Review by Atheen M. Wilson:

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.

Review by Stephen McHenry:

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

Review by :

We bought this hoping to get ideas for wiring our new house. With only this book we were able to wire our entire new house – from setting the power at the street – to wiring our well . Not only were we able to wire our entire house – it passed inspection on the first try with no corrections . A very valuable book for home owners and builders.

Review by :

This new (18th) edition of Practical Electrical Wiring is an excellent guide to basic (and also not-so-basic)residential, farm and commercial electrical wiring. It has been completely updated from the 17th edition, and reflects the latest changes in the 2002 National Electrical Code.The text covers an astonishing range of subjects, from the basics of volts and amperes to some very solid material on grounding, wiring methods, residential service, and conductor sizing.This book is quite different from the typical Sunset do-it-yourself guides that one picks up at Home Depot. It will not tell you how to rewire Aunt Sophie’s favorite lamp. It will tell you about residential branch circuits, overcurrent devices (fuses and circuit breakers), outlet and switch boxes, residential and nonresidential lighting, special appliance circuits, safety, wiring methods, electric motors, and a great deal more.It has an excellent section on how to modernize old work, including how to run wiring through ceilings, walls, and from floor-to-floor. And in case you’ve forgotten how, it also has a clear illustration of how to tie an Underwriter’s Knot (see page 355)!This really is an excellent book, obviously written by a person who has many years of practical experience and knows what he is talking about. It would serve well as a vocational school text and as a fine general reference book for the homeowner and for journeyman electrician.To round it out, it is well illustrated, has useful NEC ampacity and load tables in the appendices, and has a very comprehensive index.Recommended.

Review by Bud Doty:

This is an extremely good reference book. It’s small enough to carry and full of those little items that we need to refresh on regularly. I’m an electrical maintenance supervisor for an international company and everyone in my department has one. I also get them for our engineering staff.

Review by Brad (curelom@snowcrest.net):

You will find this reference in tool box or locker of any electrician worth his salt. It contains a wealth of information on everything from conduit bending to trigonometry all in a pocket-sized booklet you can keep with you. Professionals have been relying on this book since it was first published.

Review by Crucifest:

Henkel Duck tape is superior to other brands. Durability and adhesive backing will not disappoint.

Review by A. L. MCNEAL:

Only go with 3M electrical tape if you are doing any electrical work. This product says itself it is only good to -10 degrees Celcius. They state it in Celcius because most people in America don’t use Celcius or understand Celcius. -10 in Celcius is +14 in Fahrenheit. So if you live where it gets 14 degrees you could have a problem.