Electrical Inspections and Load Checks for Renovated and Existing Homes, Austin and Huntsville (2019-2020)

A whole-house electrical inspection is a different job from a grounding test. Four of these home electrical inspections, from 2019 and 2020, covered Austin houses where the city wanted an engineer to look at everything. Two more dealt with a new house near Huntsville and a load question in a detached garage.

Old aluminum, new work

Two of the Austin houses were renovations wired partly in their original aluminum. In one, occupied by a family when we visited, the aluminum branch wiring had been reused and showed no wear, it was spliced to copper by acceptable methods, and the service had new copper connections and a new riser to the weather head. The HVAC breakers were sized correctly, and we tested the GFCI receptacles with an external ground fault generator. In the other, listed connectors joined aluminum to copper at every junction we opened. Properly installed, aluminum wiring does not add undue risk of fire or shock, so the work passed on materials.

Panels and services

A duplex under renovation had two 125 A services, each with its main disconnect below the meter and the bonding jumper in the right place, and its ground was continuous between the two units. The only panel deficiency was feeder color: one panel had two black feeders, and the task was to tape one red. On a new house near the end of construction, the city inspector asked us to validate every item on the city deficiency report. A destructive examination followed, with walls opened by others at the request of the owner, and our revised report answered each comment.

A punch list for a new house

Outside Austin, a builder near Huntsville asked for a site inspection in April 2019. Our letter listed eleven items: GFCI protection in the kitchen, bathrooms, laundry and outdoors; 20 A receptacles in the kitchen; arc fault breakers for the living spaces and bedrooms; and a mismatch where 15 A receptacles sat on 12 AWG wire and 20 A breakers, with two ways to fix it.

A workshop in the garage

In 2020 a homeowner asked whether his detached garage, part woodshop and part finished living space with an office, had enough power. The woodshop alone came to about 6,000 VA, or 25 A at 240 V, for one person working. Under NEC^® Article 220, with no gas appliances, the garage building needs 29,416 VA, a 123 A demand and a 125 A minimum supply, more than its existing feed. The whole property, with the gas-heated main house, came to 166 A, so the 200 A service was adequate.

Related services

Whole-house reviews are part of our residential inspections. Demand calculations like the garage check are described under load analysis.