On Fri, 5 Feb 2016 09:19:01 -0500, "Texas Kingsnake"
wrote:

That makes sense. Thanks. I am worried about the old wiring though and
pulling new wire would be an enormous amount of work. As far as I can see,
the fraying is only bad where the sheathing has been stripped back. White
wires are now rather brownish-yellow.


You can buy white (and lots of other colors) electrical tape. It wont
hurt to put white tape on the neutrals. When I was working as an
electrician, I did that regularly on those old cloth wires. Besides
providing the color, it adds a little insulation to keep the cloth
intact. If you have any red wires in the panel, put red tape on them
too.