Electrical Service Panel Basics for Homeowners

The service panel is the central distribution point that connects the service wire or service drop—the main wire coming from the outside into the house—to the exit wires that split off and service different parts of the house. These exit wires are called branch circuits or branch wire circuits.

Understand Your Home's Electrical System

The main breaker controls the power to the buss bars in the distribution section of the panel. The branch circuit breakers connect to the buss bars, and then feed the power through to the load terminal, and you connect the hot wire (s) (black and/or red) for the branch circuits to the load terminals of the breakers.

How to Rough

Cover the unstripped end of the black (hot) pigtail with a wire connector for safety. Complete the rough-in phase of the wiring job by connecting the appropriate wires with wire connectors, adding short lengths of wire (pigtails) where they’re needed and folding all the wires neatly into the boxes.

Wiring a Breaker Box

At the top of the breaker box, the switch that’s bigger than the others is commonly referred to as the “main.” (Technically, it’s called the double pole service disconnect.) This is where, after...

How to Wire a House for Dummies | Electric Long Straights

The “Main Service Panel” contains the circuit breakers of fuses for the electrical power in your home and you want to turn it off during a flood or other risky situations. The panel should present labels for various items (washer, dryer) so you know for what each circuit breaker is assigned to.

Electrical Basics 101

Two large "hot" wires connect to big screw terminals, called lugs, inside the service panel, providing all the power to the panel. A third service cable, the neutral, connects to the neutral bus bar inside the panel. In simple terms, electricity is supplied to the house on the hot wires.

Installing an Electrical Subpanel | Better Homes & Gardens

At the main service panel, plan the routes for the four wires: ground, neutral, and two hot wires (black and red). Strip the sheathing, remove a knockout slug, and clamp the cable. Route the neutral and ground wires carefully and connect them to their bus bar (s).

How to Install and Wire a Sub

More about Wiring a Sub Panel. Grounds and Neutrals in Electrical Panel; How to Wire Grounds and Neutrals in Sub Panels – all the neutrals and ground wire and terminal bars must be separated from each other, and your sub feed should be a 4-wire cable that has a separated insulated neutral wire and a separate ground wire.

Electrical Wiring

Electrical Wiring How to Replace Ceiling Light Fixtures. Audio Transcript Ceiling fixtures come in lots of different shapes and there are many different ways to attach them. ... Dummies has always stood for taking on complex concepts and making them easy to understand. Dummies helps everyone be more knowledgeable and confident in applying what ...

Breaker Box Safety: How to Connect a New Circuit | Family ...

On a main panel, you connect the ground wire from the new cable and the neutral (white) pigtail from the AFCI to the neutral bus. Route the AFCI neutral pigtail and ground wires to empty screws on the neutral bus and tighten. If you're installing a breaker on a sub-panel, place the neutral and ground on separate bus bars.