Electrical basics

If you own [snorts] a house, here are three electrical basics that you should understand. Let's get after it. Number one, understand your electrical panel. Top one up here is your main breaker. It supplies power to all your individual breakers. Your individual circuits have their own breakers. They look like these. These breakers are here to protect the wiring in your home. If the breaker senses too much current, then it trips, shutting down that circuit to prevent overheating. You'll most commonly see single pole as well as double pole breakers. Single pole is common for 120 volts and double pole is common for 240 volts. Number two, understanding your wiring. Wire gauge works backwards. The smaller the number, the bigger the wire. This is 12 gauge wire and this is 14 gauge wire. As you can see, the 12 is bigger than the 14. In common residential circuits, your 14 gauge wire is on your 15 amp breaker and your 12 gauge wire is on a 20 amp breaker. When buying wire, you're going to have the first number is your gauge size and the second number is how many conductors there are. This wire right here is 14-2. It has two conductors. The ground doesn't count. This wire right here is 14-3. It has three conductors. Number three, GFCI outlet. As where a breaker protects your wiring, a GFCI protects you. A GFCI compares the current going in and the current going out and it trips when the difference is between 4 and 6 milliamps. You can safely test your GFCI outlets by pressing test. This simulates an electrical short or a ground fault. After the outlet's tripped, you simply just press reset. GFCI outlets are required in areas where shock hazards are more likely. Garages, basements, crawl spaces, kitchens, bathrooms, things around water. Know how to turn off your breakers, know what size wire you need, and know how to operate GFCIs around your house. Anyways, I got stuff to do. I'll catch you guys later. Peace.