Knowing Your Circuits For Domestic Wiring

As with most aspects of life, regulations are put in place to protect us. These Regulations or rules should be adhered to in order to comply with set legislation. Domestic Wiring is just one area where regulations are strictly enforced in order to potentially save lives.

By law, all domestic wiring (electrical installations within the home) should be either carried out by a certified electrician, or certified upon completion.
Domestic wiring has changed over the course of the past few years to make it easier to differentiate between recent wiring under new regulations; one aspect of this was to change the colours of the twin and earth wires used for domestic wiring circuits. Red became the new Brown (Live) and Black became the new Blue (Neutral) with a single strand of copper wire being the Earth.The earth wire is usually concealed in a green and yellow sleeve when terminated in order to protect it from touching the Live or Neutral wires.

Domestic Wiring usually comprises of two circuits within the home, the first being the domestic ring main which supplies electricity to all sockets, the second being the radial lighting circuit, although it is also recommended nowadays that if there are two floors to a property it is advisable to have two ring mains in addition to the lighting circuit. The mains power is supplied from a consumer unit (Fuse Box) within the home, the consumer unit is there to protect all your domestic wiring, with each circuit being protected by its own fuse. In addition to the ring main, separate power supplies are used for fixed appliances such as cookers, immersion heaters or showers simply because the draw more current.

Consumer units these days are fitted after a Residual Current Device (RCD), the residual current device turns off (trips) the whole system should a fault be detected, for example when a light bulb blows, usually the whole lighting circuit is turned off, but can be easily switched back on again by flicking a switch on the consumer unit, (Trip Switch or Fuse).

All modern domestic wiring circuits should be embedded into inner wall surfaces in ducting or alternatively under the floor. New builds, rewires or extensions by law have to be wired in this manner. Old fashioned wiring was always run through the wall cavity which left it susceptible to damp and therefore at risk from the protective casing of the wire perishing.

In the same way a spur can be connected to the existing ring main, a spur is a single cable used to wire a 13amp socket. Spurs are used to add sockets rather than extending the actual ring circuit itself, although there is a limit as to how many spurs can be added.
If a power supply is required for the outside of the property, a separate circuit from the consumer unit should be used. Power to external areas should always be run from a unit which has a RCD Residual current device installed as there is a greater risk of wet conditions or hazards of cables being broken. An internal switch to the outdoor power supply is recommended to reduce risks too, and remember waterproof switches and sockets should always be used in the garden.

Grasping the basic theory of domestic wiring should provide us with enough information to understand how a house is wired, and why it is done in such a specific way, for most of us changing a plug on a domestic appliance is about the limit of our domestic wiring experience and perhaps to avoid shocking results should be left certified electricians.

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