residential wiring safety

Residential Electrical Wiring Safety

First and foremost, when working with residential electrical wiring remember one important maxim. “Electricity can kill”. It is important you fully respect it when working on electrical wiring in the home. In many municipalities you may not even be allowed to work on it, and in most cases you will need a permit at a minimum. In my experience local building inspectors will provide homeowners permits for small projects if they present an electrical wiring diagram plan and can demonstrate some level of basic electrical wiring knowledge.

A couple of key things to remember when it comes to residential electrical wiring:

Black and Red wires are typically “Hot” meaning current (Amps) are flowing from the circuit breaker to the appliance or electrical box

White wires are usually the “Returns” where current (Amps) will return back to the circuit breaker after passing through the appliance/load.

The ground wire is normally bare and attaches to the appliance frame. Normally current should not be running through it. The only time current should be running through it is when there is a short circuit, and when this does happen the circuit breaker should trip killing current flow to the appliance and wire.

White and ground wires should not be connected together, except back at the circuit panel bus bar. If so, every time the appliance is turned on, electricity will flow through both the white return wire and the ground wire which is a dangerous situation.