Electrical Wiring Upgrades for a Home Renovation

Electrical upgrades are a great addition to any home renovations. These types of upgrades are a great value-add since you’re already doing the work on the house, especially if you’ve been having issues with your electrical. Several signs might clue you in that your home is having electrical issues, including:

• Constantly tripping circuit breakers
• Smoke emanating from breaker boxes or other locations
• Strange smells coming from your outlets or appliances

Even if you’re not saddled with these issues, upgrading your electrical wiring can benefit your home. This article will look at the most common upgrades that homeowners ought to consider for their houses during renovations.

Update Outlets

Many homeowners realize that they don’t have enough outlets to serve their family’s needs. The Spruce notes the standard number of outlets per room type in a home, but these standards are just suggestions. Suppose your family must rely on power strips and extension cords to get power to their devices and appliances. In that case, it may be a sign to consider electrical upgrades during home renovation. However, lack of available outlets might just be one of the issues affecting homes. Additionally, if you have plugs falling out of your outlets, it’s time you changed those outlets because this could be a sign of old outlets.

Older homes may not have modern outlets. According to This Old House, Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) were invented in the 1960s as a method of protecting against electrical shock deaths in areas where moisture may be present. Owners of homes built before adopting GFCI standard outlets may want to consider upgrading to protect homeowners and residents.

Electrical Panel Upgrades

Another typical problem older homes encounter is having panels that are limited by their technology. Old breaker panels may have a maximum amount of amps that they can handle, far too low to deal with a modern family’s demands. New panels offer you a lot more place to fit your breakers and handle a higher load in the home, ensuring you don’t accidentally trip the entire house by plugging in a high-demand appliance like a dryer.

Consider LED Lighting

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are a truly unique innovation and one that many homeowners overlook. While most homeowners only see LED lighting as something they use during festive seasons, it can be quite useful as a standard light source as well. Changing your lights to LEDs gives your home the lighting it requires and potentially reduces your power consumption. Innovations in the industry have made LED lights customizable, allowing you a wide choice of colors and warmth to match your decor.

Rewire the House

While this might not be a concern for a home build within the last decade, older homes do suffer from inefficient wiring on occasion. We’ve seen several older buildings that still have Knob-and-Tube wiring out of the early twentieth century. Aluminum wiring might also be present, and while it’s a little more modern (around the 80s and 70s), it’s still not desirable as a wiring option. These older electrical installation technologies will work, and there might be nothing wrong with them. However, with so few safeguards in place to deal with problems, they could become an issue before you even know it. Rewiring during a home renovation is the most efficient way of dealing with them – just remember to work on this home project with a licensed electrician.

Consult an Electrician

While you could work on electrical systems within your home by yourself, it isn’t recommended. You should consult a professional electrician to help with your electrical wiring upgrades during a home renovation. LiveWire is a trusted contractor in the Charlotte, North Carolina area with a proven track record extending to many clients. If you’re interested in partnering with a team that knows how to do upgrades, give us a call today. We’ll be glad to help!