Need to find out the age of a home? An easy way to tell the age of a house (sometimes) is by the age of the wiring. Here are a few examples:
Electrical Receptacles – At the start, the early receptacles were non-polarized – with no ground slot, it was made simply of two slots of the same size. Later, we moved onto polarized receptacles and these had two slots; one of which was wider than the other. Finally, we made the switch to allow for grounding. Beneath the two polarised slots, you will also see a round hole for devices or appliances.
Wiring – For an eight-year period from 1967, copper was extremely expensive so builders and electricians would use aluminum wiring. However, it was soon criticized as a building material because it was a fire hazard. Before this, from 1880 to around 1940, knob-and-tube (K&T) wiring was common but this was also seen as a fire hazard and is generally now obsolete. Despite this, many experts have said that the fire risks associated with K&T were exaggerated.
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