So I'm replacing all the interior wiring of our 1954 ranch. I've basically replaced all but 2 or 3 circuits that have rooms that we haven't touched yet (bathrooms, boiler, kitchen). I passed my Rough in inspection last week friday, and got everything wired up with 20 amp AFCI breakers, except for the few GFCI circuits (2 for garage, 1 for bathroom) and the smoke/carbon which is a standard 15 amp breaker. The other standard breakers are from the previous BX wiring. All wiring is 12-2 NM coming into the panel (except the BX and the one 14-3 wire from the previous owner). I had the service and panel upgraded to 200 amps by a licensed electrician. It's a Square-D QO 40 breaker panel.
Only problem I realized afterwards is that the GFCI circuits (with regular breakers) are pigtailed at the receptacles (first point on the circuit), so the first GFCI receptacle isn't protecting the lights which are in series after the receptacle. In this case do I need to replace the standard circuit breakers with GFCI breakers? otherwise I'd have to use a jbox to make a splice... for example the family room "powder room" (half bath) has a single 20 amp circuit for it's self, since I read you can run a single circuit for a bathroom as long as it only serves that room. The first stop is the GFCI receptacle in the bathroom, but it's pigtailed to go to the lights, which are NOT then protected by the GFCI. This same scenario is for the garage, first item on the circuit is the GFCI, and it's pigtailed out to the lights which theoretically need GFCI protection?
As for the physical cabling, I left a lot of length on the wires, so it's getting a bit crowded in the middle, but I didn't want to cut anything short in case I have to move it around later. Also I plan on using most if not all of the panel by the time we're done doing the bathrooms, kitchen, central air etc... From my experience, short, beautiful and neat is great until you need a little more length 5 years down the road.
The inspector didn't do as thorough a job as I would have preferred. For example the inspector didn't even go up into the attic to look at how I ran the wiring through the joists or into the can lights... basically he just looked at a few of my switch boxes and presumably saw they were neat, no box fill issues (I made a huge effort to splice elsewhere so I wouldn't overfill boxes with 12 gauge wire).
The main reason I'm posting is because I want it done right, and safely. I worked for an electrician over a summer in college, and for 4 years worked pulling wires for low voltage systems in residential systems. i.e. a/v, phone/data and security. So I am pretty good at running wires, but high voltage panel wiring is new to me, although I've wired probably a hundred houses with cat5/RG6 panels. I've also read and studied quite a bit (even went so far as to buy and read most of the 2008 NEC handbook amongst other books). So hopefully I'm pretty close, but any critique would be appreciated, because I'm fairly terrified of all of the stories of houses burning down because of faulty wiring. But I trust my new wiring more than the crazy stuff that was going on in the house with the old wiring.
I'm glad to have any help, Thanks, Bill
Only problem I realized afterwards is that the GFCI circuits (with regular breakers) are pigtailed at the receptacles (first point on the circuit), so the first GFCI receptacle isn't protecting the lights which are in series after the receptacle. In this case do I need to replace the standard circuit breakers with GFCI breakers? otherwise I'd have to use a jbox to make a splice... for example the family room "powder room" (half bath) has a single 20 amp circuit for it's self, since I read you can run a single circuit for a bathroom as long as it only serves that room. The first stop is the GFCI receptacle in the bathroom, but it's pigtailed to go to the lights, which are NOT then protected by the GFCI. This same scenario is for the garage, first item on the circuit is the GFCI, and it's pigtailed out to the lights which theoretically need GFCI protection?
As for the physical cabling, I left a lot of length on the wires, so it's getting a bit crowded in the middle, but I didn't want to cut anything short in case I have to move it around later. Also I plan on using most if not all of the panel by the time we're done doing the bathrooms, kitchen, central air etc... From my experience, short, beautiful and neat is great until you need a little more length 5 years down the road.
The inspector didn't do as thorough a job as I would have preferred. For example the inspector didn't even go up into the attic to look at how I ran the wiring through the joists or into the can lights... basically he just looked at a few of my switch boxes and presumably saw they were neat, no box fill issues (I made a huge effort to splice elsewhere so I wouldn't overfill boxes with 12 gauge wire).
The main reason I'm posting is because I want it done right, and safely. I worked for an electrician over a summer in college, and for 4 years worked pulling wires for low voltage systems in residential systems. i.e. a/v, phone/data and security. So I am pretty good at running wires, but high voltage panel wiring is new to me, although I've wired probably a hundred houses with cat5/RG6 panels. I've also read and studied quite a bit (even went so far as to buy and read most of the 2008 NEC handbook amongst other books). So hopefully I'm pretty close, but any critique would be appreciated, because I'm fairly terrified of all of the stories of houses burning down because of faulty wiring. But I trust my new wiring more than the crazy stuff that was going on in the house with the old wiring.
I'm glad to have any help, Thanks, Bill