What I find astounding is when inspecting a house I find a component that by all rights should not be functioning. For instances an ancient heating system that that looks like a cauldron from hell, but fires right up the moment the thermostat is turned. Often things that look bad, usually operate the way the appear or not at all.
Usually.
The one thing or should I say force that does not go by the looks bad is bad rule is electricity. As I just alluded to, electricity is a force of nature that man has learned to harnessed. We understand how it behaves and can bend it to our will...to a point. It's akin to a wild mustang that has been broke, there is forever an underlying wild streak.
If there is one aspect of electricity that should give any casual electrician pause it's this; Even when a circuits wired wrong it may still work.
I found a perfect example of miswired and functional on a recent home inspection. The house had two electric panels, a main and a "sub" panel. Sub panels are often in my experience incorrectly and unsafely wired. I believe in many instances they are installed by a contractor or homeowner, not a licensed electrician.
The wiring in this panel was quite unusual. I think most people are casually familiar with modern house wiring. Inside every outlet there are three wires. A hot or feed wire, which is usually black, but can also be red. A neutral wire, which is the white wire and a ground wire, usually bare copper, but sometimes is an insulted green wire.
When I removed the sub panels cover, conspicuous in their absence were the ground and neutral wires. There are six individual circuits in this panel going to numerous receptacles through out the home. And everything works just fine.
Where are all the missing wires? In the main panel above. Without going into all the technical stuff, suffice it to say it's not right and potentially unsafe.
Which demonstrates why electricity should be left to the pros. Just because it works doesn't mean its right. Or safe.
James Quarello
Connecticut Home Inspector
Former SNEC-ASHI President
NRSB #8SS0022
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC
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