Common Electrical Problems in Upper Darby Homes and Why

Our team knows that most electrical problems in Upper Darby come back to one fact: the houses are old. More than 11,000 of the township's homes were built in 1939 or earlier and more than 9,000 more in the 1940s, when a house needed a few lights and a radio. Today the same wiring carries air conditioners, microwaves, computers and sometimes an EV. Here is what that means in practice, what you can check yourself, and when to call (610) 624-6861 so the job is handled by professionals.

Old Wiring In Upper Darby Homes

Houses from Upper Darby's building boom of the 1920s and 1930s may still have knob-and-tube wiring, which was in common use until the 1940s, or early cloth-covered cable. Neither has a ground wire. Look in the basement ceiling: porcelain knobs and tubes, or wires wrapped in fabric, tell you what you have. If your three-prong outlets test as ungrounded with a simple plug-in tester, the wiring behind them is probably older than the outlets, and our electricians can tell you what it will take to make it safe.

Overloaded Electrical Panels

Homes of this age often had 60-amp service, while 200 amps has been standard for new homes for more than forty years. Signs of an overloaded panel are breakers or fuses that trip when two appliances run together, lights that dim when something big starts, and a panel that feels warm. Count your circuits and look at what runs on each; if the kitchen shares a circuit with a bedroom, the panel needs attention, and our team will ensure it gets it.

Flickering Lights And Loose Connections

One flickering light is usually a loose bulb, a worn switch or a dimmer that does not match LED bulbs. Flicker in several rooms, or lights that brighten and dim when a big appliance starts, point to a loose connection in the panel or at the service, which can overheat. With aluminum or very old wiring, a loose connection is more likely. Whole-house flicker is a reason to call the same day.

Outdoor and basement moisture

Tropical Storm Isaias flooded neighbourhoods around 69th Street and in Lansdowne in August 2020, and basements are where most Upper Darby panels live. Water and electricity are a bad mix: if water has reached the panel, outlets or wiring, keep the power to that area off and have it checked by a professional before it is used again. Outdoor and basement outlets should be GFCI-protected and outdoor ones fitted with weatherproof covers.

Storms and surges

Storms bring outages and surges when the power comes back. Isaias left about 265,000 PECO customers in the region without power in 2020. Unplug computers and televisions when the power is going on and off, and consider a whole-house surge protector at the panel. If the lights come back dim or unusually bright, or only half the house has power, turn off sensitive equipment and reach out to our team, because that can mean a damaged service connection.

Aluminum wiring

Solid aluminum branch wiring went into some homes built between about 1965 and 1973, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission found homes wired that way far more likely to have connections reach fire-hazard conditions than copper-wired homes. Most of Upper Darby is older than that, but houses and additions from those years do exist. Look for "AL" or "ALUMINUM" printed on the cable jacket in the basement or at the panel.

Fix It Yourself Or Call An Electrician Near Me?

Resetting a tripped breaker once, pressing the reset button on a GFCI, changing a bulb or a fuse of the correct size, and testing smoke alarms are safe homeowner jobs. Anything that means opening a box, adding an outlet or touching the panel is electrician work, and in Upper Darby Township it usually needs a permit. Homeowners may pull a permit only for their own primary residence and only if they do the work themselves. For everything else, the permit is pulled by the electrician and the work is completed properly.

Signs to act on today

Treat these as urgent and call (610) 624-6861: a burning smell with no obvious source, an outlet or switch that is warm, discoloured or sparking, a breaker that trips again as soon as you reset it, buzzing from the panel, water near electrical equipment, or part of the house losing power. Turn off the affected circuit if you can do it safely, and if there is smoke, leave the house and call 911.