Knob and Tube Wiring

Dan Craig '03 — Thursday, March 13, 2014

Stripping the house down to the studs revealed an extensive network of antique knob and tube wiring as well as tubing for gas lights. When the house was built in 1900, it was a transitional period for home infrastructure. Had the house been built a short time later, it might have had native electic light.

While electric power has long been standardized, we are again in a transitional period when it comes to lighting. Incandescent light bulbs are being phased out. Compact flourescents are clunky and difficult to dispose of. LEDs seem to be the future, but they are still rapidly improving and reducing in price. For this project, we choose to install 100% LED lighting, both for energy efficiency and their long life and low maintenance needs.

Who knows what technology will appear in the coming decades. No doubt that when the house is next renovated 50 years from now, future brothers will marvel at our primative systems.