hows that done

Here we have a collection of Pictures of residential installations. They may seem pretty mundane to many of you who work on Residential stuff all the time, but they are here for those of you who are New to the Trade, or have been working on Industrial or Commercial installations. The pages for industrial and commercial are coming when time permits.

Main Service meter. (Click for more info)
Must be located approx 3 feet from the corner of the house.
Must be between 5 and 6 feet above finished grade (hydro rules).
Can not be within 1 meter of the Gas Meter!
It must be bonded to the system ground and is usually done with the bonding conductor that is in the teck, or a separate Bonding conductor in the conduit..
You must also install the string (Cord) so hydro can pull in their wires.
Remember the penetrox if you use aluminum cables!
Meter must be secured to 2 sides.
You have to install the safety cover and ring
Cable and Tel boxes located nearby, but dont have to be 1 mtr from Gas Meter.
Use a 200 Amp Meter base for anything up to 200 amps.
Keep communications conduits 300 mm away from power.

A View from the Back. Note the meter is secured to 2 places. It is fed from a 3" Rigid PVC conduit that gets poured into the concrete forms. The Teck also gets poured into the Concrete forms and comes back out the floor where the panel is to be located. This is to maintain the 50mm rating so it can be considered outside the house. If you dont do this, you have to locate the panel "as close as Practicable" to the meter. (as thay have done on the right hand picture). Telus now requires the telephone conduit (2" DB2) to be orange!. The TV Cable conduit (2" DB2) doesn't matter. Both these Boxes MUST be bonded to the system Ground with a #6 Insulated Green (C.E.C. Rule 60-704) wire. Also see Telus rules (Click)

If you are a Carpenter reading this, could you guys please frame the Meter areas as you would frame a door, with a header. That would give us the option and room to put the comm boxes and meter so they look pretty. Also the siding people would like the no staggered look.

Pot Lights: IC or non IC (Insulation Contact) If there is going to be insulation, then it has to be IC and also has to have a vapour barrier on it. If it is not in the insulation, then it can be Non IC, such as in the uninsulated bottom floor of a house, or in the soffits outside or over an uninsulated covered deck. The cost is getting pretty close, so many just use IC everywhere. If you install any bathroom fans, they must have Vapour barriers too.

These pictures show how the teck cable from the meter is brought up through the cement up to the panel. It has been run under the basement floor cement slab. Also note the ground wire has been installed along with the teck cable. The ground connects to the ground plate that was installed at the same time the 3" rigid pvc and Tel and Cable conduits were poured into the cement forms. The other ground wire in the picture is actually a bonding conductor that goes to the Tel and Cable boxes (On the load side of the panel). There will be another bonding conductor from here to the metal gas pipe or any metal sewage or water pipes if there are any. Remember the panel can be mounted "upside down" so the main breaker is on the bottom. The panel has to be as high as possible but the Max Panel height is 5'7" to the highest breaker.

Vapour barriers must also be installed on all the things on outside walls that will be accessable from the inside of the house, like these plugs. Outside lights dont need them cause they are on the outside and dont penetrate the vapour barrier. These are 2 types of them. The one on the left has a vapour barrier plastic condom. It is quickly losing popularity to the type on the right that is called an "Airtight" or gasketed box. The "Airtight" box is more expensive, but takes less time and frustration for you to install, and is much easier for the insulators as well.

Data rings (often called "Mud Rings" ) come in all kinds of shapes and forms, but they all do the same thing...Provide a place for a plate to attach and an opening into the wall. They need vapour barriers too if on an outside wall.

In this setup, the homeowner wanted a switch for his fireplace with the other 120 volt light switches. This way, the standard 4 gang switch plate will still fit nicely! They didn't support the box and could get called for it, as any box more than 4" has to be supported at 2 sides.

The Range plug has to be mounted 150 mm (6") to the center of the plug. It also has to be installed so it will be flush when finished whenever possible and the ground has to be either left or right (not up or down) so the cable wont get scrunched when its pluged in. Normally this is fed with #8 copper or #6 aluminum for up to 12 kw ranges off a 2 pole 40 amp breaker. The Box has to be secured on 2 sides or have backing.(Click for more info)

These two boxes are for the Doorbell Transformer (top) and the Furnace fan interlock timer. It's always a question as to where to mount them. Here is a good solution by the Hot water tank. The door bell transformer can be taken off any circuit. It will be installed on a plate on the top box.
The furnace timer makes the furnace fan run for 2 x 4 hour periods and causes the Bathroom fan to start whenever the timer calls for the furnace fan to run. This is a building code rule, and the electrical inspector doesn't care about it as long as the wiring is done to code. For more details see here (Click )

This shows the furnace connection. Note the flex (ENT) over the loomex to protect it under 5 feet or if exposed to mechanical harm. The top box is the Furnace shutoff switch.

This plug is a separate circuit for the microwave, but if you notice the duct beside it is for the kitchen range fan. This will serve one of those microwave / fan units you see over the cooktop units or free standing ranges. If it was just a range hood fan, it would just be a wire that would stick through the drywall to connect to the range hood during the finishing stage.

What you see here is a Stairway Light. With many of the houses having an "open" look, often there are situations where it isn't practical to have an overhead light or a wall sconce, so these work well. Remember the code requires all stairways to be lighted, and that there is a 3 way for any stairs with more than 4 risers.(Rule 30-504)

Garage door opener plug. Can be fed off any of the garage plugs up to 12 outlets per cct. Also the LVT wire to the manual door open/close pushbuttons, and a 3 conductor LVT to each side of the bottom of the garage door for the safety photocell.

Telus and TV Cable boxes with all the runs to the data rings throughout the house. Note the Required Green insulated bond wire. (this was done before Telus required the conduit to be orange:) Some new homes now use a Structured wire panel (Shown at right) located by the main service panel. Its just a fancy name for a distribution panel where the TV, Satelite, Computer Data, Home Audio and Phone lines are terminated and re-distributed.Click for more on Structured Wiring