Introduction: Why Do Your Own Wiring?

For a long time, the best advice seemed to be “hire a professional and get it done right.” Depending on the task contemplated and the individual’s level of expertise, this notion may or may not be valid. You have to assess the situation and decide what will work for you. Even if you hire out all the work, electrical knowledge and expertise, as conveyed in this book, will be of value in completing your building project and maintaining it in the future.

The Homeowner’s Role Is Expanding

It is a fact that nowadays homeowners are far more active in their construction projects, whether new building or remodeling. If professionals are hired, the owners still may play a prominent role in planning and moving forward with the job. Often the homeowner is the builder. In some cases, though, a professional is hired as a designer-advisor and, in jurisdictions where there is oversight, interfaces with the inspector and, if necessary, signs off on the job.

All of this is especially true in the area of electrical work. Some home crafters draw a line in the sawdust, avoiding electrical work altogether. Others set the boxes, drill studs, and pull cable, leaving all terminations to the electrician. The extreme case is to do everything including the service without hiring a professional at all. This approach will maximize the monetary savings for the homeowner, and of course there is immense satisfaction in doing it all. If this is too great a leap into the unknown at this time, it might be something to aim for down the road.

Electrical work is very exacting and presupposes accurate knowledge (on an open-book basis) of the National Electrical Code^® (NEC^®). This document is applicable in the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, and certain other countries. In Canada, it is the Canadian Electrical Code (CEC), and in Europe it is the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Australia and New Zealand recognize the Australian/New Zealand Standard for Wiring Rules. These codes are similar, differing for the most part in only a few details here and there. In this book, we will be referring to the NEC. If you are in an area where another code applies, it will be a question of referring to your documentation and making the necessary adjustments.

Why Get Involved?

Homeowners choose to do their own electrical work for a variety of reasons:

• To save money. In the building trades, electricians are among the most highly paid in terms of hourly rate. No matter how fast the individual works, electrical installation is time-consuming. In 2014, expect to pay over $4,000 to have a new small residence wired, including the service but without extensive data networking or home automation and not including light fixtures or appliances.

• To impress family members, neighbors, and colleagues at work. This is where preparation really pays off. The NEC stresses throughout that electrical equipment is to be installed in a “neat and workmanlike manner.” A large portion of the job will be concealed behind building finish surfaces and sometimes underground, but the work in progress will be watched carefully by those in the area. A portion of the work will remain visible for the life of the building, and onlookers will be impressed if it is a first-rate job. Thus, beyond the issues of safety and efficiency, there is a great need to produce an outstanding product, and here again, knowledge and expertise are decisive factors in meeting this goal.

• To increase self-esteem. Self-esteem is an important motivation for the home crafter-electrician. We all like to consider ourselves good at what we do, and with research and practice, the general trend is to improve. Every project you undertake and bring to a successful conclusion will contribute to your ability in the future to tackle a more complex or difficult task, and for many of us, this goes way beyond the dollars saved.

• To be in touch with some fundamental processes of the universe. It is a palpable pleasure to channel electrons through conductors and watch the way these elementary particles react when we throw the switches. Completing an electrical wiring project puts us in touch with some fundamental processes of the universe, and there is a great deal to be said for that.

Applicable Mandates

Nonelectrical work, both residential and commercial, is governed by multiple building codes, and most of these are less restrictive and detailed than the NEC. The Building Officials’ and Code Administrators’ (BOCA) Plumbing Code, for example, lays out general principles such as those intended to ensure that drain water will not infiltrate the drinking water system, but it is a comparatively slim volume, and the requirements are less detailed and specific than the NEC.

Why all this oversight of electrical work? In a nutshell, it is to protect end users from the twin demons of fire and electrical shock. The NEC has had great success in this regard. In recent years, the number of nonutility electrical shock fatalities has gone way down. This decline has been due largely to the increasingly broad NEC mandate requiring ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs) in more locations. Homeowners and builders may gripe at the initial cost of installation and instances of nuisance tripping, but these are small prices to pay when you consider that in the fullness of time, little fingers will seek ways to insert metal objects into receptacles and impatient construction workers will saw off the ground prongs of power tools that may be used in wet environments.

Similarly, though in an earlier stage of development, the arc-fault circuit interrupter, where installed, is a highly effective guard against electrical fires, although here again there is the issue of nuisance tripping. In Chapter 1, we’ll talk about these lifesaving devices in greater detail—theory of operation, where required, where prohibited.

Electrical codes are an essential part of the picture but not the whole story. They are intended to provide protection from the hazards that can arise in connection with the use of electricity. The savvy home electrician needs other intellectual tools as well. A working knowledge of high school math is essential. Don’t worry about calculus or advanced trigonometry, but you will need to perform simple operations such as solving for an unknown in linear algebraic equations and finding a square root with the aid of a hand-held calculator.

As we have indicated, electrical work is a big subject, but for the homeowner, where the field is limited to residential construction, it is a bit simpler. To conclude your project, you’ll have to adopt a methodical, step-by-step approach. There’s good news, though! It’s all open-book, meaning that when a question arises, you can consult the NEC, the Internet, electronic textbooks, and this book to find the answers you need.

Herein we begin with some basics and proceed into more difficult areas the home crafter-electrician is likely to encounter. If you are in an early stage in this interesting and rewarding undertaking, start at the beginning, and you will not have a problem tackling common electrical jobs in a residential setting. More advanced readers can jump around, filling in bits of knowledge here and there with a goal of seeing the picture in its entirety.

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