Choosing a cable for electrical wiring - 5 important nuances

Cable or wire?

The first thing you should understand - for wiring electricians in a living room, you must use an electric cable. There are several reasons why you cannot select a wire for electrical wiring:

1. It is allowed to lay electric wires either in a hidden way inside the walls, or when wiring in the floor. Moreover, the conductor must be placed in a corrugated or HDPE pipe.
2. The wires are less resistant to long-term heating, in addition, they can have a single insulation, and therefore their protective properties are not sufficient, and the probability of fire is several times higher.
3. Cables have better operational characteristics, including a service life (30 years compared to 10).

As you can see, there are quite good reasons (and this is far from all), because of which it is better to choose a cable rather than a wire for electrical wiring. That is why we will continue to talk about the rules for choosing cable products for wiring electricity in the house and apartment.

Criterias of choice

To choose the right cable for wiring, consider the following recommendations:

The conductor must be three-core (as in the photo below), because Today it is very important to do grounding in residential buildings. Even if you don’t have yet grounding, but it is planned to replace the wiring in the apartment, it is better to choose a three-wire conductor and just temporarily not use the yellow-green wire (insulate it).

Core material - required copper. Aluminum wiring is no longer used and is also prohibited by the rules of the PUE. ABOUT the pros and cons of aluminum wiring can read in our separate article.

It is very important to choose the right section cable for wiring. To do this, you need to know the total power of all electrical appliances or to perform a more accurate calculation of the cross section - according to the current load. Knowing the current strength, it is enough to use the table below and select the appropriate core size. Learn more about calculation of cable cross-section by power and current You can in our article. If we talk about standard sections, then use 1.5 mm.kv for lighting, and for the power line (outlet) you need to choose 2.5 mm.kv. To connect an electric stove and other household appliances, where there is a large consumption of electricity, the cross-section of the wiring should be at least 4 mm square. Values ​​are for copper conductor.

Also one of the most important criteria for choosing a cable for electrical wiring is its mark. Since there are quite a lot of different types of products on the cable products market, you need to study the characteristics of frequently used ones and choose the appropriate option for your own conditions. For home wiring, we recommend using VVG cable, VVGng or NYM (the last two conductors do not spread combustion, so they are best chosen for wiring in a wooden house and a dressing room in the bathhouse). VVG can be used for wiring electricians in an apartment, as well as in outbuildings, for example, in a garage. Directly in the steam room, baths are advised to use heat-resistant RKGM wire. On the street, from a pillar to a house, it’s better to stretch SIP wire.

Well, the last thing you should pay attention to when choosing - manufacturing plant cable products. Beware of fakes and unverified brands, because in this case, for reasons of economy, the plant can save on the cross-section of the conductors, the thickness of the insulation and the very quality of the insulation layer. As a result, this can lead to adverse consequences, for example, overheating and fire of the electrical wiring when connecting the load for which it should have been designed. ABOUT the best cable manufacturers in Russia we told in the corresponding article. Today, such plants as GC Sevcable, Moskabel CJSC, Rybinskkabel LLC, Kamkabel LLC and Electrocable OJSC Kolchuginsky Plant are the leaders. The products of these manufacturers are of the highest quality, so we recommend choosing materials from these factories.

Finally, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the opinions of experts on the videos provided:

So we talked about how to choose a cable for electrical wiring in an apartment and a private house. We hope the provided tips have helped you in choosing the right section, brand and type of conductor!

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