How to Select the Right Lighting Wire
"This Lighting wire is perfect for my home!"
Most people don’t think about the lighting wire that runs all throughout your house. You take it for granted when you flip a switch and magically the light appears, don’t you? If not, consider yourself a couple steps ahead of the average person. If you have any sort of electrical knowledge, you’ll know that figuring out what thickness of wire that you need is easy. You’re aware of all the different types of colors they’re available in, with black, white, and green being the most common (the latter is used primarily as a ground, of course).
If that’s the easy part, what is the difficult part? The hard part is trying to complete the task without a nicely drawn diagram of course. Sure, sometimes all you need to do is make a simple circuit but in a lot of cases it’s simply not so straightforward. Fortunately, the type of lamp doesn’t make a huge difference, so whether you’re trying to put the wire to a pendant, recessed fixture, or some type of track lighting it won’t make a difference.
What you do need to make sure of is that you have the right size. Wire gauges go from smaller to larger, starting with size 16 and going down by 2s all the way to 2 and then there is size 1 as well. After that, they start climbing from 1/O (pronounced “one ought”) up to 4/O. Then you’ll see 250 – 1000 MCM. This is extremely heavy wire that you most likely don’t need to concern yourself with.
If you’re completely new to the electrical scene and looking for a how to guide, you should probably consider getting the help of a professional. Electricity is one area that you don’t want to mess around with unless you’re absolutely sure what you’re doing. The installation (whether it’s for residential or commercial situations) is not easy at first. And it can be quite dangerous.
If you’re not familiar with connectors, sockets, guards, and three way switches then you’re probably not ready. Also, you don’t want to cut corners just to save money, as it might not look right. Consider if you’re doing an outdoor lighting system. Would you really want landscape lights that don’t function properly? It would be pretty embarrassing.