Many people fail to understand the operational mechanism behind their domestic wiring system. They do not have the basic information concerning electrical installations. When there is an electrical fault within the homestead, they cannot figure out the possible causes without consulting electricians. Though it is recommended to seek help from electrical technicians when experiencing electrical hitches, it is also necessary to equip yourself with basic skills relating to installations. Calling an electrician to replace for you a faulty bulb is not a bad idea. However, such kind of replacements can be done at personal level without having to spend money on services of electrician. This is only possible when you understand how your home wiring system works. When you have a good grasp on your domestic wiring system, you are capable of carrying out fault diagnosis and do minor repair such as replacement of faulty lamps. Where technical hitches arise, services of competent electricians are necessary. Do not try to do major repairs that are beyond the scope of your knowledge and expertise.
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| Understanding your distribution board |
Let us delve into the wiring system of a two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, a spacious living room, a corridor leading to the kitchen, sanitation area and the bedrooms, and a balcony. Here, one-way switches are used. On entering the living room, there is a switch for turning on and off the lamp in there. On exiting the living room, there is a switch for turning on and off the same lamp. Along the corridor, precisely at the entrance, there is a switch for turning on and off the bulb erected there. At the exit of that corridor, there is another switch for controlling the same bulb. The balcony, the kitchen and the sanitation area, have a single switch each situated at the entrance for controlling their respective bulbs. The two bedrooms have two switches each, situated at the entrance and the other one at the bed position. You can switch on and off the bulb in the bedroom either at the entrance or at the comfort of your bed. The apartment has power sockets too in the kitchen, bedrooms and living room.
The living room, the corridor and the two bedrooms have lamps controlled with two switches at different positions. For instance, to switch on the lamp in the bedroom, either both switches need to be turned on or one switch needs to be on. If both switches are off, the lamp will not light. This is a perfect implementation of a logic circuit with an OR-gate having two inputs and a single output. The two inputs are the two one-way switches connected to the lamp which is the output in this case. The kitchen, the sanitation area and the balcony have lamps controlled by a single switch each, taking after a logic circuit with an OR-gate having a single input and a single output. The switch being used here is a single one-way switch. For the bulb in the kitchen to light, the switch at the entrance needs to be turned on. If the same switch is turned off, the bulb goes off. In logic circuits, the off states of the lamps are represented by binary digit 0 while the on states are represented by binary digit 1.
The truth table of a lamp controlled by two one-way switches namely A and B, for example the bedroom lamp, is shown below in figure a. When both switches are off, represented by binary digit 0 at inputs A and B of the OR-gate, the lamp is off. This is represented by binary digit 0 at the output of the OR-gate. The lamp can be turned on, represented by binary digit 1 at the output, in two situations: when both inputs are on or when either A or B is on.
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Input |
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A |
B |
Output |
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0 |
0 |
0 |
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1 |
0 |
1 |
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1 |
1 |
1 |
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0 |
1 |
1 |
Figure a.
The truth table of a lamp controlled by one one-way switch namely A is shown in figure b below. When the switch is off, represented by binary digit 0, the lamp is off. This is represented by binary digit 0 at the output of OR-gate. The lamp lights only when the switch is on, represented by binary digit 1 at the input of OR-gate.
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Input |
Output |
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A |
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1 |
1 |
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0 |
0 |
Figure b.
The power sockets are normally connected in ring circuit. Ring circuit is whereby the last socket is connected back to the power supply as opposed to radial circuits. In both radial and ring circuits, all sockets are interconnected: live terminal of one socket is connected to the live terminal of another socket, one neutral terminal to another neutral terminal and one earth terminal to another earth terminal. However, in radial circuit the last socket is not wired back to the power supply. Ring circuit is mostly used to prevent all the sockets from getting faulty when one of the sockets is damaged. Faultiness of one socket does not affect the remaining ones. The power circuits and the lamp circuits have circuit breakers at the distribution board to keep them safe from faults. Usually, the cooker socket has its own circuit originating from the distribution board due to its high power rating value.
Know your socket connection
In conclusion, I can say that knowing the basics of your domestic wiring systems will help you in carrying out simple maintenance such as replacement of worn out bulbs. Installations are normally based on the concept of logic gates. You can use even two-way switches to switch on and off lamps as best fits your residential building. This is just a single example of implementation of logic gates in wiring circuits to give you an overview of what wiring entails.
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