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Excellent book and very well written with bright pictures. Thanks to it, I have installed a new electrical outlet in my garage, replace an old fluorescent light fixture with incandescent fixture, etc. I now understand how the home wiring works and gain confidence on fixing electrical devices.
There are more tasks to do, and I'll be going back to the book as needed.The nice thing about electricity is it follows physical laws. I set about to remedy the problems, and after looking at several books on electrical wiring, chose this one. This book obviously does not contain your local electrical requirements in it. I found the diagrams and text to be easy to comprehend, and most of what I wanted to know was contained in the book.
You'll sleep a lot easier, I assure you.Finally, let me state the most important thing: while this book gives (in my opinion) a lot of great instruction on wiring and electrical things, it won't (and can't) have everything in it. It covers a lot of material. It's actually quite a nice read, and easy to use.Using this book as a reference, I've found and fixed a lot of the electrical problems the previous owners left behind, and I installed and wired AC-powered smoke detectors. We recently bought our first home, and discovered that the previous owners had wired up many things incorrectly, to the extent that some of what they had done was extremely dangerous. You are likely to come across a task that you do not have sufficient skills to handle. This book will teach you these basic principles, and it won't be too long before it all makes sense.Some things to keep in mind: every city, county, and state has its own electrical code.
Be sure to find out what the local laws are, and get a permit for your work if required. That way your work will be inspected, and you'll know you did it correctly.
In that situation, to not hesitate to call a qualified electrician. I'm not a stranger to electrical wiring, but I didn't know enough to complete the tasks at hand.
As you use this (or any other book) to perform electrical work, make sure you know your limits. Electrical requirements and wiring methods were developed in accordance with those laws.
Once you understand *how* electricity works, you'll grasp *why* wiring is done the way it is. The book will not make you an electrician.
Better to pay to have the job done right, than do a substandard job and risk fire or injury.
The Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Wiring was definitely a purchase resulting in much satisfaction from my point of view. For me, the deciding factor was "price". I was able to acquire this guidebook (through Amazon) for approximately 1/3 less than what the "exact same book" would have cost me at any standard home and garden retailer.
sorry, i have not read the book yet but it has lots of great pictures
It's this planning stage that's omitted from a lot of other electrical books, and if you're doing anything beyond simple fixture replacement, it's a must. I have a cabin built in the 1930s that had a cobbled-together electrical system that needed to be completely redone, and this book gave me all the tools I needed to do it. I have Wiring a House-by Pros for Pros, and though I think it's a good refence, I think the Black & Decker book is better yet. There's even a 2 page list of highlights from the 2008-2011 National Electrical Code, which does a great job of highlighting some of the key elements that will impact what the average person might choose to tackle. I've done electrical before, but this project required more thorough knowledge, and this book gave me exactly what I needed. The assortment of wiring diagrams is very helpful and easy to follow, but rather than stopping there the author provides worksheets for determining whether the electrical panel is sufficient for the application, and also provides a worksheet for calculating the anticipated load that a planned circuit will carry. I had also ordered the Home Depot 1-2-3 book, and after a couple of hours reviewing them side-by-side, the HD book went straight back to Amazon. It's good for someone who wants a very basic treatment of wiring, but the Black & Decker book has everything the HD book does and a lot more.
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