I am exactly what the title of this thread implies. However, this is a field that I am very much interested in, and really want to pick up. Hence, my questions at this stage are quite basic. First off, where do you guys recommend I start the learning process? This site? Any other sites? Particular books? Can you give me a sort of "priority ladder" for in which order I should learn things? Also, for typical electric work, for example, adding an outlet to an existing branch, how much of the wall typically has to be cut away? Is it easy to repatch?

Thanks a lot!

 

Start with a book on home wiring. These are available at your local public library or home improvement center. The Black and Decker book is recommended by many (it is quite good despite a few technical flaws). There are many others.

Many times, but not always, a new receptacle can be added with no drywall damage at all. It depends on too many factors to mention.

After you read two or three or four good books on home wiring, pick out a project. Adding a receptacle is a good one to get started with. Come back and ask questions. We'll be happy to help.

 

Okay then, thanks. Until I get a good amount of money to purchase a decent book, do you know of any sites that provide adequate information (obviously besides this one)? I've done some Google searches, but it seems to be difficult to find sites with lots of info. Most just have a little bit here and there.

 

Well, in the meantime, I guess I'll just ask any questions I come upon in this thread. Here are my first two:

1) My home was built in 1948. There was a fire in 1996, and the kitchen and bathroom's wiring was replaced with grounded receptacles. Everywhere else in the house, though, is non-grounded, two-pronged outlets. I know my house does indeed have the ground wire running to it from the street poles. From my circuit breaker box, there is a mix of new Romex (from the kitchen and bathroom) and that old rat-proof wiring, the curly, hard stuff (remember, I'm new, I don't know it's proper term). Also, major rooms of the house only have one outlet on each wall, whereas smaller rooms, such as the second bedroom, only has one outlet in the whole room! Three of the walls are completely blank (yes, I have a lot of extension cords, I power my whole bedroom off of one outlet). So I'm wondering (and I'm sure this would be a huge project, nothing I could do any time soon), what would be involved in replacing all the existing outlets with grounded ones, running the ground wire to all of them, and then adding a lot more outlets in every room? Basically, I'd probably have to reconfigure every circuit in the house, once everything was rearranged. Is this something that would cost thousands by a professional electrician?

2) I've gotten myself somewhat confused on the theory behind outlet placement in a new home. Is it practical to have a goal to have enough outlets in the house to not have to use any surge protectors or power strips anywhere? If this was the case, certain key areas, such as the entertainment center, computer area, etc. would have to have six or more outlets in the wall, all in one location. If I was building a new home, should I put a 4- or 6-way everywhere I intened to have a lot of equipment? Or should I just put a standard 2 everywhere and expect to use power strips and such? Also, I read that the average distance between outlets is six feet. This also confused me, because using this rule could often create a situation where you have out outlet 1/3 across the wall, another 2/3 across the wall, but none in the middle. However, I feel one is absolutely necessary in the middle of every wall, in case something like a TV is put right there. So how do you go about making these types of decisions?

Thanks!

 

If money is an issue, most public libraries have a good selection of home wiring books and tapes for free! The first post in this forum lists a number of wiring web sites, but they are better for reference than for learning.

1) Normally, getting grounding at the receptacles involves replacing all the wiring from the service panel to the receptacles. You are also allowed to use three-hole receptacles if you provide GFCI protection, but this does not provide grounding.

Yes, providing grounding to all your receptacles, and providing extra receptacles, is something that will cost thousands if you have it professionally done. It's much cheaper if you do it yourself, but it's a lot of work, and you should be very knowledgeable about residential wiring before you attempt it. This will take considerable study on your part, but it is likely within your abilities.

If providing more receptacles means consuming more power, then you may also need a service upgrade. This normally involves the power company, and costs another thousand or so.

2) Yes, it is a good goal to have enough receptacles to not need extension cords or power strips. However, it is common to use multi-receptacle surge supressors for computers and entertainment centers, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Code requires that no point on the wall be farther than six feet from a receptacle. This means that receptacles can be as much as 12 feet apart. These distances are measured around corners, not from corners. But you can put extra receptacles anywhere you find convenient. Various factors determine appropriate placement of receptacles. Most rooms lend themselves to only a few logical furniture placements, depending on the location of windows, fireplaces, doors, etc. You should put receptacles in logical places to accommodate these logical arrangements (a TV doesn't always logically go in the middle of a wall).

If you feel that every wall needs a receptacle right in the middle, then by all means put one there!

 

1) Yes, I was guessing that something like that would be a huge project. I suppose my biggest question would be if it is worth it. My house runs okay now with everything I have in it, yet perhaps this is something that should still be considered. My house is small, so let me give you a room-by-room analysis of how things are now.

Office: one outlet, two pronged. The first plug I have a 2 to 3 adapter in, and then an 8-outlet power strip for my computer stuff (I'm using 7 of them). In the other plug (same receptacle), I have extension cords running the perimeter of the room for all the lamps. All in all, 8 lamps. So, with the top plug, plus the bottom plug, a total of 15 devices from that receptacle.

Kitchen: no problem, enough outlets.

Bathroom: same.

Living room: one on each wall. One simply as two lamps plugged into it, another has one extension cord so I can plug in a lamp and two rear speakers, another has a 6-outlet strip for two lamps and a stereo, and the last one uses two extension cords to plug in a TV, DVD player, VCR, and lamp.

Dining room: two outlets in room. One is fine, the other has one power strip.

Master bedroom: one outlet on three walls, fourth is blank. Two of the receptacles have the bottom plug free, the third uses two extension cords.

Second bedroom: perhaps the worst of all, one outlet on one wall. Extension cords run the perimeter of the room. Total devices from that outlet is 12: 4 lamps, a TV, sound machine thing, stereo, pencil sharpener, clock, chargeable shaver, and cordless phone base.

As you can see, everything operates just fine, and things have been this way for almost twenty years (except for the computer stuff, obviously). Also, everything is relativley low-power except for the computer stuff. Does this sound like a desperate situation to you or one that can be let go since it would cost so much to upgrade?

2) So it would not be unusual then to have 4- or 6-way receptacles wherever a lot of devices are anticipated? Why, then, do almost all homes only have 2-way receptacles everywhere? Undoubtedly people will need a lot more in a few places. What about having outlets every few inches, say in the baseboard? Would that be a wise decision?

Thanks again! I know this one is long...

 

Anyone? Anyone?

 

If it ain't broke ...

 

Hmm...VERY good philosophy.

So moving on to two...are outlets along the perimeter of the rooms of a house, say in the baseboard, common? practical?

 

They are common in older houses built before electricity, but in newer construction most receptacles are located about 1.5' from the floor. The code has the 6/12 rule for safety purposes, but you are free to exceed this requirement as you find it necessary.

It's hard to make a blanket statement as to whether or not they are practical. What's practical in your house, may not be in mine. You really have to look at each case individually.

 

Well, I've been considering many things. First, I could go with a standard setup of 2-outlet receptacles, 30" off the ground, about every feet six or so, two on long walls and just one on shorter ones. Basically, like how it is in most new homes. I was also considering doing that, but in all places where I anticipate a lot of electronics having a 4- or 6-outlet receptacle. However, this seems impractical, because my "anticipations" could be very wrong. My final considering was to have outlets in the baseboard every few inces around the whole house. This completely eliminates the need for power strips and surge protectors (as long as I have full house surge protection in my breaker box), but I am then putting in a LOT of surplus outlets, not to mention how much that will increase my electricity bill just from having those there. I have yet to decide on the best answer. Probably the first one, since that IS what they do in most modern homes.

Another little question: I know that the breaker trips whenever a connection is broken or whatnot that causes a surge of power. Well today, we were hanging a chandelier. A pole near the base of it was not screwed in completely, and so it fell, breaking the wire in the middle of the pole. The light switch was one at the time, and so this caused the breaker to trip. Why? Isn't that just the same thing as having the light switch on before the chandelier is connected? Sure, it would shock you if you touched it then, but it wouldn't cause the breaker to trip. So why did this cause that?

 

Spare receps do not disipate power and will not increase your electric bill. (Very technically every wire has leakage and might, but you cannot tell.)
Breakers trip when the current passing through them exceeds the rating of the breaker. When the wire broke it touched a conductor that was connected to the other side of the pair. This drew excess current, and the breaker tripped. Surges are usually considered to be transient occurances that last only a few cycles of the AC power. They often are so brief that breakers will NOT trip. The high voltage can cause damage to electronics so quickly no fuse or breaker can react in time. Even surge supressors have a response time and can fail to react quickly enough.

 

Hmm...so why do even mondern homes lack outlets in many places? Why not just load 'em up everywhere? Outlets are rather cheap, are they not? What about the wiring? Maybe the labor's expensive?

Yeah, hopefully that never happens though. My surge protectors for my computer won't actually stop a surge, unfortunately, because they're not plugged into a grounded outlet.

 

When you are talking about wiring tract or mass produced homes every last penny counts. An extra $50 per house x 250 houses is $12, 500. An extra $50 or $100 in one new house is not that big of a deal, so if you have the opportunity you might as well go the extra mile.

 

Yes, I suppose so.

Well, I've been doing a lot of reading, and I think the first thing I'd like to accomplish is a strip of outlets on the wall around my computer area. This area is in the basement with unfinished walls (exposed cement block), and only about fifteen feet from the main panel. How difficult of a job would this be?

 

Any comments?

Also, I installed a dimmer switch today. My house has old, 1948 wiring, so the wires connected to the previous switch are very stiff and hard to bend. Because of this, the caps would not fit very well at all, and kept falling off, so I wrapped it up with electrical tape and then put the cap over top of that. Is this safe? What would happen if the electrical tape came off inside the switch?

 

Please, please, please, get some books on wiring. They will be less than your deductable from a fire. The inside of the wire nut is a spring with square edges. It is designed to deform the metal of the wire and create a gas tight seal. Putting tape under a wire nut defeats this. Working on very old wiring is difficult. The insulation is often rubber and very brittle. It can crack and fall off the wire with the slightest bending. The best fix is heat shrink tubing. You slide it over the wire, covering as much of the wire inside the box as possible, and then shrink it with a hot air gun. As long as the repair is inside a box, the inspector should pass it.
But Please, please buy the wiring book. It will not adress some of these types of problems, but it will show you how it should be done. (And I know some of the books contain errors, but they are still a good place to start.)

 

Don't worry, I intended on it, it's only been a few days. This was just a fix at the time so I could get it working. So...a fire could result from this? That heat shrink thing sounds difficult.

 

Heat shrink is very simple to do slide it over one wire then use a hair dryer on it to shrink it to size then continue doing it wo wires as needed until the insulation is repaired.

As for wirenuts falling off if you strip of about three quarters of and inch and make sure the wirenut is the proper size for the number of wires and the size of wire your putting together. The biggest trick is make sure your twisting the nut in the right direction. I know this sounds stupid but it has been done more then once, they will only tighten properly one way.

In all reallity a few good books on the subject is a very good idea before attempting any electrical repairs. Electricity is dangerous and proper care must be exercised in even the smallest repair or modification.

 

Yeah, the reason I used the tape was because with those old thick wires the nut just wouldn't stay on. So is this something I need to worry about fixing immediately?

 

Yes. It is an immediate fire hazard.

 

How can this start a fire exactly? I'm not doubting you at all, I'd just like to know how.

So I guess I must use that heat shrink technique. Taking off the tape and just putting the nut on would not do any good because it is impossible to create a seal with that nut and those old wires. Speaking of that, what is fire hazard? The presence of the tape or the lack of a seal?

 

An electrical connection that is not mechanically secure cannot cause arcing if the conductors move apart. An arc is well over 10,000 degrees and can cause plastic to break down and ignite. The plastic that wire nuts are made from is flammable if exposed to the temperature present in an arc. Just as a point of reference, the sun is yellow star. An electrical arc is blue. The electrical arc is actually hotter.

 

If the wire nut won't stay on, then you've either used the wrong size wire nut, or you've used a worn out wire nut. I recommend never trying to reuse a wire nut that's been used before.

 

Do they make bigger nuts to fit over these thick old wires? These things barely even move.

Yes, but how could the connection come loose when it's wrapped in tape?

Also in that note, I had a fire in my house caused by electricity in 1996. I had to move out and live in a hotel for four months. It wasn't due to something I did, however. The old metal, rat proof wiring in my kitchen had some sort of break in one of the wires. It eventually got so hot that it melted through the old metal Romex and sparked a fire in the wall.

One more thing: what's the difference between wires coming loose in a switch and wires coming loose in a chandelier? In the switch, you say it'll cause a fire, but in the chandelier, it just tripped the breaker. There was a brief spark before the breaker tripped, but that was it.

 

They make wire nuts in many sizes. Tape is next to worthless in holding power.

 

So it'll melt? What about in the chandelier where we spliced the broken cord together?

 

How did you splice the cord in the chandelier? I would have replaced the wire completely. If you used wire nuts, crimp splices, or twisted the wires together solidly and then soldered, it should be fine. If you just twisted the wires and applied tape, it is a hazard.

 

Yep. Tape. So...is the danger having exposed wires running electricity? Or is the danger having the wires come apart from each other?

 

If they come apart an arc forms. If they completely seperate, one arc and no power, except if they touch something conductive and grounded. If they pull apart but still touch, just like with the wirenut twisted together, the arc occurs repeatedly. Buzz, buzz, and the stink of ozone and burning insulation. Out in the open it is less likely to start a fire than in a wall box or confined space, but is still a fire hazard. Joints in electrical wiring must be mechanically secure and electrically continous. You need both things for a safe installation. Simply twisting wires together is not mechanically secure. It may be electrically continous right now, but you cannot be sure the wires will stay together. Arcs and the heat they produce are the bain of electrical circuits.

 

An electrician friend once told me, "Duct tape is never used on ducts, and electrical tape is never used on wires." (This may not be true 100% of the time, but it's a good rule of thumb.)

Do this test: Wrap a couple of pieces of scrap wires with tape. Douse the splice with water. Notice how the tape loosens? Humidity inside a wall can do the same thing over time. Loose connections can overheat.

Even if the taped wires don't arc, they can still cause a fire. I found a taped connection inside a wall of my garage where a "pro" contractor had installed a door (before I owned the home). The taped wires weren't making a solid mechanical connection, but they were touching each other.

The outlet downstream from the splice worked fine for low-draw devices like my cordless drill's battery charger. But when I plugged a space heater into the outlet, the splice IMMEDIATELY announced itself with billows of heavy black smoke coming from above the door. Had I not ripped off the molding and wallboard and doused it with the fire extinguisher, the house would have burned. The wooden door jamb was already smoldering. Good thing I didn't go inside to wait for the garage to get warm!

The breaker never tripped because the heater was within the circuit's load rating. It was the splice that couldn't handle the load.

Do you want to take that chance in your home? Please, fix it immediately. You know about the splice, and may not need to plug in a high-draw device, but what about the next person who owns the home?

In short (no pun intended): NEVER use electrical tape to splice wires!!!!

 

Buy the bag of big red wirenuts, and twist the wires together in the opposite direction the wirenut tightens first. I like to wrap the wires together with electrical tape 1-2 inches upstream of the nut to make sure they never pull laterally on the nut.

Don't twist too hard or you may break the old wire.

And I use duct tape on my ducts!

 

"Buy the bag of big red wirenuts, and twist the wires together in the opposite direction the wirenut tightens first."
1. Turn off power before installing or removing connectors.
2. Strip wires 5/16" (7.9mm) - strip 16 gauge and smaller stranded wires 3/8" (9.5mm)
3. Align any frayed strands or conductors.
4. Pretwisting unnecessary. Hold stripped wires together with ends even. Lead stranded wires slightly.
5. Push wires into connector and screw on until two twists are visible in wire.
(Ideal, orange size)
The strip changes with wire nut size. I still twist the wires. Twist them in the same direction teh wire nut goes on. You are trying to squeeze them all together uniformly and maximize contact. If a wire pulls out, it was not installed correctly.

 

Okay, so I want larger, orange wire nuts? And - you don't have to twist them together ahead of time? You can just align them, put them in, and screw the nut?

The problem with this setup is that I couldn't wrap them together if I wanted to. The old wiring is stiff like a metal rod. The only way to bend it is to use two hands and literally pull down with each hand. Picture Superman bending a steel rod, that's what it's like bending these wires. So, twisting is not an option. Instead, I just had to make a hook out of the new wire from the switch and hook it on to the old stiff stuff. Thus, even if I got larger wire nuts, I'm not sure if the wires would twist together properly at all.

And no, I'm not running anything major off this switch. It just turns on and off a small chandelier.

 

... and use it ... and use it again after it peels off and leaves behind a mess of half-melted adhesive.

Seriously, most localities don't allow duct tape as a permanent sealer. Pressure-sensitive metal-faced tape is the choice. It is then sealed with mastic.

There are obviously uses for electrical tape on wires (marking white-as-black, for example), but it's never used to hold a splice.

 

You twist the wires together with a pair of pliers. Go to a hardware store and ask for 'linemans' pliers. Grab two, maybe three wires side by side with the tip of the jaws. Twist the pliers until the wires are all twisted together where they are bare. Practice on some scraps about 6 inches long. If you mess up on old wiring in a box it is a real pain to put the insulation back (shrink tube time). If you get the Black & Decker Wiring book it should show you all this.
On the box of wire nuts should be listed the joints that the size in the box can make. I had orange handy and copied those to show you. You will need at least yellow for 1-3 #14 wires, and red for 2-5 #14. If the wires are not #14, post what size they are. #14 is approx 1/16 in diameter, #12 is 3/32,
#10 is 1/10.

 

With measurements that small it seems like it'd be incredibly difficult to measure it. I'm guessing you don't use a ruler.

I will try the things you mentioned, but it's going to take time, mostly because I'm learning about this as I go. First, I have to buy that book, and THEN the pliers, and then figure out how to get it done. I hope things will be alright.

Also, I'm still interested in the project of getting a strip of grounded outlets around my office.

 

Is this thread for real?

 

I do not know comgenboy, but he scares the you know what out of me...

 

If you're referring to me in any way, which I'm sure you are, that's quite rude, considering I've stated many times that I have no idea what I'm doing here. Now, please do not think I was going to take a ruler and try to measure the thickness of my wire. I would like to know how you determine that. And yes, I know it's dangerous to have things set up this way, but it's something I neither have the knowledge nor the tools to fix immediately. If it's something that's described how to do in a book, it's unlikely that a newbie like myself will be able to accomplish it immediately and without any hassle, so, as I said, it will take awhile to get done. Please, save the mocking for another time.