Diagram-electrical-wiring
Diagram-electrical-wiring or following diagrams through house wiring takes the guesswork out of the whole Electrical process, yet there are few people who actually feel confident enough to do the work themselves. If you don't feel up to the challenge, I completely respect that.
The one thing I heavily stress is the safety aspects of home wiring. The Electrical Inspector is going to be very thorough in checking your work, so you don't need to feel that your house will burn up if you do the wiring. The inspector won't let that happen. The problem is about safety.
To become a Journeyman Electrician, an apprentice has to go through many hours of assisted learning. Electricians are experienced when it comes to Electricity. In most states, owner builders can do their own Electrical work, but it still needs to be approved by an inspector. This leaves an inexperienced person to do his or her own Electrical work. That's what I mean when I say it's all about safety.
Please be careful and use common sense!!!
Sorry for shouting right there but I had to get your attention.
There is no reason to ever work on live circuits or energized lines. Don't lose your respect for Electricity, you might not get another chance.
This site is very brief in all aspects of housebuilding. If you want a more thorough step by step guide, you should get "Sweat Equity," my housebuilding book. It's an excellent reference for beginning builders.
We'll start off with some terminolgy. We used to refer to circuits as 110-volts and 220-volts. We now refer to them as 120-volts and 240-volts. The actual voltage is right around 119-volts. This varies from place to place, but you might still hear it referred to as 110-volts. Many diagram-electrical-wiring circuits still use this term.
Don't worry, some people can't let go of the past. For us modern folk, it's 120-volt circuits. A 240-volt diagram-electrical-wiring circuit is just two 120-volt circuits put together for that extra bit of umph! Ovens, water heaters, clothes dryers, and things like that need a little extra voltage, so we give them two hot lines instead of one. I'll go over it a little at a time.
We do most of the residential wiring with non-metallic sheathed cable, but I'm just going to refer to it as Romex. Most Electricians use this term. Romex comes in different sizes and kinds for special uses. The type of wire is marked on both the cable and the box it comes in.
For example "12-2" first describes the thickness of the wire, being 12-gauge wire. The "2" says there are 2 service wires inside. That is a hot(black) wire and a neutral(white) wire. There is also a bare copper ground wire. I know that makes three wires in total, but the ground doesn't count. Why not? I don't know! We all just kind of go along with that one.
So, "12-3" says there is three wires in there. There is an extra hot(red) wire for three-way switches. I'll go over that too. See the pics. Most diagram-electrical-wiring circuits don't say Romex on the cables, don't worry about it.
The gauge tells how thick the wire is. The lower the gauge, the thicker the wire. Naturally, thicker, heavier wire can tolerate more electrical current without getting too hot. Diagram-electrical-wiring circuits usually won't have the type and size of cable listed. It's just kind of a known thing that lights and outlets use 12-gauge cable.
By now, you should have your diagram-electrical-wiring circuits all mapped out. If you don't then I'll give you some ideas. Try to avoid putting all your lights on one circuit to prevent total darkness at night if the breaker fails. I have my lights distributed among seven or eight circuits and that works really well. Your lights and outlets can share the same circuits.
I made a diagram-electrical-wiring circuit layout. Each circuit was its own page and I have about 20 pages stacked on top of each other. This is an easier diagram to understand for beginners.
This is not how Electricians do diagrams, but this is just fine for first time hombuilders.
Let's begin the actual work by putting electrical boxes in wherever there will be a single light switch, an outlet, a phone jack, or a data port. Light switches that have more than one switch will require a bigger box.
These are some of the box types you can use. Some locations won't let you use plastic boxes.
Once all the boxes are in place, you can start running cable. You will need to have the cables run from box to box before your first Electrical inspection. They don't have to be connected to anything, but all the wires should be run and the wiring inspected before the drywall goes on.
For lights and receptacles, you can use 12-2 Romex. Some locations still allow 14-2 Romex, but I think that is no longer adequate. Any diagram-electrical-wiring plan should have adequate wiring for future expansion.
Most outlet receptacles have four terminal screws, two on each side, two neutral and two hot. They are wired so that the circuit is continuous.
A more practical method in wiring receptacles is called "pigtailing". Pigtailing uses wire nuts to consolidate wires so that only one wire goes to each terminal. This is especially necessary in Ground Fault Interrupter Circuits.
Pigtailing, for example takes both ends of the neutral wire(incoming and outgoing) and joins them both together along with a third white wire that goes to the terminal. You will do this with the black wire and the copper wire also in plastic boxes.
We'll do a simple light circit next. The Romex comes from the circuit to the light first, then on to the switch. This is how it looks. Keep in mind that there are several ways of running circuits. This is just one way. This is part of a clean diagram-electrical-wiring plan.
This is one of those cases where you are allowed to code white wires as hot by putting black tape on both ends of the wire. Some locations require 3-wire cable that has a red cable so there are 2 hot wires.
Speaking of 3-wire cable, Romex 12-3 has a black wire for hot, a red wire called a traveler wire designated as hot also, and a white wire for neutral.
This is handy in 3-way switches.
You will use 10-3 Romex on certain other circuits. There might be other code requirements so ask your inspector before putting in wires.
The water heater will be a dedicated circuit on a 30-Amp breaker with 10-3 Romex in most cases. This will be hard-wired, meaning it doesn't have an outlet receptacle like the dryer and oven do. It will have a cable that comes out of the wall surrounded in conduit and goes into the water heater to be connected inside.
The clothes dryer will also be on a dedicated 30-Amp circuit with 10-3 Romex.
The Oven/range will be the big bad boy on the dedicated 50-Amp breaker using range cable. This is a special cable made for this purpose. What it usually is, is a big gnarly cable that has two 6-gauge cables, one 8-gauge neutral, and an 8-gauge copper ground inside.
Our diagram-electrical-wiring plan will include all details of each circuit. All the circuits will start at the breaker box. Let's go there now.
Click to Enlarge
3-way diagram --Breaker Box-- Service Entrance
The type of breaker box is totally at the disgression of the local codes, but most codes state that the breaker box be a 200-Amp service with at least 30 breakers.
200-Amps is good enough for the current needs, but 30 breaker slots is too few for modern houses. You should have at least 40 slots.
The inspector will have several requirements about using only GFCI's in the kitchen area, bathrooms, and outside outlets. These will be part of your diagram-electrical-wiring plan.
There will also be code requirements about dedicated circuits, a minimum number of kitchen circuits, minimum of oulets on each wall, and many others that might seem overwhelming at first. Once it is all done though, you'll really be glad you followed all the regs. It makes a better house anyway.
Continue reading here: Residential light-switch-wiring circuits
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