Things To Examine With The Electrical System Of A Home You Want To Buy

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Things To Examine With The Electrical System Of A Home You Want To Buy

5 April 2017
 Categories: Real Estate, Blog


As you search for the right house to purchase for you and your family, there are many things you should thoroughly examine in any home you are considering buying. One area of a home that is important to investigate is the home's electrical system. Even if you do not know a lot about electric, there are things you can look at that will tell you the condition of this system, and here are three important things to view and ask about.

The type of service the home has

Most new homes have 220-volt service, which is good and sufficient for a home today, but older homes do not always have this. Older homes may only have 110-volt service, which might not be sufficient for a homeowner today. If the home has 110, you may experience problems with tripping circuits. This can happen when circuits are overloaded from using too much power. Any home can be updated from 110 to 220, but it can be costly to hire this out.

The electrical panel

A home's electrical panel can reveal a lot about the electrical system of the home too. Older homes may have fuses in the panels, while newer homes have circuits. With fuses, you will need to replace a fuse if it trips. With a circuit, you can simply reset it. In addition, if the house is really old, it may have knob and tube wiring, which is an extremely old form of electric.

The outlets and switches

Examining the home's outlets and switches is another good step to take as you examine a home more closely before you buy it, and this is one of the easiest things for an average person to do. To do this, simply look at the outlets in each room to see if there are enough of them. When you look at the outlets in the bathrooms and kitchen, look for GFCI outlets. These are required by all water sources, and you should find them in these rooms.

You can also examine the light switches to see if all the rooms have lights and if the switches are located in convenient locations.

If you examine these three things and still do not know if the electrical system is safe and sufficient, you could hire a home inspector to look at it for you. In addition, talk to a real estate agent like Homestead Land Co to find out what else you should examine more closely before you buy a house.