Electrical house wiring parts name, this is a subject that seeks to help you understand the basic parts that are in electrical house wiring.
Today I am not going to mention the stages to follow when doing electrical house wiring from start to finish.
However, I am going to walk you through how electricity is supplied to your house and how it reaches various parts of the house.
Service cable.
A service cable is a cable that supplies electricity to your home from the power utility company.
There are basically two common ways electricity is supplied to your house. It is either through overhead connections or underground connections.
Overhead connection. This is whereby power is supplied through an electrical pole and it passes through the air to your house.
Underground connection. In underground connection, the service cable used is armored cable. It is laid in a trench in the ground to your house. In most cases, you can’t see the service cable.
Electric meter(energy).
Once electric power is supplied to your house, it enters your house through an electric meter. This electric meter is there to monitor how much electrical energy you are consuming in your house.
There are two types of electrical energy meters used in house wiring. These are analogy meters and digital meters.
An analog meter is one where a meter reader comes to your house to take the meter reading for the utility company to make a bill. Whereas a digital meter is a prepaid meter. You purchase the electrical units before using them. In this case, there are no meter readers.
Most countries are no longer using analog electric meters for their homes.
Distribution board.
When the electricity reaches the meter, it then goes into the distribution board.
A distribution board is the heart of electrical house wiring. It is in the distribution board, where electricity is distributed to various parts of the house.
How does a distribution board distribute electricity?
A distribution board is made up of circuit breakers, a neutral bar, and an earth bar.
From the electric meter, electricity enters the distribution board through the mains circuit breaker. It is called the mains circuit breaker because it is the breaker that controls the flow of electricity in your house.
When you switch off the mains circuit breaker, the entire house will have no electricity. All the other circuit breakers supplying electricity to other loads in the house take their power from the mains.
Other circuit breakers.
These are circuit breakers that supply specific loads in the house. Below is a list of loads supplied by other circuit breakers.
- Lighting
- socket outlets,
- cooker and ovens,
- refrigerator,
- geyser,
- water pump,
- airconditioners.
Lighting.
This is the part of the house that lights up the house. The lighting circuit comprises the circuit breaker, cables, switches, and light fittings.
Circuit breaker for lighting.
The recommended circuit breaker size for lighting is 10A for a 230V supply. This is the circuit breaker that controls all the lighting in the house.
When you are doing maintenance works, on a light fitting or switch, you do not need to switch off the mains circuit breaker. Instead, you switch off the circuit breaker for lighting.
Cables for lighting.
These are the cables that you use to wire all the lighting circuits in the house. The standard cable size for lighting is 1.5mm squared cable. This is a cross-section area of the cable.
Switches for lighting.
For you to turn on or turn off a light fixture in a home, you need a switch. There are a number of switches available. The available switches are:
- 1 way switches:A one way switch is one that has an off possition.this is the most common switch.
- 2 ways switches:A two way switch has no off position,it is a switch that is used to control light fixtures from two locations.
- Intermediate switches:Intermediate switch is a switch that is used incojuction with a 2 way to control a light fixture from three locations.
Socket outlets.
This is another important part of a house. This is made up of all socket outlets, circuit breakers, and cables.
Circuit breaker for socket outlets.
The electric current flows from the distribution board to all the socket outlets through the circuit breaker. The circuit breaker size for socket outlets in a 220/230V supply is 32A.
Cables for sockets outlets.
Cables are a path through which electric current travels from the distribution to the socket outlets throughout the house
.For socket outlets to be supplied with adequate electric power, a suit cable size must be used. In a 230v/50Hz supply system, a suitable cable size is 2.5mm squared cable.
Types of socket outlets.
There are a lot of socket outlets available on the market. The most common type is the double socket outlet and a single socket outlet.
A double socket outlet has two provisions for plugging in your electrical home gadgets and appliances. While a single socket outlet has one provision for plugging an appliance.
Nowadays, socket outlets come with USB plugin slots for devices that use USB ports mostly for charging purposes.
Cooker and oven.
Just like other circuits, cookers, and ovens are comprised of circuit breakers, cooker control units, and cables.
A cooker draws its electric power from the distribution through a circuit breaker.
Circuit breaker for cooker and oven.
A cooker and oven are electrical appliances that draw a lot of power in your house. For this reason, a cooker must have a dedicated circuit of its own.
You should not have another appliance in this circuit that is dedicated to a cooker and oven.
The recommended circuit breaker size for a cooker is either a 45A or 32A circuit breaker. The choice of a circuit breaker is directly proportional to the energy consumption of the cooker. The higher the energy consumption, the higher the circuit breaker rating.
Cable size of a cooker.
The cable size of a standard cooker and oven is 6mm squared. They are other cookers that draw less energy from the supply with these, you can use a 4mm squared cable size.
However, what determines the cable size is the energy consumption and the electric current the cooker draws from the supply.
Types of cooker control unit.
In the European standards, there are two commonly used cooker control types. The one is a big one, a 6″x6″ cooker control unit, the other is a 3″x6″ cooker control.
Airconditioner.
In every home, there is a need to regulate the room temperature? There are times when it is very cold and at other times, it is very hot. In all these scenarios, you need an air conditioner.
Circuit breaker size for airconditioner.
The commonly used circuit breaker size for residential properties is a 20A circuit breaker.
Cable size for airconditioner.
The cable size for an airconditioner is dependant on the size of the air conditioners. In electrical home settings, most air conditioners use 2.5mm squared cables and 4mm squared cables.
Water pump.
A water pump is a very essential component of home electrical wiring. There are two commonly used water pumps in home electrical wiring.
The submersible pump and booster pump. A submersible pump is used to pump water from a borehole. The pump is completely submerged in the water well. This is the reason it is called a submersible water pump.
A booster pump is there to boost the water pressure. There are times when water can not circulate in the entire house at the same water pressure.
In these instances, you will need a booster pump to pump the water to the whole house without losing the water pressure.
In domestic or residential properties, single-phase motors are used.
Final thought on Electrical house wiring parts name.
I have shown you various parts found in electrical house wiring. What is your thought on this? Do you have any experience working on electrical house wiring? Share your experience in the comments section below.
