Scherer Electric Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Rewiring’

How Long Will My Home’s Electrical Wiring Last?

Monday, August 3rd, 2020
electrical-parts

A home has two hard-working “circulatory systems,” plumbing and electrical. Because both are mostly hidden from view even as they do essential work, it’s easy for a homeowner to dismiss them as something that will last as long as the house does.

But that’s not the case. When it comes to electrical wiring in Orchard Park, NY, you do need to have concerns about the age of the wiring. Not just for as long as you’ve been in the house, but for as long as the wiring has been in the house, period. If you live in a vintage home and the wiring has never had an update, it’s important to know about how long the wiring can expect to endure.

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Does My Home Need Grounding Services?

Monday, June 22nd, 2020
electrical-outlet-wall

What does it mean to have your house grounded? We could go into some lengthy engineering explanations about how electricity works, but we can provide a simpler discussion of the electrical flow in your house. Electricity is always trying to “ground,” which means it gets rid of all its negative energy so it can get back to being balanced. In your home, the way the electrical systems allow electricity to return to ground is through the neutral wires. The “hot” wires carry the negative half of the polarized charge of electricity, and the neutral wires contain the positive half. These wires run next to each other through your electrical system.

For an example of this standard grounding at work, look at an outlet. One slot is the “hot” side, and the other is the “neutral.” The current flows through the hot side and then into the neutral side to eliminate the negative energy.

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Are Three-Pronged Adapters Safe?

Monday, March 16th, 2020
electrical-outlet

The standard for major electrical appliances since 1969 is to have three-pronged plugs. Soon after this standard was introduced, the household outlets started to change over to three-prongs. A three-pronged outlet is a grounded outlet. The third prong, the one below the “hot” and “neutral” slots, is the “ground.” The ground slot is there to protect a person from receiving an electrical shock from the metal casing of an appliance because the electricity from the hot wire side is sent into the ground in case there is excess. You’ll notice that some appliances still use two-prong plugs because they don’t have large metal cases in them that can create this problem.

This lengthy explanation about grounded outlets and three-pronged plugs is necessary to get to the big question, “Is it okay to use a three-pronged adapter?” The cheater plugs allow you to plug a three-pronged plug into a two-pronged outlet, which you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. If you live in an older home with two-pronged outlets, you may have plenty of these cheater plugs around. Is this a good idea?

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Warning Signs You Need Electrical Rewiring for Your House

Monday, December 23rd, 2019
electric-house-rewire

One of the most important jobs we perform for our customers is rewiring older houses to keep them up to code and handle modern electrical loads. There are many vintage homes in Western New York that have outdated wiring that can lead to numerous power failures and even safety hazards. If your home is one of these, you’ll need the assistance of a professional electrician in Clarence, NY to take care of the rewiring—and that means calling us!

But how will you know your home needs professional rewiring? Age alone isn’t the best indicator, since a previous owner may have done upgrades. We’ve put together a list below of the major warning signs that you should call us to rewire all or part of your house.

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Aluminum Wiring in Your Home: What You Should Know

Monday, October 14th, 2019

The demands placed on residential electrical systems are higher than they were only ten years ago, and significantly higher than thirty years ago. With more appliances and charging stations than ever before plugged into a house’s electrical system, it makes sense to upgrade older wiring. Our Buffalo, NY electricians handle electrical wiring and rewiring for homes. Whatever amount of new wiring you may need for your older house, we can take care of the job. We also make upgrades to outlets and electrical panels.

In this post, we’re going to address a specific rewiring concern, which is aluminum wiring found in many older homes. Is aluminum wiring dangerous and does it need to be replaced?

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