The Complete Guide to Wiring: Current with 2011-2013 Electrical Codes (Black & Decker Complete Guide)

Five stars for the detailed photos and concise text which provide foolproof guidance. But this book is typical of electrical DIY books in that it provides a confusing version of the underlying science, IMHO. So I will use my review to provide my own. Hopefully some will find it useful.There are three wires entering the home. They originate from the top, middle and bottom of a coil inside the utility pole transformer. This coil is immersed in a 60 Hertz oscillating electromagnetic field created by a surrounding coil attached to the power company wires. The voltage between the top and middle wires is 120 V; that between the middle and bottom wires is also 120 V so connecting top to bottom gives 240 V. The middle wire is called "neutral" and the top and bottom wires "hot". Houses are wired so each hot wire supplies about half the overall household power. Interestingly, this minimizes current (thus heating) in this neutral wire, as the AC phases from each hot wire cancel each other out.To protect against dangerously high voltages entering the home, such as from nearby lightning strikes, the neutral wire is connected to the earth via the home plumbing or a rod driven into the soil. Thus the neutral wire is "grounded". (Since the three wires are connected inside the transformer, any of them could be used for grounding, although neutral is the best choice since it limits "ground faults" to 120 V. See below.) So neutral means that you have split the voltage available at the transformer in half; and ground means that your wiring is attached to the earth to protect against an electromagnetic pulse from lightning.But connecting the neutral wire to your plumbing/soil creates a new hazard: ground faults, which could produce a 120 V shock should one accidentally contact either hot wire while also in contact with a faucet or concrete floor and thus with neutral. This would happen, for instance, if a hot wire inside a damaged power cord touched the metal exterior of a washing machine or power tool. To guard against this, manufacturers originally attached these surfaces to the neutral wire, inside the appliance, out of sight, so an errant hot wire would have an alternative parallel path to neutral which would cause a short circuit and shut off power at the circuit breaker. This scheme depended on plugging the appliance into the receptacle in a particular way, matching plug neutral to receptacle neutral, so a polarized wide-slot/narrow-slot convention was adopted.Unfortunately, this approach could still fail if the receptacle were accidentally wired backward, with hot and neutral reversed, causing our appliance exterior to be permanently hot instead of permanently neutral, an accident waiting to happen. To solve this problem, a three-prong receptacle was introduced. Now protection was provided by connecting the appliance exterior to a new round pin on the plug, which connected to a second neutral wire in the receptacle, bare copper to avoid confusion, which connected to the original neutral wire only at the electrical panel (before it is contaminated by connections to hot wires indirectly through appliances, which tends to make it slightly less neutral), thus reducing the chances of wiring errors. This new wire normally carries no current, that is, is never attached to the hot wire through an appliance; that function continues to be performed by the original neutral wire. Its sole purpose is to lie in wait for some hot wire to come in contact with the conductive surface to which it is attached. As with the original current-carrying neutral wire, should this happen, it will overheat and trip the circuit breaker, shutting off power.Although this is referred to as "equipment grounding", in fact, as mentioned, it protects against shocks by introducing a parallel circuit which connects an errant hot wire directly to neutral, effectively bypassing the path to neutral which includes you and the ground you're standing on. It is similar to grounding, in that it provides a parallel circuit which protects inhabitants, but unlike it because the protective circuit works by bypassing ground, not including it.

I was an electrician in the Navy for twenty years so I know a fair amount about electricity. What I didn't know about was house wiring and this book fills in that knowledge very well. It is very well organized and easy to read. I am currently reading it cover to cover and have also used it to look up specific items. It covers code requirements and I recommend that every "handyman" that decides to tackle an electrical job should read it to make sure they don't inadvertently violate them. I wish the previous owner of my house had read it before remodeling his basement as some of his mistakes are going to be very difficult/costly to repair now.As is common with these types of hands-on books, the authors use the terms voltage, current and power interchangeably. It doesn't really hurt anything from a practical standpoint but it does make me cringe whenever I read about "voltage flowing" or "checking for current/power" when checking a circuit dead. :)When the book talks about checking circuits dead, it assumes the circuit is wired properly already. When checking circuits dead, always check every wire against a known good ground (this might be in the box you are working in or a nearby outlet or you may have to go all the way to the earth ground). If someone mis-wired the circuit before you got there, any wire in the box could be hot, even the ground. I got shocked once when I touched a metal junction box because my brother-in-law wired the hot wire to the box ground (this was on an older house that didn't have a separate ground wire). He failed to mention to me that he had already tried to fix the circuit himself before I got there and I let my guard down a bit. Always test your meter against a live power source of comparable voltage both before and after checking the circuit to make sure the meter is working properly. It is a pain sometimes but it could save your life. By the way, if you don't know how to identify a good ground, do yourself and your family a favor and call an expert.

I am purchasing a house where the previous owner had done a lot of handy man wiring that was not up to code. I like to say he knew just enough to get himself in trouble. Everything functions, but there were a lot of finishing items that were not done correctly.I purchased this book as a resource to use when repairing the wiring in the house, and to help with future wiring projects. While I have not read the book cover to cover, I have skimmed through it several time and dove deeper into the areas that pertain to my needs. This book has been excellent so far. It recommends the proper tools, techniques, and equipment to acheive your goal.It is an easy read, with easy to understand illistrations and diagrams. It also has been updated to accomodate the latest updates to the NEC and includes projects that are releavent to today's homeowner.I have read other DIY books that have information on home wiring, but this one has provided me much more information then any of the other books I have read.I would reccomend this book to anyone looking to take on DIY wiring jobs around the house.

Interessant Einblicke in die technischen Voraussetzungen der USA. Begriffe werden einfach erklärt und durch Abildungen gut dargestellt. Schade das es das Buch nicht als deutsche Version gibt.

bzzzzzt bzzzzzt !!!! ouch, LUCKY i have this book. bzzzzt bzzzt !!!! AWWWW !!!!!......i am now an electro man,with this book i will replace this switch and dub me BRONTO HUMANUS: thunder man. my life is changed forever. it hurts to touch myself. my psychiatrist told me i do that too much. if she had something to do with this she is getting a nasty carpet shock. they will hear her all the way in the next room. oouucchh. what is it? I got a nasty static shock. aawww,poor baby. ha ! the person in the next room will rub it in.

thanks

I like this book and the fact that it comes with a DVD which has an electronic version of the book (in PDF format). The DVD also has live video demonstrations. The book says to be current with 2011-2013 Electrical Codes. Electrical codes of ... which country? Which state? Which province? I wish (for their 6th edition) that they would post a note that reflects to which state or province, each repair, circuit map or wiring guide refers to.That the reason why I gave it a 4 stars. Would recommend to anyone wishing to learn more about electricity and for the D-I-Y out there wanting to tackle some minor repairs or upgrades themselves.

I used this book as a reference guide for wiring a new detached garage installation. The book starts by talking about some of the basics and then showing how many common household circuits are wired. It also goes into a lot of detail for helping to plan projects including plan sheets that can be photocopied if necessary. Two pages in the middle of the book have a really helpful reference to the National Electric Code which I referred back to numerous times during my project.Overall, great book.