You will know if your house has knob and tube: go up to the attic or down into the basement, and look for exposed wiring. Chances are excellent you have a mix of older and newer wiring, if it was not upgraded after the mid-80s or so. I couldn’t tell you exactly when myself, but at some point municipalities started moving away from a “pull it onto the lot, plug it in” housing code toward actually requiring that ANY electrical work not be approved unless the entire house was brought up to code.
But save your heart attack for a good steak, because knob and tube is not inherently dangerous. It’s what people were doing with it that was winning Darwin Awards. (You could probably do a search for “plugging a fuse with a penny” and see what you get.) I was in a 1948 house in 2015 that still had it: the basic wiring was mostly knob and tube, but the breaker box was modern and it was actually up to code.
So really, no worries about sleeping outside tonight, you still have time to look over your house’s paperwork, seen when it was modified (and whether they pulled permits or did it the I-don’t-need-no-permits way) and then get a real electrician to look it over for you. Chances are good that you’re well within code if you’ve had any serious remodeling or repair work done within the last 30 years or so. When you find nothing objectively unsafe, try not to hate me for making you look. Just don’t stick any loose change into the fuse box, lol.
Apologies for the scare. Did not mean to do that.
EDITED TO ADD: Here’s what knob and tube wiring looks like. You may even have newer wiring running right next to older knob and tube, or knob and tube that’s still there but not actually connected to anything because someone didn’t want to spend an extra half day pulling it out. Your mains/breaker/circuit box is a much better indicator of whether you need to be concerned.
Christ on a bike, don’t say shit like that to me – my house was built in 1886. O.o
Just keeps getting worse from there. Some outlets in this place have seen all the world wars.
There are more efficient ways to give me a heart attack, you know.
I think you’re right. I was sticking around for the next volley of meme-facts, but it looks like the match has been called. :)
You will know if your house has knob and tube: go up to the attic or down into the basement, and look for exposed wiring. Chances are excellent you have a mix of older and newer wiring, if it was not upgraded after the mid-80s or so. I couldn’t tell you exactly when myself, but at some point municipalities started moving away from a “pull it onto the lot, plug it in” housing code toward actually requiring that ANY electrical work not be approved unless the entire house was brought up to code.
But save your heart attack for a good steak, because knob and tube is not inherently dangerous. It’s what people were doing with it that was winning Darwin Awards. (You could probably do a search for “plugging a fuse with a penny” and see what you get.) I was in a 1948 house in 2015 that still had it: the basic wiring was mostly knob and tube, but the breaker box was modern and it was actually up to code.
So really, no worries about sleeping outside tonight, you still have time to look over your house’s paperwork, seen when it was modified (and whether they pulled permits or did it the I-don’t-need-no-permits way) and then get a real electrician to look it over for you. Chances are good that you’re well within code if you’ve had any serious remodeling or repair work done within the last 30 years or so. When you find nothing objectively unsafe, try not to hate me for making you look. Just don’t stick any loose change into the fuse box, lol.
Apologies for the scare. Did not mean to do that.
EDITED TO ADD: Here’s what knob and tube wiring looks like. You may even have newer wiring running right next to older knob and tube, or knob and tube that’s still there but not actually connected to anything because someone didn’t want to spend an extra half day pulling it out. Your mains/breaker/circuit box is a much better indicator of whether you need to be concerned.