Caution Signs and Safety Concerns

At different times in our childhood, well-meaning parents, teachers, and other uninvited authority figures decided we needed a lesson on what they viewed as one of life’s serious dangers. These lessons usually consisted of terse descriptions of the horrors and grave consequences that would befall us if we ignored the lessons, which most of us did. I can confidently say that I didn’t go blind from sitting too close to the television, nor did I ever catch pneumonia from going outside with my coat unbuttoned in the dead of Ohio’s winters.

Electricity is a different matter, however, and here I must become parental for your own good. (I’m sure that phrase brings back a few memories.) One wrong electrical move can result in injury or even death for you or your loved ones, not to mention fire damage to your home. No one is immune to accidents, including experienced electricians. As a homeowner and do-it-yourselfer, you should keep yourself safe and be even more cautious than a professional.

A brand-new electrical system doesn’t give you license to abuse it or to test its limits just for the fun of it. Sticking your house key into a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) receptacle while grabbing hold of your bathroom sink’s faucet isn’t recommended, even if the GFCI should shut down when it detects your act of lunacy. There’s always a chance it won’t shut down because it’s defective. Of course, if you’ve been following safe electrical practices, you would know this because you would test your GFCIs every month.
With a little common sense (another childhood admonition), you’ll be able to safely inhabit and work on your electrical system and fill your home with lighting, receptacles, and multimedia features from top to bottom.

Things to remember when buying a house

Does the prospective home have a security system? If you want one, make a note regarding its installation and approximate cost. Modern systems have battery-powered motion detectors that don’t require hard wiring, but the basic unit itself is wired, which means you need to supply power to it. This might not be a big deal, but it’s one more thing to add to your electrical wish list.

Do all the rooms have heat, either from a central heating system or electric room heaters? Some older homes have ancient heating systems and might only have one heating vent in an upstairs landing rather than heating for each individual bedroom. This means you’ll have the expense of supplying heat either with new ductwork (and probably a new furnace) or by running circuits for electric heating. Old homes offer a certain charm and comfort that are difficult to duplicate in most modern housing. Leaded windows, wide oak entry doors, and crown molding running along the ceilings aren’t common features in new construction. Neither are fuse boxes, tacky wiring repairs, and a shortage of receptacles and lights. Updating an old system will have to be figured into your budget (and ultimately your purchasing considerations) when you start house hunting. Throw in a new roof, plumbing, floor refinishing, and a kitchen addition, and Old World charm takes on an expanded definition—bring money!

More Testing

Turn on all the lights in each room. Next turn on various appliances, even hair dryers in the bathroom, and watch the lights for flickering. A slight flicker isn’t unusual, but a permanent dimming is a sign of an overloaded system. The same is true if an appliance repeatedly causes a circuit to trip.
If a switch doesn’t appear to control anything when you flip it on, it can be a sign of an old disconnected load or circuit. A do-it-yourselfer might leave the switch in place, but an electrician would remove it and cover the box with a blank cover plate. You want to check for signs that work was done properly, not slipshod.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Modern homes are tightly insulated, but they have plenty of mechanized ventilation in the form of kitchen and bathroom fans as well as whole-house fans on timers. These forms of ventilation try to ensure a regular exchange of fresh air, which is particularly helpful the first year after construction because carpets, plastic laminates, and paints give off all kinds of fun fumes, thanks to the wonderful world of chemistry. An old house is naturally ventilated through gaps in the windows, doors, and walls. Even so, you still should have fans in the kitchen and bathrooms. If these rooms remain unventilated, moisture hangs around and throws a party for its friends mildew and mold. This means more frequent cleaning and painting as well as a reminder that you burned the pancakes at breakfast because you can still smell them during dinner. Check for fans and make sure they’re working. Small fans (those with a low CFM or cubic feet per minute), whose main activity is making noise instead of getting the moisture and odors out, are next to useless and should be noted for replacement.

Attic Insulation Problems

Modern nonmetallic electrical cable is tough stuff, and it doesn’t require the open-air environment of older knob-and-tube wiring for heat dissipation. Even if you pack it up against insulation, it just laughs as long as cable-nibbling rodents don’t take up residence. Knob-and-tube wiring, on the other hand, can have a dysfunctional relationship with insulation due to heat buildup. It isn’t unusual to find knob-and-tube wiring buried under the blow-in type of insulation, so check your local code to see if this is allowed.
Older light fixtures also need clearance from insulation because they really build up heat, especially if they have more than one light bulb. Although newer zero-clearance fixtures are now sold, never assume they have been installed in an older house until you examine the fixture itself.

Flawed wiring still electrocuting US troops in Iraq

Four years after after an emergency bulletin issued by the U.S. military - with the title "The Unexpected Killer" - at least two other soldiers were electrocuted, according to Pentagon and congressional investigators.

The Defense Contract Management Agency to oversee the maintenance work by contractors at U.S. bases in Iraq has tried to defend himself in a written statement as KBR, which until last year was known as the name of Kellogg, Brown and Root and was a subsidiary of Halliburton.

From Sunday's NYT:

"Defense Contract Management Agency, which is responsible for overseeing maintenance work by contractors at U.S. bases in Iraq, defended his performance. In a written statement, the agency said it had no information that staff members "were aware" of the army or warning "Omis to take appropriate measures in response to unsafe conditions brought to our attention."

Keith Ernst, who resigned Wednesday in the Agency's Director, said, however, that the agency was "stretched too thin in Iraq and that the low number of contract did not have expertise in treating so-called contracts life support, as that awarded to KBR to provide food, shelter and building maintenance. "We do not have the technical capability of monitoring life support systems," he said.

For its part, KBR, which until last year was known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and was a subsidiary of Halliburton, denied that any lapses by the company led to the shock of American soldiers . "KBR's commitment to employee safety and security of those who serves society is unwavering," said a spokesman, Heather Browne. "KBR has found no evidence of a link between the work he has been responsible for conducting and the electric shock.

Ms. Browne has refused to respond to the specific accounts of former KBR electricians.

Electricians have a response ready to anyone who suggests that poor electrical work could be regarded as an inevitable cost of war. "The excuse KBR always used was, 'This is a war zone - what do you expect?" Recalled Jeffrey Bliss, an Ohio electrician who has worked for the company in Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006 . "But if you are going to do the job, you have to be safe."

As the USA invaded Iraq in 2003, tens of thousands of American soldiers were housed in the pre-existing Iraqi government buildings, some of them dangerously dilapidated. As part of its $ 30 billion contract with the Pentagon in Iraq, KBR has been necessary for the repair and updating of many buildings, including their electrical systems. The company manages the maintenance of structures 4000 and 35000 containers housing in the war zone, the Pentagon said.

The legislature and government investigators say it is now clear that the Bush administration subcontracting so much work to KBR and other contractors in Iraq that the agencies responsible for monitoring have been submerged. The defense contractor Management Agency has more than 9000 employees, but has only 60 officers contract in Iraq and Afghanistan 30 to oversee nearly 18000 employees of KBR in Iraq and Afghanistan in 4400 handling maintenance of the base.

"All officers contract can do is check the papers," said an official of the Agency, who asked not be identified. While about 600 army officers to complete the contract officers, M . Ernst said, soldiers are not sufficiently trained for the task.

The Army gave few details of shock, other than to say Saturday that 10 soldiers had been electrocuted in Iraq. A committee of the House also reported that two sailors died the same way. "

Checking Outdoors Electricity Installation of a House

Look closely at any outdoor lighting and receptacles. Bad wiring practices outdoors are especially unsafe because of the exposure to weather, especially moisture. All outdoor receptacles should be GFCI protected and should be enclosed by weatherproof boxes. Electrical cable must either be buried in plastic or rigid metal conduit or be the UF (underground feeder) type, which has a very heavy plastic sheathing.
Cable rated for outdoor use must be buried at specified. Anything buried too shallow for its particular type and circumstances is in violation of the code. Digging is a lot of work. I know one homeowner who did only a minimal burying, and the cable resurfaced from time to time during gardening chores. At another house, the roots of a growing tree gradually yanked a shallowly buried (and poorly located) cable to the surface. Old, corroded switches and receptacles with broken covers are a sure sign of needed electrical repairs. Check the service panel or fuse box and see if the outdoor fixtures are running on their own circuit. You might find that they are tied into another branch circuit inside the house, which isn’t a terrific idea.
Garages are another center for do-it-yourself addons run amok. The wiring here should be equal to any circuit inside your house and should not be a disarray of wires and extension cords stapled to the walls. Be sure to take note of any questionable work. Check the power lines as well for obstructions or worn cables. These are the utility company’s responsibility, but you need to report the problems so it can repair them.

Solutions in Dealing and Solving Aluminum Wiring

The obvious answer to any aluminum-wiring problems or potential problems is to replace it all with copper. How practical is this, however, if you have limited unfinished areas such as crawl spaces to run new wire or if you live in a condominium? You also would have to patch and repaint everywhere. Fortunately, there are other solutions. Aluminum wiring is most dangerous at the connections and termination points. The accepted remedy is to use a short piece of copper wire (usually referred to as a “pigtail”) to connect the aluminum wire to the switch, receptacle, or appliance after treating the exposed ends of the aluminum wire with antioxidizing paste (see the following figure). The best method, which is CPSC-approved as the only permanent repair, is done with the use of a special power crimping tool manufactured by AMP Incorporated (P.O. Box 3608, Harrisburg, PA 17105; 1-800-522-7652). This tool installs a metal sleeve called a COP/ALUM parallel splice connector.
This handy tool, which you’ll never find in a hardware store, permanently attaches a piece of copper wire to the existing aluminum wire along with the sleeve. The connection is then covered with heatshrunk insulation. This work should be done by professional electricians, not homeowners, so forget about trying it yourself with a cheaper crimping tool or another means of connecting the wires together. This is a specialized procedure that requires training provided by the manufacturer.
Note that some electrical boxes—the enclosures around switches, receptacles, and other devices— might not be big enough to house the additional pigtailed connectors and wire. It might be necessary to replace the box with a larger size, which will involve cutting into the wall and doing some patchwork to the plaster or plasterboard.
A partial repair can be made by replacing all standard outlets and switches with ULapproved devices marked “CU/AL,” which indicates that they can be used with either copper or aluminum wiring. The CPSC does not recommend these devices as a complete repair. Under no circumstances should any device connected to aluminum wire be back-wired. (If there are problems, you won’t see them.) The consumer booklet “Repairing Aluminum Wiring” (Publication 516) is available by writing the CPSC at U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, DC 20207.

Check wiring before installing insulation

Question: The house I own is more than 100 years old, with the old lath boards, plaster, and old, drafty windows. So insulating it is important. One part of the attic has old, blown-in insulation between rafters. It comes up to the top of the rafter. There is some of the old electrical wiring (separate lines for the black and white) in the attic. Should I use the blown-in insulation or pink rolls? Is there a difference? The second story is often cool in the winter, so how much should I use?
-- J.B., Ann Arbor

Answer: Before you start insulating, you need to determine what to do about the older style knob-and-tube wiring in your attic. That system may still be perfectly safe -- if it was properly installed, is in good condition, and hasn't had improper alterations to it over the years. However, the National Electrical Code requires that it be used the way it was originally designed -- and that means the wires have to be ``air-cooled.'' In other words, you can't pile insulation on top of or around it.

Warning: Aluminum Wiring Ahead

Not every house with aluminum wiring is an automatic time bomb waiting to burst into flames like a vampire caught outside at dawn. The warning signs used to check for overheating problems and loose connections include …

• Warm cover plates.
• Flickering lights.
• No power in a circuit.
• Sparks and arcing.

These signs are discounted by Dr. Aronstein, who states that they are not entirely reliable, do not always take place, or occur at a late stage in the failure of the wiring. He does, however, suggest turning the power off and examining individual devices and loads with a flashlight for the following:

• Charred or discolored plastic
• Back-wired devices
• Excessive tarnishing at the ends of the wires
• Damage to the thermoplastic sheathing including melting and bubbling Some wiring might not show any signs of deterioration because a particular circuit might never have had enough loads on it to cause overheating. If you plug a portable heater in, however, the status quo might change rapidly. The best defense is to monitor these circuits if their usage changes.

Any of these defects is cause for action. Are they enough of a reason for you to walk away from a potential property purchase? No, because even though technology caused the problems, it also can resolve them.

What to look for when checking for aluminum wiring?

Aluminum wiring primarily affects housing built from 1965 to 1973, but it also can be present in additions and remodeled sections of older homes if the work was done during these years. The first thing to look for during your snooping is the word “aluminum” printed or embossed on the plastic sheathing of the electrical cable. If the cable isn’t observable in an attic space or a basement ceiling, look in the service panel. Remove the cover plates and look at individual switches and receptacles to see whether the wire ends are copper- or silver-colored.