How to perform the separation of wiring by consumer groups in a private house and apartment

A fairly large part of the population still lives in old houses with electrical wiring, which was created for small loads. Just a couple of decades ago, our parents from household appliances worked:

• one lamp in each room;

• refrigerator, TV, tape recorder, radio, permanently installed and connected to sockets;

• several portable household appliances such as iron, hair dryer and a small set of tools.

Under these consumers, as a rule, 2.5 square aluminum wiringprotected by two circuit breakers or electrical plugs with a working current of up to six amperes.

Modern household appliances have an increased consumption of electricity, and their number in our apartments has increased dramatically. Powerful vacuum cleaners, washing machines, electric stoves, heated floors, food processors, microwave ovens and other useful devices greatly ease our living conditions.

Even the lighting scheme consists of a different number of general and local lamps, controlled from several places or remotely.

Therefore, the issue of upgrading the wiring and its division into groups to ensure safety and convenient use is of great importance.

What are the benefits of shared wiring?

The method of separation of the power lines of electrical appliances by separate lines allows:

• improve their management;

• to simplify the consequences of the destruction of emerging emergency conditions;

• facilitate the repair work.

Management improvement

Using the method of separation of wiring, you can create sections of non-disconnectable equipment that remains in operation in cases necessary for the owner of the apartment.

The term "non-disconnectable" means that equipment that is allocated in a separate group and powered from its individual protections. In the event of an accident, they will eliminate the damage that has occurred, and in the absence of the owners for a long time, for example, during a trip or a business trip, you can turn off all non-essential devices, and leave, for example, a freezer with food and Smart Home systempowered separately from other highways.

Due to this function, energy consumption is reduced, and the convenience of its management is increased. When part of the electrical circuit is idling without load, it can simply be de-energized for safety and economy.

Emergency turn-off

Consider an unforeseen case of power failure, when, for example, neighbors flooded from above or the home master unsuccessfully drilled a wall in the place where the wire passed, provoking short circuit in the power scheme. Of course, it is automatically eliminated by the operation of the circuit breaker.

When the wiring is made by a single highway, the light disappears throughout the apartment. It will remain without electrical supply for a rather long time until the electrician restores the circuit.

The method of dividing the wiring into separate groups allows you to save most of the electrical equipment by shutting down a single damaged trunk. At the same time, the search for a malfunction that has arisen is greatly simplified because the place of its formation is already becoming clear and there is no need to analyze the rest of the electrical circuit.

Repair work

If in the old apartment all electrical outlets were powered through one circuit breaker, then when it became necessary to repair or reconstruct the circuit in any one place, it was necessary to completely relieve the voltage in the distribution panel. This led to the shutdown of the refrigerator, the cessation of watching television programs, and even often forced residents to sit in the dark or by candlelight.

By connecting consumers in different groups to separate highways, the management of household appliances is decided differently: it is enough to remove the voltage from the repaired area, and leave the rest of the electrical equipment to work.

When a malfunction occurs in the outlet group, it is turned off, and using the lighting circuit, you can continue to work with electric light and temporarily connect the necessary power tool to it.

If the accident happened in the lighting network, then to carry out repairs, temporary lights are easily powered from the remaining lighting circuits.

Guidelines for sharing apartment wiring

Before starting work on electrical wiring, you should study existing standards and carefully plan a new project for it.

Rules for the formation of consumer groups

Electrical wiring is created by separate highways powered by its individual circuit breaker and RCD or difavtomat. At the same time, the following principles are observed:

1. Separate lines are created for powerful household appliances such as hobs, electric stoves, washing machines and similar devices. For their power, a cable of 4 or 6 mm square is used, and special power sockets are used by terminal switching devices;

2. Each room with its own outlet group is individually powered with a cable with cross-sectional conductors of at least 2.5 mm square. Since the most energy-consuming equipment is concentrated in the kitchen, increased attention is paid to providing it with food;

3. For the lighting scheme, individual chains are created that are not associated with the power outlet group. They can be further divided into separate sections. They are fed with a cable with a cross section of 1.5 mm square;

4. rooms with high humidity, such as a bathroom, toilet, kitchen, are connected with separate cables via an RCD with a sensed setpoint of 10 or 6 milliamperes. To do this, they are entered into the “wet group” at the stage of the wiring project and calculated individually, taking into account electrical safety standards;

5. The remaining rooms are protected against leakage currents by RCDs configured to a 30 mA setpoint. It is entirely permissible to connect several of the same type of attachment to one protection;

6. Each planned group is calculated on consumption currents. For her, cables and protections are selected. When the total power of the devices exceeds reasonable limits that complicate the installation and operation, they are divided into additional subgroups;

7. the number of sockets and switches in each room should provide not only convenience, but also limit the use of various extension cords and tees in the future. It is difficult to take this into account when buying new equipment, and spare electrical outlets will prevent such cases.

Electrical Planning Principles

Given the specifics of human memory and the complexity of the upcoming work, before the start of their implementation, it is necessary to carefully think through everything and create a project on paper. To do this, draw up a sketch or drawing of all the premises on a scale and designate on it the places of electrical panels, all lamps with switches, sockets and responsible consumers.

You can use the drawings of the developer, as already described in the article about the wiring diagram in the apartment. A similar plan is stored in the housing documentation.

If there are difficulties with finding this document, then using a piece of paper, a pen, a ruler with a tape measure, it is not difficult to measure the premises of the apartment yourself and put a furniture plan on the sketch. Its location has a significant impact on the rational placement of sockets, switches, lights and ease of use.

Then on this plan indicate the location of the electrical points and analyze the layout of the wires and cables to them.

Significantly facilitate the preparation of an apartment plan and execute it efficiently with strict observance of building designations allow specialized programs. As an example, we give an overview of the free Online Roomle service.

Its location on the Internet and registration method is shown in the image below.

You only need to enter your email address, think up and write down a password and press the registration button. You will see the initial window of the service.

Start work with the item "Create a new plan" and continue to deal with its simple design. The service has a sufficient set of tools.

The practical use of its functions is intuitive, without any difficulties. At the initial moment of opening its window, you will be presented with a training video for viewing. We recommend that you study it, although you can skip and return to it at any convenient time.

Prior to registration, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the functionality of the service in the information video of the WEBTOURS owner "How to make an apartment plan for free and online."

It shows simple working methods that will help not only create a scaled image and print it on paper, but also view its visual image in a perspective view or 3D volumetric representation.

Possible schemes for laying electrical lines

All power cables at one end are connected in the apartment distribution board. Moreover, through the input line, the voltage comes from the upstream power board, and all outgoing lines can be carried out according to one of three connection schemes:

1. radially from a common center to the periphery;

2. by a loop due to the serial connection of all consumers to one common trunk;

3. in a combined way.

Radial method

This scheme is best suited for splitting wiring into consumer groups and is noted for increased reliability.

However, it requires increased consumption of cable of various sections. Due to this, they are not fulfilled, the requirements for savings are reduced and the volume of installation work is further complicated.

Loop method

In its structure, the consumers' serial connection scheme contradicts the principles of dividing the wiring into separate groups, because it simply combines them with a common trunk, as shown in the picture below for consumers of lighting lines and socket wiring boxes.

In the old layout of the electrical wiring diagrams of apartments and buildings, the loop method was considered the main available method. It allowed to significantly save on the length of cables and wires. In modern conditions, due to increased security requirements, it is being abandoned, but individual loop elements are used for mixed connection.

Combined method

This method combines the elements of the first two options connecting consumers to the apartment electrical panel. It is most often used in modern apartments.

Due to the correct consideration of the distribution of power of household appliances and the careful selection of cable and wire brands for them with protections from circuit breakers and RCDs, an optimal balance is created between:

• reliability and safety of operation of the electrical circuit;

• expenses of material and monetary funds for its creation.

Features of the installation of consumer groups

After the electrical wiring of the apartment is fully planned and calculated, and the project for its laying has been created and the necessary material resources have been purchased, they begin installation work. To do this, directly on the walls, ceiling and load-bearing building structures, all locations of electrical points are planned and drawn.

Then, their location is further clarified and marking of the laying of electric highways from the apartment panel is made. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the pipelines of heating, gas supply, water supply, sewage and other vital technological systems laid in the apartment.

When performing work, it is necessary to observe standards for safe wiringand. They are designed for buildings constructed from all types of building materials, including SIP panels. It should be noted that wires and cables can be laid in a closed or open way according to different technologies and techniques.