Part three of a series on electricians explores the types of cabling present in a modern home.

Electricians and the Types of Wiring in a Modern Home

Your Residential Electrician in Chandler | (480) 926-1033

Times have changed since electricians just did wiring for some room addition you planned, or installed a ceiling fan.  As we covered in our previous articles, they can also transform your home into a smart home and wire your home network. What is important about these new jobs that electricians do is how different the wiring is, and why it’s best to hire them to do it yourself.

When an electrical contractor installs wiring into your home, it generally  fits into two main categories: electrical and communication.  Electrical wiring is designed solely to provide power to a particular outlet or electrical device.  Communications wire, on the other hand is a bit more complex.  All communications wire transmits impulses between electronic devices, but did you know that some types of communication wire also transmits electricity as well?

Communication Wiring and Electrical Current

It makes sense if you think about it.  If you have a micro-USB cord, you can plug it into your computer to charge your tablet or mobile phone, but electricity has been present in communication wire for a long time.  Before the rise of wireless, land lines plugged directly into a wall outlet received a bit of electricity from the jack as well.  Cordless phones saw this decline a bit, as did the rise of fiber optic cabling, but there are still a few cables that also carry power.

While the current that travels through communication wire or USB cords is extremely low current, the fact remains it is still electricity and can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.  If  you are uncertain of what you’re doing, don’t fake it.  Call an electrical contractor instead.

This concludes part three of our series.  For more articles about electricians and electrical projects, read part one and part two.

Dodge Electric
781 South Arizona Avenue
Chandler, AZ 85225
(480) 926-1033
http://www.dodgeelectric.com