TIL that loose neutral wires cause way more house fires than I thought

I was reading through some NFPA stats last night and found out that loose neutrals are behind something like 40% of residential electrical fires. I always figured it was old wiring or bad connections on the hot side. But this one detail hit me because I saw a job last month where a homeowner had flickering lights for weeks and nobody checked the neutral bar. Has anyone else run into this more often than you'd expect?

2 comments

2 Comments

keith94310d ago

Yeah that 40% stat is wild. I had a job a few years back where a guy had his whole kitchen remodeled and the lights kept pulsing. Electrician said it was nothing. I told him to check the neutral. He finally did and it was barely hanging on. Almost burned his house down. I see it all the time now. Always flickering lights or weird voltage drops. That's almost always the neutral.

jade_hunt489d ago

I don't know @keith943, I've seen plenty of flickering lights that just ended up being a bad bulb or a loose connection that wasn't that big a deal. Your mileage may vary but that 40% stat sounds like one of those numbers that sounds scary until you really dig into it.