energy efficiency design * project management semester 6 subject name hrs/wk strategic financial planning - facilities environmental management systems standards * energy management applications * intelligent building systems * building systems engineering design project * field placement

This is not my area but it seems fine to me./

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