Low voltage wiring

Do the Standards of Practice require the inspection of Low Voltage wiring? As in landscape or perimeter eve wiring.

No! Not at all.

Thank you Roy. Do you know the reasoning behind that?

Where are you located?

No! But you can inspect anything you want to.
The SOP is just a guild.
There is a lot of things we do that the SOP say we don’t have to do.

Yea, I’m aware that we don’t inspect a lot of things and I do not inspect low voltage myself. I usually respond to the clients questions about the low voltage by saying “home inspectors do not inspect low voltage”. I know that landscape low voltage lighting is usually inoperative at many locations and is usually not well maintained and that inspecting it would be 'an inspection unto itself. However, I came across a home in Southern California that had low voltage lighting around the front perimeter of the home. I could not locate any switching for it and although it may have been in the garage, the garage was packed to the brim with storage. I would just like to know what the NACHI reasoning behind the issue is so that I could be able to explain it better that to just say “we don’t inspect low voltage” . Your thoughts?

One of the reasons I do not inspect low-voltage wiring is because they are generally attached to some type of control device which is programmed.

Irrigation systems, alarm systems, etc.

Testing these systems require that you mess with the settings or override the programming. This really pisses off the seller if you don’t get it back right.

When you turn on the thermostat of an HVAC system you are testing the low-voltage control. If the unit doesn’t come on it doesn’t work.

This also holds for low-voltage lighting controls in some homes.

Thank you!