Wooden houses are highly valued for their low cost, environmental friendliness and ease of construction. Many people prefer to build such houses for country life. Despite all the advantages, the tree is characterized by an increased fire hazard. During the installation of electrical wiring, it is especially important to ensure that all safety requirements are met. That is why you need to know all the nuances of construction, regardless of whether you yourself are building a house or not. You can read more about wiring in a wooden house in this article.
Security requirements
Safety is the first thing to think about when laying electrical wiring. If even one detail is done incorrectly, the consequences can be dire. Every year, hundreds of people die from house fires, and a large proportion of these disasters are associated with spontaneous combustion.wiring. What rules should the correct electrical wiring in a wooden house comply with?
- All conductors must be insulated with non-combustible material. There should be no bare wires anywhere.
- Core is a metal wire that conducts current through itself. Copper conductors are considered the safest. An additional requirement for this part of the wiring is the presence of an insulating layer that protects materials from contact with current.
- Open wiring is more secure than hidden wiring. It allows you to control the condition of the wires, although it is less aesthetic than closed.
- When buying materials, you should give preference to high-quality materials from well-known companies. An adequate ratio of price and quality guarantees a long service life of products.
- For the safety of electrical wiring, before starting work, it is necessary to correctly calculate the cable cross-section. The cross-sectional area of the conductors determines the total amount of current that the core can pass through itself. If you make a mistake in the calculation and exceed the norm, this is fraught with spontaneous combustion.
- Wires for electrical wiring in a wooden house must be closed in the switchboard, which, in turn, must be equipped with an emergency shutdown device.
- Electric cable inside the house should be located only in metal pipes. In case of wiring problems, this can save you from a fire.
- Steel pipe wiringmust be grounded.
Following these wiring rules in a wooden house, you can protect your property from fire for many years.
Wiring Methods
During the construction of a wooden house, it is important to understand exactly how you want to lay the wiring. This affects consumables and section thickness. At the moment, there are two types of electrical wiring in a private wooden house:
- open;
- hidden.
In the hidden version, all wiring is located behind the skin, without going outside. Installation of such a design requires some experience and great thought even at the stage of laying the foundation. After all, if something goes wrong, you will have to dismantle the skin and redo all the work again. Open wiring has less aesthetics, but is more picky in installation. Even a beginner can install it. Open wiring is pulled along the walls of the room, and copper or aluminum rubber wires are used for installation. This is a cheaper and less time-consuming method, but it nevertheless has a number of disadvantages. During its implementation, it is necessary to comply with strict technical standards and monitor the quality of materials. Installation of hidden electrical wiring in a wooden house is fraught with certain difficulties, but it looks more aesthetically pleasing and is suitable for those cases when electrical wiring is laid in a new house. If you want to expand the existing power grid or work is being carried out in an already built building, then it would be more logical to choose an open method.
Wiring Diagrams
How to make electrical wiring in a wooden house? Before proceeding with the work itself, you need to draw a detailed diagram, which will show the plan of the future building and electrical wiring. This will not only allow you to correctly conduct electricity, but also prevent damage to the wires in the case of a closed laying method. After all, if you decide to hammer a nail into the wall in the future, you can inadvertently damage the wires located in the wall. On the diagram, it is necessary to indicate all the sockets and the electric meter that will be located in the house. You also need to calculate the distance between them in advance and indicate this in the diagram. You can make a similar drawing based on a drawing of a house or based on an already built building. Experienced electricians recommend during the laying of electric. wiring in a wooden house use the following rules:
- The shield is best installed in the corridor on the first floor, while it should be located at the height of the eyes of an adult. This will protect the electricity from children.
- The height of switches is best designed at the same level: it will look more aesthetically pleasing. Typically, switches are made at a height of 80 to 100 centimeters.
- Despite the way the cable is laid (open or closed), the wire must be located at a height of 20 cm from the floor or the same distance from the top of the ceiling. The fact is that in these places the wires are least likely to be damaged.
- Certain standards in GOST for heightoutlets are not provided. Therefore, you can install them at any height.
- According to building codes, at least one outlet must be installed in each room. The upper value is limited to 1 socket per 4 square meters of living space. For example, in one room of 15 square meters, you can install three single sockets.
After you draw a detailed drawing, you can start purchasing consumables and installing electrical wiring.
Preparation for electrical wiring
You cannot start laying electrical wiring in a wooden house at any time. First of all, you need to obtain specifications from the organization that deals with electricity in your area. For example, for the Leningrad region it will be the Lenenergo company. However, this should only be done if your site is completely disconnected from the mains. Before applying for a connection, you need to calculate how much power you need. To do this, you need to write out all the electrical appliances that you will use in the house, and add up their power. Electric stoves and microwave ovens consume the most electricity - about 2000 watts. They are followed by heaters and kettles. But the refrigerator needs only 400 watts. A standard section usually requires 5-10 kW of power.
After all the formalities are settled, you need to decide on the materials for wiring. Wiring in a wooden houseis fraught with certain difficulties, so it is important to calculate all the nuances in advance. In the wiring diagram, you must specify each electrical point, as well as the type of cable leading to it. If double sockets are used in construction, then a three-core cable must be connected to them. Junction boxes must also be installed in each room. One box can be used for two adjacent rooms. According to statistics, the greatest danger is not the wires themselves, but the places of their connections. Therefore, it is worth paying special attention to this stage of the wiring.
Selection of materials for wiring
Choosing the correct cable section, as well as other consumables, is very important for your electrical network to retain its performance for a long time. For example, some builders tend to choose a cable with the largest possible cross-section, believing that in this way they can avoid mistakes. However, this is not quite the right solution. The cable must exactly match the intended load. In order to avoid complex calculations, you can use one of the recommended power tables.
Wire for outdoor wiring in a wooden house is better to choose copper. First, it can last much longer than aluminum. Secondly, it has better conductivity. Most often, NYM copper wiring is used, as it has an optimal price-quality ratio. Either metal pipes or (most often) PVC corrugations are used as insulating material for wiring. They are made from modernmaterials and are self-extinguishing. The insulation of the material protects a person from contact with current, and also allows you to place several cores side by side. For difficult cases, insulating pipes with several layers are used, as well as with an internal metal layer. Such materials should be used if there is a high probability of damage.
Installation steps
When laying wiring in a wooden house, it is important to observe the stages. Step-by-step activities will help even a beginner to cope with the installation of electricity.
- After designing the circuit and purchasing all the relevant materials, you need to run the cable that will connect the power line and the house.
- After that, you need to stretch the cable through all the rooms and premises in which there will be electricity.
- Then sockets and junction boxes are installed.
- One of the most time-consuming steps is connecting the wires. It's easiest to make a mistake at this stage.
- In conclusion, you need to connect sockets and switches to the network.
Wiring insulation
In order to answer the question of how to make electrical wiring in a wooden house, you need to highlight the insulation characteristics in more detail. Knowing them, you can choose the material that suits you based on the operating conditions.
- The first thing you should pay attention to is the tension that the material can withstand. Usually it is 600-1000 W, which is enough for ordinary electrical wiring.
- UV resistant. If you are laying the cable outside the room, then you need to pay special attention to this parameter. Due to direct sunlight, the material can deform quite quickly, which will lead to a reduction in service life.
- Sensitivity to low temperatures. Extreme heat in Russia is rare. Unlike severe frosts. Therefore, if you plan to lay wiring outdoors, you must definitely follow this characteristic.
- Also, the wiring must withstand high temperatures. This rule applies not only to the weather, during the passage of current through the cable a certain amount of heat is released. In the event of cable failures or excessive loads, the temperature inside the conduit can reach high values. Typically, insulating materials are labeled with a temperature limit that they can withstand, as well as their behavior in the event of fire or smoldering.
Installation of switchboard
How to conduct electrical wiring in a wooden house? Correct wiring must be equipped with an electrical panel. But how to install it? First you need to equip the device with a meter. Then the introductory device itself is installed, and the phase and neutral are brought to the two-pole machine. After that, you need to connect the output terminals of the device to the input of the input circuit breaker. After that, you can bring the wire into the house and connect it to the meter. Then a voltage relay, automatic devices for different groups of electrical appliances, as well as a protective device are mounted in the shield.shutdowns. It may be needed if the wiring closes or the mains voltage exceeds the technical parameters. In order to be able to connect additional devices and machines in the future, it is recommended to leave some empty space inside. If you have devices with high energy consumption on the site (electric boiler, dishwasher), then it is better to connect them through a separate machine, and also make your own RCD.
Indoor cabling
In order for the house to have electricity, you need to stretch the cable from the power line - even schoolchildren know this. But in practice, this task causes many difficulties. There are two ways to run the wire:
- by air;
- underground.
Both of these options have their pros and cons. The air method is much easier and cheaper. To install wiring in a similar way, you need to purchase self-supporting insulated wires and install a fireproof sleeve in the wall of the house, through which the entrance will pass. Laying an underground cable is much more difficult. For its insulation, metal pipes are used, as well as a high-strength cable. This method of installing electrical wiring in a wooden house must be coordinated with the power company.
Internal laying rules
Carrying out hidden electrical wiring in the house does not require special training. Usually, already at the initial stage of construction, a place for the cable is laid. Installation of hidden electrical wiring inwooden house is carried out using a specially made strobe. These are grooves that are made under the decorative trim. Concealed wiring should be double-sheathed or housed in protective tubes. Fire-resistant metal and PVC pipes are used as insulation.
If you decide to do open wiring, then you will need to provide for more nuances. There are several ways to run the wire:
- Metal insulating pipes do not look very aesthetically pleasing, but they protect wiring well from fire. In order for the pipes to effectively fulfill their purpose, they must be filled with cable no more than 40%.
- Ceramic rollers look very unusual - they laid wiring in this way several decades ago. Laying retro wiring in a wooden house is practically no different from the usual installation method.
- To make the wires blend seamlessly into the interior, you can use special skirting boards. They are pre-drilled for cables and are fire resistant.
- Cable channel made of plastic is the most common and cheapest way to finish. It reliably hides the wires and protects them from external mechanical impact.
- Simple stapling can be used in utility rooms that don't need more elaborate finishing.
Wiring
How to make wiring in a wooden house? As a rule, all wires are connected in a junction box,which is carried outside the premises. The installation of a junction box is a very responsible task, since it is during these works that the power of the electric current between the sockets is delimited. You can connect the wires to each other in several ways: using crimping or clamping with a sleeve-pliers. Simple twisting of wires among themselves has not been used for a long time, since this is the least reliable method. You can also quickly connect the wires using screw terminals. To do this, you need to clean 5 mm of insulation from the ends of the wires, insert the wires into the clamp and tighten with a screw.
Having finished with the connection of wires, you can proceed to further work. During the installation of the junction box, it is important to know the features of the cable marking. To understand how the cable is connected inside the junction box, carefully study the connection diagrams.
Ground wires
Laying electrical wiring in a wooden house is always fraught with certain difficulties. One of the most important points that you should pay attention to is the grounding of wires, without which no house can do. Why do you need to do grounding? The main purpose of this system is to divert dangerous electricity to the ground in the event of a cable failure. For example, if one of the wires gets damaged over time, then when you touch any electrical appliance (washing machine or kettle), you may be hit by a strong electric current. But this will not happen if yousecure the power grid.
How to do grounding? To do this, you need to install an external and internal subsystem, which will be connected to a panel located indoors. The most popular is a closed grounding system in the form of a triangle. It is good because even after damage to one of the sides it continues to work properly. From the materials you will need a metal corner at least 2 meters long, three strips of metal about a meter long, bolts, copper wire and a stainless steel metal strip that will go from the device to the porch of the house. The location of the electrodes must be chosen deserted, while it should not be located further than 1 meter from the foundation. It is most optimal to choose a plot behind a fence near the house (of course, unless it is a neighbor's plot). After you assemble the protective circuit, you need to connect it to the switchboard and check for operability.
Final works
After the wiring was done in a wooden house with your own hands: you installed a switchboard and an RCD, stretched cables and made sockets, the verification stage begins. To test the power grid, specialists are usually invited who can identify violations in the circuit, but similar work can be done on your own. Wiring tests are usually carried out using electrical measuring instruments. What does the test suite include?
- External inspection.
- Measuring the resistance of an insulating coating. You need to check both the outer sheath of cables,and insulating pipes (if any). If the device shows even the slightest voltage, this may mean that the materials were selected of poor quality or the work was done incorrectly.
- Checking the resistance of grounding devices. If you do not have special devices, then you can simply connect the wire to the grounding device and try to turn on the light bulb. If it burns, it means that the ground is not fulfilling its function.
- Control circuit breakers.
Common problems
Unfortunately, after checking the power grid, many are disappointed. Not all people follow the rules for laying wiring in a wooden house, and because of this, electricity simply does not work. What could be the problem?
- Incorrect wiring can start as early as the design stage. Carefully calculate how much electricity all appliances consume if they are turned on at the same time. Then correlate this figure with the characteristics of the components. The area of the cable may have been calculated incorrectly.
- Poor quality materials. If you decide to save on wiring materials, then after the end of the work you may be in for a serious disappointment. Cheap Chinese materials are poor conductors of electricity and often do not meet safety requirements. When buying components, you need to pay attention not only to quality, but also to the expiration date.
- Connect all outlets to 1-2wiring lines is an invalid error. For those sockets to which especially powerful electrical appliances will be connected, a separate circuit breaker equipped with an RCD must be made.
- Wire connection. If the wires were connected in the wrong order or in the wrong pattern, then there is a high probability that the electricity will not work at all.
- The switchboard is the center of the electrical network in the house. The wiring diagram is quite complicated, so novice electricians often make a mistake in this area.
In the event that you laid electrical wiring in a wooden house in a hidden way, do not rush to do decorative trim immediately after completion of work. Otherwise, you will have to start all over again if there is a problem with the mains.
Results
The rules for laying wiring in a wooden house will help you save a lot of time and money, as well as not painfully look for your mistakes after completion of work. In order for everything to be successful, do not forget about careful planning and the purchase of quality materials. Installation of electrical wiring in a turnkey wooden house can be quickly done by a specialist, but if you decide to do it yourself, you will be able to save quite a lot of money.
