House wiring

Keeks

Anybody know of any good sites on basic eletrical housewiring or even some good books. I want to some lights to a bedroom

davelerave

i don't know any sites but let me know if you need help

viking

The Reader's Digest DIY Book is a very good investment for the DIY enthusiast, covers wiring lights as well everything else you can think of. Its about 25-30€ in Atlantic/B&Q.

viking

Borzoi

Try www.reci.ie as the register of electrical contractors they might have something relevant on the site.

However the gist of light wiring is that it's a two wire circuit - no Earth, just Live and Nuetral. In a new home what generally is done is the Nuetral is taken from the fus box and wired to each ceiling fixture like a big daisy chain. The contractor then runs individual live cables from the fuse board to each light switch, then to each ceiling fitting.

If your looking at lights with multiple swithces - say from beside the door, and beside the bed, you need more wiring.

yankinlk

okay davelareave, can you help me with this one?:

I want to wire up a light into my attic where none exists. I guess I would need to "splice off" from existing house wiring.

What do i need to do this?
1. What parts to ask for/buy at the electric wholesalers?
2. turn off the main fuse enough?
3. anything i should be worried about?

davelerave

hey i'll give you a reply later at work now

davelerave

hows it goin, glad to help if i can

materials:
1 gang switch white
1 gang surface switch box
6 inch pendant
30 amp junction boxes if needed
clips for 1.5 t+e
? metres 1.5 pvc/pvc brown single
? metres 1.5 pvc/pvc blue single

im assuming the attic is situated over bedrooms,if the
wiring is newish and you have tripswitches marked lights etc turn off the 6amp or 10 amp ones marked lights.you should be then able to plug in a lamp lead for the attic work if youre not sure turn off the main switch and take out the main fuse but you'll need a good torch or two, do the job during the day its easier.

pick a bedroom light somewhere near below the trapdoor and locate the corresponding switch for it ,clip your brown and blue wires from over the middle of the bedroom up to where the attic light is going leaving a loop on the brown wire somewhere near the trapdoor for the attic switch ,connect the pendant light ,connect the switch brown in and brown out.you should now have a brown and blue ready to connect to the lighting circuit ,find which bedroom light and switch you're going to connect to and let me know when you're ready also find out if the lights are wired with single wires or with flat twin wires

davelerave

you dont need to switch off power obviously until youre ready for connecting

yankinlk

cheers! ill give it a go next weekend after i get to the shop.

Victor

Beware that DIY wiring will not have a RECI cert and that this may impinge on you getting the full value when selling your house (aside from the whole safety issue).

davelerave

that is an issue,im registered with reci myself and am only helping out with a smnall job but i guess everybody has to take responsibility for their diy,as far as reci cert of course extra diy work would not be covered by an existing cert for house ,if you needed a test and new cert for sale purposes a small job like an attic light would not cause a problem but i agree a bigger job is best left alone as things are hardly ever done right and cause problems when you go to an electrician looking for that cert for sale or insurance purposes

Clintons Cat

here

kennykeno1

Hi All

I am wiring my house in the coming weeks. I am in the building game but do not know much about Smart Sound, intelligent homes, etc. Can you advise what to do and who to get? I hear Smart Homes.ie will cost an arm and a leg. Could I just get my sparks to put in cat6 surround sound etc. Its just cable at the end of the day.

delly

kennykeno1, don't bump old threads and don't cross post the same message on multiple threads.