I get several visitors at my web site asking questions about electrical home wiring and different home wiring methods and projects. Their greatest concern is if they should attempt the electrical project or hire it out to professionals.
Because of the housing and financial crisis, Im observing that many people cant get home loans to hire contractors to do the construction for them. Im seeing many people doing the work for themselves out of necessity and not simply to save money.
Most homeowners dont have a problem with things like outdoor siding and putting in doors and windows, but they are often doubtful about electrical home wiring.
First of all, the most important thing to observe is safety. All home electrical work thats done needs to be on disconnected circuits. The next thing to understand is that all electrical wiring jobs need to be inspected whether its done by the homeowner or professionals. This helps to ease the fears that homeowners often have wondering if their home wiring projects are going to be dangerous to them.
Theres no need to have a complete knowledge of electrical theory to do your own wiring. The most important thing is to know the electrical codes in your neighborhood because they will be the mandatory regulations the electrical inspectors will follow. Looking at electrical diagrams and formulas really helps to understand how to run the electrical circuits.
If you can look at an illustration or a photo, you can get a good understanding how the cable is wired and connected. There are several types of electrical cables that are used in home construction. Non-metallic sheathed cable or Romex cable is often used for most home electrical wiring systems.
Romex has different types, sizes and quantity of wires per cable according to the needs of the wiring circuit. Its standard to use 12-2 and 12-3 cable for light switches and outlets. This means that the cable size is a 12-gauge thickness with either 2 or 3 wires in each cable. These types of indoor cables are used on 120-volt circuits which means only one of the wires is a hot conductor.
Certain home appliances need higher voltage and so these will have heavier or thicker wire and usually two hot conductors. These are 240-volt electrical circuits. Things like water heaters, clothes dryers, air-conditioners and heating systems will typically use 10-2 or 10-3 cable. This always depends on local electrical codes and not the National Electrical Codes or NEC.
The big gnarly circuits that use a special cable are ranges and ovens. These take a lot of electricity and they need special range cable which is usually two 6-gauge cables as hot conductors and one 8-gauge cable as a neutral conductor.
Many of the low-voltage home wiring systems includes phone wiring, security systems, and computer networking systems. These are usually wired with Category 5 cable or more commonly called Cat5 cable which is an 8-wire cable made for communication and data systems.
Its easiest to map out circuit runs in your home using graph paper so you can keep everything to scale. Youll need a floor plan of your home for drawing each electrical circuit on. Youll want to make several copies of these floor plans because youll have many circuits.
When you have an idea of where to put the electrical circuits, you can plan out the breaker panel box needs. A standard size of breaker panel is a 200-amp panel with a minimum of 40 breaker slots. All the circuits will start at the breaker box with a breaker or fuse.
There will be some dedicated circuits which means only one fixture or appliance can be wired on the circuit. This is always according to the local electrical codes and regulations.
All wiring will need to be inspected at different intervals during the construction process. An inspector will make sure all regulations have been followed. This helps us to be certain we did the wiring correctly and were not going to burn up in our sleep at night.
Because of the housing and financial crisis, Im observing that many people cant get home loans to hire contractors to do the construction for them. Im seeing many people doing the work for themselves out of necessity and not simply to save money.
Most homeowners dont have a problem with things like outdoor siding and putting in doors and windows, but they are often doubtful about electrical home wiring.
First of all, the most important thing to observe is safety. All home electrical work thats done needs to be on disconnected circuits. The next thing to understand is that all electrical wiring jobs need to be inspected whether its done by the homeowner or professionals. This helps to ease the fears that homeowners often have wondering if their home wiring projects are going to be dangerous to them.
Theres no need to have a complete knowledge of electrical theory to do your own wiring. The most important thing is to know the electrical codes in your neighborhood because they will be the mandatory regulations the electrical inspectors will follow. Looking at electrical diagrams and formulas really helps to understand how to run the electrical circuits.
If you can look at an illustration or a photo, you can get a good understanding how the cable is wired and connected. There are several types of electrical cables that are used in home construction. Non-metallic sheathed cable or Romex cable is often used for most home electrical wiring systems.
Romex has different types, sizes and quantity of wires per cable according to the needs of the wiring circuit. Its standard to use 12-2 and 12-3 cable for light switches and outlets. This means that the cable size is a 12-gauge thickness with either 2 or 3 wires in each cable. These types of indoor cables are used on 120-volt circuits which means only one of the wires is a hot conductor.
Certain home appliances need higher voltage and so these will have heavier or thicker wire and usually two hot conductors. These are 240-volt electrical circuits. Things like water heaters, clothes dryers, air-conditioners and heating systems will typically use 10-2 or 10-3 cable. This always depends on local electrical codes and not the National Electrical Codes or NEC.
The big gnarly circuits that use a special cable are ranges and ovens. These take a lot of electricity and they need special range cable which is usually two 6-gauge cables as hot conductors and one 8-gauge cable as a neutral conductor.
Many of the low-voltage home wiring systems includes phone wiring, security systems, and computer networking systems. These are usually wired with Category 5 cable or more commonly called Cat5 cable which is an 8-wire cable made for communication and data systems.
Its easiest to map out circuit runs in your home using graph paper so you can keep everything to scale. Youll need a floor plan of your home for drawing each electrical circuit on. Youll want to make several copies of these floor plans because youll have many circuits.
When you have an idea of where to put the electrical circuits, you can plan out the breaker panel box needs. A standard size of breaker panel is a 200-amp panel with a minimum of 40 breaker slots. All the circuits will start at the breaker box with a breaker or fuse.
There will be some dedicated circuits which means only one fixture or appliance can be wired on the circuit. This is always according to the local electrical codes and regulations.
All wiring will need to be inspected at different intervals during the construction process. An inspector will make sure all regulations have been followed. This helps us to be certain we did the wiring correctly and were not going to burn up in our sleep at night.
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