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Watchmen Property Inspection
Your Tallahassee, FL and Leon County Home Inspector
Certified Real Estate Inspector in Florida & Georgia
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Electrical Inspections

Electrical items are found throughout the house. I do not recommend that you do an electrical inspection yourself. Electrical Inspections are best done by your home inspector or by a licensed electrician.

I use a small outlet receptacle tester on receptacles I can get to without moving heavy furniture. This device tests polarity, voltage drop at 15 Ampere load, and GFCI functionality. The test device is very helpful. For example, I often find grounded receptacles with reversed polarity. The tester can check whether or not the ground pin receptacle is connected inside the receptacle box. The tester is very handy checking out unmarked receptacles that are protected by a GFCI breaker in the main panel. Sometimes I find a GFCI receptacle that appears to trip off correctly. However, the test unit indicates that wiring to the line and load side are reversed inside the box so electricity is never actually removed from the receptacle!

Using the tester also helps me to find receptacles with mechanical problems such as loose or broken receptacle units and loose or worn out receptacle contacts.

Occasionally, I find receptacle wiring that does not pass a voltage drop test at full 15 Ampere load. This generally indicates undersized wiring, loose connections, or long runs with multiple junction box connections.

According to the receptacle tester I use, a receptacle is right side up when the smaller line side slot is on the right, the larger neutral slot on the left, and the ground is on the bottom. However, several licensed electricians have told me that a receptacle is safer with the ground pin on top.

GFCI stands for Ground-Fault Circuit-Interrupter and is intended to prevent electrical shock. A small sensitive device in the GFCI receptacle or breaker detects a very small imbalance in the current in the line and neutral conductors. Above a small threshold current, the device automatically trips the outlet or breaker off. GFCI receptacles should be installed near plumbing or damp locations such as in bathrooms, kitchens, laundries, basements, garages, and outside. Circuits for whirlpool spa pump motors should also be GFCI protected.

Are any wall switches within reach of an occupant of the bathtub or shower? If so, they should be relocated out of reach.

The main electrical panel might be located anywhere in the house. I have found main and subpanels in attics and low clearance crawl spaces. Your home inspector should be keeping an eye out for the main panel as well as subpanels and load centers during the inspection of the interior of the house. It is usually a good idea if your experienced home inspector removes the covers from the main panel and larger load centers in order to check wiring and conditions inside. Again, this should never be done by anyone other than an experienced professional because there are dangerous and lethal voltages inside the panels! Your home inspector should determine whether or not it is safe to open the panel.

Your home inspector should be looking for a number of items inside electric panels including loose connections, incompatible wiring sizes, improper grounding, corrosion, water leakage, and even small animal intrusion. Labeling of circuits is also important. If labeling is missing, unclear, or inaccurate, I recommend that my clients hire a licensed electrician to trace out the circuits and label the breakers in the panel.

Sometimes older houses have so many small fused load centers connected into a small 60 Ampere main fuse panel that I recommend upgrading to a single main breaker panel. Older wiring was installed before many of the home appliances we take for granted today had even been invented.

There are so many other electrical factors I examines as well. Your safety is important and thats why Watchmen is here to help.

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