Ask the Electrician

Is that an electrician's license?

 

From red-seal.ca \/\/\/

The Interprovincial Standards Red Seal Program (also known as the Red Seal Program) was established more than 50 years ago to provide greater mobility across Canada for skilled workers. Today it represents a standard of excellence for industry. Through the Program, tradespersons are able to obtain a Red Seal endorsement on their provincial/territorial certificates by successfully completing an interprovincial Red Seal examination. The Interprovincial Standards Red Seal Program acknowledges their competence and ensures recognition of their certification throughout Canada without further examination. There are currently 55 Red Seal designated trades.

 

Yes, im a Journeyperson.

 

I went to a vocational school for my highschool years and Electrical was my first choice. I ended up with my second choice for carpenrty and did that for a few years.

...yes, I wanted to be an electrician. I think it's a great trade to know.

 

Got a question for someone knowledgable... Right now my 120v outlets are on 10 amp breakers. All the wires are buried in the walls so I can't easily tell what gauge the wire is. I want to upgrade 1 breaker to 20 amp. What is the best way to confirm what gauge the wires are? I can pull a duplex if needed.

 

When was the home built? I haven't seen 10a breakers since glass screw-in fuses went out of use.

You could pull a few outlets, but I'd go to the breaker panel and check there.

Keep in mind that the breakers must match the panel... there are a number of different designs and the wrong breaker, even if it "fits", is against code.

 

It's actually not too old, maybe 20 years tops? It's a detached garage. It has 100 amp service coming in, then 3 10 amp square d breakers. I added a 50 amp 220v breaker already and I will either add a 20 amp 120v or switch one of the 10s if the wire is big enough. All the romex is gone from the wires inside the panel so I can't read what wire size is.

 

I'm not an electrician, but I can tell you that putting a 20 amp breaker on 14 Ga. romex is bad news in the eyes of an inspector and insurance folks.... see what Sask has to say about that.

You can pull a receptacle to see what gauge you wire is... or the easiest way it to do it is pull the panel cover off and determine right there at the existing breakers.


The licensed guys will chime in and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can put a 15 amp breaker in place of the 10 amp for your existing 14 Ga. romex.

 

I'm not trying to upgrade anything that isn't capable. I rent the building, so burning it down isn't something I'm willing to risk. I need to run a 15 amp motor intermittently, so a 20 amp breaker would do me fine. I highly doubt the existing wire is all 12 awg wire though.

 

The slightly thicker wire will be 12ga. on the 20 amp breaker(s) vs. the thinner 14ga. wires on the 10-15 amp breaker(s).

You won't see the sheathing as it's been stripped at the Romex connector into the panel.

Nowadays yellow romex is 12 ga. and white romex is 14 ga... and orange romex is 10 ga.

 

Snap in a 15 amp breaker, but be sure to get the screw good and tight at the breaker's teminal.... that makes a difference being tight.


I think you'll be good with a 15.

 

you could check the gauge with T strippers if you have a pair.
if it's 14AWG you could go up to a 15A breaker.
20A would require 12AWG wire.

 

Thanks guys. I was thinking of using my strippers to figure out wire size. I will check it out tomorrow and decide what I want to do.

 

Quick question, Will the earth explode due to the fact that me being a wiring novice in training, used green wire nuts, which I now know are only supposed to be used for ground,(they have a hole in the end for the solid ground to go through) to wire up most of the wires including the ground? Two goofs, one knowing a good bit and another being certified failed to tell me they had a special ground wire nut only used for ground.

It's nice when you learn something useful right after you wire up a bunch of receptacles, boxes, and lights, but he said it would be ok.

 

The earth will not explode.
the hole in the top of the wirenut is for a cleaner pigtail of the wires.

 

But the Super's blood pressure might

Electricity doesn't care what color it is in.
If the wire nut is the proper size for the number and gauge of conductors, it's legal.
Insulation color is governed by code. Wire nut color generally is not (there may be some municipalities with restrictions on the use of green).

 

In MA we need greens (only) for the grounds.

A new rule is out... at least here anyway, when you double up two 12-3 ga. wires, a red staple (1 1/2" long) is required to the stud/surface. No more using blues for doubling 12-3 ga.

 

I have a 400a service that separates into 2 side by side 200a panels. I'm going to wire a portable generator into one of my panels. In the opposite panel there are a few circuits I want to move into the generator fed panel.

Can I splice the wires in one panel and go out and back into the other panel with same size romex and land on new breakers? I'm sure I can splice inside panel after reading nec 312.8 but I'm more concerned with running romex out and back into the other panel.

 

In the Canadian code, you can splice inside a panel. Im not entirely sure if its only for the purpose of extending the wire to reach a breaker inside that panel only or not.

So long as the romex (we call it lumex) is run up high (above 4 feet i believe) and out of the way from mechanical damage then it should be fine. so if you top feed both panels that'll work. coming out of the side, id use armored cable or EMT pipe

 

IMO the preferred method would be to pull the circuits you want to move and make the splices outside of the the panel in a junction box.
Are you installing a transfer switch for the generator?

The way I interpret that rule you can make splices in a panel as long as the wiring being added does not leave the enclosure.

...1.5m (59")