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Old Wiring UL Report and Pictures

Joe Tedesco, NEC Consultant

NFPA® 73
Standard for
Electrical Inspections for
Existing Dwellings

NFPA® 73
Standard for
Electrical Inspections for Existing Dwellings
2011 Edition

This edition of NFPA73, Standard for Electrical Inspections for Existing Dwellings, was prepared
by the Technical Committee on Electrical Systems Maintenance and released by the National
Electrical Code Technical Correlating Committee. It was issued by the Standards Council on
June 1, 2010, with an effective date of June 21, 2010, and supersedes all previous editions.

This edition of NFPA73 was approved as an American National Standard on June 21, 2010.

Origin and Development of NFPA 73

NFPA began the development of NFPA 73, Electrical Inspection Code for Existing Dwellings, in
1990. The original document was developed as a result of the united efforts of various insurance,
electrical, construction, inspection, utility, and other allied interests.

The document was initiated in response to data obtained from studies conducted on older
homes by NFPA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and other groups involved with fire investigations. The
studies clearly indicated that fires and other hazards attributed to electrical causes would be
significantly reduced if electrical systems were installed and maintained in accordance with
the NFPA 70, National Electrical Code (NEC).

The fact that only 5 percent of fires occurred in dwellings under 10 years of age is reported
in one of the studies, which indicates the effectiveness of the NEC and electrical inspections at
the time of construction. It also suggests that identification and correction of unsafe conditions
in existing dwellings by means of appropriate inspections could effectively eliminate a
significant portion of the residential fire occurrences and other associated hazards.

The first edition of NFPA 73, Residential Electrical Maintenance Code for One- and Two-Family
Dwellings, was adopted in 1993. The second edition of the document was submitted for formal
adoption at the 1996 NFPA Annual Meeting.

Significant changes to the 2000 edition of NFPA 73 included a new title and an expanded
scope. The Standards Council and the National Electrical Code Technical Correlating Committee
approved changing the scope of the document to include all dwelling units, including
multifamily dwellings and mobile and manufactured homes. To support expanding the document
scope, the NFPA Technical Committee on Electrical Systems Maintenance cited that
deterioration of electrical systems could occur in existing multifamily dwellings and mobile
and manufactured homes. The inspection community now had a code that could be used to
improve the safety of electrical systems in all dwelling units. The change in the title from
“maintenance” to “inspection” reflected the intended purpose of the document.

The 2006 edition reflected editorial revisions of the code to comply with the latest edition
of the Manual of Style for NFPA Technical Committee Documents.

For the 2011 edition, the title of the document has been changed from Electrical Inspection
Code for Existing Dwellings to Standard for Electrical Inspections for Existing Dwellings to facilitate its
use within the home inspection community. This assists the inspectors, who are not code
enforcement officials, by allowing them to utilize the standard for their inspections and
thereby improve the electrical safety in dwelling units.

Samples follow, I will be coming back here to the first board I joined long ago and will add items that will be useful. Stay tuned.