Your Home Wiring System

If you have only limited knowledge of electricity or are unfamiliar with the home wiring code, the standards by which houses are wired, you probably should not be doing your own wiring. Your home wiring system is designed to function properly and prevent fire or injury.

Your home wiring system needs to be in the best possible condition so that all the appliances and light fixtures in your home are supplied with the adequate amounts of power without compromising on safety.

In most homes the electrical service is divided into circuits or branch circuits where each circuit supplies power to a certain section of the house to power appliance and lights. Good home wiring ensures that each circuit and branch circuit carries a proper current load that is rated for the appliances and lights that are on the circuit, otherwise there will be an overload on the circuit and you’ll be spending a lot of time resetting circuit breakers or replacing fuses to deal with the overload.

Many major appliances such as electric stoves, refrigerators, dryers, and boilers take so much power that they require their own dedicated circuits. For instance, an electric stove or dryer requires its own 240-volt circuit, while other appliances such as refrigerators require 120-volt circuits. In most cases a single circuit provides electric power to appliances that require a lot of power. For small kitchen appliances and lights and outlets using a varying amount of power and are wired on circuits for multiple outlets, usually not to exceed 15 or 20 amps.

A typical home electrical circuit plan makes use of branch circuits that provide power to areas that serve a specific purpose such as a bathroom or a garage. In new homes the electrical wiring circuits are well thought out and wired to the standard national code but the danger in house wiring is when a home is renovated by inexperienced do-it-yourself electricians that are not familiar with code requirements and wire circuits in an unorganized manner. A properly wired home provides sufficient power in an organized way to all circuits in such a way that the circuits are not overloaded. Even in remodeling the electrical circuits should be organized by each room with the proper wiring and rated circuit breaker protection. For example if the circuit requires 12 amps of power you use #14wire, but if the circuit requires 20 amps of power you must use #12 wire. For high current circuits such as for dryers and electric stove # 10 or # 8 wire is required depending on the rating the distance the appliance is from the electrical panel.

If you are experiencing problems with overloading circuits and want to check how much current a particular circuit is wired for just look at the circuit breaker or fuse to determine how many amps the circuit is rated for. If the appliances on the same circuit exceed the amperage that circuit is rated for, move some items off that circuit to another circuit. Another solution is to add another circuit to your electrical system.

Wiring your home can be an involved process, especially if you have no prior electrical experience. Although household wiring is not difficult it does require knowledge and experience. It can be a dangerous challenge for an amateur without experience. If you are planning a renovation of your home without professional help you may want to consider hiring an electrician to deal with your home wiring system.

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