New Electrical Modules at the House of Horrors

Greetings to all InterNACHI members!

We have new electrical walls at the InterNACHI® House of Horrors® in Boulder, Colorado. The walls are used during our Chapter meetings, presentations, self-guided tours, and inspection experiences. Come on by and check out the House of Horrors® and the electrical walls at InterNACHI’s Headquarters.

Correct installations and electrolysis are visible at these walls, including:

Overhead and underground service feeders

  • 100-amp main breaker circuit breaker panel with breakers (inspectors can view and operate breakers)
  • Single pole 15 amp circuit breakers
  • Single pole 20 amp circuit breakers
  • AFCI circuit breakers
  • GFCI circuit breakers
  • Combo GFCI/AFCI circuit breakers
  • 120-volt electrical devices (this wall is energized so students can inspect, test and operate devices)
  • Receptacles
  • GFCI receptacles
  • Smoke detectors
  • Carbon monoxide detectors
  • Weather proof receptacles
  • Lighting
  • Switching: single-pole, 3-way, 4-way, dimmer, occupancy sensor
  • 240-volt electrical devices
  • Electric range receptacle
  • Electric dryer receptacle
  • A/C disconnect
  • Grounding and bonding
  • Ground rod grounding
  • Water main grounding
  • Ufer grounding
  • Solar PV grid connected system (students can view an actual PV system on site)
  • Series connected PV solar panels
  • Code required disconnecting means for DC and AC voltage, including electric utility requirements
  • PV solar inverter

At the electrolysis wall, inspectors can view the root cause of electrolysis and where to look for the defects. Electrolysis is related to the grounding system and can create issues that an inspector may discover in the plumbing system and on basement window wells.

If you have any feedback or questions, please post them on this forum thread.

Electrical walls were built by Ray Kline, InterNACHI CPI®, CMI® and Colorado-licensed Master Electrician.

Really nice, Ray.

Please explain each wall a bit more, what each wall demonstrates, and what a visiting home inspector can learn from them.

Students will have the opportunity to participate in the inspection,testing and operation of a wide variety of Electrical devices common to most residential applications. Students will also learn how to identify devices and describe the function and purpose.

very nice

… for example…

That looks great.

Awesome.

The Electrical walls provide hands on opportunities for the students to view, operate and test all of the electrical devices they will find on a typical inspection. All of these devices are correctly installed so they will know how to identify what is electrically correct on a Home Inspection. These Electrical walls also allow us a hands on method to show students the proper function and safety features of devices such as GFCI breakers, Receptacles, AFCI breakers, Carbon Monoxide Detectors, Smoke Detectors, Grounding Systems and Standard Circuit breakers.

For example…


Proper Grounding and Bonding are featured on the electrical walls and students will learn how to identify the different grounding electrodes, the acceptable ground clamps, proper termination in the circuit breaker panels and how to identify defects related to Grounding and Bonding. Understanding the purpose of Grounding and Bonding is always difficult for some students but we strive to clarify the purpose and the NEC requirements so when you begin your journey as a Home Inspector you feel confident about Grounding and Bonding.

During the Electrical training the students will be included in hands on function testing of GFCI, AFCI and combo AFCI/GFCI circuit breakers. They will learn all about the safety functions of these breakers, their history and discussing the positive and negatives of manual testing of the AFCI circuit.

GE Circuit-Breaker_GFCI.jpg