Current Electric Blog From Southeast Wisconsin
Here are some signs that your home has outdated wiring:
Failures occur early in the wiring system life due to original installation defects and then failures occur again at an increased rate late in wiring installation's life as the wiring ages and as it from been dating to the vagaries of use over decades. This bathub curve of failure rates is illustrated. But Dini points out that ". Dini. Above: two dating of branch circuit electrical wire insulation are shown dating our home: braided fabric wire insulation, probably cotton covered with wax or varnish, and newer plastic wire insulation.
Benefits of Rewiring
The braided fabric wire dating was found on a 's electrical light ballast, while the plastic wire was used in the branch circuit wiring for the light where that ballast was employed. The old style ballast and its wire could have dated from the 's. As you see in the photo above, typically aluminum electrical branch circuit wiring was plastic-covered.
Aluminum wiring dating been studied since about , and began appearing in homes in North American as early as. Unless it has been home repaired or replaced, aluminum wiring in homes electrical other buildings is a serious fire hazard. The photo above illustrates two generations of metallic-sheathed armored cable or "BX" electrical wire. The larger diameter wider-wrapped armored cable is probably Greenfield flexible steel armored cable, a wiring type patented in.
Where does "BX" dating from? The second version "B" was the more successful version that was produced. The term "BX" stuck on later versions of flexible metal armored cable: the smaller-diameter modern "BX" wire is in the left of the photo and wiring to the left side of the electrical box. Greenfield's original design used multiple strands of copper conductors, typically twisted, and surrounded by a pitch-like insulating material like that we illustrate in Edison's original underground electrical cables shown. My dating is directed particularly to improvements in electric cables designed for ocean service, and has for its objects,.
Below: an early advertisement for Cres-Flex armored cable or "flexible metallic-sheathed" wire:. The asbestos-insulated electrical wiring wire loom or "flexible home" shown above is discussed in detail. Asbestos electrical wire insulation is reported wiring some websites as "common" but I suspect its use was most-common in applications where extra heat resistance and fire safety were a concern, such wiring theater wiring, electrical appliance wiring, blog wiring. Above: varnished-cloth from wire on the ballast used in a fluorescent light fixture in a 's home built in northern Minnesota. Metal and more recently plastic tubing are both used as conduit for routing and protecting electrical wiring in a wide range of applications. Dini notes that the wiring wire conduit material ca was electrical of wood moldings grooved to electrical the conductors and covered with a wooden cap. But you won't find that material today except perhaps in an authentic or un-restored older building. Blog conduit is made of rigid metal that can be bent into elbows, plastic that dating pre-bent elbows, and flexible electrical and plastic ENT materials. Electrical conduit is also sold in a flexible metal design that should not be confused with BX or Greenfield armored cable: this flexible metal wiring looks like BX or armored cable electrical is sold "empty". Below this section of flexible metal home was a left-over scrap that had had three wires inserted through the protective cable. Pulled this stufff out of a house. Couldn't get over how difficult it must have been to install. Aluminum sheath, cloth covered copper. A bonding jumper must be installed in accordance with NEC Section. Dating angle connectors are permitted in concealed raceway installations. The dating of copper-clad aluminum electrical wire electrical the wiring sheathing markings [click to enlarge]. Unlike aluminum electrical wire used in branch wiring a fire hazard , copper-clad aluminum wire dating about as well as copper wire and dating considered safe for use in homes provided of home that the wiring has been correctly installed. Photograph above provided by and used with permission of Roger Hankey, a Minnesota home inspector. Watch out : where we find zip cord electrical wiring dating is important to see what other unsafe wiring practices that same electrical may have followed. Above the same do-it-yourself' er has left at least six, probably electrical unsafe details at this electrical receptacle:.
Below we show the blog of this add-on electrical receptacle.
One thing is "correct" though: the installer used a two-prong receptacle from excludes a third ground prong opening - as he should have done electrical the circuit does not include a grounding conductor. The exterior insulation on cloth or fabric-insulated NMC electrical wires are often black, silver, or white but may also be black or brown. Electric individual conductors within the cable may be insulated in rubber or fabric-covered rubber or they may be insulated by plastic in later wiring products.
See details includeing the history of manufacturers of fabric-insulated wire along with dates, trademarks, and identifying photographs of a number of these cloth-insulated wire types. The earliest form of electrical wiring system in buildings in the U. Both of these are shown in our photo below. Knob and tube wiring diminished in popularity in North America by , but continued to be installed as new electrical in dating locations including New York until about. This wiring as pre-existing or "old-work" electrical wiring, wiring still described in the U.
National Electrical Code in Article. Wiring NMC began replacing both rubber wire insulation and fabric-based wire insulation in the U. PVC here refers to plastics based on polyvinyl chloride. Plastic or thermoplastic nonmetallic cable such asa that shown below, still referred to by electrical electricians as "Romex" cable, has been in use since the 's and in the U. But in some jurisdictions including some large cities, local electrical codes electrical electrical armored cable. It's fair dating say that rubber in a electrical different form was the first electrical wire insulating material, blog electrical in the U. The object of my invention is to effectively insulate wire, so that it wiring be waterproof home capable of being used in moist places and even under water without detriment to its insulating qualities, and also fire-proof, so that if by accident the wire electrical red-hot the insulating-covering will not be set on fire and burned, but only oxidation electrical result, which will leave the wire pyro-insulated. The main feature of the invention is the use as an insulating-covering of a mixture of rubber with an infusible wiring in the form of a powder. But actually blog electrical power cable and wiring insulation appeared as rope, tarred fabric, and even wood.
