Common Electrical Problems Found in Older Ohio Homes

Ohio has a large number of aging homes. While these buildings often have great character, they also contain some serious electrical risks. Knowing the risks is the first step toward addressing them. If you live in or are planning to buy an older place, keep an eye out for the following common electrical service issues in old homes.

Flickering or Dimming Lights

An occasional light flicker can feel almost like part of the character of an older house. However, flickering or dimming lights also indicate several potential major electrical risks.

Loose Connections

A loose connection inside a lighting fixture or switch can easily cause it to flicker. Simple age leads once-tight connections to loosen, too. Likewise, the wiring can degrade, increasing the electrical resistance inside the fixture or switch. The net effect is an increase in heat, creating potential fire risk. It also leads to the annoyance of a flickering light.

Fortunately, our electricians can quickly test the quality of the connections inside a light circuit. We can replace fixtures and rewire lighting systems to ensure they don’t flicker.

Voltage Fluctuations

Older houses experience voltage fluctuations for two main reasons. An aging electrical panel may not supply the needed power for a modern home, causing the lights to dim when high-draw appliances cycle. Likewise, older neighborhoods often have decaying infrastructure that causes voltage drops.

While a typical voltage drop isn’t a threat to a home’s lights, it does indicate other possible risks. Particularly, voltage fluctuations can damage appliance motors and electronic devices. Fixing a voltage fluctuation is an investment in protecting other items in your house.

Corrosion

Rust affects the metal inside fixtures, wiring, circuit breakers, and electrical panels. This can particularly affect the neutral wire in a circuit that carries electrical current back to the panel. Corrosion in an electrical system can affect multiple rooms, especially ones like bedrooms and living rooms that are often on one circuit.

Frequently Tripped Breakers or Blown Fuses

Circuit breaker panels and fuse boxes are among the most critical safety systems in a home’s electrical design. If you’re frequently resetting breakers or replacing fuses, there is a good chance something deserves the attention of our electricians.

Overloaded Circuit Breakers

Every circuit in your house has an amperage rating. For example, many living room circuits have breakers rated for 15 or 20 amps. Conversely, a high-draw system like an HVAC might have a 50-amp breaker all to itself.

Many of those 15-amp breakers protect multiple rooms. These are usually the low-demand parts of a house, such as the living room or several bedrooms. The problem is that it only takes one high-demand system to cause a problem. In Ohio, many people use electric space heaters for supplemental heating in the winter. Just one heater can easily eat up most of the amperage on a single 15-amp circuit.

Our technicians can check your home’s circuits to confirm they’re rated for the demand. If the circuit needs an upgrade, we can also make sure that the wiring and circuit breaker provide enough overhead for safe operation. In addition to upgrades, we can run new circuits to provide more capacity.

Breaker Fatigue

Like everything else in your home, the breakers are aging. After 25-30 years, a circuit breaker can lose much of its capacity and start tripping below its rated level. If you’re seeing lots of breaker trips on an older circuit, it might be time for a fresh breaker.

Issues With Grounds or Ground Faults

Your home’s grounding and ground fault systems provide another layer of protection. Ground wires and GFCI circuits, however, suffer the same aging issues as breakers do. Worse, many GFCIs suffer exposure to high moisture levels, which can potentially trigger problems within a decade. Grounding lines also deteriorate. Likewise, the ground itself can move, reducing the quality of a grounding system’s connection to the earth.

Aging Wiring

Outdated or aged wiring can be especially dangerous, and you see more of it in older Ohio houses. Rubber insulation used to be common, but it decays and becomes a fire hazard when exposed. Older aluminum wiring is less conductive than copper, creating more heat issues. You might encounter cloth-covered wiring on knob-and-tube systems in really old houses, too. Many insurers won’t even cover a house with these kinds of problems.

Our electricians know how to spot old wiring. They can quickly replace it with modern, safer solutions.

Insufficient Outlets or Overloaded Circuits

Aging houses often have two major capacity problems. First, they frequently just don’t have enough outlets for modern living. Anyone who has added a power strip and an extension cord to an entertainment center knows the feeling. Second, the electrical panel and circuits might not supply enough wattage or amperage.

Older houses often had panels that provided just 60-100 amps of service. In a modern house, we strongly recommend a 200-amp panel. This provides the overhead needed for modern devices like dishwashers, washer/dryer combos, EV chargers, electric ovens, power tools, and electronics.

Matching outlets and circuits to power demands is a safety issue. Power strips and extension cords have limited capacity, and they can quickly become fire risks with too many devices plugged in. You also should modernize your outlets with features like grounding and GFCIs.

Warm Outlets, Buzzing Sounds, and Burning Smells

People who live in older homes often assume outlets are just discolored due to aging plastic and that slight burning smells are just musty odors. However, these issues could also indicate problems with:

• Wiring connections in outlets
• Oxidized metal
• Damaged wiring
• Overloaded receptacles

You may also notice buzzing or even crackling sounds. An arc fault might happen because a nail in a wall struck a wire, for example. This is a major fire risk, and older homes have had more nails put into their walls to hang family portraits and other items over the years.

Why Professional Inspection Matters

The electrical systems in older houses often have major problems that require professional solutions. Rewiring a home, for example, isn’t a DIY project. You need the right equipment to efficiently snake wiring through walls without causing damage. Likewise, a licensed electrician knows the electrical codes and can make sure the solution is compliant.

Our company also has tools like infrared cameras and circuit testers that allow us to identify problems quickly across large areas. Small differences in the heat patterns often indicate big problems. Likewise, we know how to interpret data about electrical current, such as determining whether an older grounding plug is still actually providing a path to ground for a circuit.

Finally, our electricians can document everything. From getting permits to providing paperwork attesting to fixes, we can assure homeowners, government agencies, future buyers, and insurers about the condition of an electrical system.

Shanklin Heating, Air Conditioning and Electric is proud to serve the people of Dalton, OH and the surrounding areas. Many people trust us as their Ohio home rewiring experts. We know the outdated wiring warning signs and can quickly address problems. We are also here if you need a licensed electrician in Ohio to work on circuit breakers, fuse boxes, and electrical panels.

Contact Shanklin Heating, Air Conditioning and Electric right away to schedule service if you have any concerns about the state of the electrical system in your Dalton home.