How To Update Electrical Wiring In Old House

Old Electrical System & Wiring Inspection & Repair
Electrical Service, Panel, Devices, Grounding, Knob & Tube, & Wiring in Older buildings; proper handling of abandoned electric wires.

• POST a QUESTION or Comment about erstwhile house wiring, knob & tube, one-time fuse panels, onetime house wiring condition & safety

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Inspecting & repairing quondam house or old edifice electrical wiring.

Here we list common one-time building electrical wiring arrangement safety concerns and nosotros illustrate types of old electrical wires and devices. We draw various old wiring safety hazards, code violations, and generally bad practices, some of which can be lethal such as leaving bare, cut-off only electrically-live wire ends in a building.

This article series answers basic questions about assessing and repairing the electric service, capacity, wiring type, status, and condom in older homes. This website provides information about a variety of electrical hazards in buildings, with articles focused on the inspection, detection, and reporting of electrical hazards and on proper electrical repair methods for unsafe electrical weather condition.

We also provide an ARTICLE Index for this topic, or you can attempt the folio elevation or lesser SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need.

Electric Wiring Safety Concerns in Older Homes

Older homes or other buildings often have inadequate, obsolete, damaged, modified, extended, or otherwise unsafe electrical system components including service entry wiring, electrical panels, overcurrent protection, and electric devices such as switches, light fixtures, electrical receptacles.

Older buildings likewise often take electrical receptacles and fixtures that are ungrounded, and many local codes practice not require that they be rewired to provide electrical grounding.

Nonetheless, grounding is worth adding to your system considering it adds protection confronting electrical shock.

Article Contents

• Former HOUSE ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
  • BULB & LAMP TYPES GUIDE - home
  • GROUNDING, Onetime Firm Electrical
  • VOLTAGE AVAILABLE in OLDER HOMES
  • AMPACITY Available in OLDER HOMES
  • KNOB and TUBE WIRING, Old Business firm
  • NUMBER of CIRCUITS in OLD BUILDINGS
  • Electrical SHORT CIRCUITS
  • POLARIZED PLUGS, RECEPTACLES, LIGHTS
  • One-time ELECTRICAL BOX TYPES
  • Erstwhile Electrical WIRING TYPES
  • SOLID PIPE EDISON DC CABLE HISTORY

Click to overstate whatever image]

Absenteeism of good electrical grounding at older homes

The building electrical grounding arrangement provides a third path for electricity to travel along, so if at that place is a leak of any sort, it will period into the earth rather than into the body of a person who touches a lacking fixture, apparatus, or tool.

A edifice or domicile electrical system is grounded with a grounding rod driven at to the lowest degree viii anxiety into the basis exterior the house or by connecting to a cold water pipe.

Each individual branch circuit must be grounded besides, either with a dissever wire that leads to the neutral bar of the service panel or with metal sheathing that runs without a break from each outlet to the panel.

(In theory, electrical outlets could be grounded individually, just this is impractical.)

Readers of this article should also

see ELECTRICAL DEFINITIONS.

Do Older Homes Have Proper & Safety Electric Footing Wiring?

Oftentimes an older building has poor or no working local electrical ground, relying instead on the incoming neutral wire from the electrical service.

Or the building'southward main electric ground may have relied on connection to a metal water pipe connected to a well;

we've found building footing wires continued to a metal water pipe which used to run out of the edifice and into earth (possibly a pretty effective ground) but where the metallic piping exiting the building had been replaced with a newer plastic h2o line between the well and the building. In other words the local ground was completely ineffective.

Modern electrical grounding at residential properties requires utilise of ane or more grounding electrodes connected by an un-spliced wire between the electrode and the ground and neutral bus in the main electrical panel.

Bare aluminum electrical ground wires are sometimes found to take corroded entirely through where the wire touched a damp foundation wall. We also notice that the basis wire betwixt the electrical panel and a edifice water pipage or grounding electrode has become separated, loose, spliced, or lost entirely, as shown in our photo.

Ungrounded, united nations polarized electrical circuits in older homes

If your outlets have two slots that are the same size, and then they are neither polarized nor grounded.  This leaves you with no protection confronting shocks from defective fixtures or appliances using that outlet.  At the very least, you need to install polarized outlets.

You lot cannot and should non install grounded electrical outlets on circuits where no ground path is actually present (such as knob and tube wiring). To provide a grounded outlet where no ground is present is dangerous.

Some locations in your house- specially where the outlet and/or appliances may get wet- require footing-fault circuit-interrupter (GFCI) receptacles.  Older, ungrounded circuits ordinarily are protected past polarization, which is less effective than grounding but better than nothing. Grounded and polarized receptacles work merely if they are wired correctly.

An older home may have electrical service that is inadequate or even unsafe.  Information technology can be confusing, as well.  If you are unsure about your dwelling's wiring, have a professional check it out.

See Electrical GROUNDING in OLDER HOMES for details about this topic

Also see ELECTRICAL OUTLET, HOW TO Add & WIRE where we discuss adding or updating electrical receptacles older homes that have no grounding conductor on receptacle circuits

Come across Electric GROUND SYSTEM INSPECTION for details about electrical wiring of receptacles (outlets or "wall plugs") and how to audit the electrical grounding system at a edifice.

Voltage Available at Older Homes

Some older homes have merely 120-volt electrical service. The electric cablevision bringing electricity to the edifice provides two wires - one live or "hot" (rather than two) and a neutral entering the house.

This means you will not be able to have whatever 240-volt circuits or large appliances.

Our photo shows a unmarried hot wire and a unmarried neutral wire which is grounded past the utility company somewhere upstream from this home.

Run into DEFINITIONS of ELECTRICAL TERMS if you're non sure about the definitions of volts.

See AMPS VOLTS Conclusion for a detailed procedure on determining the whether your edifice is served by 120V or 240V.

Amperage Available at Older Homes

Modern electrical service provides at least 100 amps of power, which is enough to power, a medium-size business firm with boilerplate number of appliances.  A business firm built in the 1950s or before may only have 30-amp service (the excursion box volition take but two fuses) or lx-amp service (iv fuses - run across our photo).  With so few circuits, the number of appliances you can run will exist limited.

Even if a building has had additional electrical circuits installed, thus improving the distribution of electric power in the home, if the main electrical panel has not been up-graded it is possible that it is as well small for the current usage in the edifice.

If your edifice has been wired correctly, the circuit breakers or fuses should protect the building from a burn due to overloaded circuits, and what will remain is an inconvenience: having to replace fuses or re-set circuit breakers.

If the edifice wiring is incorrect, damaged, or obsolete, the combination of those atmospheric condition with insufficient incoming building amperage may increase the risk of fire.

See DEFINITIONS of Electric TERMS if you're non sure about the definitions of Amps, Watts, or similar electric terms.

Encounter AMPS VOLTS Decision for a detailed procedure on determining the ampacity bachelor at a building.

Some Potential Electrical Issues in Older Home

Here are a few things to consider when inspecting the electrical system in an older dwelling house.

Alert: this list of electric wiring defects and condom concerns in older homes is incomplete. Contact Us to advise corrections, changes, or to add additional items.

Knob-and-tube wiring in older homes

Knob and tube electrical of wiring has been installed in homes from the 1920s correct upwards into the 1970's in some jurisdictions in Northward America and it is still used in new electrical installations in some other countries including Nihon.

Knob and tube electrical wiring may be functional in a domicile and it was in its original concept a safe wiring method, separating the two conductors in air (see our photograph at left) and using durable ceramic insulating knobs and tubes to mount the wire.

Knob and tube electric wiring may not need to be replaced, only it certainly deserves careful inspection and peradventure replacement or repair, considering knob and tube systems lack an electrical basis (less rubber), may have damaged insulation (less prophylactic), or may have been improperly modified or extended (unsafe).

Watch out: for improperly abased knob and tube electrical wiring, knob and tube circuits that have been extended to include new circuits and devices, damaged knob and tube wire and wire insulation, knob and tube wire that has been insulated-over or around, changing its estrus rating and possibly creating a burn down hazard, and other Chiliad&T damage or defects that make the wiring system dangerous.

Above: a knob and tube wiring circuit has been run to an electrical box where information technology is used to extend to additional circuits in the edifice: not permitted. And so there's the DIY wiring, missing box cover, overcrowded electrical box, unprotected knob and tube conductor run through the electrical box opening, damaged wiring conductors, exposed bare wires at splices, possible evidence of wire overheating, and more than. [Click to enlarge any paradigm]

Please see KNOB & TUBE WIRING for a detailed discussion of the identification, inspection, and repair of this electrical wiring system.

Improperly-Abandoned Electrical Circuits

Comment: NH FireBear comments on improperly-abandoned electrical wiring: all of a sudden there was a absurd flash of blueish and a big Bang!

I recently inspected a facility having exposed Knob&Tube wires cut off and dangling in the basement and cranium where the BX guys came through and BX cables cut off and dangling (or laying on the floor) where the Romex guys came through.

I have given them a preliminary notice of intent to cite them for "improperly abandoned wiring", where it is unclear that BOTH ends of all conductors are, in fact, dead.

Under the NEC (e.g., 2014), at that place is no detail requirement to properly terminate (either open, shorted or grounded), let solitary remove, conductors permanently disconnected from ability, other than specific requirements for removal of fire warning and communication cables of various kinds (apparently based upon concerned unrelated to electrocution).

[Click to enlarge whatever paradigm] Shown here: cutting-off, abandoned armored cable in a New York home.

This leaves information technology up to each electrician to implement their own practices. Carson Dunlop Associates' book on Principles of Home Inspection: Electrical Systems (2003) states "The best practice is to remove any abandoned wire so at that place is no possibility of leaving a live wire exposed". p.138, section 5.xv.17.

I happen to agree, but at that place has to be a Lawmaking requirement if I want to "go far stick." [Carson Dunlop Assembly is a Toronto dwelling inspection & education company who also provide home inspection report writing tools. The company is a frequent contributor to technical content and illustrations at InspectApedfia.com - Ed.]

There has been a lot of discussion in the trade press virtually whether to snip off conductors (at the last place you lot can accomplish), strip and bail/nut them together or insulate them separately, or to just ignore them, absent-minded a specific reason to be concerned, since they are no longer part of an "electrical installation".

In my view, cut-off electrical wires left in identify in a building are not just "random garbage" in the walls or conduits, but a potential hazard, if not "properly abandoned".

Shown hither: cutting-off wire ends along a basement joist.

Fortunately, here in New Hampshire we have not merely the NEC but also the National Fire Code (NFPA 1).

In jurisdictions nether NFPA 1 (eastward.k., 2000 and later) "Permanent wiring abandoned in place shall exist tagged or otherwise identified at its termination and junction points every bit "Abased in Place" or removed from all attainable areas and insulated from contact with other live electrical wiring or devices."

I may present them with a choice: either remove them (where accessible) or else properly cease them in junction boxes marked with proper tags, rather than leaving exposed conductors dangling around, forcing you to wonder whether the exposed ends are dead or if touching them could make YOU dead.

My favorite story about "it's SUPPOSED to be off" happened in Italy, with an industrial power cord improperly abandoned nether a raised floor in a calculator room, and someone had simply switched it on without request "why is this 100-amp billow off?"

We were pulling new cables for the Amdahl 470 and got a pretty cool flash of blueish and a large bang when the un-terminated cable tips 20 feet away shorted to a support leg of the flooring.

Nosotros went to tiffin and told the customer they would need to pull up EVERY floor tile and verify EVERY cable before we got back... in about 4 hours, thank you very much. - NHFireBear 2016/09/19

Higher up: electric meters powering a pair of knob and tube circuits in an older building. At left in the photograph is an open meter base. Do not presume that this electric wiring or these electric meter connections are "off" or dead and do non touch them.

Please come across KNOB & TUBE WIRING for a detailed word of the identification, inspection, and repair of this electric wiring organization. - Ed.

Reply: field reports of live abandoned wiring in NY: a little voice said "Hey, await a minute".

Dead right, NHFB.

Inspectors & electricians are frequently coming across live old cut and flopping electrical wires.

When edifice owners and occupants exclaim that they recall an electrical wire that'southward been cutting off at both ends is totally harmless I indicate out that over the life of a building as people come and get, we cannot know when somebody volition connect up a wire whose other stop doesn't get where they thought. The risks include embarrassment, shock, fire, and death.

Sometimes it's physically incommunicable to completely remove one-time wires without extensive building demolition to open up walls or ceilings, pull staples, etc.

Where information technology is not possible or considered "too expensive" to completely remove former abased electrical wires, I prefer to strip and splice the bare wire ends together and enclose them in a dedicated "dead" electrical box where no other in-utilise circuits are present, and labelled as "DEAD".

That way that when my grandson Tanner Gilligan or somebody else connects up the other end of these wires decades later, the result volition immediately blow a fuse or breaker, giving a rather stiff inkling that something's incorrect and perhaps telling Tanner, "Hey Grandpa said you should concord upward a minute!"

Abandoned Wires Case 1: live cutting-off SEC ends.

You'd like to know about about touching a sawn-off SEC on an older home during a dwelling house inspection.

The new overhead SEC was in clear view going to a new service driblet from the street . A new SEC cable ran downward the wall to a new meter and thence to a new main distribution panel inside.

Outside at another business firm corner (shown in a higher place) was an old abandoned A-frame electrical meter box. My customer is pointing to the old meter base in the photo. The cable ran out of this box and up the building wall to an end where we could run into that it had been hack-sawn off. More than of the cable sawn-ends were visible within the meter pan.

I stood by the corner pointing to the interior of former obsolete meter box. We could see the shiny ends of the quondam SEC that had been hack-sawn off. I pointed to the cut-off wire saying - here's the onetime, disconnected cablevision that went indoors to the former electrical panel.

Absently as I yammered on my mitt gestured towards the blank copper ends of the sawn-off electrical service entry wiring cable cease. I continued to blather, drowning the client in details that had already driven his wife back to accept tea with the existent estate agent. The bare wire ends had no visible connection to anything relating to the new SEC. It disappeared into the wall - perhaps 15 feet from the new panel.

My fingers moved closer to the attractively-shiny "dead" wire ends.

Happily a little voice whispered in my ear: Wait a minute you stupid idiot. The president said "Trust but Verify".

I checked with my Tic tracer: the "abandoned electrical service wire, blank ends left easy-to-touch, was live.

See TOUCHING Electrical EQUIPMENT for a word of the dumb advice to lick your knuckles before wiping them across an electrical console comprehend door.

Besides see SAFETY for ELECTRICAL INSPECTORS for a more complete treatment of electrical inspection safety procedures for inspectors.

Abandoned Wires Example 2: wire rats in the cranium.

Working on a New York cottage congenital forth Wappingers Creek in the 1920'southward, I saw that nobody had been into the attic crawl space in decades. There was not even an access hatch.

Planning to practise some insulating, structural repairs, and a bit of electrical wiring I cutting an opening through the fiberboard ceiling and set upwardly my ladder to clamber upwardly to audit the attic space.

It was difficult to push button upwards the cutout section of fiberboard - something, not insulation was making information technology heavy. I slid the cutout to one side, exposing a rat'south nest of old armored cable, mostly-coiled-up, and showing both open electric boxes and blank wire ends.

I was most to pull the whole rats nest down onto the flooring below when that lilliputian voice said "Hey, wait a minute!". I didn't have my Tic tracer handy merely I did have a neon tester in my tool belt.

Sure enough several of the blank cut wire ends were live and just waiting for the twenty-four hour period when that niggling vox had laryngitis.

Run across Electrical TOOLS Bones for more about using a neon tester to bank check for live voltage.

Sources of electric shorts and wiring faults in older homes

Look also for loose taped wires, old wire damaged because information technology'south exposed, and multiple wires slipping off a unmarried terminal spiral may seem similar pocket-size problems, but are not.

See ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS, SHORTS for more about brusk circuits, how they happen, how they are corrected.

Insufficient number of electrical circuits in older homes

As modern homes use more than appliances and more electricity than folks did even twenty years ago, if the number of circuits in a dwelling house has not been increased information technology's likely that the home's electrical circuits are overloaded.

Too often in an older domicile we discover that the electric circuits have been "extended" past someone who has no idea about safe electric wiring. People apply lamp cord (Aught cord) or extension cords as permanent circuits, sometimes even routing such wires through walls and ceilings - a fire hazard, and certainly not in compliance with electrical codes.

At an inspection where we establish lamp cord run through a wall to add together wall-mounted lighting, a past continuing existent estate agent later asked the tenant to simply "cut and remove the wiring" - leading to a serious electrical shock event. Information technology would have been a better thought to rent a licensed electrician.

Besides frequently in an older dwelling house, particularly one using a fuse panel, occupants are tempted to simply screw in a higher-amperage fuse to stop fuses from 'blowing". Over-fusing is unsafe: it risks setting the building on fire. Be sure that the amperage rating of your fuses or circuit breakers matches the wiring of each circuit:

• A 15-amp fuse or circuit breaker is what'southward needed on a 15-Amp #14-approximate copper electrical wire.
• A twenty-amp fuse or circuit billow can be used on a twenty-Amp #12-approximate copper electric wire.

For an example of installing an additional electrical receptacle, see Electrical Outlet-how to add.

Obsolete, Unsafe, or Inadequate Electrical Service Size, and Electrical Panels

Question: early 1900'southward electrical panel with circuit breakers

I am trying to discover out the brand of this erstwhile circuit breaker box. The edifice was constructed in 1914 in Huntingdon PA and these announced that erstwhile. Does anyone at that place know this make? - Anonymous by private email, 2016/09/xix

Reply:

I don't recognize the panel brand. With your OK I'll publish these and solicit identification comments from our readers. Readers are invited to utilise the page tiptop or bottom CONTACT link to offering more than information virtually these antique electric panels and their identity.

Also if your electrician removes the panel embrace and you tin send me some sharp photos of the circuit breakers, their details, any labels in the panel, and the panel bus design (that'south the electrical bars to which the breakers connect) I may be able to identify the unit of measurement.

Look closely for labels attached to the circuit breakers themselves and send me a sharp close up even if there are no other markings in the panel.

Spotter out: pulling off the embrace of any electrical console risks electrical daze, injury or worse so don't mess with the box yourself if you're non qualified to do so. I don't want to hear from you from the hospital.

Meet ELECTRIC Panel INSPECTION Safe

Reader follow-up:

This is a panel in an quondam factory that I just inspected for their insurance. I do not dig into panels, but I like to be able to identify the brand at least. This i has me stumped. It is quite erstwhile so I will be recommending they supercede them anyway.

The manufacturing plant is four stories and the electrical seems to be updated in nearly of the building including mains. These panels were on the quaternary floor which is used to warehouse motors. Very little except lighting on these panels.

Anonymous by individual e-mail - 2016/09/20

Moderator answer:

Your photos bear witness two dissimilar electric panels, each with 12 circuits and no principal breaker - currently not an acceptable pattern unless there is a clearly-marked MAIN switch attached or nearby.

Sentry out: there are probably more serious and costly electrical arrangement concerns here than just the 2 electrical panels themselves. Indeed depending on the anticipated use, the electric panels you showed might reveal building electrical service that will be inadequate in ampacity, as would exist, then, the service entry wiring and more than important (in cost) the number and condition of electric circuits in the building.

Each of your panels shows 12 electrical circuits, or a total of 24 circuits if these panels are serving the same building. That number of circuits is likely to be inadequate for the greater demands of a manufacturing plant building.

Scope of electric inspections by home & building inspectors

Being erstwhile myself, I don't assume that on "old" alone shot, nor that an onetime electrical panel is unsafe.

Some old equipment was very well made, using good materials.

A condition of property inspection that includes the building'southward electrical system might produce a dangerous report if information technology is not sufficiently comprehensive in scope, including the electric service, overcurrent protection, branch distribution circuits, switches, receptacles, lighting and other components, every bit defects in whatsoever of these electrical components gamble shock and burn down hazards.

In improver, on a 1930'southward building it would exist rare for there not to have been modifications and extensions to the electric system. Assessment of the condition and quality of that work would also be important.

It may be helpful to review Old ELECTRICAL WIRING TYPES

As well see DEFECTS Listing - Electrical System for examples of professional person inspection standards and scope of inspection coverage.

A complete list of electrical inspection and repair topics is

at ARTICLE Index to ELECTRICAL INSPECTION & TESTING

Information technology'southward of course always safer to recommend replacement of components of which we're uncertain or to say "rent an electrician" only exist warned that some electricians are themselves unfamiliar with old electrical work and don't know about widely-distributed but unsafe products such

as FEDERAL PACIFIC FPE HAZARDS.

Simply a professional, working in a building for an possessor, buyer, or insurance company, may nevertheless be held to mutual professional standards and would be expected to recognize and give appropriate advice about such hazards.

I'd welcome your opinion on this companion article about the cost of beingness over-cautious:

OTHER PEOPLE'due south MONEY

Reader follow-up:

I exercise not recommend this replacement by myself,

In fact, insurance companies ever desire knob & tube replaced, but I have seen some really overnice [electrical] installations that are still functioning well. The same goes for older electrical panels

Insurance companies have long recorded histories of losses, and though sometimes a recommendation may seem unwarranted information technology is usually based on that on statistics. ... - Betimes.

Moderator reply:

Thanks for the follow-upwards; working together makes united states of america smarter.

Warnings nearly Polarized Electrical Plugs, Receptacles, and Lighting Fixtures

Reversed polarity shock hazards: "Polarity" in an electrical receptacle and on the device that plugs into or connects to it means that we're making sure that we connect the "hot" or "live" side of the electrical circuit to the connection betoken in the apparatus or device that was intended to exist "hot" or "live".

Carson Dunlop'due south sketches evidence why it's of import to respect polarity when connecting an electrical receptacle, a lamp or any other appliance.

In short, reversed polarity on a calorie-free fixture means it's easier to receive a dangerous electrical shock past touching the shell of the seedling socket or even the side of the seedling itself while screwing in a new light bulb.

Reversed polarity device fire-up or fire hazards: Never clip or file down the prongs on a grounded or polarized plug in order to force it to fit into an older electrical receptacle.

The take chances is that your plug will be installed with reversed polarity - connecting the "hot" side of the electrical circuit to the unremarkably neutral-wired side of the appliance.

We've found appliances (a coffee maker) that but burned up when connected in this mode.

Fifty-fifty though power was "off" according to the coffee maker "on-off" switch, feeding live voltage to the incorrect side of the coffee make's excursion board led to a component burn down-up and failure of the appliance.

Go to the heart of the problem: Test and upgrade your electrical circuit system.

See ELECTRICAL GROUND Organization INSPECTION for details about how to audit the electric grounding organisation at a building.

Also, come across details most electrical grounding

at Electrical CIRCUITS, SHORTS,

and at ELECTRICITY BASICS, HOW It WORKS.

Watch OutDo not attempt to work on your electric wiring, switches, or outlets unless you are properly trained and equipped to do and then. Electric components in a building tin hands cause an electrical shock, burn down, or even death.

Even when a hot line switch is off, one terminal on the switch is nevertheless connected to the power source. Before doing whatsoever work on the switch, the ability source must be turned off by set­ting a circuit breaker to OFF or removing a fuse.

See SAFETY for Electric INSPECTORS

and ELECTRICAL WIRING BOOKS & GUIDES

Old Electrical Box Identification

Hi - I am a historic preservation consultant at oldhouseguy.com and I am having my wiring replaced.

My house was built in 1910 and surprisingly does non have any gas lighting pipes unless they were removed merely that seem unlikely.

The wiring is BX with 2 fabric wires inside that are crumbling autonomously.

In that location is besides romex wire that is black tar coated with two wires.

My question is practice you think the wires were originally installed in 1910.

If not when do you call up the box and the romex wires were installed. I am documenting the history of the business firm.

Do you lot know the date of the electric box? It says Pointer and a number vi. Attached is my BX [armored cablevision] wire photo.

I will reply in more particular.

Are there any patent numbers on the box?

So if I understand correctly, In 1910 there was most probable knob and tube wiring and gas lighting in my house. In that location is currently no sign of either knob and tube or gas piping.

If the BX was added in the 1920's would the gas pipes and the knob and tube all be removed?

It seems like a lot of piece of work to remove gas pipes. Again I only have access to see nether the cranium flooring and basement ceiling.

(modernistic) - no there are not. But "Arrow" and "6"

I've found those shallow electrical boxes in homes with second generation electrical wiring, where K&T is the first wide-spread mutual-use generation ca 1900 and continuing into at least the 1970s in some areas, and cloth/rubber-insulated armored cable is the 2nd generation, ca 1920 onwards.

A 1900-built home will typically have knob and tube also as armored cable likewise every bit NMC wiring as people updated and added circuits over the life of the abode.

A cursory patent search finds that the approximate age of your electric box, assuming you're in the U.S. is 1913.

A similar bandage iron electric box to the one in your photo was produced by Hope Manufacturing, a "light covering" actually an ceiling or wall mountain electric box typically used to back up a light fixture, is shown below for-sale on eBay in Apr 2020.

Encounter

• ELECTRICAL OUTLET BOX PATENT W H HOPE The states Patent No. 1072462, Patented Sept. 9,1913. Filed in 1911 [PDF]
  

Other William H. Hope Patents vary widely, which may explain why information technology's difficult to track downwardly the Promise Electric Manufacturing Co. history - still working on that.

• Hope, William H. "DOOR LOCK AND LATCH." U.S. Patent Awarding 817,713, filed February eighteen, 1904.
• Hope, William H. "PANTOGRAPH ENGRAVING-Auto." U.Due south. Patent Awarding 1/206,329, filed Nov 20, 1915.
• Hope, William H. "ENGRAVING-Car." U.S. Patent Application 1/264,074, filed July 11, 1917.
• Hope, William H. "Ruling car." U.S. Patent 1,461,002, issued July 3, 1923.
  

One-time wiring types

About your BX wire, there were several generations of BX and "Greenfield" flexible armored cable.

Come across details at Former ELECTRICAL WIRING TYPES

Gas piping removed or used for electric wiring

People did not commonly remove gas piping as you'd accept to rip open walls and ceilings. In fact I've constitute both live gas piping yet connected in buildings as well every bit gas piping that was subsequently used as conduit for electrical wire.

In an older home, **IF** in fact in that location was natural gas piped into homes forth the same street equally your home, and then your dwelling house might take had gas lights and gas pipage earlier in its history. Merely not necessarily. Non anybody installed gas lighting before moving to electrical lights.

Meet details at GAS LIGHTING PIPES FIXTURES

The current, modern Hope Electric Company is Hope Electrical Products Co., Inc. | 3 Fairfield Crescent | West Caldwell, NJ 07006 | Phone: 973.882.7400 | Fax: 973.244.9292 | East-mail: sales@hopeelectrical.com Website: www.hopeelectricalproducts.com

Photo Guide to One-time Electrical Wire Types

We have moved our illustrations of a multifariousness of types of electrical wiring establish in older buildings to a split article now found

at Sometime ELECTRICAL WIRING TYPES

The asbestos-insulated electrical wiring shown to a higher place is discussed

at ASBESTOS ELECTRICAL WIRE INSULATION

Reader Q&A - besides see the FAQs serial linked-to below

re-posting without dis-allowed promotional link

Happy Hiller

Keen article! Another common problem that you'll face with older houses is unprotected junction boxes.

@Beverly,

At this fourth dimension, we have fiddling to add to our previous response to your question. Farther research is needed.

Equally stated earlier, if y'all take any photos of the type of box that was removed, that would be helpful. And also, the full amount of materials in an individual electrical enclosure or box would non be a meaningful source of particle contamination throughout a edifice.

It would assistance us enquiry an answer more fully if y'all could tell united states of america your source of data where you said "made in the 50's and they stopped using them considering with age they deteriate and apon touch or , demolishing it to remove it. Tin cause a fine dust to be released into the air."

Bottom line: from what we know at this signal

- we can't say for sure that your maintenance person'southward guess at the electric console box material was correct,

- the box is removed and not available for inspection and in that location are no photos or other information for united states to consider in identifying it

- there is no reasonable probability that the removal of an electrical panel box would make full an apartment with dust

- if you still live in the subject apartment and are concerned virtually harmful levels of any sort of inorganic dust, a reasonable grade of action would be to clean thoroughly including damp wiping and HEPA vacuuming surfaces.

This flat building was built in 1978. And the state I am in is Spokane Washington. Specifically the town of Cheney. This building is a regime subsidized housing project. We know that they cut corners and end run effectually city and state Building Codes and Country Fifty&I permit requirements.

This electrical wiring box was demolished and removed. The back g maintanence human being who removed this box told me it was fiberglass. And correct afterwards he did this my apartment filled up with dust. And this dust acted just like fiberglass dust.

@Beverly,

Give thanks y'all for the question about antique electrical panel boxes made from fiberglass. A production with which we are familiar then nosotros'll have to exercise some enquiry and post more information here.

There is a long history of fiberglass-reinforced building materials including fiberglass-reinforced electrical boxes and specialty enclosures similar the Vevor fiberglass enclosure I'll bear witness beneath, merely none of those is an electrical service panel.

Photograph: These brown plastic Bakelite fuse enclosures, used in the U.K. are provided as props by ElectroProp, an electronics prop house supporting the pic and theatre industry. Electroprops, 17 B & C Aintree Road, Perivale, Middlesex, UB6 7LA, United Kingdom Tel Function: +44 020 8991 0191 Email: info@electroprops.co.ukWeb: https://www.electroprops.co.uk/

If y'all have whatever details such as photographs of the electrical panel or of its labels or information about the country and metropolis of location and the age of the building that would be helpful.

And information technology would be especially helpful if you or your source who told you that defective fiberglass electrical panels were manufactured in the 1950s could provide fifty-fifty the smallest source or citation, as by U.S. patent search I've non yet found such a production - meanwhile we'll research the question a chip further.

In whatever event, because of its express total cloth volume, the total materials comprising an individual electrical enclosure or box would non be a meaningful source of particle contagion throughout a building.

Is it possible yous're actually referring not to a fiberglass product but to Bakelite plastic that was used for electrical products such as fuse panels and fuse pull-out blocks?

You can see our photos of those "plastic" electric panel components at

inspectapedia.com/electric/Fuse-Replacement.php BLOWN FUSE REPLACEMENT

In the U.S. those Bakelite plastic electrical components were enclosed in a steel console box. In the U.1000. and another countries, in the 1950s there were indeed some fuse box enclosures made entirely of Bakellite.

Above in this give-and-take nosotros show an example still bachelor (to rent) as a theatrical prop.

While Bakelite plastic tin can exist cracked or cleaved, and while some of these plastics contained asbestos, none of them is friable, none crumble to grit over time, and none would be a meaningful source of building dust.

Beneath: Plastic electrical box, modern, made by Vevor and sold in the Uk and elsewhere.

An Old Blackness Fiberglass Electrical Wiring Box was removed we believe considering information technology was old information technology desinergarded into a fine fiberglass dust that contaminated the indoor air of an apartment.
I was told these boxes where made in the 50'southward and they stopped using them because with age they deteriate and apon impact or , demolishing it to remove it. Can cause a fine grit to exist released into the air.
What can y'all tell me. What yr were these Fiberglass Electric Wiring Boxes made. And exercise they deteriate over time. What percaugtions would be taken to demolish ane to have it out.

1950s or 1960s copper wiring, un-damaged by burn down or other ways, and including a grounding usher, may be condom to use.

Is it advisable to use 1950s 1960 wiring in an old house that has a ground wire

@Jim Navotney, thank you for that helpful comment, I read with y'all.

I still vividly think an electrician hired to install a 200 amp billow box for my father cut off the water pipe footing then drilling a hole in the sidewalk and driving in a footing rod.

When Dad showed me this i just laughed and said he was likely fresh out of his apprenticeship and however lacked mutual sense.

Since the place where he installed the ground rod was dry soil nether a physical sidewalk it was a poor ground to say the least and the copper water line that ran underground more than threescore feet to the h2o meter was a far better footing, i merely continued the water line basis support equally soon as he left.

And any electrician that would isolate all the copper plumbing and fixtures in a house by non attaching information technology to the ground should non concur a license in ANY country.

@Chris, it would help me make a amend guess if I could come across a photo of the Box you're describing. Fine in at to the lowest degree some cases there is a threaded Eye plumbing fixtures which was designed to take 1/2 or iii/8 or similar national pipe thread that supported a calorie-free fixture

Age of cast-iron electric box & light fixture supports, these vintage hope mounting boxes are all over my firm, merely I notice the threaded pipe jutting from the center? What tin can I spiral onto that? I'thousand having trouble finding some type of locknut to fit information technology.

1950s electric wiring used for branch circuits for lighting and receptacles is usualy #14 gauge or might exist #12 gauge copper.

#14 wire gets a 15A breaker or fuse.

#12 wire would get a xx amp breaker or fuse but it is ever safer to limit the current on a circuit past putting in a smaller fuse or breaker. And so on such where you could you run into 15 amp protection device

What amp breaker can a 1950s tube wiring handle?

...

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