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Comment by rob74 | Hacker News Reader

One thing I learned the hard way is that various older relays, timers, dimmers etc. will kill LED "light bulbs", but most of the time not instantly, but over several months/years. When we bought our current apartment 10 years ago, I had the common sense to replace the dimmers with newer "LED-approved" versions, and also replaced one of two relays because it was broken, but then the remaining relay over several years destroyed several "light bulbs" and one (fortunately not very expensive) lighting fixture with non-removable LEDs, until it dawned on me that the relay was to blame. After I replaced it ~ 5 years ago, no more problems.

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I think it's a good idea in general to just try and replace every switch and outlet if you buy a home that was lived in for an extended period of time. We moved into a home that the previous family lived in for 30 years and I've been working my way through replacing everything. I've found some crazy work in some of the junction boxes. Most weren't grounded which isn't super surprising. Many were wired incorrectly which is a little less surprising.

Also it's a good exercise in making sure the electrical panel is labeled correctly. Ours was somehow only labeled like 75% correctly.

I replaced all the three way switches in my (100+ year old) home and found loads of ugly cloth-covered wiring and even “knob and tube” in a few places. So this was a great exercise. Unfortunately I miswired one circuit so badly that my metal chandelier became a live electrical death trap, which I only found out during the inspection when we sold the place. I cannot recommend professional electricians enough.

If I bought a house I would replace every receptacle and switch with a commercial spec grade version, residential grade wiring devices are uniformly awful.

Labeled incorrectly in Sharpie is the best! I agree, with the caveat that I have worked as an electrician professionally. Generally this is how home ownership works. You go over everything, find all the weirdness that the previous owner did, and fix it up. Years later you sell the house, and the process starts all over again. ;-)

And nobody keeps a logbook.

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