The idea of rewiring a house can sound very involved. However, the process is often simpler than homeowners expect. You may need to rewire your home for a host of reasons. Here are some common situations in which homeowners may need to rewire their residences.
Preventing Overloading
Overloading is one of the sneakier electrical problems in a house. The main danger is that overloaded wires can operate seemingly fine for years. Heat will dissipate slowly from the wires into the surrounding coating and even into the walls. This creates the impression there isn’t a hazard, but that heat can expose wires. Consequently, the exposed wire could short systems, shock people, or even start a fire.
Homeowners should understand what overloading is and why it happens. An overload occurs whenever the wires are operating above their rated capacity. For example, a wire with a 15-amp rating might be pushing 30 amps of electricity.
Overloading typically happens when people, usually amateurs like homeowners, property managers, or landlords, treat electrical upgrades too simplistically. Suppose an air conditioning unit keeps tripping a 15-amp breaker. Someone decides that the simplest solution is to upgrade the breaker to 30 amps.
Why is that a problem? Many home wiring systems are rated to the same grade as the attached breaker. A 15-amp breaker is likely to connect to a 15-amp wire following the original installation, a perfectly acceptable design. However, swapping in a 30-amp breaker means the 15-amp wire is now carrying twice the amperage that it’s rated for. The wiring is overloaded at that point.
Making the problem worse is that these issues are often overlooked for years. You might buy a house and only learn that the wiring is overloaded when it starts to damage the wall. This is a dangerous condition, and you should ask one of our skilled electricians to replace the affected wiring.
Adding New Features
Modern homeowners often use features that didn’t exist when the house first went up. For example, you might want to add an EV charging station to your home’s garage. Very few houses are equipped to work with something like a 240-volt Level 2 charger for electric vehicles. That kind of fast-charging system draws a lot of electricity. Incorporating the charging port is going to require running lines that can handle a fast-charging system for EVs.
There are also lesser features that may call for rewiring. Many homeowners like to add outlets with USB charging ports, for example. This is very convenient because you don’t have to mess with keeping track of all the adapters needed to plug in your phone, tablet, game system, or other mobile device. Instead, you can run a USB cable straight to the outlet. The best way to implement this solution is to run fresh wiring that supports USB charging, ensuring that the devices will charge as quickly as possible.
Generators
Installing a generator all but guarantees that a homeowner will need to rewire their place. First, the generator usually has an electrical panel independent from the home’s main system. Just connecting that panel to the generator requires new wiring. You then will likely want to connect the generator’s panel to the main electrical panel for the house. Once more, you are going to have to rewire the system to accommodate the connection. This kind of design sends a signal from the main power system to the generator. When the signal drops due to an outage, the generator knows to kick on.
Old Wiring Types
Since the inception of electricity as a utility in the United States, electricians have used several different types of wiring materials. For example, aluminum wiring was more likely to show up in houses that contractors built in the 1960s and 1970s. Notably, that was during a major building boom in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, so there are lots of homes with wiring from that era. Aluminum wiring is known to have connection problems that make those homes more likely to have fire hazards. Consequently, our electricians always recommend rewiring houses that have aluminum wiring.
The further back you go, the crazier some of the wiring systems seem. For example, so-called rope wiring is one of the easier old forms of wire to identify just by looking at it. It is a rubber-insulated wire with a copper core. The exterior is then covered with braided cotton that looks like rope.
Note that you shouldn’t assume modern wiring in one part of your home means that all of the wiring is up to today’s standards. A previous owner may have remodeled part of the house or done an addition using modern wiring standards. However, there could be older types of wiring lurking elsewhere.
Adding Capacity
Even if the wiring in a room is sufficient to carry your expected full electrical load, there might not be enough connections to reach your desired capacity. Picture some of the more complicated entertainment systems that you’ve seen. There could be a television, a streaming box, multiple video game systems, a Blu-Ray player, a stereo, and an equalizer all demanding outlets. People often get by with power strips, but the optimal solution is to have more outlets. Especially if you’re already planning to rewire the house for some other reason, this is a good time to increase the outlet capacity.
Adding capacity can be necessary if you’re adding large appliances, too. Suppose you want to add a freezer chest. This tends to be a high-draw device, especially when it initiates a chilling cycle. Appropriately rated outlets, wires, and breakers all need to go into the house to provide the needed capacity.
Property Damage and Physical Injury
Wiring systems are just as susceptible to damage as anything else in a home. Even if one mouse gets into the walls, that rodent could chew on the wires and damage them. You could also see damage from overloads, shorts, discharges, and other events. If there’s visible damage, then you should consider rewiring everything from the affected area to the electrical panel.
You should also consider rewiring if anyone has been even lightly injured by the system. A minor spark from an outlet could be a sign of bigger problems, even if all it did was deliver a mild shock.
Code Compliance
Many municipalities require rewiring in specific situations to bring the system up to code. Remodeling or doing an addition are common situations where rewiring is necessary for compliance. Particularly, many codes require wiring to support new standards for ground-fault interrupts. This is especially common in bathrooms and kitchens because water is nearby. Likewise, many insurance companies now require upgrades to keep a house insurable.
HR Phoenix is an electrical contracting firm in Richland Hills, TX that tackles assignments for households and businesses throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In addition to rewiring projects, our electricians handle work on generators, electrical panels, and EV charging stations. We are also happy to repair electrical systems. Our electricians are even available 24/7 when you need emergency repairs.
Contact us today and discover the benefits of dealing with a family-run electrical repair and other services provider.