Electrical Wiring Guide
Featured Electrical Wiring Article
For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Easy Electrical Jobs for the Do-it-Yourselfer
from: SelfHomeImprovement.comYou don't have to be a licensed electrician to repair or install many of the items in your home. With a basic knowledge of electricity, a few tools, and a do-it-yourselfer's attitude, there are many things you can do yourself. However, if you don't feel comfortable around electricity or don't feel qualified, don't hesitate to call in a licensed electrician.
The first rule of any electrical job, no matter how large or small, is to cut the power to the circuit you will be working on. This is best done by locating the specific breaker in the breaker box. If your breakers aren't labeled, or even if they are, start by using a light or other small appliance at the source you will be working on. As you turn off the breakers, notice which one powers the source you are concerned with and when the light or other small appliance goes off, then you know you have found the right breaker.
Once you have found the right breaker, turn it off, cutting power to the source but you should still test the source to be completely sure that no power is live at the source. You can do this easily with an inexpensive voltage tester. You can buy the kind that you plug right into the outlet or the kind that you touch to the wires.
Once you're comfortable about turning the power off, there are several things that you can repair or install yourself. For example, you may want to replace existing light switches or electrical outlets. This is the easiest kind of DIY home electrical work you can do because the fixture is already wired and all you are doing basically, is replacing the fixture.
You can replace an old, worn out ceiling light with a shiny new, energy conserving ceiling fan by removing the old light and installing the ceiling fan. While there are several steps to this process, as far as electricity, you are just changing out the fixtures so all you have to worry about is removing the wires from the old fixture and attaching them to the new one.
The same is true for a variety of small electrical jobs at home; simply disconnecting the old and connecting the new. Jazzing up your home with new light fixtures can really go a long way toward giving your home a fresh, new look. Best of all, for a variety of DIY home electrical jobs, you can view online videos and tutorials by others who have completed these same jobs and you will see how easy they really are. Just learning how to use a voltage tester will empower you to go on to learn other basic electrical tasks.
Cable Wire News