Home Electrical Improvements

Should electrical inspectors be allowed to perform work in the same town where they’re inspecting? Does this scenario create a conflict of interest in any way?

Many smaller towns have part-time electrical inspectors.  These inspectors usually have their own businesses, in addition to their inspector positions. This juggling makes sense. If their job is only part- time, how are they going to pay their bills?  Over the years, I’ve dealt with these inspectors numerous times. Quite frankly, I never felt like the inspector was being unfair in any way—even when their company was one of our competitors.

I have countless stories about inspectors.  I always wanted to share my stories, but I never had the platform to do so until our company launched this blog.  Of all my stories, the following one is undoubtedly my favorite. Before this inspection, I honestly thought I’d seen it all, but this one threw me for a loop!

We completed a job involving knob and tube replacement in a North Shore town in Massachusetts. I won’t mention the name of the town, even though I probably should because this inspector’s behavior was quite shady.

As many of you may already know, knob and tube replacement is a mainstay of our business. We specialize in it, and we often simultaneously do two or three replacement jobs year-round. So yeah, we do A LOT of these jobs, and we like to think we do them better than anyone else.

Since I get along really well with the head electrical inspector of this town, I was looking forward to seeing him at the job. Unfortunately, he was on vacation that week and the assistant inspector wasn’t available either.  I was assigned a backup inspector whom I’d never met.

When the inspector pulled up, I was sitting outside on the front stairs waiting for him. As he got out of his car and started walking toward me, I got this really weird feeling. He was looking at me in a very odd way. Right away, I could sense some negative energy.  But I was polite and said, “How are you doing?” He replied, “Fine. What’d you do here?” I told him, “Knob and tube replacement.” Then I proceeded to show him around.  The homeowner was also there to let us in, so he followed along.

We started in the living room and I showed the inspector what we had done. Right away, he asked, “Why didn’t you add a receptacle to this wall?” I answered, “All we’re here to do is replace the knob and tube wiring.” The owner was not interested in ADDING more receptacles. The inspector kind of groaned, shook his head, and said, “Okay.”

We then moved onto the dining room. Again, he asked about a wall not having a receptacle. At that point, I could see where this situation was going. He then said in a very condescending way, “I hope you used arc-fault circuit breakers.” I answered, “Yes, of course. They’re required by code. We can take a look at them in the basement panel.” From there, the negative energy only got worse.

When we were upstairs in the bedroom, he asked, “Why didn’t you add a receptacle on this wall?” I gave him the same answer yet again: “We only replaced the knob and tube wiring—nothing more than that.” He then stated, “This is unacceptable. You must bring the ENTIRE HOUSE up to code and add receptacles on every wall—to fit the 12’ rule.” (When a house is gutted or being built new, we are required to install receptacles on walls so there is no wall space with more than 6’ to the nearest receptacle) I asked, “How would a knob-and-tube-replacement job trigger a complete update? The knob and tube in this house is only a small portion of the existing wiring.  Why would we need to bring it up to code like a new-build house?”

He really had no answer, other than, “That’s what I want and I’m not going to pass the job because of it.” I asked him to show me a code article that required us to do what he was demanding. He didn’t like that!!  I also mentioned, “We do tons of these jobs and we’ve never heard this from an inspector before.” This response only made him more pissed!  He then said, “I’m not passing it. Call me when the entire house is up to code.” And he left.

Why don’t you need to bring your house up to code when replacing antique wiring?

Simply put, the job is to REPLACE THE ANTIQUE WIRING.  Nothing more! Imagine if you called an electrician to add a receptacle in your dining room. He looks around and says, “Well, if I add that one, I’ll need to bring the entire room up to code.  You’d probably be like, “What the heck? I just want to add a receptacle in this spot, nothing more.”

The logic of bringing this kind of space up to code makes zero sense. Plus, we need to consider budgets. A homeowner who needs to replace their knob and tube wiring is probably being forced into it by their insurance company. So it’s very unfair to expect them to spend double or triple that cost to bring a house up to code.  We’ve all heard the old saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day!”

The only time an electrician can be required to bring a room up to code is when it’s gutted. Period. Once the space is gutted, it becomes a new-work installation, which must follow the current code requirement.  

Back to the story….

After the inspector stormed out, I didn’t know what to think. And quite frankly, I felt a little embarrassed. Failing an electrical inspection in front of a homeowner is not a great look LOL—even when the reason for failing makes no sense and the inspector is being hostile.  

When he was gone, I looked at the owner and said, “I have no idea what just happened here.  I’ve honestly never had this kind of run-in with an inspector.” The homeowner looked at me and said, “You know what?  He bid this job!” You don’t say!  Now it makes sense!!  

Manual Generator Panel VS Manual Interlock kit

 So you have decided to use a portable generator for emergency power, but confused by the options to connect it to your house? Believe me you are not alone! There are two main options, one being a manual generator panel and the other an interlock kit that ties into your existing panel.  There are a number of things to consider when picking between these two options, so

let’s dive in!

The manual generator panel option

This panel of 6-10 circuits (or more) will tie into your existing electrical panel. You will choose the circuits you want to power while on generator power.  When power is out, you start your generator up and simply flick the switches on this panel to GEN and off you go!

One reason we really love this option is we have more control over the things your generator will power. With this option, you are less likely to overpower the generator.

This customer planned to only power a few circuits under generator power, but still wanted the future flexibility of powering additional ones if he upgrades his generator. We went with the 10 circuit panel which is by far the most common size we install.

  The manual interlock transfer switch option

An interlock transfer switch is mounted in your existing electrical panel. When power goes out you will turn OFF the circuit breakers that your generator cannot support. Things like your electric range, electric dryer, A/C, electric water heater etc.  At this point you can start up your generator, turn OFF your main circuit breaker, and turn ON your generator breaker.  Once those steps are taken, your entire panel is being powered off your generator.

If you feel capable of managing your own loads, then this is a great option. It’s critical you turn OFF those heavy loads though, before powering the generator up. Otherwise you will over power the generator.  

How does the generator tie into the manual transfer system?

With either option, you will be given a male outlet sized to your system. Most commonly a 30amp outlet. This can be installed in your basement at the panel / generator, or more conveniently outside where the generator will sit.

From your generator you will have a heavy duty cord (again rated for the load) which will connect the generator to the male outlet. These cords come in all kinds of different lengths and can get fairly pricey once you get to 40’ and above.

My recommendation is to ALWAYS install the generator outlet outside in the vicinity of where the generator will sit. Yes it does cost a little bit extra to install this outlet, but you will save money on a long cord. Plus it makes for a way cleaner installation. Imagine running the generator cord through a window or leaving a door open a crack to feed the outlet inside?

So which one is the one for me? Let’s look at the pros and cons of each

Generator Panel Pros:

Load management is minimal. The electrician is working that out with you during installation and setting you up for an easy to use system.

No issue using a very small generator. In this case, you will only select the circuits it can power.

Generator Panel Cons:

If you add any new circuits to your panel and you want them on generator power, you will need to connect them to the generator panel. If all of your generator panel spots are used, a larger panel is the only option to accommodate the new circuits.

Cost. The generator panel is on average a few hundred dollars more than an interlock kit.

Interlock kit pros:

Total flexibility, power the loads you want (within reason!) and turn off the ones your generator can’t

If you add new circuits to your electrical panel, they can powered by the generator without changing anything.

Cheaper! It’s a less expensive product and generally a quicker install then the generator panel

Interlock kit cons:

Customer needs to manage the loads themselves. Again this is critical for it to work correctly.

Need to have a decent size generator powering it. I wouldn’t use this option with a 2,000watt generator for example.

If you have an older panel, there may not be an interlock kit available for it.

If your panel lacks a main breaker, one will need to be added for this system to work.

I’m a huge fan of the interlock kit with customers who can manage their loads and have selected a good size generator. Good size to me means a 6000-7500 watt running generator for most homes.  If you can’t handle managing the loads yourself, then the generator panel is a no brainer.

How about picking out a portable generator?

There are a few things to consider:

 Propane or gas, or both? We are a huge fan of the combo units as propane burns much cleaner and the generator will probably last many more years with fewer problems if propane is used. Plus you don’t need to store any gas on site!  If you ever run low on propane or don’t     have access to it, you can always fall back on gas.  I really love this flexibility.

Size.Generators are rated in watts (W).  The higher the wattage the more  power they can deliver. If you are looking to power your heating system,     frig and some lighting going as small as a 4000 watt unit is perfectly fine.  If you want to power your microwave, washing machine, window AC and more, then a 7500-8000 watt unit is ideal.  If you want to power even more things     such as a dryer, electric water heater, then going to a 10,000 watt + unit may be needed.

Big question that comes up all the time. What size electrical service I need for my home and is my current service enough? What tells you what size electrical service you need? It’s a load calculation. This is something electricians do all the time. A load calculation takes into account the square footage of usable space plus the electrical appliances. 

Now it’s not a 1 for 1 calculation, meaning you don’t take all your appliance amperages and and add them together. Electricians use a demand factor which reduces that total number. The reason for the demand factor is that our code assumes that not everything will be running at the simultaneously. Think about it, what’s the chances you will have your electric range on with the burners, oven, warming drawer, dishwasher, garbage disposal, washing machine, dryer , lights, window acs, televisions on and all running. Very unlikely. This is the reason for the demand factor. To describe the calculation is a bit complicated and quite boring, but I will tell you that if you have an average to smaller size home 2,000 to 2,500 sq ft home, if you have a 100 amp service and you have a gas range and other electrical appliances, there’s a good chance your 100 amp service is perfectly fine. 

If you have an electric range with common electric appliances, dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave; you’re probably still ok. It is when you start adding in the central air, electric water heater you may need to move up to 200amp service. If you have an existing 100 amp service and it is in bad shape and you need to replace it. Say it got water damage, it makes zero sense to replace a 100 with another 100 amp service. The labor involved in installing a 100am over a 200amp service is almost exactly the same its just the material difference. You will need a larger wire, larger panel and larger meter socket. So I I cannot recommend ever replacing a 100 amp with another 100 go to the 200 amp service. 

If you ever sell your house and you have a 200amp service you will definitely get your money back at that time. Home buyers love to hear a home has a 200amp service. They probably don’t even know that means but they know it’s good. I am now seeing in home inspector reports that inspectors are recommending 100amp services be upgraded to 200 amp. Most of the time it doesn’t. 

There are larger size services which is typically 400 amp and not very common.The last 400amp service we did was about 5,000 sq ft, had all electric appliances, a Tesla electric vehicle charger and really called for the larger service. 

What does the future hold for your home. When thinking of upgrading your service; think about what you might plan to do in the future. An electric vehicle charger, hot tub, any of these large loads where maybe it makes sense to go larger than 200amps. I will say 200amp service is usually enough and will always be enough. These are just some things to consider and talk to your electrician about when upgrading as you want to do this just one time and not have to do again years down the road. 

As an electrician for over 12 years, and an owner of Kuhlman Electrical Services that specializes in knob and tube replacement, I meet homeowners who have knob and tube wiring on a weekly (and sometimes even daily) basis. I find that most, if not all, are misinformed on a number of topics, such has how the wiring is installed, how to remove the old wiring, how electricians create estimates, how much removal should cost, and more. I thought to myself, How wonderful would it be if homeowners with knob and tube wiring had some sort of reference guide to follow? It could help them inform themselves as to what to expect prior to meeting a potential electrician for an estimate. You have no idea how many estimates I have been at where the owner mentions that the previous electrician they had out told them they’d have to gut the walls the knob and tube wiring is in. When I hear that, I say, “Well, it’s a good thing you decided to get another opinion!” 

60% of customers have their knob and tube replaced due to installing insulation, 30% due to an insurance issue, and the remainder for the want of an updated safe and grounded electrical system. 

Most electricians offer free in-home estimates but there are pros and cons. It’s free, It’s a fairly accurate way of estimating the job, It’s a relatively quick process, however with this process the electrician has to make some assumptions and there could be as much as 10% variation in the final cost due to more or less knob and tube wiring actually being present.  A customer may choose another option which is wire mapping which typically has an associated cost due to the time and precision it takes for the entire home’s wiring to be mapped. 

Once knob and tube wiring is deemed present, now the fun begins! New wire will need to be fished to replaced all the old wiring. This can be done without tearing walls down. Some spots are harder than others but still manageable; some small holes may be necessary for outlets, ceiling fans etc, but small and patchable.  Wallpaper can pose some issues, when holes are needed to fish the new wiring. Depending on the condition of the wallpaper, it can often be sliced, peeled away from the wall, then glued back. If the wallpaper won’t peel, it typically rips.

You can have power in your home during the home electrical upgrade. A home should be able to maintain most, if not all, of the power throughout during the process. To make this happen, the knob and tube wiring will be capped off as the electrician begins rewiring the home.