Connections Tutorial: Introduction
I've Unwired and I Can't Hook Back Up!
There are many reasons people search the web for house wiring diagrams. Some are in the process of designing a wiring project. Some are in the middle of one but wondering if they have exhausted their experience and if there is more help than their home improvement book gives. Such people may find this page helpful. But the page is designed, most of all, to help when you have been replacing or tinkering with electrical components and you have disrupted the way the wiring was connected. I want to help you get things back into working order.
The homeowner who is tackling the minor brain surgery of redoing wiring connections in an electrical box might as well be an apprentice. So here is some of your training. Or if you are an electrical apprentice (trainee), your boss or foreman may wonder how you got smart so fast. Here is how you did. By the nature of the matter, this page will not give you all the steps to get you to your desired result, as if you were designing your home electrical wiring from scratch. Instead I give you all the principles for understanding what you have, so you might restore it yourself without resorting to an electrician. Most of my website deals with electrical malfunctions that occur on their own, from normal wear and tear, or from poor workmanship coming home to roost. This page is for when "I've unwired and I can't hook back up."
All the diagrams of this tutorial are to illustrate most of what you might run into in a home -- or might need to reconstruct if you undid some connections. They will not be so helpful if your wiring is a conduit or knob-and-tube system.
Related pages
Other pages of this site that are relevant here include:
Upgrading - for the common mistakes when replacing items
GFIs - to understand their hook-up and reasons they trip
3-Ways - to see their variety of hook-ups
Home inspection - to correct "opens" and polarity
Circuit tour - for a good look at typical circuit wiring and connections
Cable combinations - diagrams of the connections in most switch, light, and outlet boxes
Double circuits - to help you recognize this common tricky oddity
Testing - how to, and why not to sometimes
General background - to get the basics about circuits
Terminology
Relevant terms found in the Glossary include: 3-Way, Cable, Common, Gang, Ground, Hot, Jumper, Neutral, Pigtail, Terminal, Traveler, Wire.
Navigation
If you're using a modern browser, the diagrams will stay at the top of your screen. On older browsers, you may need to scroll up to refer back to a diagram. To study this material seriously, I recommend viewing it on a desktop computer rather than a mobile device, and/or printing out the text, charts, and/or diagrams so you can compare them side-by-side. Copyright
How to Use This Tutorial
The charts, diagrams, and commentary come first. I encourage you to expose yourself to their details first. On the other hand, I don't want them to make you too bold, so that you dive into your problem without the cautions and suggestions I make in the last section called "Ways to Apply All This." So you might want to browse ahead somewhat into that section. Disclaimer