Aiken has some of the most beautiful older homes in South Carolina. From the grand winter colony houses in the historic district to the post-war bungalows along Park Avenue, the mid-century ranch homes in Woodside, and the mill village houses in Horse Creek Valley and Graniteville, a huge portion of Aiken's housing stock was built between the 1920s and the 1980s. These homes have character, mature landscaping, and often more square footage per dollar than new construction. They also, almost without exception, have electrical systems that were designed for a fundamentally different era.
A home built in 1965 was wired for a world where the average household had a television, a refrigerator, a few lamps, and maybe a window air conditioning unit. The electrical system was sized and configured for that load. Today, that same home is expected to run central air conditioning, a heat pump, a dishwasher, a microwave, multiple computers, a home entertainment system, phone chargers in every room, and potentially an electric vehicle charger in the garage. The electrical system has not kept up, and the gap between what the system was designed to handle and what it is actually being asked to handle is where danger lives.
Electrical Codes Have Changed Dramatically
The National Electrical Code, which South Carolina adopts as the basis for its electrical regulations, is updated on a three-year cycle. A home built to the 1965 code is now more than 20 code cycles behind the current standard. That does not mean your home is automatically illegal or that you are required to bring it up to current code. Existing installations are generally grandfathered in. But it does mean that safety features which are now considered essential, features that prevent fires and electrocutions, are absent from your home's electrical system. Understanding what is missing helps you make informed decisions about which upgrades are worth prioritizing.
Undersized Electrical Panels
The most common issue we see in older Aiken homes is a panel that is simply too small for the home's current electrical demands. Homes built before the mid-1960s often have 60-amp service, which was standard at the time. Homes built through the 1970s and 1980s typically have 100-amp panels. For context, a modern home with central air conditioning, an electric dryer, and an electric range already needs close to 100 amps just for those three loads. Add a heat pump, a home office, and a Level 2 EV charger, and you are well past what a 100-amp panel can safely deliver, let alone a 60-amp one.
An undersized panel does not just trip breakers more often, although that is one symptom. It also forces homeowners to make compromises: running the dryer only when the AC is off, avoiding using the microwave and the toaster at the same time, daisy-chaining power strips because there are not enough circuits. These workarounds mask the underlying problem while creating additional hazards. A panel upgrade to 200-amp service gives your home room to handle current demands and future additions without being perpetually overloaded.
Ungrounded Wiring and Two-Prong Outlets
If your home has two-prong outlets, your wiring does not include a ground conductor. Grounding provides a safe path for electrical current to return to the panel in the event of a fault. Without it, that current has to find another path, which might be through the metal chassis of an appliance and through you when you touch it.
Grounding also makes surge protection work. A surge protector without a ground connection is nothing more than an expensive power strip. It cannot divert excess voltage anywhere because there is no ground path for it to use. This matters a great deal in Aiken, where summer lightning storms are frequent and power surges are a real threat to expensive electronics.
You may have noticed that some previous owners "solved" this problem by replacing two-prong outlets with three-prong outlets without actually running a ground wire. This is a code violation and a serious hazard, because it gives you a false sense of security. The three-prong outlet accepts grounded plugs, but there is no actual ground present, so you get no fault or surge protection at all. A licensed electrician can test every outlet in your home to determine whether a ground conductor is actually present.
No GFCI Protection in Wet Areas
Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter outlets, the ones with the "Test" and "Reset" buttons, detect when current is flowing through an unintended path, such as through water or through a person, and shut off the circuit within milliseconds. The NEC first required GFCI protection for outdoor outlets in 1971, bathrooms in 1975, garages in 1978, kitchens in 1987, and crawl spaces and unfinished basements in 1990.
If your home was built before the applicable date for any of these areas, chances are good that GFCI protection was never installed there. This is one of the most cost-effective safety upgrades you can make. GFCI outlets cost relatively little to install and they prevent the single most common type of fatal electrical shock in residential settings: current flowing through a person who is in contact with water. We recommend GFCI protection in every kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, garage, outdoor outlet, and crawl space, regardless of when your home was built.
No AFCI Protection
Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters detect a different kind of hazard: electrical arcing caused by damaged, deteriorated, or improperly installed wiring. Arcing generates extreme heat and is one of the leading causes of residential electrical fires. Standard breakers do not detect arcing because the current flow during an arc event may not be high enough to trip a conventional overcurrent device.
The NEC first required AFCI protection in bedrooms in 1999, then expanded the requirement to most living areas in 2014. If your home was built before 1999, it almost certainly has no AFCI protection anywhere. AFCI breakers are installed in the panel and replace the standard breakers on the circuits they protect. They are especially valuable in older homes where the wiring itself may be deteriorating, because they can detect the early signs of an arc fault before it progresses to a fire.
Cloth-Wrapped and Rubber-Insulated Wiring
Homes built before the mid-1960s often contain wiring insulated with cloth fabric, rubber, or a combination of the two instead of the thermoplastic (PVC) insulation used in modern Romex cable. These older insulation materials degrade over time. Rubber becomes brittle and cracks. Cloth frays and separates. The degradation is accelerated by heat, which is exactly what the wires produce when carrying current.
As the insulation fails, bare copper becomes exposed inside wall cavities, junction boxes, and attic spaces. Exposed conductors can contact each other, metal framing, plumbing, or HVAC ductwork, creating short circuits and shock hazards. If your home has cloth or rubber-insulated wiring, a whole-house rewire is the safest long-term solution. If a full rewire is not in the budget immediately, an electrician can inspect the wiring, identify the most deteriorated sections, and prioritize replacement of the highest-risk circuits.
Overloaded Circuits with Extension Cords and Power Strips
If every room in your home has a power strip or extension cord running along the baseboard, that is not a solution to a temporary problem. It is a symptom of a home that does not have enough circuits. Older homes were typically wired with one or two circuits per room. Modern electrical demands require dedicated circuits for kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, HVAC equipment, and home offices, plus general purpose circuits for lighting and outlets.
Extension cords and power strips are designed for temporary use. When they become permanent fixtures, they introduce several hazards: they can be overloaded beyond their rated capacity, they create trip hazards, their connections loosen over time, and they often run under rugs or behind furniture where heat cannot dissipate and damage cannot be seen. The proper fix is adding circuits to the areas that need them, which usually requires a panel upgrade as well to provide space for the additional breakers.
DIY Wiring from Previous Owners
This is one of the most unpredictable hazards in older homes, because there is no way to know from the outside what someone did inside the walls. We regularly find improper wiring during inspections of older Aiken homes: junction boxes buried inside walls with no access cover, wire splices made with electrical tape instead of wire nuts inside a proper box, 14-gauge wire on a 20-amp breaker, circuits with no ground connected to three-prong outlets, and wiring routed through insulation in attics where heat buildup can degrade the conductors.
Unpermitted electrical work is particularly concerning because it was never inspected. There is no way to know whether connections were made correctly, whether wire sizes are appropriate for the breaker ratings, or whether proper junction boxes were used, until a licensed electrician opens things up and looks. If you are buying an older home, or if you have owned one for years and have never had the wiring inspected, a professional evaluation is one of the most valuable investments you can make.
What a Professional Electrical Inspection Covers
A residential electrical inspection includes examination of the service entrance and meter base, the main panel and all breakers, a representative sample of outlets and switches throughout the home, GFCI and AFCI protection, grounding and bonding, visible wiring in accessible areas such as attics, basements, crawl spaces, and garages, and the condition of any subpanels. The electrician will also check for proper clearances around the panel, correct labeling of circuits, and signs of overheating or past damage.
At the end of the inspection, you receive a clear report identifying any hazards, code deficiencies, and recommended upgrades, along with approximate costs and a suggested priority order. A typical whole-house inspection takes two to three hours depending on the size and age of the home.
Prioritizing Upgrades: Safety First
Not every issue found during an inspection requires immediate action. The smart approach is to prioritize by risk. Safety-critical upgrades come first: panel replacement if the existing panel is undersized or damaged, grounding if the home is entirely ungrounded, and GFCI protection in wet areas. These address the most serious risks of fire and electrocution. The next tier includes AFCI protection, rewiring of deteriorated circuits, and correction of any improper DIY work. Convenience upgrades like additional circuits, better lighting, and outdoor outlets come last, not because they are unimportant, but because they carry less immediate risk.
Insurance Implications
It is worth noting that some homeowner's insurance carriers in South Carolina are increasingly scrutinizing the electrical systems in older homes. Certain panel brands, particularly Federal Pacific and Zinsco, can make it difficult to obtain or renew coverage. Knob-and-tube wiring, which is still present in some of Aiken's oldest homes, can also be a disqualifying factor for some insurers. Even if your current policy is in force, a claim resulting from an electrical fire in a home with known wiring deficiencies could face coverage challenges. Upgrading your electrical system is not just a safety decision. It can also be a financial one that protects your ability to insure your home.