Electrical Upgrades Worth Making in a Home
Pro Tip: Your Safety is Worth These Critical Upgrades
There are electrical upgrades and repairs you MUST consider before listing your home or when you start planning an addition. As a residential electrician in San Antonio for almost 30 years, All Star Electric San Antonio has fixed well over 10,000 critical electrical issues in homes around the city. Many were obvious problems: sudden malfunctions, missing safety devices, overloaded circuits… But in a lot of other cases, the issues were hiding, difficult to trace, and only intermittent. All would have flunked an electrical inspection. Here are some common electrical issues we handle for your FYI – contact us if you think your home needs any of these upgrades!
1. Improper Grounding of Electrical Systems
Improper grounding raises the risk of electrical shock. This happens when where your body becomes the path through which electricity travels to find the ground. This code violation also increases the risk of electrical fires (when electricity travels through flammable materials). Finally, it can result in frying your electronics, which is very inconvenient and costly.
In our experience, the two main situations in which we find an electrical installation improperly grounded are:
- The installation was DIY’ed or done by non-licensed electricians.
- Components of the installation have deteriorated with age, got corroded or became loose.
2. Overloaded Circuits
What’s a circuit overload? When too many electrical devices operate on a circuit, drawing more current than it is designed for, this is an overload. This situation would require electrical upgrades at the service panel level. Telltale signs of a circuit overload include:
- Circuit breakers are tripping frequently.
- Lights are flickering or dimming.
- Outlets and switches start buzzing weirdly.
- Electrical outlets and wall plates are overheating.
- Outlets or switches give off a burning smell.
3. Missing Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter Protection
Electrical wiring can show signs of damage, wear, or stress. This happens over time through loose connections, insulation breaks, or pinched wires. In these situations, the electrical current can start flowing through a wrong path: outside of the wire itself. Literally, electricity can “jump” through the air wherever the insulation sheath broke and create an arc (visible or invisible). This unintended phenomenon is called “an arc fault”.
Fortunately, manufacturers of electrical devices came up with AFCIs in the early 1990s. AFCIs are interrupters that protect electrical circuits from fires caused by arc faults. An AFCI monitors the electrical circuit for signs of an arc fault.
Chances are, if you bought a home built before 2002, it misses the AFCIs it needs. The NEC mandates AFCI protection at the circuit level. Any circuit that supplies outlets (e.g., indoor receptacles, lighting fixtures, smoke alarms, etc.) must receive AFCI protection.
NOTE: A home built before AFCIs became mandatory would be grandfathered. Technically, it would NOT be required to have AFCI protection for all its original rooms. BUT if you added or remodeled a room, missing AFCIs would not comply with code. Your home would fail an inspection and this would be added to any real-estate report before a sale. Outside of this aspect, it makes total sense to upgrade circuits with AFCIs from the standpoint of safety.
4. Missing Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter Protection
Most homes today have GFCIs where required. In our experience, only very old homes are still missing GFCIs. Like for AFCIs, older versions of the NEC may grandfather these homes. In this case, not having GFCIs would not be a code violation.
However, realtors and inspectors would definitely mention this in their reports. That could be a cause for concern for the buyers (what else is wrong with this home?). Better proceed with these electrical upgrades before sowing the seed of doubt in the minds of your buyers.
What we see more often however, is an incorrect installation of the GFCIs. The real danger in this situation is that people think they get protection… NOT. The issue is usually traceable to DIY work, or work done by a non-licensed electrician. Any electrical inspection would flag this code violation.
5. Incorrect Wiring Type or Size
Electrical wires must be of the correct type and size to carry safely their electrical load without overheating. There are many factors that an electrician has to take into consideration to select the right wiring for the task. Among those:
- Number of wires in a conduit
- Load adjustments
- Temperature correction factors
- Conditions of use
- Voltage drop over the length of the wire
- etc.
Inspectors will look carefully at the type/size of the wiring to ensure it doesn’t expose a household to these risks. The inspection will recommend all necessary electrical upgrades.
6. Improper Junction Box Installation
Junction boxes must be properly installed, accessible, covered, and large enough to prevent wire overcrowding. Wire overcrowding can lead to overheating and fires. Clearly, most electrical upgrades and safety rules have to do with preventing the risk of fire.
7. Faulty Installation of Electrical Panels
While the vast majority of electrical panels we inspect and upgrade are affixed to an outer wall, there was a period before the 60s and the 70s where homebuilders installed service panels in closets, inside homes. The National Electrical Code forced this situation to change in the 80s.
What we see more often today is undersized service panels, installed 20-30 years ago. These can’t usually handle the total electric load of a household today, with many more electronic devices and appliances. We can upgrade these panels or replace them. Breakers that trip often are a telltale sign of an undersized panel.
Finally, we sometimes (rarely) stumble upon fuse boxes. This is a technology that pre-dates panels with circuit breakers. If you are not familiar with them, that’s because you don’t have one. When inspecting a home with a fuse box, we invariably find that it needs all kinds of electrical upgrades.
These 7 Code Violations Warrant Electrical Upgrades
As professional licensed electricians, we know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Code violations occur because all electrical installations age and the electrical material itself becomes brittle, corroded, defective. Call a licensed electrician like All Star Electric San Antonio to perform a serious electrical safety inspection. If anything is wrong, we will find it before it gets worse. This gives you time to do the necessary electrical upgrades and keep your family safe.
Call San Antonio electrician All Star Electric San Antonio at (210) 391-0274. We have 30 years of experience operating as an electrical contractor. Let’s discuss your project: we will give you a free and fair quote for it, with no commitment on your part.