Content written for Electric City
It is always interesting in our line of work at Electrician Tulsa to see the differences in the way that electrical wiring and sisters were installed 100 years ago versus how they are installed today and all of the things in between. Sometimes we have the opportunity to work on some very old homes in Tulsa and the surrounding areas and it is always very interesting to see the way that it was installed and the products that were used. The field of electricity has come a long way and made a lot of improvements which is what we expect from our society, to build on an existing structure to produce something even better that will be more efficient and last longer.
About one hundred years ago or from about 18880 to 1930, electrician Tulsa used an old form of wiring call knob and tubing. This was considered the best way to run electricity through your home and was the latest and state of the art method during this time. You will see it in almost all homes that were built in this time period. Today it is considered very dangerous as it is not at all safe. It can be a big safety hazard and most insurance won’t even cover a home that still has knob and tubing wiring. If we go to a home that has this we always recommend that the homeowners have us remove all of that kind of wiring and replace it with better and safer wiring that we commonly use today.
Even in the 1960’s and 70’s, through the early 90’s it was very common for electrician Tulsa to use aluminum wiring when they were installing electricity in a home or business. This is better than the knob and tube wiring, but it is still a safety hazard. Aluminum wiring is more likely to cause house fires than copper wiring and is especially unsafe if it is in contact with flammable materials such as insulation or other flammable materials that might be within the walls and ceilings of your home. Today at Electrician Tulsa we recommend our customers who do not have copper wiring switch to all copper instead of the other options because it is safer. It will take a lot of work to get an entire home rewired, but in many cases like aluminum wiring and knob and tube wiring it is well worth the cost.
Some people might read this and thing that they should not buy an older home or that they should be scared. This is not the case. There are many older homes that are a great fit for people, you just have to know that when you do buy an older home there is probably a lot of improvements that you are going to have to do such as the electrical system, so as long as you figure that into your budget, then you can make a really great purchase of an old home that you can fix up.