Hello,
I would like to ask some questions about electrical work required in
our home.
We live in Ottawa Canada. Single story home with an unfinished
basement. Older home, 40s or early 50s, and the basement is low
clearance aprox 6.5 feet and the basement ceiling is entirely open.

The electrical service is 60 amp. We would like to up grade it to 100
or 200 or something in between. Im pretty handy, but, I know next to
nothing about the electrical side of things. �.

1. Is Jan, - March a good time to get electrical work done in Canada? I
would guess that this is a down time for electricians?
2. I would like the panel to be in the basement rather then the garage
as it now is. Are there codes as to where the panel must go?
3. I figure I should be able to run the wires and such, but I need a
good primer on setting up circuits etc. Can anyone steer me towards a
good simple guide for the layman? There is just my wife and I, and a
very basic requirements in the house. I do have a table saw and band
saw in the basement work room that I know will require their own 20 amp
circuits. And we need more receptacles in the kitchen. So any advice or
guidance would be very appreciated.
4. Will electricians allow me to assist them? Anyone have experience
with this?

Thanks,
John

Go to Home Depot and buy a book titled "Electrical Code Simplified,
Residential Wiring, Ontario Book 1". It has a solid yellow cover, and is an
excellent guide to how to wire a house in Ontario according to the current
code. You may need some help from an electrician to get your service panel
installed in your preferred location and to arrange for the local Hydro to
change your service over. Be sure your wiring is inspected. I have never had
a problem with inspectors as long as you are honestly trying to meet or
exceed the code without attempting to do a cover up.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello,
I would like to ask some questions about electrical work required in
our home.
We live in Ottawa Canada. Single story home with an unfinished
basement. Older home, 40's or early 50's, and the basement is low
clearance aprox 6.5 feet and the basement ceiling is entirely open.

The electrical service is 60 amp. We would like to up grade it to 100
or 200 or something in between. I'm pretty handy, but, I know next to
nothing about the electrical side of things. ?.

1. Is Jan, - March a good time to get electrical work done in Canada? I
would guess that this is a down time for electricians?
2. I would like the panel to be in the basement rather then the garage
as it now is. Are there codes as to where the panel must go?
3. I figure I should be able to run the wires and such, but I need a
good primer on setting up circuits etc. Can anyone steer me towards a
good simple guide for the layman? There is just my wife and I, and a
very basic requirements in the house. I do have a table saw and band
saw in the basement work room that I know will require their own 20 amp
circuits. And we need more receptacles in the kitchen. So any advice or
guidance would be very appreciated.
4. Will electricians allow me to assist them? Anyone have experience
with this?

Thanks,
John

John,
I am getting ready to do the same thing to my house. Same situation 60
Am to 200Amp.
As a home owner in the US, I can pull my own permit to do elec work.
Upgrading a panel is a lot of work and you will be down on power for
some time if you dont know how to do it right. I am having an
electrican help me in the difficult parts and guiding me elsewhere My
shop will have a subpanel in the garage. And I am only moving my new
panel a few feet so I can maintain power except at the power drop where
the city hooks into the new mast. I can make my final connections in
the new panel having ALL the prep work being done at this time.

That being said I know a fair amount about elec work and am taking my
time, planning well and getting help. Good Luck

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello,
I would like to ask some questions about electrical work required in
our home.
We live in Ottawa Canada. Single story home with an unfinished
basement. Older home, 40's or early 50's, and the basement is low
clearance aprox 6.5 feet and the basement ceiling is entirely open.

The electrical service is 60 amp. We would like to up grade it to 100
or 200 or something in between. I'm pretty handy, but, I know next to
nothing about the electrical side of things. ?.

1. Is Jan, - March a good time to get electrical work done in Canada? I
would guess that this is a down time for electricians?
2. I would like the panel to be in the basement rather then the garage
as it now is. Are there codes as to where the panel must go?
3. I figure I should be able to run the wires and such, but I need a
good primer on setting up circuits etc. Can anyone steer me towards a
good simple guide for the layman? There is just my wife and I, and a
very basic requirements in the house. I do have a table saw and band
saw in the basement work room that I know will require their own 20 amp
circuits. And we need more receptacles in the kitchen. So any advice or
guidance would be very appreciated.
4. Will electricians allow me to assist them? Anyone have experience
with this?

Thanks,
John\


Start with your local authority and then the serving utilitiy. Both will
have regs that you will need to follow.
Your code people may require a wiring upgrade when you change the service or
not.

Sizes are 100 amp 150 amp and 200 amp. Not much difference in the 150 and
200 any more.

Once you know what is required and those costs then you can call some
contractors for pricing and suggestions.
When I did residential, I would allow the home owner to run circuits and
other labor. Saved me the time and hassles.

According to :

1. Is Jan, - March a good time to get electrical work done in Canada? I
would guess that this is a down time for electricians?

It often is, depends on the commercial trade in your area. If there's
a couple of major buildings going up at the time, _all_ of the electricians
are busy.

2. I would like the panel to be in the basement rather then the garage
as it now is. Are there codes as to where the panel must go?

Absolutely. The service entrance and main disconnect (which is _usually_
the main breaker in the panel) has to be within 5 feet of the front of the
house.

This part is definately something you want a professional to do. Mistakes
are very expensive.

3. I figure I should be able to run the wires and such, but I need a
good primer on setting up circuits etc. Can anyone steer me towards a
good simple guide for the layman? There is just my wife and I, and a
very basic requirements in the house. I do have a table saw and band
saw in the basement work room that I know will require their own 20 amp
circuits. And we need more receptacles in the kitchen. So any advice or
guidance would be very appreciated.

Get the book the other poster mentioned. PS Knight is the Canadian
electrical "bible". Doing a whole house is a surprising amount of work.
Start small, and get your work inspected.

4. Will electricians allow me to assist them? Anyone have experience
with this?

I've done a number of jobs where I was working alongside a professional
electrician. But... Once was when the electrician was a personal
friend of mine, once was when the electrician and I were friends of
the person having the work done, and once when the electrician was
donating his time (a church extension), and we helped out.

As you can see, somewhat special circumstances...

Except under specific circumstances, an electrician isn't going to want
you assisting directly in the wiring - especially if you have no prior
experience, because he doesn't have the time to teach you or redo the
bits you do wrong.

That said, electricians working alone often appreciate gofers. You can
learn a lot by simple watching if you're there to lift, get, pull and hold
etc. Ask the contractor ahead of time if that's permissible.

[The highest compliment I ever got was from an industrial electrician
who remarked "I'd forgotten how great it is to have a good apprentice"
;-). We shared hints/tricks, I lent him my Orange book, was an extra
set of hands while heat bending PVC conduit over a stove + hot air
gun, and held his belt while he was teetering on a ladder rebuilding a
service drop. (residential work, he was working outside his usual
materials and situations, and couldn't bring his workplace equipment
along anyway). He really appreciated not falling off the ladder ;-)]
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Thanks to all of the folks who replied. I've requested the Knight book
from the library and will buy it after iI look it over. And I will
contact the and Hydro Ottawa to ask them for advice and guidelines. I
would like to do as much of the "easy" stuff as possible more for the
experience then anything else, I do understand that the panel it too
too complicated for me as a rank beginner to that will be left to an
expert.

Thanks again,

John

According to :
Thanks to all of the folks who replied. I've requested the Knight book
from the library and will buy it after iI look it over. And I will
contact the and Hydro Ottawa to ask them for advice and guidelines. I
would like to do as much of the "easy" stuff as possible more for the
experience then anything else, I do understand that the panel it too
too complicated for me as a rank beginner to that will be left to an
expert.

The Knight book changes every couple years because the code changes,
so don't use a library copy unless you _know_ it's current. In
stores, they pull their obsolete ones when the code changes.

It's only about $12 at every hardware/big box store.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.