I bought this because I am an avid DIYer and wanted to run electricity to my shed but was unsure exactly how I wanted to do it. Not only did this book show me what I needed to know, but it gave me more ideas for the future.

I live in an older house and I have had this book for a while now. It gets referenced every time I need to do electrical work. Even if I feel comfortable with what I am doing I still reference the sections pertaining to what I am doing just to make sure I am doing it right. It is very thorough and it has helped me identify electrical mistakes in my house from the previous occupants, such as reversed polarity on outlets which I was changing over to GFCI. This book is an excellent addition to any homeowners library and very much worth the 17 bucks.

This book is in my opinion the perfect electrical guide even for the narrow minded electrical apprentice.

Henry A.

I found this book to be an easy read. I have no prior electrical experience, and this book was very useful in explaining a lot of things. I own a 90 year old house, and they actually covered some of the old wiring and components that you would find in an old house. I found this to be well illustrated and thoroughly outlined. If you are new to home wiring or just unsure how to perform electrical work, I feel this book will be a good start to guide you. If you just need to replace a receptacle, install outdoor lighting, or even setup home automation, this book will be a good tool to aid you in the right direction.

I bought this book because I was clueless about residential electrical wiring. Everything in this book is well illustrated in full color. Also, new electrical installs are covered, as well as upgrading/modifying existing wiring. This will be my "go to" book for electrical wiring for years to come.

I'm completely gutting and redoing the upstairs in my house built back in 1902. Using this book as a resource for planning new circuits to replace all the old knob-and-tube wiring. This book gives GREAT sample diagrams showing not only the circuit view, but a realistic "this is what it looks like in the real-world" views. Very helpful at figuring out and simplifying more complicated circuits (such as 3-way and 4-way light switch circuits, etc). Got this on a recommendation from a friend and it was WELL worth the money!

It Does go into some technical, but its understandable. Very basic book, I would recommend this for anyone doing home improvements.

I bought it for my son who was having a terrible time figuring out some old wiring in his house in order to add some fixtures to it. The book solved the problem for him.

great book well illustrated very detailed.Got mine from an Amazon merchant for $2.20 plus $3.99 shipping book is like new great deal.Bought mine from Little horse books.

Great book. A must have for any one who wants to know the basics on home wiring.

I highly recommend this book. It is loaded from beginning to end with extremely useful information. In particular, there are multible diagrams on wiring complicated circuits which is very impressive. This is a GREAT book.

The book starts off for beginners, covering everything from wire types and modules and then expands into more detailed info.

Great for the home do-it-yourself reader.

I was very pleased with this book. I am planning a home addition and I plan to rewire my house myself from scratch. All the information I need seems to be covered in the book.

Knowing very little on this subject this book is great and covers most jobs anyone would want to take on themselves at home and maybe in other places

This is a very basic book on electrical.The drawings showing electrical hookups are misleading because that's not how an electrician would wire.You don't go in and out of a receptacle with the hot and neutral on the receptacle itself; you pigtail. My fear is that some home owner will try and tackle these projects with no understanding of electrical theory
or on the job training
The difference between electrical and other trades is that if you make a mistake you could be dead or burn you're house down.

I consider myself mechanically inclined but have never touched anything to do with electricity before. Well I bought a house a few years ago and it's either learn how to do it, or pay double and hire someone.

Most books always leave me with only 75% confidence to do the job myself but there are always some important parts that are confusing. Not with this book, it is step-by-step with full color detailed photos.

I went to Home Depot and got circuit breakers, receptacles, switches, GFCI's, etc. and they are exactly the same thing that are in the photos.

So far I have completely wired a 250sf addition, outside lights, and run a full 50amp sub panel to my garage with a dedicated 240 volt circuit for my compressor and welder. All from this one book.

Highly recommended

Clear,consice descriptions of the electrical process as well as accompanying photos

Very informative, even if you have an understanding of home wiring. Covers many different topics, and situations.

this book has alot of basic information as well as scenarios. you might not use the exact situation they diagram out, but through them you will see most of the situations you will run into, and how to wire it.

This book os relatively comprehensive and explains how to wire various objects in detail. A worth while book to have for any homeowner.

This book has been very helpful in all aspects of home wiring. I learned things that I never knew before, even about basic wiring. It's a must have for do it yourselfers!!!

Great reference book. I had some basic electrical knowledge but minimal hands on skills. This book gave me the boost of knowledge and confidence I needed to do all the electrical on a room addition. Not only did I learn wiring basics but also general "good design practices" and became familiar with various wire gauges, types of romex and switch/fixture options to buy the right stuff the first time. Based on this I looked at circuit loads and determined based on general residential 15 amp breakers how many circuits were needed. I installed the breakers and ran the 3 new circuits from the breaker box. I wired and installed three way switches, two way switches, dimmers, canned lights, ceiling fans, standard wall outlets and a series of GFI protected outlets. It took me a bit longer to do the work than a professional but it was well worth it. Based on estimates from electricians I saved over $1000 on the labor.

Now.....this is my "go to" electrical book as a home owner. Using the quick reference pictures (which are excellent!!!)and some common sense I handle all my routine electrical work. I don't do 240V work but I do the 120V stuff and continue to learn. This is a great book!!!

This book has been very helpful in all aspects of home wiring. I learned things that I never knew before, even about basic wiring. It's a must have for do it yourselfers!!!

I am a novice do-it-yourselfer with some basic understanding and skills with home wiring. I thought the book was a great overall book on describing and depicting the various wiring scenarios you see in a home.

There's a good troubleshooting section that describes a lot of common problems and how to fix them.

One thing I wish it would have more info on is adding new outlets, lights, etc in a home with the walls finished. But still a great book.

I used this book to completely wire a new bathroom. I used flex conduit and solid copper wiring to add two 20 amp circuits from my main service panel. I've never installed new electrical work before, but this book allowed me to install four receptacles, a pair of recessed lights, a pair of wall sconces and a combination exhaust fan/heater with no problems. Everything worked the first time I tried it (with absolutely no assistance from anyone).

This book has lots of good information for all sorts of wiring situations in the home. Very complete.

This book is an excellent reference when you have to tackle electrical jobs around the house, yourself. Honestly, I still don't have great ambitions like wiring a brand new room in the house or anything. I bought this to simply be informed. However, after reading some of the well-explained fundamentals and going over some of the projects clearly explained in the book, I've gained enough confidence to venture into projects of my own.

At first, I thought that when I hire an electrician to do some minor changes around the house, I won't be confused or fall for double-speak that I don't follow - because I would have information from the book.

After the book de-mystified some tasks and explained some basics, I was able to open up some ceiling lamps and change them without getting killed or abandoning the project.

Then when my cooktop was malfunctioning, I was able to trace the problem and fix it. I could read the wiring diagram attached to the cooktop and figure out where the problem was. The book doesn't show you how. But once you know a few things, you can build on that knowledge.

A part of my house lost power. I tracked the problem down to a covered box that had wiring held together with electrical tape and some of the wires appeared to have oxidized because of the bad connection. I cleaned up and joined the right wires with connectors, and fixed the problem.

My next step is to add a few ceiling fans in my home. Then maybe a wireless switch so I won't have to walk to my door in pitch darkness. Wire my yard for low-voltage lighting. I feel very inspired, because I feel very informed. And the book definitely paid for itself.

great pictures, easy to follow instructions a must for the do it yourselfer!!!

It is an excellent book not only for handyman beginners but also for construction professionals to review electrical details.

I've purchased many books on these topics but this series is really well done. The illustrations are excellent and the overall layout makes it really easy for a first time do it yourselfer. I'm currently collecting all of the titles in the Black & Decker series and can't wait to begin using them in my home projects. Highly recommend for first timers. Good Luck!

Very pleased! This book is clear and invaluable for teaching you all about wiring - especially if you've never done it before!

if you've ever dreamed of turning on the stove for your speaker volume, the is for you. you can learn just how to fix/ mess up the whole house. if the neighbors come over, you can simply open the fridge in the basement to turn off the tv. how cool is that? it's also useful for fixing your home electronics. house builders and di-it-yourself husbands will find it useful .

but I have just shared what I would use this for. it also is useful for putting in a new light, doorbell, etc. etc

This book is filled with simple clear COLOR illustrations. It is a great reference for everything from wiring 3-way and 4-way switches to kitchen remodelling. I used this book to help wire a four bedroom home and it was perfect.

This originally was two separate books, Basic and Advanced Wiring, that B&D combined into one book. Extremely well written, with lots of photographs, this is an excellent book for a do it yourselfer with a project in mind, or for a home owner to keep on hand to have when the need arises. The book covers basic repairs and maintenance, with a not too complicated introduction to electricity, but quickly gets down to the basics, with chapters on Wall Switches, Receptacles, Light Fixtures, Doorbells & Thermostats. The second half covers how to do more complicated electrical tasks. The first half is repair and maintenance, the second half moves into renovation and remodeling, with chapters on project planning, tools & techniques, Wiring a Room Addition, Wiring a Remodeled Kitchen, Installing Outdoor Wiring, etc. From this book I learned how to install new breakers in the main fuse panel, a project I was terrified of trying. This really is a very good book for the non-professional. It was a good idea to combine the two books into one, a handy reference and guide

I started out knowing nothing about home wiring. I bought all of the books I could find, and this one was the best. I've used it many times for small and large projects in my house. I've repaired lamps and rewired a gut-renovated bathroom. Explanations for making circuti changes in your service panel are excellent.

This book is for the do-it-yourselfer. And what a fantastic job this book does of explaining house-hold wiring and much more. Great visuals and extraordinary explanations. Worth every cent.

I've decided to remodel my spare bedroom. It's one of those "furnished closet" type spaces that tends to collect junk at an alarming rate. While it's a lovely little room when it's empty, it disappears in the furniture that gets put into it. Even the sliding glass doors over the small balcony don`t give one an illusion of spaciousness. I had a roommate for a while who used that room, and she had to climb over her bed just to get to her bureau.

The plan is to put up lighted crown molding to add dimension and indirect lighting to the room and to remodel the ample closet space into a bureau cum mini-closet cum desk area.

To accomplish my goal, the project required some rewiring of the room, so I found three books that seemed to have the information I needed: Wiring 1-2-3 by the people at Home Depot, The Complete Guide to Home Wiring by the Black and Decker people, and Wiring a House by Rex Cauldwell. Each is an excellent book with much to offer, but I definitely found that each had a slant that made it specialized in some way.

Of the three books, only the Cauldwell book was written in a person-to-person format. The author is a third generation electrician with years of experience, and as he says quite charmingly, "I have written this book from lifelong experience and knowledge--some of which has been passed down through each generation. However, there is no one within my family to pass the gauntlet to--no fourth generation to pick up the trade. Therefore, by reading this book you will become heir to my knowledge and experience. You, in effect, will become the fourth generation (p. 1)." His style is very much master of the craft to learning apprentice, explaining all facets of his field from how electricity is produced, how it is measured, what types of wires carry it to and into your home, and what tools one needs to do electrical work. He not only provides the information, he tells the reader the "whys" of what is, which I find helpful because it permits one to problem solve and trouble shoot more effectively. Particularly useful are those things that he tells the reader to avoid and what can happen when they aren't! The drawings are very helpful, particularly as they are clearer than photographs can be. Sometimes less is more in this regard. The schematic of the main floor of a house (pp. 22-23) which detailed how wiring is arranged for each room was quite helpful for my project, since it described what I should (and did) find in the walls when locating my power source and routing new wiring. I also found that the information on materials to select was helpful. I was able to go to the store and pick out just what I needed without any trouble at all.

While the Cauldwell book is a good one to read from cover to cover because of it's clear and thorough discussion of electrical wiring and its many helpful hints (which I did), it really did not help with my specific plans. It does cover some types of project, but I found that The Black and Decker book was more useful for my specific wiring goals. It's definitely a "how to do it" book with information on trouble shooting current wiring for potential problems (pp. 122-143), on code requirements (pp. 145-146), on how to calculate electrical loads and when to upgrade. It also includes simple repairs for the home owner, everything from checking which fuse controls which part of the house, to replacing plugs and repairing fluorescent lights. It also provides some advanced projects, like rewiring a kitchen or installing outdoor wiring. Of particular interest to my husband, the computer guru in our household, was the information on the home network wiring systems.

For my own project, I found the circuit maps for 26 common wiring layouts of greatest help. With the aid of this feature and the Cauldwell book, I was able to draw on paper the likely arrangement of the present wiring in my spare bedroom, and plan in the pathway to and from the projected new outlets. The diagrams on pages 155-167 also gave me a clearer idea of which wires connected to which specific sites on the receptacles, and what the pathway of the current would be. I was thrilled when I turned on the wall switch in the room, and the lighted crown molding actually came on, first try!

Wiring 1-2-3 is another group-effort type book like the Black and Decker. It'd made a splendid gift for the new home owner or prospective buyer. It provides the most extensive information on inspecting the home for electrical problems and providing measures for repairing them. The table of contents highlights almost every conceivable project, and each project has a list of materials, a skill scale that projects the level of difficulty to expect, and the amount of time that would be required by the experienced, the handy and the novice. It also makes some suggestions regarding the selection of a professional electrician for difficult projects, and does not urge the novice to go beyond their comfort level.

Although I didn't use the Home Depot book for actual planning and wiring, I found it was especially helpful with the messy stuff, things like drilling holes through the attic to route wires, the nitty-gritty of fishing for wires, and repairing the damage to walls where holes had to be made to route wires. In general these books are useful all round books.

I'd give all three books a 5, each for its own area of usefulness. If you're a person who likes to have a multi-perspective approach to your projects, then I'd recommend all three. Certainly the Home Depot book would be a very nice house warming gift.

I used to install communications and radar gear worldwide, but was hesitant and unclear on home wiring due to significant differences in materials, tools and codes. This book, typical of the Black & Decker series, begins with the basics and gets into some advanced territory. It is clearly written, illustrated with hundreds of step-by-step photographs, and guides one through sometim4es tricky codes. circuitry and materials. It is logical, clear, methodical, and written with the safety in mind that this kind of work demands. I heartily recommend this book for homeowners and handypersons.

This is a good book for the beginner who doesn't have a lot of experience with electricity. It tries to cover the most common wiring jobs that a person might have to do around the
house. It is a entry level book with many color photographs
to help you understand what to do.

The Black & Decker series is generally very good and I think The Complete Guide To Home Wiring continues this tradition. This book contains useful information for wiring new and retrofit projects. The only reason this book is only rated 4 stars is because I was hoping for more information. For several projects I have been forced to turn to other sources for wiring information. There is not a lot of information about newer technology wiring for home automation or telecommunications. Overall an execellent source for general wiring information.

Maybe not all of you had to deal with this, but for someone who grew up in a country with different codes and who recently purchased his first home in the U.S., this book really helped me to apply my (limited) knowledge and experience to all kinds of electrical projects throughout the house. My biggest obstacle was being unfamiliar with U.S. code, labeling conventions (e.g., on cables) and the general language construction people use. All I had to do to tackle my projects was read the specific section of the book, thumb back tothe overview section to read about codes and labeling and bingo, I was in business. This is the only book I used for all my wiring projects throughout the house.

However, this book is light on home entertainment or home networking. I would not recommend to purchase this book just for that purpose. For all other projects, I would not want to be without it.

If you've never wired anything in your house, but are a hands-on person, this book is an outstanding way to get started. It treats the title subject well, starting with the basics--in fact, that's also one of its weaknesses. Those who have some wiring experience will have little use for the first one-third of the book.

This book makes excellent use of photographs and four-color diagrams throughout for illustrating principles, tools and materials. It's laid out in a logical manner and is organized so that it's easy to find what you're seeking.

This book's greatest value is its focus on clearly illustrated layout diagrams and techniques. It contains over 20 example circuits of various common types, including some subtle variations on themes such as three-way switched circuits that have not-so-subtle differences in implementation. It includes a clear and complete section on wiring a bedroom/office addition with a bathroom and closet, using various types of circuits, from the ground up.

The text is light on code-related issues, probably to avoid the need for frequent revisions to keep it current with the NEC's three-year publication cycle. This makes it more difficult to rely on information it presents as authoritative when it comes time to meet the electrical inspector.

I found this book a useful blend of text and graphics for learning the basics of house wiring. To take the next step, I strongly recommend Rex Cauldwell's "Wiring a House." It's far more substantive and NEC-compliance-oriented.

I found the book to be a very informative guide to understanding the residential electrical system. Very clear discriptions, and pictures guide you through the history of home wiring. Modern electrical systems are described as well as old. A very straight forward and simple guide to understanding one of our homes most misunderstood systems. A good choice for those wanting to understand home electricity better.