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Common Electrical Safety Problems (and How to Solve Them)
Photo: Michael Hession

Common Electrical Safety Problems (and How to Solve Them)

Not all quick fixes are safe fixes—and that’s especially true when it comes to outdated electrical wiring in old houses or apartments.

Last October, the Colorado Springs Fire Department responded to reports of smoke wafting out of a wood-framed home. The antiquated knob-and-tube wiring—installed when the home was built in 1909—had made contact with insulation in the attic, overheated, and ignited. Everyone made it out by the time firefighters arrived, and they quelled the flames within minutes. But fires of this nature can be especially dangerous because archaic wiring is often out of sight, out of mind—until it’s too late.

Even if your home or apartment was built after knob-and-tube was phased out in the 1940s, other outdated or failing electrical components can be a major nuisance. Dead outlets with worn or loose connections are useless, two-prong outlets are incompatible with many modern appliances, and flickering lights are distracting. Some quick fixes like adapters, power strips, and extensions cords are fine to use in the short term, but come with safety hazards of their own.

CSFD battalion chief Steve Wilch said that regardless of the state of your home’s electrical system, smoke alarms are still one of the best ways to protect yourself from failures. He recommends replacing smoke alarms every five years or so and changing out the batteries once every six months to a year.


Too few outlets

Two three-pronged electrical outlets with a cord laying on the floor next to them.
Photo: Michael Hession

Unless your home was built in the last 20 years, you may have found that there aren’t nearly enough outlets to accommodate your growing list of gadgets. Power strips—or better yet, surge protectors, which absorb common power surges that can damage electronics—are an inexpensive and safe way to add extra outlets in most circumstances. Never use an extension cord as a permanent solution when there’s no outlet nearby.

In 2016, 23-year-old Sarah Calvert and her four roommates lived in a rented home in Madison, Wisconsin, that was originally built in the 19th century. Despite updates, the house had far fewer outlets than they needed. “There are so many things that have to be plugged in to work,” said Calvert. “You can’t just plug in the TV—there’s the TV and the receiver and the Roku and whatever else.” The group resorted to plugging power strips and extension cords into virtually every outlet.

A power strip is fine to use under a desk or home entertainment system as long as it’s certified by the electrical safety company UL (formerly known as Underwriters Laboratories) and has built-in surge protection. But you should never use an extension cord to plug in a device across the room, because the cord can wear down when snaked around corners and furniture or partially pull out of the wall, creating conditions that could start a fire. Even though surge protectors are well-suited for adding outlets in a concentrated area like behind a media center, you should never daisy-chain multiple power strips, or use them to power high-output devices like space heaters, air conditioners, or hair dryers.

Robert Diamond, head of the New York City Department of Buildings’ Electrical Development Unit, told us, “If you need more outlets you should call a qualified professional, rather than taking the easy way out.”

Depending on where you live, and the age of your home, a licensed electrician could charge you as little as $100 to install an additional outlet—a small price for something that should make your home safer for years to come.

Two-prong outlets

If your home has two-prong outlets, there’s not a safe way to update them to modern three-prong outlets, short of calling a licensed electrician. But if you’re a renter you might have a case to get your landlord to replace them.

Calvert’s 19th century house had some two-prong outlets, so she and her roommates reserved them for lamps and other appliances with two-prong plugs. These outlets, common in buildings constructed before the 1960s, don’t just limit what you can plug in, but also offer less protection against sparks and shocks than modern plugs with the third prong thats keeps electricity grounded. You can buy a cheap adapter as a workaround, but because these protrude from the wall they can get bumped and disconnected, causing electricity to arc and spark. “We don’t recommend any kind of adapter as a permanent solution,” Diamond said.

If you’re a renter with two-prong outlets, and your home or apartment was built or retrofitted after grounding became required in the 1960s, your landlord may be required to update the outlets at their own expense.

Dead outlets

You might be tempted to ignore a dead outlet and cover it up with a piece of furniture, but a nonworking outlet could signal a frayed or loose wire somewhere in the circuit.

A handheld voltage tester or a three-prong outlet testing device from your local hardware store should cost less than $20 and can give you more information to pass along to your electrician when you call them to replace the outlet. But Diamond says a testing device is only as good as the knowledge of the person using it. “If somebody tests an outlet and is not getting a reading, it doesn’t always mean it’s dead.”

Replacing an outlet is a quick job for a licensed electrician, so it’s worth having one come out to do it right. If you’re a renter, ask your landlord to have it repaired. Because a dead outlet is a safety and habitability issue—plus a potential code violation—it’s their responsibility to get it fixed.

Frequent blown fuses or circuit-breaker trips

If the breakers in an older home trip a lot, that could mean that your modern appliances are too powerful for its electrical system or there’s faulty wiring. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of troubleshooting you can do on your own before calling in a professional. It’s normal for a fuse to blow or a breaker to trip every once in a while, but frequent occurrences hint at a deeper issue.

Joshua Peterson, a master electrician in Loveland, Colorado, often gets called to root out these deeper issues after a home has been “fixed and flipped” by an unlicensed contractor. On a recent project, he recalls, his client “had about two circuits feeding the whole downstairs kitchenette, and most kitchens today have to have 8-10 circuits serving them. She had beautiful granite and walls and ceilings and tile and drywall. But when she’d plug one thing in here, it would trip on another thing there. It’s what we call at our company putting lipstick on a pig.

You should never swap a breaker or fuse for one with a higher amperage—say, replacing a 15-amp breaker with a 20-amp version—in an effort to correct frequent failures. This is dangerous because instead of addressing the problem that is causing the breaker to trip or the fuse to blow, you are preventing the safety device from working as intended. This could allow the wiring to overload and overheat, starting a fire.

Every jurisdiction in the country has its own set of standards and policies regarding electrical work. The New York City Department of Buildings is an exemplar, said Diamond. You can go on the department’s website and read about an electrician’s license status, if they’re in good standing, if they’re insured, and find out if any disciplinary reports have been filed on them. And if you’re a renter and you see a problem, you can call 311 or file a complaint online.

Tracking down qualified professionals and paying for their labor and equipment takes time and money. But putting in that extra bit of legwork to replace outdated electrical wiring in your home is well worth it in the long run—reducing your risk of electric shock, damage to your gadgets, or even a fire.