Easy-to-follow tips when performing a DIY house wiring project.
Learning how to wire a house by yourself is a great step towards achieving your long-held dream of self-electrical wiring your house. Coal Mine
While electrical house wiring is a task best completed by an electrician, wiring a house can be done as a DIY project by following these easy-to-follow steps:
How to wire a house
Cutting off power is the first step before attempting any electric wiring in your home. Ask your power supplier to cut off service to your house or, at the very least, switch off the power leads from your house meter.
Set up an electrical panel at the spot where the leads from the electricity supplier enter your house. Using a hammer and screwdriver, create holes in the panel for power leads to pass through.
Pass the cables through and fasten the clamps. Loosen the lugs on the brass busbars, insert the red cable into one busbar and the black cable into the other, then secure the lugs. Tie the white cable to the silver busbar.
Drive a metal ground bar into the ground and run an eight-gauge copper wire from the board to the shaft. Tie one end of the bar with a ground clamp and the other end to the ground bus on the service board.
In case water pipes run into your home, locate the nearby ground bar and attach it to the pipes with another piece of eight-gauge wire.
Check out the sample house wiring diagram below.
Connect each electrical circuit in the house to the service board by way of a circuit breaker. Run each cable through a knockout hole into the board, to which you have fitted a clamp.
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Connect the white wire of each cable to the silver busbar, the ground wire to the ground busbar, and the black wire to separate breakers on a paired set.
Route the cables from the board throughout the house by creating holes in the walls and floor as necessary.
Design your circuits to cut the length of the required cable while avoiding overloading the breaker on any circuit by connecting too many devices.
Fasten the cables to wall studs, floor joists, and roof rafters to avoid the trouble that comes with having loose cables all over your home.
Install an electrical box at every location of an outlet, switch, or light fitting. Quite often, you can fasten the boxes to studs or rafters.
However, if the wall is already enclosed, you can use a remodeling box that attaches directly to the drywall.
Warning: When performing house electrical wiring, never join two cables outside an electrical box. It is dangerous to leave twisted and capped cables exposed.
The breaker controlling the circuit determines the size of the cables. You can use 14-gauge wire for circuits with 10-amp and 15-amp breakers. However, you need a 12-gauge cable, which is thicker, for 20-amp breakers.
Use a 10-gauge, four-strand wire for 240-volt applications requiring a 30-amp breaker. Use 8-gauge wire if the appliance requires a 50-amp breaker. Remember that each 240-volt appliance should have its own dedicated circuit.
Disclaimer: Wiring a house is a potentially hazardous task. It is strongly recommended to take a short course in house electrical wiring before embarking on the project.
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James Baraza, a Mechanical Engineering graduate from JKUAT, specializes in heavy equipment and brings 10+ years of construction industry experience and technical expertise to his reporting.
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