Receptacles per room

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Cam525

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Hi folks. My wife and I have recently purchased an older home which we intend and need to renovate. One big item is the electrical, most of the house only has two prong receptacles and those that have the ground are questionable.

I intend to do as much of the electrical on my own as I can, short of the electrical panel. I have not done anything with electrical, other than light fixtures, since high school. However, I am confident with good advice and patience, I will succeed :)

I am having the panel upgraded from a 70A to 200A service and a new 48 connection panel. I have plenty of room on the panel to have each room in the house on a separate circuit as well as the major appliances.

My big question is how many receptacles must I have in each room. I have heard that there is a requirement for a receptacle every x feet. Is this correct and if so, what is x? I'm in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Also, if you have any general advice, I am more than happy to listen.

Thanks in advance!
 

BobL43

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If you are determined to do it yourself and you are allowed to do so, why don't you buy one of those DIY electrical books by Stanley or other companies? The books are not perfect, for sure, but they give you good ideas of how things are done, and you have to know what your local codes require. Here, a duplex grounded outlet has to be every 12 feet, so no appliance with a 6 foot cord should need an extension cord to power it. Its more complicated than that, but Saskatchewan, Canada may have its own standards you need to know. if you are going to have a larger service installed by a pro, did you get an estimate what he would charge you to do what you want to do yourself?
 

Jadnashua

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There is also a requirement on each wall section, if it is larger than x, it must have a receptacle. In the kitchen, there are other specific requirements as there is for bathrooms, garages, cellars, and outdoors. So, it can get complicated. In a kitchen, the spacing requirement is tighter, has higher current requirements, and gfci is required for them (but not for appliances). In some places, they also now require arc fault breakers, and this is being extended to more areas depending on which version of the code that applies. Smoke detectors are now required in each bedroom, and other locations and they must be interconnected so if one goes off, they all do.
 

LLigetfa

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I have plenty of room on the panel to have each room in the house on a separate circuit as well as the major appliances.

When I wired my home the inspector was concerned that my outlets be on a different circuit than the lights. He didn't want a single breaker to leave a room completely without electricity. Everyone else covered off the 12 foot max distance rule.
 

Cam525

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Thanks for the info, Bob. I did buy a couple of DIY books, one specifically for electrical and one that was a general house reno that had an electrical chapter. They help with the basics but didn't do much (understandably) for specifics. I didn't ask for an estimate on the whole house. For one, I sort of want the satisfaction of having done it myself, and secondly, when i asked for the quote on the service upgrade I didn't know that I was going to have to work on the entire house :(
 

Cam525

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LL, thanks for the help, its good to hear from a fellow DIYer :) I just installed a ceiling fan in my daughter's bedroom last night and the breaker shut down the whole room. I liked that, at least for the bedroom. I will try and find out what they like here. I would not want that for the family room or kitchen but still like the idea of it for the bedrooms.
 

Speedy Petey

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When I wired my home the inspector was concerned that my outlets be on a different circuit than the lights. He didn't want a single breaker to leave a room completely without electricity.
Did your inspector have any legal justification to back his desires?
He can want all he wants, but code is code, and he CANNOT enforce anything above and beyond the actual written code.
If he wants to give you real world useful advice that's a different story.
 

LLigetfa

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Did your inspector have any legal justification to back his desires?
He can want all he wants...
Ja sometimes the path of least resistance gave me some elbow room on more important matters.

He was trying to insist that I use light fixtures with metal cages in the crawlspace. I just had cheap plastic lamp bases but I placed them strategically above the duct work where one could not hit the bulb while crawling around. When I explained that, he let it slide.

Despite meeting code with 2 ground rods, he insisted that I also bond to the well casing. On that he would not relent despite my asking for a code reference.

He was also insisting that I wire my smoke detectors to the same breaker as my freezer so as not to flip off the breaker to silence the smoke alarms. I argued that a constant use device like a freezer could trip the breaker, start a fire, and subsequently not give me an alarm. The smoke alarms are now wired to the light in the wiring closet.
 

hj

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quote; He was also insisting that I wire my smoke detectors to the same breaker as my freezer so as not to flip off the breaker to silence the smoke alarms

Usually if they are concerned about that, they would require a "lock" on the circuit breaker itself, so it could NEVER be accidentally tripped. After all, if the door is not opened a freezer can go several days without power, so that is NOT a reliable "fail safe" method.
 
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Speedy Petey

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Ja sometimes the path of least resistance gave me some elbow room on more important matters.

He was trying to insist that I use light fixtures with metal cages in the crawlspace. I just had cheap plastic lamp bases but I placed them strategically above the duct work where one could not hit the bulb while crawling around. When I explained that, he let it slide.

Despite meeting code with 2 ground rods, he insisted that I also bond to the well casing. On that he would not relent despite my asking for a code reference.

He was also insisting that I wire my smoke detectors to the same breaker as my freezer so as not to flip off the breaker to silence the smoke alarms. I argued that a constant use device like a freezer could trip the breaker, start a fire, and subsequently not give me an alarm. The smoke alarms are now wired to the light in the wiring closet.
Oh this guy sounds like a real winner. :rolleyes:

Caving to inspectors like this only serves to hurt the next guy. Every time someone rolls over for guys like this he will expect it the next time, and on and on.

People need to be held accountable for their actions, and even their demands, ESPECIALLY power hungry people like this. :mad:
 

SacCity

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When I did several re-wire projects the text that I found most valuable was:

"Illustrated Guide to the National Electrical Code", by Charles R. Miller.


Michael
 
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ghetterly

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Cam525,

The book you are looking for is called
"Electrical Code Simplified" - Saskatchewan Amendments

It will guide you through anything you're looking to do. I used it when I lived in Moose Jaw and re-did the kitchen counter plugs. I still have it kicking around here somewhere.

My old house is on Athabasca St. W. It still looks the same as when I left MJ 4 years ago!

I think Home Hardware has them in the electrical isle near the breakers.
 
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