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The last 20 years of Home Power Have Been Amazing

In the late 1990s I installed my first electric panels. Mostly for the sake of running a safe woodworking workshop but also to enable the multiple window units and my partner and my offices, plus the TV and stereo, of course.

At that time whole house surge protectors were available but not required. Being an IT guy in a storm prone area of course I went for it. Otherwise however breakers were rather similar to those from the original mid 1960s versions. I mean, I’m sure there were improvements in panel technology and how breakers were manufactured but for the home there were really only two aspects you needed to care about:

  • Current capacity
  • Poles (1 or 2)

And for the home owner that’s were things stood for almost 40 years. In the last 20 years though much has changed. Arc fault (AFCI or CAFCI) first required in 2002 for bedrooms. Now (since 2017) they are required practically everywhere in a home. Whole house SPDs (surge protectors) are required from 2020.

Most recently, the 2023 NEC greatly expanded the use of Ground Fault (GFCI) protection. GFCI’s which were limited to kitchen and bath outlets are now required for your washer and dryer, microwave, range, dishwasher and (in my case) garbage disposal. Take a look at any modern panel. You’ll see 4 different types of breakers:

  • Old fashioned
  • GFCI (white test button)
  • CAFCI (dark blue test button)
  • Combined GFCI + CAFCI (pale blue test button)

And outlets? Have you noticed weather resistant (WR, 2008) or tamper resistant (TR, 2008) requirements? In addition to GFCI requirements. Sheesh. It’s a marvel any electrician can keep them all straight, let alone a home owner.

Of all these improvements though the only one I'd suggest you rush out and get is the whole house surge suppressor unless your breaker panel is running 40 years old in which case a replacement may be a good idea soon.

erik_squires
erik_squires OP
16,212 posts
 

Many of us feel power amps sound best when plugged directly into the wall outlets. But these amps tend to have good internal protection.

@hickamore 

I’ve never seen such an amplifier. At best I’ve seen an MOV or two in there.

Obviously whole house surge protection would help shield other costly appliances, but how valuable for good power amps?

I think that consumers have very different risk profiles depending on your experience and your equipment. There are people in North America who have never lost equipment from an electrical surge. None of them live in the Southeast. laughSo, speaking personally I can’t imagine spending big dollars on electronics and not having something, anything, to reduce the chance of surge damage.

 

Also, from my own experience, I know by observation that my amps get fed better power more consistently by using a Furman with voltage regulation + SMP/LiFT. Whether I was living in an apartment with 130VAC or here in a detached home with 10-15V seasonal variations and power fluctuations due to the AC coming on or off, brown outs and monthly power issues I know for a fact that every day, every hour, my integrated gets fed well regulated and clean power.

It also sounded a lot better when living in a densely populated area to have Furman than not.

 

oldelectricalinspector
8 posts
 

This is an interesting discussion,  the first appliance requirement for gfci was for dishwashers . The substantiation for the dishwasher requirement was manufactures could not meet the safety requirements for leakage current.  I’ve often wondered why they didn’t include garbage disposals.  
Most code changes are the result of incidents that occurred. The code is often referred to be written in blood. 

oldelectricalinspector
8 posts
 

One more thought for safety,  when you have an existing circuit for a stove or dryer, if was installed over 20 years ago it will be a 3 wire circuit. Line one ,line two and neutral, NO GROUND! It was at the time permitted to be grounded through the neutral.  A jumper was installed to bond the metal frame to the neutral conductor. If installing a new appliance on an old circuit this jumper must be maintained. 
The interesting reason this was ever allowed in the first place was because during WW 2 copper was precious, needed for the war effort.  The substantiation for the change in the late 90s was, the war was over!

grislybutter
3,179 posts
 

there are two holes in the wall, where I insert the plug and the thing at the other end of the wire lights up. That's how far I got, so far...

erik_squires OP
16,212 posts
 

This is an interesting discussion, the first appliance requirement for gfci was for dishwashers . The substantiation for the dishwasher requirement was manufactures could not meet the safety requirements for leakage current.

@oldelectricalinspector

I had my 10 year old dishwasher and new (last week) dishwasher on a combination GFCI/CAFCI breaker. No issues at all.

I just converted my disposal to plug in, requiring a GFCI breaker (don't want a GFCI outlet due to location) and again, no issues at all. 

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