Talk:Electrical wiring

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiProject Energy
Energy Portal
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Energy, which collaborates on articles related to energy.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the assessment scale. [FAQ]
??? This article has not yet received an importance rating within energy.

Please rate this article, and then leave comments here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

Contents

[edit] Redirect

I removed the redirect, since Electrical wiring and Electrical wiring (U.S.) will now be taking different directions, and should therefore have their own talk pages. I have not relocated old talk comments from Talk:Electrical wiring (U.S.) to here. If you previously made comments that belong here, please feel free to relocate them. --Theodore Kloba 19:16, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] How Should this Article be Organized?

The article says it's about building wiring, and then goes off babbling about transmission systems. I'm not sure that it is at all useful to lump the disparate wiring practices of different parts of the world in one article. The transmission stuff is better covered in a different article. Do we really want an article about lights'n'plugs and panelboards? Here's what I would expect to see covered in a real article on electrical wiring (cribbing wildly from the table of contents of the Canadian Electrical Code)

  • Brief overview of building wiring systems (power, commnications, controls)
  • Historical facts, early wiring systems, fire hazards
  • Purpose and origins of electrical wiring codes (US, Canada, UK, other parts of the world if we can get any contributions)
  • Service Equipment
  • Design considerations, loading of circuits
  • Protection
  • Grounding (earthing) and bonding
  • Modern wiring methods, conductors, cables
    • North American practice
    • UK practice
  • Special power circuits
  • Hazardous Locations
    • Examples of locations with explosion hazard
    • Wet and corrosive locations
    • History
    • North American vs. IEC practices
  • Installation of equipment such as transformers, capacitors, etc.
  • Lighting Systems
  • Emergency Systems
  • High Voltage Installations
  • Communication Systems
  • Pools
  • Airports
  • Marinas
  • Railways, Telecomm, Electrical Utilities

--Wtshymanski 00:13, 2 May 2005 (UTC)


I was looking for tips as to how to debug my home wiring setup. I'm trying to install a 3-pole light switch and was interested in background as to what the black wires are, what "hot" or "phase" or "neutral" really means in a practical sense, how to hook that up to a variety of wiring configurations, etc.

Seems to me the 'wiring' article should have a brief definitiion of 'wiring' with links to 'power wiring' (its current content, more or less), 'electronics wiring' (soldering, circuit theory...); the 'power wiring' section should then be a big synopsis of a bunch of other articles, some structured like the code-books, which are designed to tell people what a finished product should look like, and some structured like a how-to book, and taylored to individuals trying to find out how to plan a new bathroom, troubleshoot a problem or install a new circuit. In general, I'd like to see articles on all the trades include a very rich interlinking of articles on tools and methods, so if you're trying to do something and look up an article about it, you discover all the specialized tools and methods that exist, that you may not have known about. --Robmonk 04:12, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

From Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not: "Instruction manuals - while Wikipedia has descriptions of people, places, and things, Wikipedia articles should not include instruction - advice (legal, medical, or otherwise), suggestions, or contain "how-to"s. This includes tutorials, walk-throughs, instruction manuals, video game guides, and recipes. Wikibooks is a Wikipedia sister-project which is better suited for such things. ..." I think we have to be particularly careful here since wiring codes and practices vary so much. --agr 14:30, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Connection methods

I think there should be a discussion of connection methods: terminal blocks vs. wire nuts vs. soldering, etc. I'm under the impression that US and European practices differ here. --agr 16:07, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Recent edits

My learned co-editor Mr. 64.24.214.168 has made a lot of changes...but I'm not sure I like them all. The organization of the article is less clear, and some key facts have been deleted. I found some text in the "Underground Transmission and Distribution" book that will be useful but I won't likely get back to this article till after Christmas. --Wtshymanski 20:05, 14 December 2005 (UTC)


Does anyone have any suggestions on where I might find more infomration on durability of wire insulation? I am looking into an accident that happened at a construction site where a buried conduit was broken along with 4 600' runs of 500 kcmil aluminum wire. I'm tring to find out if the 8 300' runs I'm left with are reuseable or if the stress' from installation and deinstallation could have comprimised the insulation. I checked the NEC book for 2005 but relevant specifications are not addressed and I'm having trouble finding details anywhere else.

[edit] Electrical services

The article electrical services has a lot of duplicate information to the article Electrical wiring, and really shouldn't be it's own article. There is some new information (from what I can tell) that can be merged into the previously existing article.--Esprit15d 14:40, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Upon further examination, I see that much of the electrical services article is copied verbatim from this one.--Esprit15d 15:20, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] freakin' genius.

I love historical bright ideas. Our fine article says:

Other methods of securing wiring that are now obsolete include:
  • Re-use of existing gas pipes for electric lighting. Insulated conductors were pulled into the pipes feeding gas lamps.

Freakin genius! I can't conceive of any problems of any kind that might have arisen from this practice. User:81.182.171.214

Naturally the gas was disconnected and not restarted--DV8 2XL 19:58, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

There is, nonetheless, a difference between "electrical conduit" and plain old "pipe". To be considered worthy of the name "conduit", the inside of a pipe has to be free of burrs and imperfections that could otherwise damage wire insulation. Important for electrical use, unimportant if that pipe were merely plumbing to feed a water closet. --carlb 04:05, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mineral insulated cable figure

There have been some edits to the figure showing mineral insulated cable; apparently there is some disagreement about whether information about fireproofing should be included. I am not familiar with the use of this cable, and would like to know if it is intended to provide fire protection, or is it intended for use in and around equipment that is hot when operating normally (or both). --Gerry Ashton 00:50, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

MI cable is used for reasons other than fireproofing; such as the installation in the picture, where it was chosen for long life and stability. I took the photo! All that stuff about fireproofing was only peripherally related and was far too much for a photo caption. --Wtshymanski 18:59, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

The caption to an illustration is no place for a long discussion of fire protection methods. The photo depicts an installation of MI cable that has nothing to do with its fire-resistive properties, in a region of the world not under the jurisdiction of the USNRC (whoever *that* might be?). Not vandalism, a sincere edit. More words are not always better. My learned co-editor would be advised to procure a free image of a proper illustration of a fire-resistant installation of MI cable if he feels that would be a useful illustration to the article. --Wtshymanski 18:58, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help please!

Hi! I'm doing a project on Concealed Wiring in Buildings, for which I needed information on: 1. When did people switch over to concealed wirings from open wiring? 2. And why? This article has been extremely informative, though I have not understood a couple of things. 1. When exactly (approximate year) did people start concealing the wires inside the walls? Is it when cables came into use or before or after? 2. Why did people decide to switch over to concealed wiring even though there is the danger of a fire breaking out? Is it because of just aesthetics or because of the disadvantages of the older wiring methods? I'd very much appreciate it if somebody can give me all the disadvantages of concealing the wires, as well as their opinion on whether they find concealed or open wiring better. Sridevi KS 06:26, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't have any reliable sources for you, but I can suggest a few thoughts to consider. When electricity first became available, it would have been installed mostly in existing houses. This would favor either using surface wiring, or putting the wires through the gas pipes that were used for illumination up to that time. On the other hand, one of the early wiring methods was knob and tube wiring, and that needed to be concealed in walls for mechanical protection. Knob and tube wiring would have been much easier to install in new construction rather than existing houses. --Gerry Ashton 18:29, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanx Gerry! Sridevi KS 06:05, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Colour coding?

I've searched high and low looking for information on the colour coding of wires. I know it seems very basic, but shouldn't we have somewhere that the colour red is used to denote negative charge and the colour black is used to denote possitive charge. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.45.231.9 (talk) 18:53, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

The color code depends on the country, and whether the wiring is building wiring or inside some electrical device. In United States building wiring for example, white is neutral, green or bare is ground, and other colors are live AC. --Gerry Ashton 19:43, 3 September 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Copper

The article should stress that copper is the most widespread conductor. John a s (talk) 00:07, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Signal wiring

This article starts with the comment 'This article describes general aspects of electrical wiring as used to provide power'. Should there be a link under 'See also' to an article on signal wiring, ie wiring used to convey electrical signals? John a s (talk) 00:13, 12 January 2008 (UTC)