Wiring accessories and devices for a country house

On the one hand, wiring accessories for a country house are well-known sockets, switches, stationary lamps, frames, socket boxes and the like. But, on the other hand, a country house differs from a template city apartment in that it always has some individual features. Speaking differently, usually at the construction stage, the owner of a house decides what exactly should be in his own house from the electrotechnical benefits, and no one restrains him in this.

The riot of fantasy of the future homeowner is limited only by the size of his wallet. Therefore, in a country house you can often come across some kind of wiring exotic. In addition to the already familiar floor heating and recessed fixtures, a wide variety of sensors, buzzers, surveillance cameras, thermostats and even frequency converters and other complex electronic devices requiring autonomous installation are increasingly being installed.

Even ordinary plug sockets in a country house can have some unusual design. For example, due to the large area of ​​residential premises surface mounted sockets floors in a country house are almost always relevant. The same can be said about outlets with a high degree of protection - with curtains and covers.

Again, due to the large area of ​​premises in country houses there is always a large number of lighting groups. Hence the need for multi-key switches, as well as multi-seat installation frames for concealed wiring. This, by the way, is one of the reasons why covert wiring, despite the great complexity of installation, is often preferred. After all, it is impossible to combine many sockets and switches for open wiring into one unit.

A specificity of a country house is the fact that, living in it, you will not be able to call an electrician from the operating organization any day to eliminate breakages and malfunctions of the household electrical network. Actually, there is no operating organization as such either. Its functions are undertaken by the landlord himself. Accordingly, he is responsible for the serviceability of house engineering communications.

In such a situation, special attention must be paid the quality of wiring products. Relying on sockets, switches and fixtures of dubious origin should not be - the risk is too great. Indeed, in addition to the fact that a batch of low-quality products will be difficult and expensive to replace, one should not forget that a known electrical marriage creates a real fire hazard. And for a country house there is nothing more serious and terrible than a fire.

Manufacturing companies that you can definitely trust in the quality of their wiring accessories are Legrand, Schneider, Bticino, ABB. However, these are quite expensive brands. If necessary, savings can be purchased from Makel, Wessen, Lezard, DKS.

In any case, it is desirable that all wiring accessories in the house consisted in a line from one manufacturing company. This concerns, first of all, pairs of the type “socket-mounting frame (socket)” and “switch-mounting frame (socket)”. When combining products from different companies, problems may arise. And it is better to purchase sockets / switches with some margin, as, unfortunately, factory defects happen even with the most famous companies.

I would also like to note the need for compliance of wiring products with the network parameters and the current standards of the PUE.So, for example, the current rating of single-phase sockets should be 16 amperes - then you will have the opportunity to plug in any household electrical receptacle to any outlet. Outlets with a rating of ten, or even six amperes, can cause problems.

Circuit breakers manufactured by most companies have a current limit of ten amperes. This must be taken into account when arranging lighting circuits: the circuit breakers should not be overloaded in any case. The paired connectors for connecting stationary electrical receivers, such as an electric stove, air conditioning, or a ventilation installation, should also be selected based on the amount of current consumed. The most popular denominations are 16, 25 and 40 amperes.

Finally, we note that fixtures and wiring accessories containing metal structural elements must have standard terminals for connecting the yellow-green PE (ground) wire. And the sockets must match Schuko standard for inclusion in a three-wire line of the TNS system.

Alexander Molokov