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Plug in an extension cord, and bring its socket end up to where you're working. Measure voltage from extension cord "hot" to the mystery wire. 120ish volts - it's a neutral. Significantly less - ph …

You may recall hearing that "current travels in loops". That is true. Electrons that come into your home, into the circuit, must go back out again. It's like your water pipes. The supply pipes ar …

Assuming the wires are all 12 AWG, this meets Code. However, current Code requires dedicated circuits to certain rooms and loads, e.g. bathroom receptacles must serve only bathrooms; two kitchen co …

Consider simply retrofitting ground. This was broadly legalized in the 2014 NEC. You simply run an appropriate sized ground wire from the outlet to any junction box or grounding electrode which has a …

You're not going to rewire it like that, with current flowing in a big loop. You're going to do one of two things: Deliver always-hot+neutral to the first switch, then /3 cable to the second switch, …

How annoying! OK get a set of drills and start sticking drill bits up through those holes -- butt end first. We just need to know the hole size. Now hit a "Drill and tap" table. Anytime you tap a t …

I don't know of a tester that'll tell you about wiring type. Your best hope may actually be looking at how wires enter the junction boxes, as well as a borescope in any openings therein. Borescopes …

I see a few common problem areas. Wire function First, there are (were) 4 non-ground wires: black and white from each of conduit and K&T. The lamp only takes 2 wires. The other 2 wires had been …

"othering" is fun. That's where you identify a group as "Bad", and pretend all others are "not bad". It's a little too easy to say "Knob & Tube = bad". They require AFCI on new construction, which is …

Yes, GFCIs don't care about safety ground. They do not wire to it in any way. Even in the K&T age, they understood the importance of having neutral wires be monogamous to their partner hot wires. No …

but what about keeping the insulation from falling off? As you point out, NEC does not allow continuing in service any wiring which has been degraded. Or, should we rather find some way of keeping …

Code doesn't say that anymore, at least not in WA and OR. Serious study was done on the question of whether blown insulation on K&T was really having an impact on house fires. The studies determ …

Chase down the matching neutral and remove it. Otherwise it will drive you crazy, and be a loose end of wire unaccounted for. What's more, it could wind up still being in use by some other circuit …

If this is about blown insulation, several western states repealed their codes prohibiting blown insulation over knob and tube. Better science showed the large pool of such houses were not bursting …

Your best best, if you can't do both, is AFCI breakers -- after all, AFCIs are designed to protect wiring from arc-faults, which start fires, and Knob-and-Tube era homes are vulnerable to this. And t …