Dont Know Remodeling

Electricity is the flow of energy. Thick books have been written about the science of electricity and how it works. Not important. What is important is that it does work to produce light, operate appliances, and do other jobs around the home.

Your home is an existing structure. Your new or remodeled bathroom may or may not already have sufficient electrical service for the jobs you intend. So you may have to extend your electrical system. Or you may only need to replace some of the circuit components—lights, receptacles, switches, etc.—that are already wired into place. In either case you need to know a little more about electricity so you can work safely.

Think of electricity as an oval track called a circuit. If something blocks the track in any location the circuit isn’t complete and power can’t pass. If a switch is OFF, a light burned out, or a wire disconnected the circuit is blocked and electricity doesn’t flow. It’s about that simple in operation.

Within that circuit are various components that require electricity to operate. Most are either wired in (lighting) or access the circuit’s power through a receptacle (hair dryer). Your—or your electrician’s—job is to analyze and, if needed, extend the existing electrical system in your home to do the jobs needed in the new or remodeled bathroom.

The first step in this process is to determine what electrical power is available in your home right now. The place to start is at the service panel, the point where electricity is distributed to the various house circuits. Electrical service comes into your home as 240-volt electricity with two hot (electrified) wires and a neutral wire. Electrical ranges and dryers use both hot wires for 240v service. Just about everything else in your home uses 120v service taken from one of the hot wires and the neutral (sometimes called the ground) wire.