DIY Home Improvement Forum banner

basement wiring plan

1K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  frenchelectrican 
#1 ·
Hello All,

First time user so sorry if this post is a mess...But any help on these would be GREAT!

I have a basmenet being finished and it will have aprox 1K sqft. with one bed room and one bath and bar area.

The 'can lgihts' are running off 14/2 cable on 15amp breaker with 13 lights attached. (how many lights okay on one breaker)

planning on running all outlets with 12/2 with 20 amp breaker. (how many is ony on one breaker?) (when is 12/2 NEEDED over 14/2?)

Three celing fans to be run and want to control fan/light seperate. (what do I need to run to this? 12/3?)

For bathroom and bar area i know I need GFI outlets.

Can you 'mix' 12/2 with 14/2? (and if so what rules do you have to follow?)

When branching outlets should to only branch from the 'unit' intself or can you branch from 'middle' on the line?

Please any help with this would be great I have spent a good amount of time on this have not been able to get clear answers.
 
See less See more
#4 ·
Hello All,

First time user so sorry if this post is a mess...But any help on these would be GREAT!

I have a basmenet being finished and it will have aprox 1K sqft. with one bed room and one bath and bar area.

Nice ., did you pull the permit for this useage yet ? and the other thing it will come up in basement bedroom(s) is the egress window which they are required per state codes so before you get too far with it make sure it is permited in your area.

The 'can lgihts' are running off 14/2 cable on 15amp breaker with 13 lights attached. (how many lights okay on one breaker)

The can luminaires we will go by max wattage of them ( it will be labeled on the recessed can and the actual max wattage will depending on which type of trim you will be using.

Like example 13 recessed lumiares with max rating of 75 watts = 975 watts which that is plenty for this circuit however you will be splitting it due you may need couple in one room and other one in other room so therefore in your main room you may end up have two dimmers ( if you have a flat tv then the two recessed lumiaires closest to the flat tv will have it own dimmer to keep the harshness down.

planning on running all outlets with 12/2 with 20 amp breaker. (how many is ony on one breaker?) (when is 12/2 NEEDED over 14/2?)

In USA basically almost unlimited unless restricted per local codes. The actual numbers of receptales will depending on the room layout and by the way most area will required AFCI's in finshed room areas.

For moi I useally limited to about 8 to 12 receptales depending on the layout and what it will be on that circuit. ( there are some certien items it will required delecated circuits which I will mention below.)

Three celing fans to be run and want to control fan/light seperate. (what do I need to run to this? 12/3?)

XX-3 is far most common but make sure you use ceiling fan rated box for this purpose and try to advoid pancake ceiling fan box much as possible. ( they don't have much room in there so use the common ceiling fan rated box that will serve most case unless you have grid ceiling then we will tell you a diffent verison you can use.)


For bathroom and bar area i know I need GFI outlets.

The bathroom circuit will serve in bathroom only it can NOT serve anything else out of the room at all ditto with bar GFCI's

My SOP useally bring the power to the switch box first then go to the GFCI receptale so that way if the GFCI tripped the lights stay on and of course you will need a fart fan. ( exhaust fan )

Can you 'mix' 12/2 with 14/2? (and if so what rules do you have to follow?)

Try to advoid the mixure of conductor size due someone can get confused with it in future so with #14-2 it will be only restricted to 15 amp circuit even you put part of #12 in there so that one reason to advoid this so when you run the new circuits do not get this mixed up at all.

When branching outlets should to only branch from the 'unit' intself or can you branch from 'middle' on the line?

I will start at the nearest panel and go from recpetale to receptale ( it will take less room and will not have to worry about middle splice at all. But if you going to have switched receptales ( like half switched duplex or a whole thing ) you will need deepwell single gang box to have little more room in there plus pigtaling them.

Please any help with this would be great I have spent a good amount of time on this have not been able to get clear answers.

I reply in bleu so you will know which one it is.


As Electures mention what location you are in and what I posted is common for most of USA area on 2011 or later NEC code cycle the Canada verison will have diffrent rules so please post the location where you are in now that will make the differnce on the rest of reply on them.

And you may need a wiring simpleifed book which they have them in any big box store that will guide you more on them.

The other thing in here is how much room you have in your breaker box due the basement part which I am not too suprised you will need about 5 circuits for sure. maybe more if you have special items which the instruction called for delcated circuits so pay attetion to that.

Bon Chance.

Merci,
Marc
 
  • Like
Reactions: Philly Master
#2 ·
I am just finishing up something similar. While I can not answer all of your questions, I can answer some (FYI, I am a CPA). And this is for Minnesota.

I put all my can lights (8) all on their own 15 amp circuit. To dim them, I ordered a 1000 watt dimmer from online.

I put the outlets for the living area, bedroom, and bedroom light on another 15 amp circuit.

The bathroom must be on a 20 amp circuit, with GFCIs and must stay in the bathroom, ie, it can not power anything outside the bathroom.

You are right, for fans to run on a separate switch, you will need a -3 wire. i would think 14-3 to run on a 15 amp circuit.

Remember, you can not put 14-2 wire on a 20 amp breaker.

B
 
#3 ·
Curtis_T said:
Hello All,

First time user so sorry if this post is a mess...But any help on these would be GREAT!

I have a basmenet being finished and it will have aprox 1K sqft. with one bed room and one bath and bar area.

The 'can lgihts' are running off 14/2 cable on 15amp breaker with 13 lights attached. (how many lights okay on one breaker)

planning on running all outlets with 12/2 with 20 amp breaker. (how many is ony on one breaker?) (when is 12/2 NEEDED over 14/2?)

Three celing fans to be run and want to control fan/light seperate. (what do I need to run to this? 12/3?)

For bathroom and bar area i know I need GFI outlets.

Can you 'mix' 12/2 with 14/2? (and if so what rules do you have to follow?)

When branching outlets should to only branch from the 'unit' intself or can you branch from 'middle' on the line?

Please any help with this would be great I have spent a good amount of time on this have not been able to get clear answers.
Please add your location to your profile.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top