Wiring wizardry

Friday, June 24:

I'm about three-fourths done with the wiring in the new room.  As I suspected, the hardest part is getting juice from the electrical panel at the front of the house – via the garage ceiling – to the floor of the new room.  The photo below shows the general scheme.


At top-right, where the wall joins the ceiling, the boxy coffer is a "chase" that holds many of the wires coming from the breaker panel.   I will pull a new wire through that chase, then turn left (where I have cut into the ceiling).

 

Existing wires in the "chase."



One branch of my new circuit goes directly up into the office, where I am adding two outlets. The main branch, however, goes toward the far wall.   I had to cut a channel through the drywall so that I could drill holes through each joist below the pink insulation.
  

In the top photo, notice that there are two wires.   The wire on the right is a CAT-6 ethernet cable that will go from the office to the family room, to be used for "DirecTV on Demand."   It will connect the router to the TV box, allowing downloads of video content.  For the past year, I've had this wire strung through the interior of the house to make the connection.  Now, I can finally route it properly through the ceiling and walls.

At far left, the electrical and ethernet wires emerge from the wall (garage is on the other side). I am routing almost all the wiring for the new Tea Room through these floor joists (which also form the dining-room ceiling).  At right, they go up into the wall of the tea room for electrical outlets.

The two existing blue boxes on the left face into the office for telephone and electrical. The outlet box on the right is part of my new circuit. One of the three wires is power – arriving via the dining room ceiling and garage ceiling (previous photos).  Another wire will carry power to the outlets under the Tea Room window.  The third wire will carry power to the switch box shown below.

I have nailed a metal plate onto the floor plate in front of the three wires to help protect them from an errant nail when I am finishing the room with drywall and baseboards.

Four wires will go into this Tea Room switchbox:

1. A wire carrying power from the outlet in the previous photo (above)
2. A wire, controlled by a switch, going to a ceiling light (where the chandelier used to dangle).
3. A power wire going to the ceiling for a carbon monoxide/smoke detector.
4. The yellow wire (a 12/3-with-ground cable), which will carry power to a "split" outlet (pictured below), which will allow a floor lamp to be controlled by a switch. 

The "split" outlet. The upper part of the duplex outlet will be normal power, but the lower half will be controlled by a wall switch (for a floor lamp or table lamp).  To feed an outlet such as this, you need an extra wire within the cable. In addition to the black (hot), white (neutral), and copper (ground), there is a red wire that will only be "hot" when the switch is turned on.