@carlsbad2 - It wasn't just California. Buildings before the 1990's were woefully under circuited by today's standards all over the country. 60 Amp services and overloaded fuse boxes were common.
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.
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@oldelectricalinspector - Very interesting, as the only appliance I can think of in the kitchen that would have issues with the GFCI everywhere requirement is a refrigerator. |
Well, my experience is limited to the 20 I have here, and I’ve never had an arc fault false trip. The only tripping I’ve had has been during testing with a GFCI tester or an accidental over current caused by yours truly leaving two switches too close together while replacing a pair of 3-way switches. I’d really rather all these breakers were a lot cheaper, for sure, but I’ve got no complaints on the reliability issue.
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I’ve never seen such an amplifier. At best I’ve seen an MOV or two in there.
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.
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.
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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. |
So, speaking personally I can’t imagine spending big dollars on electronics and not having something, anything, to reduce the chance of surge damage.- 54 posts total