How to repair electricians in an apartment or house
Faulty wiring provokes periodic interruptions in the operation of devices that are connected to the network, and often cause fires. Repair of electrical wiring in the apartment must be carried out in order to avoid accidents, since a faulty cable can harm both human life and material well-being.
Content
- Reasons for replacing wiring
- Repair electricians in the apartment
- Plan – start repair
- How to choose a cable
- Rules for wiring
Reasons for replacing wiring
The main reasons that encourage apartment owners to think about replacing wiring with a new cable are the ever-increasing need for innovative household equipment.
Previously, the construction of high-rise buildings used cheap aluminum wire with weak insulation, designed for electricity consumption by low-power devices. The power of such a typical wiring was 2 kilowatts, but modern household appliances require a larger indicator.
With the simultaneous operation of a computer, refrigerator, hair dryer, washing machine, iron and electric kettle, the machine will work in the shield, turning off the power supply, since the power in this case will be 4.2 kilowatts. If tenants also use a heater, a toaster, an electric grill, then energy consumption can reach up to 10 kilowatts.
Wiring in the apartment must be changed every 20 years. Switches, dimmers and sockets are also not durable and are designed for 5-7 years, depending on the connected loads. Protection devices should be changed every 10 years.
In most situations, repairing electrical wiring with your own hands is reduced to replacing the damaged portion of the cable, troubleshooting or replacing electrical fittings – switches, connectors, sockets, plugs and plugs.
The causes of malfunctions in the wiring are as follows:
- Short circuit. Such malfunctions arise due to damage to the insulation in places where the wires are bent – in the lampholders, inlet of the outlet, because of twisted wires of electrical appliances.
- Poor contact at the junction of the wires. As a result, the wire here begins to gradually warm up, causing the contacts to melt, core burning and conductor insulation.
- Mechanical cable damage occurs most often due to repairs near electrical wiring, damage when drilling walls or driving nails.
Repair electricians in the apartment
Before you start repair electricians in the apartment, you need to determine the cause of the cable damage and the location of the malfunction. Troubleshooting consists in dividing the electrical wiring in the apartment into sections. For this, it is advisable to have a wiring diagram at hand.
Plan – start repair
To completely replace the wiring in the apartment, you need a new cable layout plan with all connection points, the cable of the desired section, plugs, sockets, dimmers and switches.
To perform electrical work, the following tools and materials are required:
- Screwdrivers, side cutters, pliers with insulated handles;
- Cable cutters;
- Screwdriver;
- Tester;
- Measuring devices;
- Drill with drills on wood or concrete;
- Hammer and nozzles to it;
- Soldering iron;
- Armature, cable, electrical accessories;
- Terminal blocks;
- Rag electrical tape;
- Plastic boxes for mounting sockets;
- Lantern;
- Knife and spatula;
- Putty on plaster.
It is necessary to precisely outline the plan for new wiring in each individual room and in general. This needs to be done for the future: after some time after wiring, you may not remember the exact location of the cable, so if there is no wiring project in front of your eyes, you can easily cause damage when trying to hammer a nail or drill a hole.
How to choose a cable
To determine the desired cable cross-section, you should summarize the power consumption of household appliances that are in the apartment, including light sources. To the operating power of each device should be added “in reserve” of 100 watts, and then, according to Ohm’s law, the total amount must be divided by 220. The resulting figure, as a rule, is in the range of 12-16 amperes. Thus, the cross-section of the copper cable should be close to 1.5 millimeters square.
If it turned out to be more important, then it is necessary to lay several cable lines from the switchboard, placing them in parallel and each of them equipped with a separate residual current device. This solution will be more acceptable than simply installing a larger cross-section wire, which increases costs and reduces the reliability of the apartment’s power supply. When choosing wires for laying in the apartment, it is better to give preference to copper. Such a wire is superior in performance to aluminum cable 1.5 times.
Rules for wiring
The most important thing is to de-energize the apartment by switching the batch switch in the panel to the off position. The electrical wires in the shield must not be touched by the sleeves of clothes or hands. It is customary to start repairing wiring from the corridor: you need to install a shield, lay new wires parallel to the old cable without damaging the latter, connect the switches and sockets to the new wiring, leaving other rooms on the old cable. The wiring changes gradually in each room. You can also remove the old cable and put a new one in this channel.
The new wire must be laid “in the wall”, the old cable is completely removed. It is very difficult to make channels in a concrete wall, in this situation it is better to use a grinder.
New strobe channels must be made strictly vertically and horizontally, without deviation.
Before laying the cable in new channels, it is recommended to verify its length on the floor, making sure that the repair of the electrics goes perfectly. Having laid the electric wire in the strobes, you should putty it with gypsum putty. Install switches and sockets after drying putty. Before connecting the wires to the terminals of the sockets, their bare ends must be tin-plated with a soldering iron.
Now the lines of the new wiring are connected to the shield. Such lines, as a rule, should be at least 2 – one starts up in the kitchen, because there is a lot of energy-intensive equipment, the second line – to other rooms. The electric stove is recommended to be powered from a separate wire. For each line, automatic power switches are required, they can be installed in an apartment or staircase.
This completes the work of replacing the wiring in the apartment. It remains only to insert the input cables into the shield!