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Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Thursday, April 08, 2010 at 19:32:22 :
In Reply to: Sharp eyes posted by D Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Wednesday, April 07, 2010 at 23:24:48 :
Lots of the old houses here still have knob and tube inside the house. It's a perfectly safe system so long as nobody has hacked it up, and it's protected by a 15 amp fuse or breaker. The only reason knob and tube has a bad reputation is that people splice all kinds of mickey-mouse wiring onto it, often by just cutting off the insulation and twisting the new wires around the old ones, and when the fuses start blowing too frequently, the put in 20s, and then 30s (or maybe a penny) and the problem is solved until the wires overheat. A couple of parts of my big building still have some live knob and tube in them. When it comes to ceiling lights, it's usually impossible to run new wires without chopping up the walls, and since the ceiling lights don't need a ground anyway, I usually leave the knob and tube.
What I haven't seen anywhere is that old-style service drop, with three widely-spaced wires running from the street to the house.
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