Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Installing a new circuit

I recently installed a new 20 Amp Circuit for an "over the range" microwave in my house. Most of it was pretty simple. I had to buy a 20 Amp receptacle, some 12 gauge electrical wire (at lowes it's a yellow color), a new 20 amp circuit breaker, a wire clamp for the breaker box, and that's about it.

I used a Black and Decker book on electrical wiring which was really helpful. I only ran into one problem -- When I tried to turn off the main breaker for the entire house, it would flip back to the "on" position and the power would not go off. Eventually I realized that you have to use a lot of force to shut off the main breaker switch -- I guess because it's so big, it has a large spring inside.

When I had the panel open I also noticed a crackling noise coming from one of the breakers. I eventually realized that one of the older breakers was not tightly snapped in. After pushing it, it snapped into place and the crackling stopped.

This whole project took me about 4 hours including fishing the wire, cutting a hole for the receptacle, and hooking everything up.

No comments: