Gosh I love those old Kodak photo as well as graphics arts manuals. I've got a bunch of them.
Old wiring is a different story. Lots of the time it corroded, or some rodent got to it. Then aluminum wire got substituted, and became a fire hazard. When I started selling supplies to contractors in this area, the average residential service panel was only good for 35 amps. It took very little to overload and overheat those weak old circuits. I was lucky because the commercial building in the back of my property was already heavily wired, both 120 and 240V. That's one of the reasons I bought it. But building codes now mandate 200 amp services on residences, and due to the extreme property values these days, up about 20 times from typical purchase prices back in 35 amp service days, probably every single property has long been upgraded. People still find creative ways to accidentally burn down properties, however.
But utility bills. I once had a 2000W Durst color mural head, the old style one. The cooling fan alone required more 240V juice than the average large commercial table saw. That damn thing doubled my monthly utility bill. I replaced it with something of my own design that ran much cooler. That was back in the days of making big Cibachomes, often as heavily masked as .90 supplemental density. You needed some serious candlepower. Today's RA4 papers print way way faster.