basement elecrtical wiring

jscholl411

I have just finished framing my basement and now need to wire it. Right now there is a 3way at the top of the stairs and on at the back wall. the switches are hooked up to 4 lights. I am going to move the back wall switch to another wall and change the existing lights to recessed lighting. I want to add another light to this circuit, can this be done and what should i look for to do it.
also I am going to place recepticals throughout the room one every 6 feet, If the new studed wall is 6" off the foundation, can i just staple the cable to the back of the stud? ALso how many recepticals on a circuit ok.

IvoryRing

The additional light... add up the rated max wattage of all light fixtures (including the new ones) on the circuit. If you have a dimmer, use this figure for the dimmer. If you don't, divide by 120 to get the amperage your lights will draw. This figure must be smaller than your wire is rated for (15a for 14awg wire, 20a for 12awg wire), as well as being smaller than your breaker rating. The short answer is that you likely can do it without any problem, but you need to check the numbers.

Your romex needs to be protected from a 1" nail and supported - the common way is to staple to the middle of the studs - more than 1.25" from the inside of the drywall.

The number of receptacles on a circuit is not limited by NEC, but for practical purposes, you probably don't want more than 10 or so. If you have a GFCI (either breaker or receptacle), it may have a max number of downstream devices in the directions - if it does, NEC says you have to honor that limit.