infinite_assCheck out this wiring, now I'm gonna stick it in the box
No pun intended, but why not stick the wires into the appropriate holes? Why did you choose to wrap them around the screws?
I’ve got a bit of rewiring to do in my home soon and have been doing some research. Apparently this is called backstabbing and is generally considered lower quality work. The connection simply isn’t as secure as the screw tightened half loops on the side - but if you spend all day everyday wiring receptacles it’s much faster to backstab. Backstabbing is to code, but if you’re wiring a few receptacles, best to take the few extra minutes to do it the more secure way.
dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️The contact area of the terminals on the wires is much higher if you use the screws rather than the dinky little spring prongs in the stabby-holes. A small contact area means more heat is produced at the junction, which leads to premature failure, which leads to annoyance, which leads to the dark side.
Never use the backstabbing holes on electrical receptacles.
They come loose over time, faster if they’re not fastened properly or if the house is prone to settling.
I’m convinced this is a myth or only happens when people don’t actually push it in far enough. For me, it’s always been a pain in the ass to remove them. Which is why I hate it.
I’ve pulled out receptacles where the wire popped right out and stayed in the box. It could have been installation error by the previous homeowner or poor quality receptacles. All I know is that’s what my electrician friend who was helping me told me.
Definitely not a myth. They are notoriously failure prone. Repeated expansion and contraction and just age can cause the contacts to loosen, which increases resistance, which increases heat generated at the point of connection, which increases the amount of expansion and contraction, etc.
A lot of people don’t even realize they have a problem until they plug in something high wattage like a space heater or hair dryer and the outlet gets nice and hot.
I’ve never considered doing any pre-wiring before shoving stuff in the box.
I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out what’s going on here, but I assume you’ve done your homework OP.
From what it looks like, the switch on the right will have the hot and neutral connections from the panel, and the switch on the left will get connected to the appliance, and the appliance will only turn on if all 3 switches are turned on.
Presumably these are American style outlets, which don’t have switches - they’re always on.
I didn't know you could daisy switches like that
You can, but the switches downstream won’t work if the switches upstream are off. These are power outlets, so it’s fine.
Is this up to code in the US? I know Europe is way different in a lot of ways, but this would not fly in Europe.
What’s the problem?
Exposed copper is a big no-no in the regulations where I live, because it’s a corrosion risk and a shock risk when exposed. Everything needs to be either covered in plastic or be coated in something corrosion resistant (for grounding wires for example, even tho those are usually covered in plastic as well depending on the situation).
Loose wires under screws can be applied in very specific situations, but they usually need to be clamped down. And the screw needs to be fully recessed so it’s not something that can get into contact with anything else. Daisy chaining is also usually not done, but depending on the situation it can be allowed even though it isn’t recommended.
Keep in mind European rules and regulations are way different and even different per country. And what the rules say and the shit people actually pull isn’t the same either. The most interesting difference to me is the amount of metal used in American systems, where Europeans systems are usually as much plastic as possible. Even if metal is required for some reason, it’s usually fully covered with plastic. At the same time in Europe having ground fault interrupters (or comparable, it isn’t exactly the same) are not only standard but usually required.
The exposed copper is the ground wire. How’s it done where you are?
Grounding wire is just like regular wire over here. The colors we use are: Blue for the neutral, brown for the hot and green/yellow for earth/ground.
There are more colors for other situations, but these are the most used. Black is also used a lot and usually means a switched hot, so brown to a switch and black to for example a light fixture. These are often done in a thinner gauge because the switch can’t switch a big load anyways and usually lights don’t use that much power.
Normal gauges are 2.5mm2 (14 AWG) for regular 16A circuits and 1.5mm2 (16 AWG) for switched circuits. Keep in mind this is at 250V, so 16A gives you a hecking lot of power (4000 watt continuous load). The circuits are designed such you can even go a bit above this for a short time. The wires are designed to handle 25A without any issue, but are limited by the protection equipment (“fuse”). All wires need to be single stranded, multi stranded can only be used in specific situations, never in permanent installations (except for shielding wires which are usually by definition stranded and will normally never carry any current).
Well the exposed wire is a ground.
Ok yes, it would be better to screw in those screws.
I hate GFIs. They take up so much room in the box. Here (IL USA) code says to use em in bathrooms and kitchens. Like within 10’ of water or something.
In Europe all the GFIs and such are in the central switch box, not at the outlet. Because everything needs to be protected it’s useful to have it all in a central place. The way it is incorporated can be complex, but there can be just one for the entire house. But usually there are much more, depending on how the place is wired up and how recent it is.
We do it both ways. New construction vs old construction basically. I never put a GFI in a breaker box tho. I assume it’s just a fatter breaker.
Yeah it’s usually a 2 unit wide thing, that connects to a max of 4 breakers that protect the (usually) 16A circuits. However recently it has become the norm to just integrate the breaker and the ground fault protection and those can be as thin as 1 unit. So the size of a normal breaker.
Pigtailing is so ubiquitous where I am that this just looks weird.
I don’t actually know if it’s strictly code in my area, or just common practice.
ikiddPigtails is the code, you are correct.
kroldenThat’s common
buddy system
I’ve never asked a pro but somewhere in my decades of DIY I got the idea that the right way to connect outlets in one box is to branch them all off the incoming wire so they’re in parallel. In the photo each little metal strip between the screw terminals on each outlet is carrying all the current from all 6 sockets, which I don’t think is proper.