How much wire goes into a new house?

[homebuilt burner]

The wife and I are thinking about building a new house. I am a pretty capable guy and do some electrical work. I have built my own garage including wiring, overseen by a master electrician. So, the question is how much wire goes into a 1500 sq.ft. ranch? I know there are hundreds of variables but I'll bet some of the full time electricians on here can guess pretty close. Just wondering for budgeting reasons.

 

[American Locomotive]

Ballpark around 2000 feet.

 

[larry_g]

I am not an electrician by trade but have done a lot of wiring. If you have a 30x50' house then the longest runs will be in the 100' range. Some longer some shorter. ~20 circuits will give you 2000'.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[homebuilt burner]

Thanks.

That's about what I was thinking as well.

 

[theoldwizard1]

1000' spools are cheaper than multiple 250' put ups.

You need 12/2 in the kitchen and bath.

 

[sberry]

I think the 2K is a good guess.

 

[TurnipTruck]

The rule of thumb I was told is one foot of wire per one square foot of house, but that was up here where the houses don't have air conditioning. Also important is the centrality of the breaker box.
Personally, I have a LOT of switches/circuits and four dozen lights on one floor, and my 4600-ft house has 1800' so far with only one floor left to wire.

 

[sberry]

If you want to go a bit overboard could add another 250 to the 12 and a roll of 14/3 for smokes and some extra light switching. When I do them everything for a common recept gets 12 and lights are 14. I get 1250 12/2 1000 14/2 and 250 14/3

 

[grantw]

In the long run, it's not much of a cost to have 12 awg romex installed everywhere. (minus the big stuff like the over / jacuzzi tub) For the home depot price of a 1000' reel, it's worth the extra few bucks for the yellow romex.

 

[sberry]

It doesn't hurt but I like 14 so much better for installation and connection to all the small fixture wires. So much easier to simply look at a panel see what goes to what and know that its not part of a general or know its not lights and figure the lower breakers cant hurt much with the fixtures either.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

It depends on who's wiring it and how they do it.
My way takes more material,but I run a seperate circuit/hr
For each room.
Makes it a lot easier to work on things down the road.

 

[sberry]

I tend to do that too, super good if one ever wants to lean on electric heaters for some reason.

 

[grantw]

It depends on who's wiring it and how they do it.
My way takes more material,but I run a seperate circuit/hr
For each room.
Makes it a lot easier to work on things down the road.

I'm having my electrician do exactly this. We're remodeling damn near the whole house, and had a sit-down. We're agreed on 12awg everywhere (no 14 with exception for the smoke/co alarms. Each room will have it's own 20A breaker for lights and general outlets. Master gets a dedicated light circuit and outlet circuit. living room gets 2 circuits, office gets a dedicated 20a for a laser printer... list goes on.

You'll be happy in the long run if you don't skip the little details.

 

[sberry]

You can do it any way you want, that is fine. I try not to mix the lights and recepts. Just a personal preference.

 

[American Locomotive]

You can do it any way you want, that is fine. I try not to mix the lights and recepts. Just a personal preference.

Agreed. I use 12 for outlets, and 14 for lights. The 14 gauge is so much easier to work with.

Plus, let's be honest. 12 gauge for lights is just a waste of wire, especially since with modern LED bulbs, a single 15 amp branch can carry enough current to light an entire house. It wouldn't surprise me if in the future they start allowing 16 gauge wire and 8-10 amp breakers.

 

[toyotadriver]

I ran all 12 ga in my new house. I used the following approximate amounts of wire:
3800 ft of 12/2
250 ft of 8/3
250 ft of 10/2 (outside outlet in the yard for possible future pool)
60 ft of 2/2/2/4 for a sub panel in the attached garage

 

[Richard Cranium]

When I built my home I was told one foot per square foot, plus the 220 wire.
I had like 10 feet left over so it was very close.

 

[Aceman]

It depends on who's wiring it and how they do it.
My way takes more material,but I run a seperate circuit/hr
For each room.
Makes it a lot easier to work on things down the road.

I do mostly ag/industrial. If I wired a home it would have way more circuits and material than the average home. Depending on how you look at it, that could be a good or bad thing!

 

[kaffine]

When I built my home I was told one foot per square foot, plus the 220 wire.
I had like 10 feet left over so it was very close.

Did you go and verify the size you your house? Maybe they shorted you 10 square feet of space?


My problem would be I would run way more circuits than I actually need. I prefer lights and outlets to be on different circuits. This way if I need to work on the outlets the lights in that room still work and if I need to work on the lights I can plug a light into an outlet so I can see.

 

[Richard Cranium]

no I built the house and no I didn't short my self on square footage. I added lights and outlets in my attic and my crawl space.

 

[padroo]

I was told by electricians to buy 1000 foot spools and I didn't listen and regretted it and bought 250 foot rolls in boxes. You can put a spool on a stand and grab the end and walk away with it. You try that with a box of wire, you get the picture, more aggrivation.

 

[Willy 1953]

The best answer to your question is all of it. We built a new small home in 2012, We used both 14 and 12, of course a little 10 and 8 I think what is a little over priced is those combination afci breakers. I have had to replace 4 of them already.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

I was told by electricians to buy 1000 foot spools and I didn't listen and regretted it and bought 250 foot rolls in boxes. You can put a spool on a stand and grab the end and walk away with it. You try that with a box of wire, you get the picture, more aggrivation.

Ive used the 1000' rolls before,they can keep those big heavy monsters!
I can roll out the 250' rolls as I need them pretty easily,after 3 hernias the little bit of cost savings on the wire doesn't mean much to me.

 

[homebuilt burner]

I was looking last night and decided on a 1000 ft roll of 12/2 and 14/2 to start. I agree on using 12/2 to most circuits that is what I have done in the past. I also, plan on using four outlet boxes in the whole house, it seems you never have enough outlets. I have a couple of the outlets with the USB chargers built-in at our current house, What are everyones' opinions on them??

 

[sberry]

I personally would add another duplex along the way and skip the 4 ways.

 

[prostreetamx]

Personally I wouldn't bother with the double duplex's at every location. I only did that behind the main tv center. You can always just add a power strip as needed and having double plugs might count toward your device count in your jurisdiction. When I wired my house I also put a separate circuit in each room and put 2 receptacles on each wall in the bedrooms except where closets or doors made it not needed. Also put extra plugs at the ends of walls where furniture will not block them for vacuum cleaners or other uses. I spaced my plugs in bedrooms apart enough so bed placement was also not an issue. Most homes only have a phone jack and a cable jack in each room. I put in double so you can move the bed around and not have the TV behind the bed and the phone on the opposite wall if you decide to rearrange the furniture. Cable and phone wire is cheaper than cutting holes later. One reason also to seperate bedroom circuits is that when a child acts up, you don't have to remove their electronic toys, just shut off the breaker. All my light are separate from the plug circuits so they still have light.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Personally I wouldn't bother with the double duplex's at every location. I only did that behind the main tv center. You can always just add a power strip as needed and having double plugs might count toward your device count in your jurisdiction. When I wired my house I also put a separate circuit in each room and put 2 receptacles on each wall in the bedrooms except where closets or doors made it not needed. Also put extra plugs at the ends of walls where furniture will not block them for vacuum cleaners or other uses. I spaced my plugs in bedrooms apart enough so bed placement was also not an issue. Most homes only have a phone jack and a cable jack in each room. I put in double so you can move the bed around and not have the TV behind the bed and the phone on the opposite wall if you decide to rearrange the furniture. Cable and phone wire is cheaper than cutting holes later. One reason also to seperate bedroom circuits is that when a child acts up, you don't have to remove their electronic toys, just shut off the breaker. All my light are separate from the plug circuits so they still have light.

 

[homebuilt burner]

Some good ideas. thanks gentlemen.

 

[anuccite]

I have a couple of the outlets with the USB chargers built-in at our current house, What are everyones' opinions on them??

I put these on both sides on the bed, and one in the kitchen...... Love em!

 

[grantw]

I have a couple of the outlets with the USB chargers built-in at our current house, What are everyones' opinions on them??

Call me old fashioned, but I want a clear delineation between low and high voltage. I don't fully trust the 5v line in a 120v circuit. I totally get the Idea, but am not convinced yet. But, Id start here if I ever gave in: http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/1000/e3/e32513ae-601e-461c-9272-e3a4a0bdd358_1000.jpg

At least there seems to be some physical separation between low and HV lines.

 

[mike93lx]

Call me old fashioned, but I want a clear delineation between low and high voltage. I don't fully trust the 5v line in a 120v circuit. I totally get the Idea, but am not convinced yet. But, Id start here if I ever gave in: http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/1000/e3/e32513ae-601e-461c-9272-e3a4a0bdd358_1000.jpg

At least there seems to be some physical separation between low and HV lines.

There isn't a separate line... It is just an ac to dc converter built into the outlet. Why would you trust and external one but not a built in?

For OP, most usb outlets aren't UL listed. I would confirm that you are picking the right ones when you buy them

 

[david71984]

1500 home would take the way we wire roughly 3000' of 12/2 and at least one roll of 12/3 and 12/4 for HVL in every bathroom. Kitchens darn near are 6-7 circuits alone so depending on the panel location thats a lot of home runs!

My 2800 sq ft home has about 5500' of wiring.... plenty of light, outlets, seperate circuits etc! Pays to have a dad and father in law electrician and me now...

 

[grantw]

...Kitchens darn near are 6-7 circuits alone so depending on the panel location thats a lot of home runs! ...

It was much cheaper to run a 100A sub over to a garage wall than it was to home run the Kitchen stuff back to the main.... Who wants to stub 10 extra 12/2 lines in to a 40 space panel anyway. hah

 

[ripperd]

There isn't a separate line... It is just an ac to dc converter built into the outlet. Why would you trust and external one but not a built in?

For OP, most usb outlets aren't UL listed. I would confirm that you are picking the right ones when you buy them

http://www.legrand.us/radiant/products/outlets/tm826usbwcc6.aspx

This is what I got at menards. Appears to be UL listed.

 

[nh_yota]

Stick with 1000' spools because whatever is left over you can sell on craigslist. Most NM has length markings on it so you can tell how much is left on the spool.

I have never wired a house from scratch but I have done a lot of rewiring of individual circuits over the years, and I tend to stick with 12g for outlets and 14g for lights. Up here in good old New England the homes tend to be old and window air conditioners are ubiquitous in the summer, so the 12g helps with the extra load. If it was a house with central HVAC I would be inclined to use 14g for everything except bathroom, kitchen and garage outlets.

 

[mike93lx]

http://www.legrand.us/radiant/products/outlets/tm826usbwcc6.aspx

This is what I got at menards. Appears to be UL listed.

I believe that i have the same one in my kitchen. It has worked fine for a few months now.

 

[86turbodsl]

I tend to do that too, super good if one ever wants to lean on electric heaters for some reason.

I do it too, it also works good for kid's rooms, if they misbehave, they can easily lose their electronics...

 

[sberry]

Kitchens darn near are 6-7 circuits alone so depending on the panel location thats a lot of home runs!

Yes, I just redid a kitchen that had a single 15 general that was shared with a bathroom with 5 or so new ones.

 

[75gmck25]

The other item I would add in a new house is to pre-wire and install a junction box for a backup generator. Some of the small installation kits are only for emergencies (a few circuits, not whole house backup) and they are not very expensive. They are similar to this one from Generac http://www.homedepot.com/p/Generac-...sfer-Switch-Kit-for-8-Circuits-6853/205942087

My understanding is that you install the generator circuit box next to your main panel and then wire your emergency power circuits so they pass through the generator box and then on to the main panel. In normal operation the generator box is just a pass through.

When you flip the switch to generator backup it disconnects those emergency circuits from the main panel and powers them from the generator box. The main power feed to the generator box is run to the outside of the house, where it connects to your portable (or fixed) generator.

Bruce

 

[grantw]

The other item I would add in a new house is to pre-wire and install a junction box for a backup generator...

If you're starting new, the cost to provision a generator input is so minor. I added a standby interlock kit and a 30A breaker to my main panel from day one. It's easy to provision it now, than to try to retrofit later.

I also got my inspection completed with the interlock in place.