Doing electrical wiring by yourself can be tricky. This is especially so when you lack the knowledge and the experience in electrical stuff. The thing is you cannot do a trial and error method when dealing with electrical wiring. Mistakes could cost you a fortune or even your life. That is why before starting any do-it-yourself electrical repair, you have to ask some electrical wiring questions just to be sure you know what you are doing. One thing about electrical wiring is that wires are usually color coded. Thus, it is actually easier to know which ones go with which. Below are the most common electrical wiring questions whose answers generally involve colors to help you identify each particular wire.
How Do You Wire a Switch?
One of the most common electrical wiring questions is on how to wire a switch. While using switches at home is quite easy, wiring one may not be that easy for everybody. An ON-OFF switch is actually quite simple to wire. There are different types of switches, but for this example, let’s say you are installing a single-pole toggle switch in your bedroom, a very common switch (and the simplest).
There are three colors of wires in a typical single-pole toggle switch: black, white, and green (bare copper). Splice the hot black wire coming from breaker panel by connecting on the terminal screw – top or bottom does not matter– and connect the black wire to the light fixture on the other screw of the switch. The white wire is the neutral and connects straight to the white going to the fixture. Connect the green(bare) wire to the ground screw of your switch.
These steps would generally be sufficient to make a typical single-pole switch work without a problem. Then again, if you are not confident that you can accomplish the task properly and safely you better let the pros do it instead. After all, there’s a reason why this task is one of the most common electrical wiring questions asked by most people.
How Do You Wire a Ceiling Fan?
For some reason, how to wire a ceiling fan is also one of the most common electrical wiring questions. To simplify this task, you can use a single switch for a single ceiling fan. To wire the fan, it’s just a matter of connecting the black wire of the ceiling fan to the black wire of the opposite screw the hot is connected on the switch. If there is a light, the blue wire should be connected to a completely different switch or tied together with the ceiling fan hot or black wire. Tying them together will make them come on at same time. That is it..
How Do You Replace a Breaker and How Do You Add a Sub Panel?
While few attempt to do this task themselves, most people know to hire a master electrician instead. This is dangerous to try to replace a breaker or add a panel. To give you an idea about such common electrical wiring answers, if you don’t know what this means, you are simply not equipped to order material or have anything to do with this type of job. Make sure you spend a little more by hiring a professional master electrician. And never call your master electrician and say you are ordering the material yourself. This is a big red flag and you will end up with a unqualified less experienced guy. So never tell a professional master electrician you are doing the material ordering yourself. We know homeowners want to save but this is not a good way to do it. This causes more problems for us and our willingness to get involved. It is more sensible for you to let the pros handle the entire job.
There are reasons why people ask electrical wiring questions. One, many think it’s simple to do, and two, some think it can be figured out by reading material or studying a few days. But you should not put your safety at risk in your goal to save money.