Thanks Paul and for Joe:
Here’s some of the information that I was thinking about when I posted the image above. I believe that the answers to your questions can be found here:
The Problem of Aging Electrical Wiring
In the real world, not everything gets better with age
necdigestâ„¢, Spring 2004
by Jim Lardear
As an electrical professional, you know the difference between a conductor and an insulator, but the typical homeowner does not give it a lot of thought. They flip a switch and a light goes on. If they need to plug in a new appliance, they find an open outlet. If they need more outlets, they get an extension cord or power strip.
The electrical wiring systems that power the conveniences of modern life are hidden in walls and in panel boxes in basements. They are out of sight and out of mind. But that does not mean they are not overloaded and under severe stress.
As homes in the United States age currently half of all homes are at least 50 years old their wiring systems may not be keeping up with the ever-increasing demands placed on them. As their quality and safety deteriorate over time, potential hazards posed by aging residential wiring systems can be unseen or just casually neglected by homeowners or renters.
According to the National Science and Technology Council’s Wire System Safety Inter agency Working Group report issued in 2000, the aging of electrical wiring systems is a national safety issue.
Each year in the United States, it is estimated that there are as many as 41,500 fires in homes related to electrical wiring systems, resulting in 1,400 injuries and 350 deaths with damage estimates ranging from $650 million to $1 billion annually. While older homes are at a greater risk, newer ones are not immune from the dangers of poor wiring practices or the environmental stresses placed on wiring systems.
The reality is that this is not a witch-hunt for defective products. Most of the electrical wiring systems that went into homes in the 1960s, '50s and '40s are at or close to the end of their design life. If these products are showing some kind of deficiency after 50 or 60 years of service, no one in the industry is hinting that there was a design flaw.
“This issue is vendor make and model neutral,” says William King, Chief Engineer for Electrical/Fire Safety, United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (Bethesda, MD). “We are on the threshold of an emerging problem.”
Please look at the next post for the rest of this story!
PS: Bulletin Board limited the complete text.