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Learn The Basics of Home Electrical Wiring

Electrical wiring can be dangerous, especially for novices. Since the 1940s, houses have had to follow the National Electrical Code (NEC) for safety. The NEC identifies wire colors - black wires carry live loads, white and green wires are for neutral and grounding circuits. When installing wiring, it is important to identify the colored sheathing covering the copper wires inside in order to properly connect the hot, neutral and ground wires. The document provides tips to avoid common and potentially dangerous electrical mistakes like improper wire connections or grounding.

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Zen Resti Maulana
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264 views

Learn The Basics of Home Electrical Wiring

Electrical wiring can be dangerous, especially for novices. Since the 1940s, houses have had to follow the National Electrical Code (NEC) for safety. The NEC identifies wire colors - black wires carry live loads, white and green wires are for neutral and grounding circuits. When installing wiring, it is important to identify the colored sheathing covering the copper wires inside in order to properly connect the hot, neutral and ground wires. The document provides tips to avoid common and potentially dangerous electrical mistakes like improper wire connections or grounding.

Uploaded by

Zen Resti Maulana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Learn the Basics of Home Electrical Wiring

Electrical wiring can be tricky—especially for the novice. That’s why it’s
usually best to hire a professional for anything other than a simple job. Otherwise,
you could risk injury, damage or fire. Since the 1940s, any house built (or any older
home that has been rewired) has had to follow an electrical code: the NEC—written
with safety in mind. NEC code identifies types of electrical wires and electrical cable
types by color. When you remove a switch plate, you’ve probably noticed yellow,
white, black, red or green wires. They are not there to be decorative; each serves a
specific purpose, and some don’t play nicely with others.
When you’re doing wiring installation, you need to identify the parts of the
wiring cable, the non-metallic electrical cable: the outer sheathing (the jacket) and
the inner wires. The colored “wire” you see—the green, black, red, blue or white—is
actually the sheathing that covers the inner copper wires. If you look closely, you’ll
see markings stamped on the sheathing to let you know the number and gauge of
wires inside. The color of the sheathing lets you know what each wire does.

The following is sort of an electrical wire types chart:


 Black wires or “hot wires” carry live electrical loads from the electrical service
panel to an outlet, light or other destination.
 Red wires are also hot wires used to interconnect smoke detectors, so that if
one alarm goes off, all the others do as well.
 White and gray wires are neutral wires that connect to the neutral bus bar,
which attracts current and carries it throughout the house. Don’t let the
“neutral” part fool you because they can still carry a charge—especially if the
current load is not balanced.
 White wires wrapped in black or red electrical tape are also hot wires. The
tape just lets you know that the white wire, which is normally neutral, is
being used as a hot wire instead.
 Green wires connect the grounding terminal in an outlet box and run it to a
ground bus bar in the electrical panel, giving current a place to escape to the
ground in the event a live wire touches metal or another conductor. Green
wires can only connect to other green wires but can still be live if the
electrical system is faulty.
 Bare copper wires are the most common type of grounding wires.
 Blue and yellow wires, although not usually found in non-metallic (NM) cable,
are sometimes used as hot wires in an electrical conduit. The blue ones are
travelers that might be in the switches at both the top and bottom of a
staircase to control the same light.

Most modern homes use nonmetallic (NM) cable that consists of two or more
wires wrapped inside the colored sheathing mentioned previously. The package of
wires usually contains one or more hot wires plus a neutral and a ground. To
accommodate wiring in an older home or if your wiring just needs work, you can
splice the old wires with new NM cable using a junction box that protects wire
connections. The larger circuit wires carry circuit voltage that can be really
dangerous to touch. If you don’t know what kind of wires you have, consider them
all to be dangerous.

Electrical wiring mistakes to avoid


An electrical “oops” moment could be really serious, causing short circuits, shocks or
fires. These are a few common mistakes you’ll want to avoid:
 Never connect wires outside of electrical junction boxes. If there’s no box,
add one and connect the wires inside it.
 Remember the three-inch minimum on wire length. Don’t cut your wires to
short. IF you do, add six-inch extensions.
 Never leave sheathing unprotected between frames, as in a ceiling
installation. Staple it to a 2×2 or use metal conduit if the wire runs along the
wall.
 Avoid loose switches or loosely connected outlets.
 Never install a three-slot receptacle without a ground wire.
 Don’t recess an electrical box behind a wall surface. Instead, add a wall
extension.
 Secure cable with a clamp so wire insulation doesn’t cut or fray.
Answer the following questions about the text
1. Why is Elecrical wiring called a “tricky
work” for the novice?
2. How many years ago is that any house
built had to follow an electrical NEC code
for the safety?
3. What does the NEC code identify?
4. When doing wiring instalation, why do you
need to identify the part of the wiring
cable?
5. What does the type of each coloured table
describe?
6. What is coloured cable that is still be live
even when the electrical system is faulty?
7. How do you explain an electrical “oops”
moment in text mean?
8. Summarize all information in the text
9. Find at least 10 words in the text dealing
with Electric words

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