A day as an electrician – wiring a house from a floor plan
Design & TechnologyCareers in TechnologyAges 17–18
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Sign in to playStudents take a work order and act as an electrician: they place ceiling lights, one-way switches, two two-way switches for the stair light, sockets and a cooker outlet on a floor plan, then choose the cable cross-section, breaker rating, 30 mA RCD and protective earth for four circuits (lighting, sockets, kitchen sockets, cooker). Test installation runs the checks one by one – work order complete, two-way stair switching, earth continuity, overload protection Ib ≤ In ≤ Iz, RCD test and voltage drop – while a live quote totals materials and labour hours. Power on lets them operate the switches, plug in loads and watch breakers trip, and the job ends with an electrician job-profile card.
Lesson: Careers in electrical engineering: the work of an installation electrician – reading plans, sizing cables and protective devices, testing and estimating
What it shows
An installation electrician turns a floor plan into a safe, working installation. Each final circuit is protected by a circuit breaker whose rating In must be at least the design current Ib, which is the load divided by the supply voltage (I = P/U), and no more than the current-carrying capacity Iz of the cable, which depends on its cross-section and on how it is installed. Socket circuits get extra protection from a 30 mA RCD, every circuit needs a continuous protective (earth) conductor, and long runs must keep the voltage drop small. The model uses typical IEC-style values and assumed loads; real wiring rules vary from country to country.
How to use
Pick a tool such as Ceiling light, One-way switch or Socket, then tap a dotted point on the plan to install it (tap again to remove it). In each circuit card choose the Cable size and Breaker In, and tick 30 mA RCD and Protective earth (PE). Press Test installation and fix every red line. Press Power on to switch lights and plug in loads, and open Job profile to read about the career. Change Wiring method or Starting situation to explore.
Parameters you can change
- Starting situation Empty house – wire it from scratch, A colleague's job – find and fix the faults
- Wiring method In conduit in a wall, Clipped directly to the wall, In conduit in a thermally insulated wall
- Cooker power 3–11 kW
- Labour rate 10–80 USD/hour
- Show hints (missing points, Iz, voltage drop, pass/fail borders)
Questions to explore
- Why must the breaker rating be no larger than the current-carrying capacity of the cable it protects?
- Which switches let you turn the stair light on and off from both the bottom and the top?
- How do the cable choice and the cost change when the cables run through thermal insulation?
