Keeping the Inspections in Mind

An inspector will scrutinize your work more closely than an electrician’s work. Make sure your cable is pulled tightly through wall and floor spaces and is stapled according to code requirements, which specify insulated staples or straps …

➤ Not more than 12 inches from a box or fitting.
➤ Not more than 41⁄2 feet from each other when a cable is running along a stud or joist.
➤ Installed without damaging or denting the cable in any way.

You must have at least six inches of cable or conductors in each box from the point of entry into the box. Once attached to a device, the conductors should be neatly tucked inside with the hot and neutral conductors separated from each other. Overall neatness and professionalism go a long way toward satisfying an electrical inspector.

Plenty of Dedicated Circuits

You might have already updated your kitchen and bathroom wiring with 20-amp, GFCI-protected circuits (or opted for GFCI receptacles). Now you can
expand and add other necessary dedicated circuits including …
➤ An outdoor GFCI or two.
➤ A workroom circuit.
➤ A garage circuit.

15 Amps or 20?

Most branch circuits for lighting will be 15 amps. Twenty-amp circuits normally are reserved for dedicated purposes. It’s perfectly acceptable to use a 20-amp circuit for lighting, but use it judiciously because it can handle, for example, four more 100-watt fixtures than a 15-amp circuit. Great, you say, that means less wiring to do—at least until the lights go out. Then it might not be so great. You’ll have that much less light to see by if an entire section of your house goes dark. Twenty-amp lighting circuits work well when you have a large cluster of lights such as in a kitchen/ hallway combination where you might have as many as 10 150-watt recessed fixtures. You also should consider a 20-amp circuit for your home office computer and peripherals. Check the rating of your copier, which could need its own circuit.