Building a Home Office Series: Electrical Wiring – Making the Panel Connections

by Dave Donovan

This article picks up where Building a Home Office Series: Electrical Wiring – Part Two left off.

Now that you have installed your dedicated circuit in your home office, the time has come to make your connections at the panel. It is important to understand that you will be performing work in and around a LIVE panel, so if you don't feel comfortable, you can always hire a licensed electrician to perform this part of the job. The most important things to remember are to concentrate on what you're doing, don't rush and always – respect the electricity. Also, leading up to the panel, use wire staples to hold the wire secure to the studs about every 12 inches.

The first thing you will have to do is remove the electrical panel's cover. This can be heavy if you have a large panel and often cumbersome even if you don't, so having someone on hand to help you remove it is beneficial.

With the cover removed, take a look at the interior of the panel. Look at how the breakers are arranged and how the wires are fed into the panel. If you have a spare 20-amp breaker, you can use that one, but it you have no spares, you should purchase a brand new one. Just make sure it is the same brand as your panel.

Find a knockout on the panel that is equally easy to reach and in close proximity to where your breaker is located. Tap it using your screwdriver and a light hammer to break the mold and then remove the knockout with your pliers. Place a Romex connector into the hole and secure it in place using the included lock nut.

Next, run enough of the wire through the Romex connector so that it reaches the bottom of the panel and then bends back up to reach the breaker. Mark the outer sheath with a marker at the point where it exits the Romex connector on the INSIDE of the panel. Pull the wire out of the connector and use the Romex stripper to slice the outer sheath up to the mark you made. Cut away the sheath and the paper insulator.

Run the wire back into the panel and secure the clamp on the Romex connector to hold the wire in place. The clamp should clamp down over a sheathed section of the wire, NOT the exposed wires. Keep the wires from touching anything on the inside of the panel when inserting them and then bend them out of the way so you can install the breaker.

Different brands of panels have different configurations on installing the breakers. Follow the instructions for your specific brand; just be sure to have the breaker in the OFF position when installing it. Strip about ¾" of insulation from the ends of the wires.

Find the ground bar inside the panel and secure your ground wire under one of the available terminals. Connect the white wire to the panel's neutral bar in the same fashion. Lastly, loosen the terminal on your breaker, insert the black wire and tighten the terminal down. Make sure all of your wires are neatly inside the panel and replace the cover. Flip the breaker ON and test your new outlet for voltage. Now, you have an outlet dedicated exclusively for your computer!