Whether you’re doing industrial wiring or residential wiring for electricity, you’ve got a complex task ahead of you. Needless to say, industrial wiring is essentially a much more complex form of residential wiring. This article will assume that you have some elemental electrical wiring knowledge or aptitude, and it will simply provide you with a very basic overview of what you need to understand with regard to residential wiring and industrial wiring.

It will be up to you to look up your local building and electrical codes for your home or office space. Also, check your local laws to see if you are even permitted to do your own amateur wiring before you proceed. Above all things, approach any wiring project with this knowledge at the forefront of your mind: “electricity can be deadly.” Put your safety ahead of all other concerns.

Red wires and black wires are usually “hot”. This means that there is a current (amps) flowing from the circuit breaker to the electrical box or the appliance in question.

The white wires usually are “returns”. This means that they allow current (amps) to flow back to the circuit breaker after the electricity has passed through the load or appliance in question.

White wires should not be connected together with ground wires, with the exception being back at the circuit panel bus bar. If you fail to observe this rule, then every single time the load is energized (such as turning on an appliance), electricity will flow through the ground wire and the return wire simultaneously. This is very dangerous.

A ground wire is usually bare and attaches to an appliance’s frame. Under normal circumstances, current should not be passing through it. Only when there is a short circuit should electricity pass through the ground wire; this happens so that the circuit breaker will kill the flow of current to the site or appliance.

Smart industrial wiring is based on 3-phase electrical power. 3-phase electric allows less workload to be placed on each wire involved while at once allowing them to work together to give you maximum results. With 3-phase electric, the wires are smaller and the motor is smaller than a typical single-phase motor. These factors allow greater efficiency and longer lasting motors and wires.

There are four types of 3-phase electrical power:

No matter which type of 3-phase electrical power you choose to use, you’ll need a voltage meter in order to determine the actual voltages that are available to you. The type does not determine this.

Industrial wiring typically runs through metal conduits, armored cable, or a raceway. These enclosures are the safety ground–never the neutral wire.

The above information should give you a nice guidepost for doing more research into and getting more practice with either residential wiring or industrial wiring. Again, safety comes first!

Did you get what you really wanted during the holidays this year? Maybe that new smartphone you've been eyeing, or that extra-big HDTV? Perhaps you even got a new laptop or tablet. Whatever your favorite gift was, if it plugs into the wall, it could be at risk of electrical surge damage.

Power surges happen all the time, and homeowners usually aren't even aware when they occur. That's because the typical power surge won't completely fry a gadget or appliance -- but it might do a small, imperceptible amount of damage that slightly shortens the life of the device. Add up hundreds of these surges over time, and you could be talking about years of life shaved off of your favorite electronics.

Where Do Surges Come From?

If you think of surge protection as a safeguard against damage from lightning strikes, think again. Surges caused by direct lighting strikes to a home are rare and usually so destructive that a surge protection system can't mitigate all the damage.

Most surges begin and end in your own home, and are generated by a major appliance starting up. Have you ever noticed the lights briefly dimming when the air conditioner kicks on? That's a sign of a power surge. These are the types of surges that damage your electronics one tiny bit at a time.

Other surges may originate at the electrical utility and travel along the power lines into your home. And during bad weather, it's much more likely that you'll get a surge because a fallen branch took down a power line than to experience a direct surge from a lightning strike.

Get Yourself Protected

Surge protection strips or adapters can offer critical protection for select devices, but this isn't the ideal solution. First of all, these adapters are often clunky and bulky, and they can only be used to protect a few things at a time.

They're also delicate, and can be rendered ineffective with just a single major surge. If there's no indicator light that shows whether surge protection is active, you may think you're protected when really you're not.

Whole-home surge protection is the best solution for the protection of all the devices and appliances in your home. Wired into your main electrical panel, a whole-home surge protector extends that protection to every outlet in your home, as well as to major appliances like your air conditioner and refrigerator. These devices can also withstand numerous surges and last for years.

If you're interested in getting this level of protection for the appliances and devices in your home, reach out to a licensed local electrician today for a no-obligation consultation.

Electrical engineers usually have a huge responsibility in implementing safe electrical conduits to ensure safety and efficiency in designs of power substations. Conduits are the means in which power cables run from the ground to the electrical equipment and appliances. In addition, conduits provide protection of medium-voltage circuits in the power substation. Examples of circuits that need this protection are collector circuits entering the substation and distribution circuits leaving the substation to feed residential and commercial power needs.