I have been replacing switches and outlets here and there in a 40 year old house and have been finding some very interesting things. Seems like someone liked to DIY after they bought it.

 

 

The use of stranded wire to the switch is indeed rather odd.

 

This is all from the same pretty tight double gang box. Somebody decided to add a 12 AWG pigtail to already twisted neutral bundle. Then added a huge wire nut. That 12 AWG was melted pretty good.

 

No melting on the two stranded hot pigtails. That's good.

 

Cleaned up the twisted neutrals. These transparent Wagos are a beauty compared to wire nuts.

 

Cleaned up the twisted neutrals. These transparent Wagos are a beauty compared to wire nuts.

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I love Wago products ... they ain't cheap, but are of the highest quality

 

And this is how another outlet came out of the wall.

 

It this wiring style kept going, and going, and going.

 

I love Wago products ... they ain't cheap, but are of the highest quality

Not cheap compared to wire nuts? For sure. But they make replacing things so much easier. With the trend of everything being WiFi enabled, I'd bet replacing things like switches/dimmers will be an every 5 years affair. If not less.

 

I'm trying to put in some occupancy sensors, but concerned with inrush current since they will be switching LED lights that have power supplies with caps. I have a current clamp that's rated to 10A, and when connected to my o-scope it reads over 40A inrush on some LEDs.

There is no way it reads higher than actual when going over the rating of the current clamp, right?

 

I have been replacing switches and outlets here and there in a 40 year old house and have been finding some very interesting things. Seems like someone liked to DIY after they bought it.

Probably some DIY, but not necessarily. I don't know about where you are at, but in the 1970s and 80s, fly-by-night developers that did really shoddy work was a big problem in this part of the country. The house I grew up in (we were the first owners) has a ton of major issues, including a lot of poor wiring, copper-only switches and outlets (the house had aluminum wire, and this did cause problems), poor plumbing, improper site prep in an area with expansive soils (which cause a LOT of problems), the main support post being installed upside down and the handle being left in so that it was embedded in the concrete floor, which heaved and lifted the post right off the caisson and twisted the main I-beam. The list goes on and on.