for Cold Climate Housing and much more

Last Updated: , Created: Friday, December 7th, 2001

How not to lose wires inside the wall.

Kim changed her furnace thermostat, only to watch the wires all fall into the hollow wall as she unhooked the last one. What a job to get them back.

So she advises us to wrap the first loose wire around a pencil before unhooking the rest, that way they will stay on this side of the wall.

With thermostats, the wires, as well as the screw terminals are colour coded to a furnace standard. It is fairly simple to change thermostats because you attach the yellow wire to the Y screw, and so on.

If you are undoing wires, like for a ceiling fixture, and there may be a lot of confusing wires in the box, make a drawing of all the wires before undoing any of them. Then tape labels on them, simply 1, 2, 3 and put those numbers on your drawing. When you put the new ceiling fixture up, you don't have to worry about mixing up any wires and blowing fuses.


Keywords: Wire, Wiring, Thermostats, Tip, Techniques

Article 1569