Electric works need proper attention while laying pipes and wiring and fixing various fittings including their quality and specifications during house construction.
Any carelessness during electric works, use of low quality materials or untrained electrician can cause fatal accidents. Such incidents are not easy to repair and compensate. So every care should be taken while doing electrical fittings during construction of your house. This article gives some tips for electrical works during house construction.
Hire a professional electrician
A professional or good electrician should be hired for doing electric works.
Check total load of the house
Make sure that your electrician has calculated total load of various electric points used in house. Also ensure if the wiring is capable of taking total load of various electric points fixed in the house. It is usually seen that electricians are careless while laying proper load bearing wires. In case defective or under load electrical wiring is used, it can cause fire in the house and may even take human life.
Follow Indian electricity rules, ISI
All electric works and installations should comply with latest Indian electricity acts and rules in all respects. All materials used in electrical fittings should be of approved make and from a reputed manufacturer as per ISI specifications.
Take care while doing electrical works
Every care should be taken while laying pipes, junction boxes, fan boxes in RCC slab and walls. If any defect appears in later, they may cause any incident and may require dismantling of defective portion. So take proper care to avoid dismantling, which is very costly in comparison to getting them fixed properly earlier.
House wiring rules as per ISI specifications
To make home electric shock proof, keep in mind the following precautions on house wiring.
Carry out wiring on distribution system
The wiring should be carried out on distribution systems with main and branch distribution boards to convenient centres. It is without isolated fuses. As far as possible all conductors should run along the walls and ceilings so that they are easily accessible for thorough inspection.
Don’t allow wiring to run above ceiling
In any case, the wiring should not run above ceiling. The circuit on opposite side of three wire systems or on different phases of three phase system is kept as far apart as possible in all cases and the minimum distance between two circuits should be 7 feet. Medium pressure wiring and all associated apparatus should comply with ISI specifications.
Don’t exceed the load on circuit
The number of points in light circuits should not exceed 10 or the total load on circuit should not exceed 800 watts. One circuit can be explained as one connection from electrical meter or from main fuse circuit. For power wiring circuit the number of points in a circuit should not be more than 2 and the size of wire should be 1.5 mm square for copper and 2 mm square for aluminium.
Fix switchboards at proper height
Switch boards should be fitted at a height of 1.5 meter. Horizontal run of wiring should be at a height of 3 meter.
Use earth wire of proper gauge
Earth wire should be 14 SWG in case of copper and 4 mm square in case of aluminium. Fuse wire should be connected to phase wire only and neutral link should be connected to neutral wire. Connect all switches in phase wire. Minimum size of earth wire for light circuit is 1 mm square for copper and 1.5 mm square for aluminium.
Make use of copper conductors
All conductors should be made of copper. They should have a cross section less than 0.0020 square inches, nominal area (3/0.029 inches) and every conductor should be stranded.
Never utilise damaged wiring or elements
Burnt element, cut/ broken wiring, loose/open connection and rusted points should never be used to avoid open circuit fault. Never make use of damaged insulation wiring to avoid short circuit fault. Damaged and loose connection should never be done in any appliance to avoid earth fault. Provide earthling to enhance voltage and protect human beings from sudden electric shock. You must fix lightening wire earth into the ground to protect building from cloud lightening. n
