Upgrading your electrical system

[Joseph mulherin]

Its been 17 years since I was pulling Romex,technology has changed what we did then, you cant do now, what can I do to upgrade some old houses, to save on power bill, just to make the electrical system run better safer, I want to get some thoughts on this, I have an idea, I am sure people are already doing this, but I have been out of touch with the house industry

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[JFletcher]

The only way to save on power is use more efficient appliances, LED lights, and practices our parents have been saying for years, like shut the doors, turn off the lights, etc. Better insulation, windows, and draft-stopping will cut down on heating/cooling costs.

As for a safer/more reliable electrical system, that's going to be open to a lot of views. Heavy duty switches/receptacles, proper terminations on wiring, no backstabbed connection, not designing any one circuit to carry a heavy load... you could go crazy with it. If we wanted ultimate safety/reliability/ease of replacement, every place would be wired in rigid conduit to putty pad wrapped metal boxes, have a proper fire alarm system with UPS, and be sprinkled. Basically, commercial/industrial spec. While I'm not opposed to much of that, istm even a guy building a million dollar home is far more concerned about what exotic stone his countertops will be than building a bulletproof electrical system.

 

[Joseph mulherin]

Your right, I look at things from a industrial stand point, OK I got you, I guess I could come up with something, proper grounding, terminations, I got you

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[JFletcher]

Well, imo you dont have to really 'come up' with anything. I have seen very few older installs that dont have legitimate problems to address. LED lighting is good to us, tho the avg HO probably wont spring for them - they are still pretty expensive up front compared to fluorescent, halogen, or incandescent; key words there "up front". Over the life of the fixture, they are considerably cheaper than all. This is where knowledge and salesmanship come into play. By no means am I saying sell the HO something they dont need, but if you see any areas that can be markedly improved by upgrades, mention it. Driveway lights, security lighting, landscaping lighting, etc. Standby generators do well here too.

Personally, I wished more attention was paid to communications cabling, especially cable for TV. Without fail, every crawlspace/attic Ive been in contained an absolute nightmare of cabling/splitters/marginal terminations. Having come from commercial communications cabling, I have to shake my head and move on 99% of the time.