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Wiring a House PDF

338 Pages·2010·24.95 MB·English
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rEvisEd and updatEd - builder tested code approved Wiring a House 4th Edition Rex Cauldwell Wiring a House Wiring a House 4th Edition Rex cauldwell T Text © 2007 by Rex Cauldwell Photographs © 2002 and revised 2007 by Rex Cauldwell Illustrations © 2002 and revised 2009 by The Taunton Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Pp The Taunton Press, Inc., 63 South Main Street, PO Box 5506, Newtown, CT 06470-5506 e-mail: [email protected] Copy editor: Seth Reichgott Indexer: Jay Kreider Technical Reviewer: Cliff Popejoy Jacket/Cover design: Alexander Isley, Inc. Interior design: Lori Wendin Layout: Cathy Cassidy Illustrator: Gayle Rolfe Photographers: Rex Cauldwell unless otherwise noted For Pros/By Pros® is a trademark of The Taunton Press, Inc., registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cauldwell, Rex. Wiring a house / Rex Cauldwell. -- 4th ed. p. cm. Includes index. E-Book ISBN 978-1-62113-048-2 1. Electric wiring, Interior. 2. Dwellings--Electric equipment. I. Title. TK3285.C38 2009 621.319’24--dc22 2009009136 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The following manufacturers/names appearing in Wiring a House are trademarks: 3M®, Black & Decker®, Bosch®, Bryant®, Burndy®, Carlon®, Cooper®, DeWALT®, EZ Wire®, Fluke®, Gardner Bender®, Gen/Tran®, Greenlee® Nail Eater II™, Hubbell®, Hunter®, Ideal®, InSinkErator®, Klein®, Louisville®, Lutron®, Magnus®, Makita®, Romex™, Scotch®, Siemens®, Simpson 260®, SouthWire®, Square D QO®, TayMac®, Teflon®, Torx®, UL® About Your Safety: Working with electricity is inherently dangerous. Using hand or power tools improperly or ignoring safety practices can also lead to permanent injury or even death. What is safe for one person under certain cir cum stances may not be safe for you under different circumstances. Don’t try anything you learn about here (or elsewhere) unless you’re certain it is safe for you. Please keep safety foremost in your mind. acknowledgments No one person creates a book. It is the accumulation of many hands and minds. I would like to thank Julie Trelstad, who guided me through the conception of the original edition many years ago, and all the people at Taunton who have worked so hard to make this book the great success that it has been over the years. It should be noted that a work of this kind is very technical, and it is very easy for errors to slip by editors even though a great deal of effort has been taken to find such. If you note any problems, have questions, or would like something added or changed, you can email me at [email protected]. It should also be noted that the way houses are wired on the East Coast may not be the same as on the West Coast and that all areas do not adopt the same exact code. Even under the NEC, I have to wire differently in each county I work in. Many companies helped with this book by providing photographic material and technical information about their products. I would like to give heartfelt thanks for their help to Jim Gregorec of Ideal Industries, Inc.; Vivian Beaulieu of Marchant and Field; Ben Bird of Certified Insulated Products; Doug Kirk of King Technology, Siemens; Constance Malenfont of TayMac Corp.; Jean Miskimon of DeWALT public relations; M. F. Reed of Tytewadd Power Filters; and Jay Thomas of AFC Cable Systems. I would also like to thank the good people at Carlon®; Bussman; Greenlee Textron, Inc.; Hunter® Fan Company; Hubbell® Incorporated; Lutron®; Magnus® Industries, Inc.; and Technology Research Corp. vv Contents | Preface to the Revised edition 2 1 | The Basics 6 How Electricity Flows P. 8 | A Residential Electrical System P. 13 | Wire Gauges P. 15 | The Wire We Use P. 23 | Conduit Systems P. 31 2 | Tools of the Trade 34 General Tools P. 36 | AC-Powered Tools P. 44 | Cordless Tools P. 50 | Specialized Tools P. 53 3 | The Service entrance 58 Buried or Aerial Service P. 60 | Calculating Amps, Choosing Cable P. 60 | Locating the Meter Base P. 66 | Buried Service Entrance P. 70 | Aerial Service Entrance P. 71 | Connecting Meter Base to Panel P. 78 4 | Panels and Subpanels 84 Elements of the Main Panel P. 86 | Picking a Panel P. 88 | Mounting a Panel P. 90 | Bringing Cables into the Panel P. 96 | Subpanels P. 99 | Balancing the Load P. 106 5 | The art of Grounding 108 A Grounding/Bonding System P. 110 | Protection through Grounding P. 112 | Choosing Grounding Materials P. 115 | A Low-Resistance Panel-to-Earth Ground P. 118 | What Needs Grounding P. 123 6 | wiring Room by Room 132 Outlet Box Design Location P. 134 | Pulling Cable in New Construction P. 147 | Routing Wires in Renovation Work P. 157 vv 7 | Fuses and circuit Breakers 164 Fuses P. 166 | Circuit Breakers P. 169 8 | Ground-Fault circuit Interrupters 176 How a GFCI Works P. 178 | Ground-Fault Protection P. 184 | Testing GFCIs P. 191 | Portable GFCIs P. 192 9 | arc-Fault circuit Interrupters 196 What Is an Arc Fault? P. 198 | Wiring AFCIs P. 201 | Troubleshooting an AFCI Circuit P. 203 10 | Receptacles and Boxes 206 Receptacle Boxes P. 207 | Receptacles P. 217 | Polarity P. 221 | Wiring and Installation P. 223 11 | Switches 232 Switch Boxes P. 234 | Types of Switches P. 239 | Light Dimmers P. 248 12 | wiring Fixtures 254 Choose the Right Box P. 255 | Incandescent Lights P. 258 | Fluorescent Lights P. 259 | Ceiling Fans P. 261 | Smoke Detectors P. 268 | Track Lighting P. 269 | Outdoor Light Fixtures P. 270 | Recessed Lights P. 274 13 | wiring appliances 276 Kitchen Appliances P. 277 | Baseboard Heaters P. 282 | Electric Wall Heaters P. 286 | Utility-Room Appliances P. 287 | Submersible Pumps P. 291 | Whirlpool Tubs and Spas P. 293 14 | lightning and Surge Protection 294 Induced Voltage P. 296 | Utility and In-House Surge Creators P. 297 | Phone and Coaxial Cable Protection P. 306 | Protecting Pumps P. 308 15 | Standby Generators 312 History of Incorrect Connections P. 313 | Transfer-Switch Style P. 314 | From Generator to Switch P. 319 | Picking a Generator P. 321 | Automatic Generators P. 325 | Index 326 Preface to the Revised Edition his new edition takes into consideration all of the latest T code changes. If you haven’t wired a house in a decade or two, there are a few code changes you should be aware of. (Note that states can adopt codes at different times and may exempt sections they don’t agree with.) One change was in marking the white insulated wire in switch legs. At the time Wiring a House was originally written, code did not require the installer to indicate whether a white insulated wire, such as a traveler in a 3- or 4-way switching circuit, was not a neutral, or whether a common switch was using a white wire for its incoming power. Code now requires the white insulated wire to be taped (any tape color except white, gray, or green) to make sure you know that it is not a neutral. There is the new rule on bathroom receptacles. Now you can put a whirlpool tub, a bath heater, a heated towel rack, or bath lights on a single bathroom receptacle circuit as long as that circuit is not overloaded and stays in that one bath. Common 125-volt 15- and 20-amp circuits in outbuildings, like workshops or sheds, need GFCI protection. The wiring to the outbuilding (multicircuit) should be done with four conductors with an added ground rod at the panel. To keep children from grabbing appliance cords and pulling the appliance down onto themselves, all countertop receptacles are now required to be above the countertop and cannot be installed on a horizontal surface. Exceptions are made for peninsulas and islands designed for handicapped persons. Installers are now allowed to use nonmetallic (NM) cable in residential installations at any grade level, including basements and attics. Also, common 15- and 20-amp 125-volt receptacles are now required to be tamper resistant assuming most of the populace would prefer to (shutters built into the receptacle). AFCI wire the cheapest way possible no matter what requirements have now evolved to encompass I suggested. So to all those who have calluses the entire house except in GFCI areas, such as on your thumbs from turning pages, I dedicate garages, kitchens, baths, and laundries. And this list to you. when you install these same receptacles in wet • Splices outside must use silicone-filled wire and damp locations (such as outdoors) they connectors. Buy them prefilled, or fill them must now be rated weather resistant (special yourselves. receptacles)—even GFCIs. You might want to verify that your locale has adopted these • A subpanel is to have its own main breaker. changes before you wire. • A n outside 125-volt receptacle, if not a All 15-amp and 20-amp 125-volt receptacles GFCI receptacle, must be of the heavy-duty installed outside (you are required to have one type (around $3 to $5), preferably nylon. in the front and one in the back) must utilize This is to prevent it from becoming cracked waterproof covers that keep the receptacle or broken, as happens when heavy-duty waterproof even when a cord is inserted. extension cords are wiggled in them. above code • Do not put the overhead bath light on the Above Code is my way of ensuring that the load side of a GFCI. homeowner has a safe, high-quality, trouble- • Smoke alarms—For new installations, re- free, long-lived electrical installation. An member that an AFCI will cut off power to example of using Above Code is in wiring the bedroom alarms if the AFCI trips due to bathroom receptacles. If you were to simply a fire, arc, or overload. Verify that all your “meet code,” you could load up a bath smoke alarms have battery backup and that receptacle circuit with the lights, fan, heater, the batteries are fresh. and so on. A single hair dryer on a low setting would wind up kicking the breaker and leaving • Wire gauge—Use nothing but 12-gauge you in the dark. In fact, you could even put cable for all the 125-volt receptacle and the bath lights on the GFCI circuit so that the switch wiring with the following excep- lights would go out when the GFCI tripped and tions. If you are on a budget, you can use you would literally be walking on a wet bath 14 gauge on the three-way lighting cir- floor in the dark—and all by code. My Above cuits due to the extreme cost of the cable. Code system shows you how a bath should This means that all the 14-gauge three- be wired so that doesn’t happen. In addition, way lighting is to be kept away from the my system tells you how to wire better, what 12-gauge cable and on a 15-amp circuit. If products to buy, and which ones to avoid. you have the smoke alarms on their own The following list is dedicated to all those circuits, you can use 14-gauge wire. who have requested a singular list of the • Each bathroom 20-amp, 125-volt recepta- Above Code sections of the book so you cle will have a dedicated GFCI circuit with wouldn’t have to thumb through and write nothing else on that circuit. them all down—as well as some common- sense code requirements. I didn’t previously • Service conductors should be copper. This do this because I really didn’t expect my makes for easier wiring, as they can be two method of wiring to become so popular— gauge sizes smaller than aluminum.

Description:
This classic reference book on home wiring for homeowners, electricians and apprentices has been completely updated to reflect changes to the electrical code since it was first published in 1996. New material on home generators, lightning protection and wiring «above code» has been added to this e
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