Wiring Info 14/2

Hey all, new to the forum and had a few questions about the electric I plan on installing in my basement I am working on finishing.   Here is what the plans call for...



- Bathroom

  - 2 Lights, one GFCI, vent fan

- Home theater

  - Projector, Sound system, various other electronics

- General Lighting throughout

  - 14 Recessed lights approx 60 watt bulbs

  - 14 outlets

  - Mini bar fridge

I will have to run the line from the garage to the basement and my question is should I go 15 or 20 and will I need more than one line to support this?  Any info or direction you guys can give would be greatly appreciated!!



Tom
      

Scratching my head on this. New pole building. For now, I want to use one circuit for the lights. What I'm trying to do, is, at one door, I have a 3 way, switching two flourescent lights. Also in that 4-gang light switch, is run a light over the door on the outside, and a light over the overhead service door, and another light over the door, on the inside. So 1 3way, and three single pole switches. At the back door, the other 3 way for the same two lights, and a light over the door on the outside, and another light over the door on the inside. I have the power from the m/p, going into the light box nearest the M/P. Long story short, instead of how I have it, which operates all the lights, as long as one of the three ways are on. If someone could help me with how it should be. I am using 12-3 from the switches. Using 12-2 from the first light box, to the second. I have a another 12-2 running into each switch box, to supply power for the single pole switches.

Thanks for any/all input.
      

I know this has been done to death but, just want to make sure that I headed in the right direction. O.K. I'm building a 12x16 shed and need to know what size wire to use. I plan on having lights, saws, mini fridge, deep freeze, air compressor and maybe a small a/c unit in the summer. I plan on having everything on different circuits like lights on 15A, fridge and freezer on 20A, have plugs on bench on 20A, air compressor on 20A, and mini a/c on 20A. I plan on using romex 14/2 for 15A and 12/2 for 20A. With sub panel http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-...&storeId=10051 or something like it. My shed is about 30' from the meter loop. So, what size wire do I use from the meter loop 6/2????? Do I need to use a ground rod at the shed? Thanks for looken!!!!!
      

I have a circuit that is for 2 of the bedrooms upstairs then also runs downstairs to what used to be a garage but I am now looking to refinish as a finished area.  the circuit goes to 3 light fixtures from a switch in the unfinished room and I want to cut it off and run a new circuit for recessed lights in that area.  I dont know where the original wire comes from upstairs, does it matter if I just wire nut it in the unfinished room and leave it as a junction box?
      

I built a free standing garage with main power tapped from the home breaker box.  The contractor pulled 4 wires via a conduit to the freestanding garage panel which supplies lights, a garage door, and two 20 amp outlets.



Everything worked well initially, but about 1 week ago one section of the lights in the building went out.  The contractor came out and found that one of the two hot wires in the garage panel was only seeing 100 volts and that went down if anything else was turned on.  He swapped one of the ground wires for the bad hot wire and everything now works. 



What would cause a situation like this where the hot wire apparently had a voltage loss?  Is it safe to continue with the fix where the faulty wire is now the ground?



Thanks in advance!
      

I could use some help. I have an existing switch (power to switch) that is powering a light I plan on eliminating. I want to add two new lights to my garage and use the power from that switch for the lights. What is the best way to wire the lights from the switch? A diagram would be really helpful.



14/2 at the switch (black, bare copper, white).



Thanks
      

This is kind of a complicated question, but I  think I have figured out how to do it right.  I wanted to run it by some folks here before going to the city code enforcer.  See the attached diagrams for details.



I  am planning a fairly elaborate lighting scheme for my home theater  area, mostly because I plan for the theater automation to be a hobby for  me. (I'm an electrical engineer)

 

I want to have banks of lights that I could later choose to group  differently onto dimmer switches.  For example, I have six can lights.   Some people I have talked to think I should dim the front four together  and back two separately.  Some think I should dim the front two together  and back four separately.  Some say I should dim them all together. 



So I decided I'd run each group of two cans to a junction box, run  the switches to a junction box, and then wire the switches to the lights  in the junction box - then I could later change it if I decided it should work  differently.  In addition, this would keep the junction boxes the  dimmers were in free from extra wires, since I plan to buy nice dimmers  that are fairly deep and would take more space in the switch boxes.  And  if I find that using switches differently would make it more intuitive,  I can change which switch controls which lights easily after the fact.   This would also allow me later to possibly control the lights with an  automated system.

 

There are some track lights and rope lights, as well as a couple  receptacles that would all come back to the junction box where they'd be  connected to the switches/dimmers.



I am bringing in power from  two circuits to balance the lighting.  I plan to put some of the lights  on one circuit and some on the other.  The second circuit has some other  stuff on it already, so it has less load left over, so most stuff will  go on the first circuit.

 

Also to save on wiring and make running wire easier, I was planning  to use 14/3 wiring where possible.  Any given 14/3 wire would  always be connected to only one of the circuits (no shared neutrals).



The attached files show my exact plan for each circuit. Note they both  share the junction box in the upper right corner of the pictures, they  also share the switch banks.  This allows me to decide which switches  control which lights, as well as decide which lights will be powered on  which circuit to balance them properly.  Note that the track lights are  each 2 circuit track, that's why I'm running 14/3 to each.

   

See the attached files for circuit #1 and circuit #2



I am running 14/3 NM to the switches.  I was planning to have two  switches share one 14/3 cable.  I am also running 14/3 to each group of  two light groups that I want to control separately.



I've also attached a diagram from the perspective of the junction box.



I also attached an example circuit on how I plan to use the 14/3 wire.

   

Here are some other decisions I made:



- The junction box will  be PVC 8x8x4 (256 cu. in.)  All the wires coming into the box add up to  70 cu in. so the box should be plenty large.

- All the grounds from both circuits will be tied together

  - The neutrals for both circuits will always be kept completely separate (NO shared neutrals)

- No 14/3 wire will ever carry power from more than one circuit (this would violate the shared neutrals anyway)



Even  though this is kind of elaborate and for hobby, I want to be sure to do  it safely and up to code.  Does anyone see anything wrong with  my plan?

 

Thanks,



Daniel
      

Hi,



I would like to wire a switch to be able to cut the power to the ceiling mounted outlets that feed our garage door openers. Running new wiring to them will be a bit cumbersome, so I am hoping to avoid that. The ceiling outlets are powered by light fixtures in the garage (one near by each outlet). There is a 3 wire romex cable running from the light switch to the first light and another one between the lights, and then regular 2 wire romex cables from the light fixtures to the outlets. The red wires in the 3 wire cables to the lights are switchable, the black wires are always hot.



I mainly want to be able to cut the power to the doors when we are away on vacation, and the reason for that is that one night both doors somehow opened up - I have no idea why. I'd hate for that to happen when we're away. Unplugging and plugging in the openers is a bit of a hassle due to the high ceiling.



I thought about wiring in a switched outlet so that I could just reach up with a long handle of some sort and switch off the power to the outlet. It would not be ideal, but definitely easier than getting the ladder out and unplugging the door openers.  However, there is possibly another option that I'd like some input on if anyone cares to comment. I believe I could wire in a switch on the wall next to the light switch that would allow me to cut the power to the black wires in the 3 wire cables. This would cut the power to the ceiling outlets and anything downstream from there (possibly an outside light, I would need to check on that).



My question is, are there any potential issues with this sort of wiring? Is there perhaps any code violation if both hot wires in a 3 wire cable can be switched off separately?



Thoughts?
      

I just ordered some Arlington Siding Mount Kits with built in electrical boxes to install some lights on the outside of my garage. 



So, the issue is, the mount kits' built in electrical boxes are only 6.8 cu each and I'm wiring the lights up with two 3-way switches.  The source is at the first switch, then on to the two lights and then to the second switch.  There is not enough room to do the splices and connection in the built in boxes (I'm using 12awg, but even if used 14 still not enough room), so my plan was to wire everything to a central junction box inside the garage between the two lights and make the appropriate connections there. 



I'm attaching my rough sketch of the planned connections (omitting ground wires).  Can you guys please confirm this is correct?    Thanks for the help!



To clarify the drawing, blue is white (neutral) and the blue with black tape coming off second switch is marked as hot.  (I'll also mark it as hot in the J-box).  Yellow Triangles are wire-nuts.
      

Hi everyone, this is my first post.  Hope it works out!



I have a new detached two car garage with two 115v 15A circuits in it.  I want to put in a 12000 BTU window air conditioner.  One circuit runs 10 fluoresent bulbs in the garage and a few in the house but also runs a few outlets in the house that see occasional use by a 12A vacuum cleaner.  The other is solely used for the door opener and outlets in the garage where I often use a 12 amp skill saw. 



Both circuits are aqccessible, which one should I choose?



Puttster