Breaker Box Rubber: How to Connect a New Circuit

Add a new circuit to your habitation'southward wiring

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Time

A full day

Complication

Avant-garde

Cost

$51–100

Introduction

Adding a new circuit can exist a daunting and even dangerous job. We show you how to practise it with footstep-by-step instructions and important, life-saving prophylactic tips.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • AFCI circuit breaker
  • Cable clamp
  • electrical staples

Know What You're Getting Into

Nosotros believe in rubber DIY. That's why we've e'er been reluctant to show readers how to open a billow box and connect a new circuit. Even with the power shut off, there's a chance you could touch the wrong parts and kill yourself. Merely so we figured if we didn't show you, you'd just get search it somewhere else. And that scared u.s.a. even more. And then nosotros're going to walk you through the process, showing you lot the safest way to open the breaker box, wire a new breaker, and test your work.

Opening the main circuit breaker panel box and adding a excursion is really pretty easy. Y'all simply accept to connect iii wires to add together a circuit, and each circuit wire is color-coded. Just there are some rubber precautions, and if you ignore them, you lot could kill yourself. Really. If you follow our safety steps in order and to the letter, you'll exist fine. But if at any betoken you're unsure how to go along or feel uncomfortable with the project, telephone call an electrician.

Stay abroad from the big wires and lugs. They're always live, even with the principal billow (service disconnect) shut off. If y'all affect them, you could die. Encompass the alive areas with a paper-thin shield to prevent accidental contact while adding a circuit. If you have any doubts most which areas stay alive, contact an electrician. There's a reason awareness of electrical problems is a key stride in preventing fires in the home.

Spotter this video to see the safe way to connect a new circuit yourself:

ⓘ

Get the Correct Parts and Tools

Before you become shopping, open up the door of your breaker box and re-create the manufacturer's proper noun, the box model number, and the style numbers of the breakers that are canonical for your box. Then buy one of those breakers. If your home middle doesn't sell the right model or brand, you'll accept to go to an electrical supplier. You lot cannot install a circuit billow way that isn't specifically approved for employ in your box — even if it fits inside the box.

While at the shop, pick up a few 1/two-inch plastic snap-in cable clamps to secure the new cablevision. They're safer than metal clamps because you don't put your hand in the console to install them.

If you demand a reminder about how bad some amateur electric can exist, bank check out this list of the near mutual electrical lawmaking violations.

You have to shut off the ability to your whole firm, so you lot'll need a powerful work light. An LED headlamp is too a neat idea so you won't have to juggle a flashlight, wire strippers and a screwdriver. Round up a utility pocketknife, wire strippers, electrical tape, a circuit tester (non a voltage sniffer), and a flat-blade screwdriver or No. ii foursquare-bulldoze tip for your multi-bit driver. These are the ii must-take tools for DIY electrical work.

Project step-by-step (12)

Step 1

An Inside Expect at Your Main Breaker Panel

Your main billow console might not be exactly similar the one here. With any panel, observe the large cables and the lugs they're continued to. They're the parts that are always live, fifty-fifty when the master breakers are switched off. Here's how to know what's what:

  • A: Main lugs. They're e'er alive — even when the primary billow is off. NEVER TOUCH THEM.
  • B: Primary cables. The blackness ones are always alive. And although they're insulated, avoid touching them.
  • C: Main breaker. Always switch it off before removing the console's cover.
  • D: Billow. The hot wire (usually scarlet or black) from each circuit connects to a breaker. If you're installing an AFCI breaker (as shown on the post-obit pages), you lot'll likewise connect the neutral wire to the breaker.
  • E: Breaker coach. Distributes power from the main breaker to the individual circuit breakers. Each breaker snaps onto the bus.
  • F: Neutral bus. All basis and neutral (white) wires connect here. If you're installing a standard breaker, the neutral (white) wire connects hither, besides. If you're installing an arc-fault excursion interrupter (AFCI) breaker, you'll connect the neutral to the breaker and run a "pigtail" wire to the neutral bus.
  • One thousand: Breaker space. This panel has room for iii more than breakers. You tin can install your new billow in any open up infinite.

Plus: Bank check out these eleven real-life epic electric fails.

An inside look at your main breaker panel

Step ii

Your Master Billow Panel Might Look Similar This

The photo shows a different configuration where the large cables and lugs are located on the correct-hand side of the circuit billow box, rather than at the center.

Main Breaker Panel

Step three

Power Down, Then Remove The Cover

  • Plow off all computers in the business firm before y'all switch off the power.
  • Then switch off the main billow (the service disconnect).
  • Remove iii of the panel box cover screws.
  • And then concur the cover securely while you remove the fourth screw.
    • Pro tip: If it slips while you're removing screws, information technology can impairment the breaker handles.

Power down, then remove the cover of the breaker box

Step iv

Test to Make Certain it'southward Dead

  • It's dangerous to presume the ability is really off just considering you've flipped the service disconnect to the off position. Be admittedly certain all the power is off.
  • There's a slim run a risk that the service disconnect didn't work properly, keeping power to some breakers.
  • So test each and every billow to make sure information technology's really dead.
  • Touch one lead of a test light to the neutral motorbus and the other pb to the screw on each breaker.
  • If the test calorie-free lights up, end and call an electrician.

test each and every breaker

Step 5

Insert a Cardboard Safety Shield

  • Y'all can insert the new cable into any knockout on the top, lesser, or sides of the panel box.
  • Discover the least congested area and remove one small knockout.
  • Jam a needle-nose pliers or a short screwdriver into the knockout to bend it downwards.
  • And so catch the "slug" with your pliers and twist it dorsum and forth until it breaks off.

Insert a Cardboard Safety Shield

Step vi

Run the Cable Through the Clamp

  • Snap in a plastic clamp then feed in the cable.
    • Pro tip: The spiral-style ones shown aren't as easy to employ.
  • Agree the cable up to the box to determine how much of the outer jacket you should strip off.
  • Slice off the jacket and remove the newspaper insulator.
  • So wrap the ends of the loose wires with electrical tape to forbid them from touching a live portion of the box.
    • Pro tip: Tape the wires together and so ane doesn't stray behind the cardboard.

Run the cable through the clamp

Step 7

Push Until the Jacket Enters the Clamp

  • Keep pushing the cablevision into the clamp far enough to get at to the lowest degree ane/iv-inch of the outer jacket inside the box.
  • Then secure the cable outside the box with an insulated staple within 12 inches of the clamp.

Push until the jacket enters the clamp

Step viii

Route the Cablevision and Install the Breaker

  • Install the breaker past slipping the tab into the hook.
  • Then snap the breaker into place, forcing the slot onto the motorbus.
    • Pro tip: Nosotros're using an AFCI breaker.

Route the Cable and Install the Breaker

Step 9

Strip and Clamp

  • Neatly route the black and white wires to the empty breaker infinite.
  • Attach the wires to the breaker and and so snap it into the box, or install the breaker showtime and insert the wires concluding.
    • Pro tip: But be aware that wiring an AFCI-style breaker is different from wiring ordinary breakers.
  • The neutral (white) from the new cable attaches to the AFCI
  • Strip off v/viii-inch of insulation from the white and black wires and insert them into the AFCI terminals.
  • Tighten until snug.

Strip and clamp

Stride x

Ground and Pigtail go to the Neutral Bus

  • On a main panel, you connect the ground wire from the new cablevision and the neutral (white) pigtail from the AFCI to the neutral bus.
  • Road the AFCI neutral pigtail and ground wires to empty screws on the neutral motorbus and tighten.
  • If you lot're installing a breaker on a sub-console, place the neutral and ground on separate bus bars.

Ground and pigtail go to the neutral bus

Stride eleven

Test the Installation and Finish the Job

  • Remove the panel box comprehend plate knockout that corresponds to the slot where you installed the new breaker (bend it back and along until it breaks off).
  • Then install the cover and turn on the main billow.
  • Switch the new AFCI to "ON."
  • Expect a few seconds and printing the "TEST" button.
  • The billow should trip.
  • If it doesn't trip, refer to the package instructions for troubleshooting or call an electrician.

How to Connect a New Circuit

Step 12

How to Plan a New Co-operative Excursion

  1. You can usually mix lighting and receptacles on the same circuit. But information technology's not a expert thought to place lighting and receptacles in the same room on a unmarried circuit. If the breaker trips, you'll lose all the light fixtures and receptacles at the aforementioned fourth dimension.
  2. If y'all're wiring living areas, you can install 10 to 13 lights and receptacles on a single 15-amp excursion. Locate the receptacles and then y'all're never more than than 6 feet abroad from ane on each wall.
  3. Run a separate 15- or 20-amp excursion for each of these watt-sucking appliances: garbage disposer, dishwasher, microwave, vent hood, trash compactor, and infinite heater.
  4. Run a separate 20-amp circuit to each bathroom and laundry room. Install a minimum of two 20-amp circuits for the kitchen. Protect the receptacles with a footing-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) billow or GFCI-manner receptacles.
  5. Employ 12-judge cable for 20-amp circuits and 14-gauge for fifteen-amp. Many cable manufacturers colour-code the outer jacket of their cable, but the color schemes are not universal. And so always double-cheque the wire itself to be sure.
  6. New branch circuits to all "living areas" (bedroom, living room, family room, den, dining room, library, sunroom, closet, hallway, and similar locations) must exist connected to an arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI). AFCI breakers are pricey, and then yous may exist tempted to buy an ordinary $5 breaker. Don't. The electrical inspector will simply brand you lot change it out.

How to Plan a New Branch Circuit

Originally Published: March 31, 2021