Electric Progress

While I can’t quite tell if it’s done-done, there’s been encouraging progress on the electrical wiring. Most of the circuits are in place, and they’ve wired up my new panel to the original feeder.

It’s interesting to see all the circuits run. We think of electricity as being an almost magical force, but in reality there really is a run of metal wire all the way from the outlet to a power station somewhere many miles away. There’s so much wiring!

Until the walls are closed and the outlets and switches are installed, they can’t wire up all the new circuits to the new panel. But, since I’m still living on site, they did make sure that the circuits in the living spaces have power, which resulted in the rather hilarious situation I’m in now with a single 15 amp breaker in the panel.

The rest of the work is more straightforward. There’s a tangle of circuits by the sink for the garbage disposal, dishwasher, and the transformers required for the LED strip lights.

The circuits for the oven and cooktop are impressive to look at. Both appliances require more power — the cooktop I’ve selected can drive 7,700 W into a single pan! — which means they need an additional wire to get 240 V. They’re also much more substantial wires so they can safely run at 30 or 40 amps when they’re running at full power.

I’m not entirely sure what happens next. The inspection certificate on my front door suggests the electrical inspection hasn’t happened yet, and there are a couple of changes that need to happen on the electrical work so far. One outlet is in the wrong place. I’d also like to see if it’s possible to have a run of unconnected wiring left in the walls for a future bathroom renovation.