Top Things to Know About Connecting House Wiring

There are some home electrical wiring you can do yourself as long as you follow some basic rules and safety procedures. You do need to understand that electricity, if wired wrong, can cause electrical fires. Electricity can also injure or kill you if you are not careful.

Things You Need to Know About Home Wiring

It is a good idea to purchase a really good electrical how-to book. This type of book will give you easy to read instructions with diagrams that will guide you to wiring your home properly. Studying the wiring diagrams will help you avoid dangerous or costly mistakes.

1. Before beginning your electrical project make sure you shut off the power. Shut down the main circuit breaker to your home, trip the breaker or remove the fuse.

2. Use a neon tester to make sure the power has been turned off properly.

3. Electrical wires are color coded. This helps prevent wiring errors.

4. White wires will always connect to other white wire or terminal screws.

5. When wiring receptacles they will require back-wiring. You will need to place bare wire ends into spring loaded whole that are clearly color coded on the back of the receptacle.

6. Switches are connected to black wires in cables.

7. Always use the same size cable if you extending a wiring circuit. Never mix sizes.

8. Home wiring uses either 12 or 14 gauge wire. 14 gauges is the smallest gauge acceptable to be up to code.