The one thing you should remember when handling the electrical wiring in your residence is that, electricity is deadly. It is the foremost thing you should remember when handling the electrical wiring at home. There are some municipalities where you are not allowed to touch it and in some, you will need a permit to do so. These permits are only granted if you have the basic knowledge required in electrical wiring.
Here are some of the things you should know before doing some repairs in your electrical wiring:
- Wires colored red and black have flowing currents to the appliance from the circuit breaker.
- Wires colored white is where the currents are returning - from the appliance back to the circuit breaker.
- If you see a wire that is bare then that is the ground. Ground wire is usually mounted on the frame of the appliance. In a normal wiring system, no currents are flowing through this wire. In case of a short circuit, a current will flow through the ground wire leaving the circuit breaker to trip.
- The ground wire and the white wire are not connected expect at the bus bar of the circuit panel. In the event that they are connected, it is considered a dangerous setting since electricity flows through both wire at the same time.
A circuit panel is where the wires are tied before it is connected to the circuit breakers. Another large circuit breaker is connecting all the circuit breakers in your home and it is then connected to the electricity grid near your place.
The type of electrical wiring used in your residential wiring is another important matter to consider. The standard used is the 14-2 wire but it is also more secure to use thicker wires such as the 12-2 to accommodate all the electronics and electrical appliances inside your home. Thicker wires can carry more current and less chance of your circuit breaker from tripping.
There are also codes that state the minimum heights of the wiring from the floor and the recommended distance between two outlets or more.