DIY electrician: how to conduct electricity in the house from the meter

Almost all apartment owners at least once in their lives faced the need to repair or create electrical wiring from scratch. The easiest way is to shift all the work to specialists, but many want to save money and do an electrician with their own hands. It is quite possible to do this if you understand the principles of creating electrical wiring and do not be afraid of potential difficulties. The process is not easy, but it is also quite fun.

Types of electrical installation

At the first stage, it is important to decide on how to install the wiring with your own hands. There are two types of them - open and hidden. When using the first type, all electrical wiring elements are attached to the surface of the walls, and the routes are laid in special cable channels. Among the advantages of this installation method the following can be noted:

• if the wiring section has been damaged, it is easy to replace it;
• preparatory and installation work is not very complex;
• if necessary, you can easily add new branch locations.

However, exposed wiring rarely fits into a room's design. In addition, there is a high risk of damage to the cables. Most often, apartment owners prefer to connect the wiring in a hidden way.

For this, the wires are laid in special grooves (grooves), previously made in the walls and on the ceiling. Special skirting boards with cable channels are also actively used. The advantages of hidden wiring are obvious:

• fits perfectly into the overall interior of the room;
• is less expensive in comparison with open installation;
• the risks of damage to cables are minimal;
• the service life of all wiring elements increases;
• provides high fire safety (except for buildings made of wood).

However, the hidden wiring also has some disadvantages. First of all, this concerns the higher complexity of operation and repair. To replace a failed wiring section or install a new point, you will have to damage the finishing material. In addition, it is impossible to find the place of damage to hidden wires without using a special device. It is also worth noting the higher complexity of installation work, if it was decided to conduct the light in the house with your own hands.

Installation recommendations

It is quite obvious that doing work on the creation of electrical wiring with your own hands can take a long time. However, as a result, you can save a lot. If you follow the recommendations, then serious problems should not arise.

Drawing up a diagram

When it is required to conduct wiring in the house from the meter from scratch, it is worthwhile to first draw a diagram. This will greatly facilitate subsequent work. When designing a circuit, it is necessary to provide for the location of all electrical wiring elements:

• automation equipment - RCD devices and circuit breakers;
• household appliances of high power - to provide electricity to a washing machine, an electric boiler and other similar devices, a special power line will be required;
• ceiling lamps;
• junction boxes, switches and sockets.

However, this information will not be enough to draw up the correct wiring diagram. There are several requirements that must be met when wiring an indoor electrical wiring. Among them, special attention should be paid to the following recommendations:

1. Conductors must run along the ceiling and walls in a strictly vertical and horizontal plane.
2. The rotation of the cables must be at an angle of 90 °.
3. Floor wiring is allowed if a special skirting board is used.
4. Conductors should be laid along the wall at a distance of 20 cm from the ceiling and down to the installation points of switches and sockets in a vertical plane.
5. The distance from electrical wiring to window and door openings should be 10 cm.
6. The switches are mounted at a height of 80 or 150 cm from the floor, and the sockets are 30 cm.

When the schema is created, you can begin to markup.

Selection and calculation of materials

This stage should be approached with the utmost responsibility. You should not save on wiring elements, because cheap products of poor quality can cause accidents and quickly fail. When choosing materials it is worth using the following recommendations:

1. Cable ducts and junction boxes must be made of non-combustible materials.
2. Open-type switches and sockets are much easier to install than hidden ones.
3. Copper cable is able to withstand higher loads and has a longer service life compared to aluminum conductors. It is better to choose wires of the NYM, PVS or VVG brand.
4. The cross-sectional index of the conductors of the wire for each outlet group must be at least 2.5 mm².
5. Powerful home appliances are connected with a thick 4 mm cable².
6. To install the lighting, conductors with a cross section of 1.5 mm are used².

In addition to calculating the required number of sockets, junction boxes and switches, the required number of wires should also be installed. In this case, the cable must be purchased with a margin to avoid problems.

When calculating the length of a conductor, there are several guidelines to follow:

1. During the installation of the boxes, not only the depth of the element should be added to the cable length, but also another 5 cm.
2. When installing luminaires with conventional incandescent lamps, the cable size should be increased by 10 cm, and for fluorescent lamps by 15 cm.
3. To connect the conductors to each other, it is worth adding from 10 to 15 cm to the size of each segment.

If there is no desire to do accurate calculations, then you can multiply the area of ​​the room by 2.

Installation of wiring elements

When all the necessary materials and wiring elements are purchased, you can proceed directly to the installation. Since hidden wiring is the most popular, its implementation should be considered. At the first stage, in accordance with the markings, it is necessary to make grooves in the walls for laying the conductors. Their depth and width are 2 cm. At the points of installation of sockets, boxes and switches, using a punch and a special nozzle (crown), installation holes are cut out.

The next step will be the installation of junction boxes and socket boxes. They are installed using screws and dowels or plaster solution. You should immediately warn that it is worth purchasing products from one manufacturer. Most often, the difficulty for home craftsmen is the installation of a group of sockets or switches, as well as their combinations. Product manufacturers assure that it is enough just to connect them and then they can be installed in pre-cut holes.

In practice, this is not entirely true, because a massive plastic structure can bend and not be installed in the wall cavity. To simplify installation, it is worth making the simplest device from an aluminum corner measuring 25x25x2.5 mm. The main requirement for this material is high rigidity.

The required number of socket boxes is connected into a single structure, after which the center-to-center distance between each element is measured. Then the following actions are performed:

1. The corner is applied to the plane of the connected boxes, 10 cm are deposited from the edges of the structure. Then it is sawn off to this size.
2. An axial line is drawn in the middle of the corner shelf, fastening holes are marked at a distance of 1.5-2 cm from it.
3. The box structure is installed in the middle of the aluminum corner, after which the location of the leftmost hole is marked.
4. 4 more holes are outlined along the centerline, the distance between which is 71 cm.
5. Holes with a diameter of 4 mm are drilled at the marked points.

After completing all these actions, it remains to screw the boxes and check their tightness. When the entire structure is attached to the wall, the center lines on the corner and the wall should match. After that, the boxes are installed on a plaster mortar.

Device switching

After laying the cable and installing all the wiring elements, you must connect them correctly. You can remove the insulating layer from the conductors using an ordinary knife or use a special stripper. In the second case, it will be extremely easy to cope with the task. The stripper allows you to quickly remove the insulation from the wires at the desired length and at the same time does not damage the current-carrying conductor.

As an example, you can use the connection of an outlet group with four elements. It should be noted right away that five conductors need to be pulled to each outlet. To solve this problem, just one cable is enough, from which the required number of branches is then made. The algorithm of actions is as follows:

1. The insulating layer is removed from the conductor for the length of the sleeve (about 3 cm).
2. Pieces of wire of the same brand and section with a length of 10 cm are cut.
3. In the extreme box, 2 branches are made on the supply wire - to this and the adjacent outlet.
4. Three conductors of the same color are inserted into the sleeve, after which they are crimped. This operation must be performed for all three conductors - phase, working and protective zero.
5. Then from the branch, 3 conductors are used to switch the current outlet, and the rest are pulled into the next box.
6. The operation is repeated on all other sockets except the last one.
7. After connection, all connections must be insulated with heat shrinkable material.

Below is a diagram of such switching.

As a result, all sockets must be connected to the common route. If one device fails, the rest will continue to function properly. A similar scheme is used when connecting a group of luminaires. It is very easy to implement with Wago terminals. The supply conductor is divided into two, one of which is used to connect the nearest luminaire through a three-way terminal, and the second is a continuation of the route. The process is repeated until the last element of the circuit.