HOUSE WIRING

1. HOUSE WIRING Felicia Castro Olga Kadyra

2. STAGES OF HOUSE WIRING • There are three stages for house wiring: • Underground stage • Rough stage • Electrical stage

3. From the power company, we get: • two hot wires • one neutral wire. • The two major voltages available in our homes are: • 115 VAC • 230 VAC • Most of the receptacles in our homes are 115 VAC. • Washer, Dryer, Oven, etc. use the 230 VAC receptacle.

4. VOLTAGE RECEPTACLES 115 VAC 230 VAC Neutral Hot Ground Ground wire Hot wires

5. COLOR CODING OF WIRES AND SCREWS • Wires: • Hot (red/black wire) • Neutral (white wire) • Ground (bare copper wire) • Screws: • Brass (for hot wire) • Silver (for neutral wire) • Green with green dot (ground wire) • Wires: • Hot (red wire) • Hot (black wire) • Ground (bare copper wire) • Screws: • Brass (for hot wire) • Brass (for hot wire) • Green with green dot (ground wire) 115 VAC 230 VAC

6. HOUSEHOLD WIRING FOR ROOMS: • For rooms: Within the first 6ft of an entrance into a room, there should be an 120volt receptacle outlet and then for every other 12ft there should be an outlet. • For the kitchen: The outlets should be a minimum of 2ft apart. • Receptacle connection: On the side of ground the 2 neutral wires are stripped ½ inch and pushed in the hole. Make sure to pull on it to check that it does not come out. Now strip the black wires ¼ inch, push them into the hole opposite of ground. 14 W gauge for bedrooms, hallways, living rooms, and all ceilings.

7. Duplex Receptacles: • Some duplexes have 5 wires going into the receptacle, while others have 3 wires going into the receptacle. • If a circuit is a feeder to the other circuits, then it has 5 wires: 2 neutral (white), 2 hot (black/red), 1 ground (bare copper wire). The 5 wires you see are actually power coming in and coming out. • If it is the end of a circuit, then it has 3 wires: 1 neutral (white), 1 hot (black/red), 1 ground (bare copper wire) • Every receptacle holds 15 Amperes of Current. Kitchen appliances have 20 Amperes of Current and Dryers have 30 Amperes of Current. • Every wire has an adjacent screw

8. GFCI -GFCI:Stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt. This receptacles is different from conventional receptacles. In the event of a ground fault, a GFCI will trip and quickly stop the flow of electricity to prevent serious injury. -For kitchens and bathrooms with sinks, GFI protection receptacles are required for anything between 6ft from water. Make sure everything is grounded for safety purposes. -When does a ground fault occur? It occurs when electricity passes through a persons body to reach the ground instead of following its normal path. -GFCI receptacles protect against circuit overloads, short circuits, or shocks. -For GFCI’s, a 12 W gauge is required which is thicker than the 14 W gauge.

9. GFCI CONTINUED… • The GFCI receptacle itself has the Test and Reset buttons. The reciprocal feeling into the GFCI main no reciprocal has no Reset/Test buttons, but will indicate GFCI stickers on them. not GFCI GFCI

10. A single pole (one location) or a 3 way (multiple locations) can be put only on the incandescent. You will see 4 colored wires on the dimmer. Blue, yellow, black and green. Connecting wires for dimmer: Green dimmer Ground leads to Green or copper wire in wall box. Black dimmer lead to Line (hot) wall box wire removed from old switch. Blue Dimmer lead to remaining wall box wire (Load) Cap Yellow dimmer lead with appropriate size wire nut. Dimmer

11. LAMPS • REGULAR MEDIUM BASE: used in regular fixtures • MOGUL BASE: is thicker and is used for street lights • CANDELABRA BASE: is smaller and is used in paddle/ceiling fan fixtures *On a ceiling fan which has lights, always use a A15 lamp because the filament is thicker and it will last longer even though the fan causes vibration* *G-style lamps are used in bathrooms* *Fluorescent lamps are used under cabinets and countertops, and are available only up to a wattage of 32 Watts instead of 40 Watts*

12. Gang Box • The Gang Box must be UL listed in approval for electrical work. Deep Gang Boxes are maximum of 22.5cubic inches. • Inside the house : All gang boxes must be UL approved. • Outside the house the gangs used must be UL approved and suitable for dampness/wet conditions. • According to Title 24 everything in the home i.e. Bathroom, Kitchen, underneath the cabinets, laundry room, outside light should have incandescent lights.

13. Low Voltage Wires Red……Computer-CAT5 White….RG6-TV, SAT, DSL, Cameras Black…..RG6-”” Blue……Phone-CAT5 You can use red alone but to differentiate between computer wires and phone wires you use different colors.

14. High Voltage Wires • 14/ 2- 15A :is a 14G wire black, white, and ground used for lighting wiring bedroom plug switches. anything rated up to 15A. • 12/ 2- 20A :is a 12G wire, black, white, ground, yellow wire for identification. • 12/ 3- 20A :is a 12G wire black (hot) white (neutral), red (hot), and ground. In this there are 2 hot wires in one wire. If you have two circuits in the same area then you could use black for one circuit & jump the other circuits through red wires especially in General appliances.

15. High Voltage wires Continued • 10 Gauge/30 A: is Orange in color used for Dryers or Ovens if under 30 A. it is also used for Air conditioning if no more than 30A is required • 8 Gauge/40/50 A: is a Black wire and is used in ovens that are over 30 A. • 6 Gauge/50/60 A: is used only in Air Conditioners and Ovens that have very high amperage

16. Low voltage enclosure: TV, Telephone, computers, cameras, speaker DVR, i.e. communication, run one main limit is 2RG6 (TV coax) cat 5- phone line or computer line. When it says TV run 1RG6 i.e. Black wire. ……………..Phone Rough Stage P…………………Plug TV……………….TV On/Q…………….All 4 wires drop(2cat5 and 2RG6) High Voltage……Stapled every 4ft 6in Low Voltage…….Not stapled tightly 1RG6……………TV Only 2RG6……………TV & DVR & HD

17. Rough Stage Continued… • RG6-Quad shield: a type of wire that helps to give a better signal, but not a better picture. (You could run High Definition signals like Comcast Internet Company with RG6) • The wires going into every gang box should be stapled within 6 inches of the box, on the wood. • The wires going into Double or Triple boxes, should be 12 inches away from the box on the wood.