Be careful out there!

     It is not hard to sell the idea of the importance of electrical safety, and yet as inspectors we find unsafe electrical conditions in most homes.  Electrical safety issues are by far the biggest part of most inspection reports and they usually take up the biggest portion of the report summary-----which is dedicated to major expense and safety issues.  Most homeowners are not educated enough about electricity to know when things are not correct, and some homeowners know just enough about electricity to make things work but still be dangerous.  Electricity is "mysterious" to many.  Wouldn't it be nice if things would simply not work when wired improperly?  More and more we are developing technologies that try to do just that.  Newer types of AFCI and GFCI breakers and receptacles are very "smart".

     In the following picture we see an installation that could definitely benefit from GFCI and AFCI protection.  The light fixture is full of water and the bulb holder component is outside of its enclosure where kids or pets could come in contact with it.

     This wiring was hot at the time of inspection and no switch could be found to turn it off.  Immediate repairs are warranted.  What a lot of people don't realize is that electricity is happy to be under water and will not necessarily trip a circuit breaker just because it is under water.  For wiring that is under water to trip a circuit breaker water would have to be very "conductive" (very dirty).  Ordinary tap water for example is not conductive.  (Sounds like an episode of "Myth Busters" doesn't it?)  By contrast the blood in our bodies is very "dirty" and therefore very conductive which makes it likely for our bodies to be the easiest path to ground for the electricity---if we are in contact with the ground or grounded components (pipes etc).

     In this next picture we see wiring lying on the ground of the crawl space with open splices and an obvious high water line on the foundation indicating that at some time in the past, perhaps seasonally,  these exposed connections may have been under water.

      A few feet away (with the ground cover lifted) the wire can be seen running through water under the ground cover.  These can be very dangerous conditions for anyone working in the crawl space (including inspectors).

In the words of "Hill Street Blues"----"be careful out there!"

Charles Buell