Making Your Wiring Work in Your New Kitchen

Kitchen wiring is something that is a mystery to most people.  Oftentimes, it is a VERY good idea to go ahead and get a professional to do your wiring for you, as this is an area where you can get hurt pretty badly.  It is dangerous.  That being said, if you know the basics of how to wire something together, and you can figure out one end of an electricity tester from the other, you can do your kitchen wiring, whether on a new install or a remodel.

What You Need

What you need is to first figure out your wiring diagram.  This will determine everything else you need to complete your kitchen.  When determining your wiring diagram, you really need to have figured out the cabinet design of your kitchen first.  This means knowing where everything else if going to go, including the refrigerator, oven, microwave, etc.  You might also want to plan the area of your counter where you are going to keep your appliances, as they will need power to run, obviously.  You also need to know where the sink will go, especially if you are going to install a garbage disposal.

Once you have all of this laid out, it’s time to begin making your diagram.  One thing that is a huge pain to most people is not having enough plugins in the kitchen for appliances.  Another is not having enough amperage (total power available) to run multiple items at one time.

The Amps Have It

Our suggestion is to get online and use a power calculator to see how much power you will need to run, say, a refrigerator, microwave, oven, stove, and blender at the same time.  Then add about four or five more amps to that, just to make sure.  It is VERY common for people to have multiple circuits in the kitchen, putting high draw appliances on different circuits so everything doesn’t blow.  The more circuits you can make (within reason) the better.  Lights should be on a different circuit than plugins, and both should be separate from the high draw appliances.  Usually, electric stoves and ovens are 220-volt appliances anyhow, and you will have to plan those accordingly.

A New Kitchen

For a new kitchen, it will be much easier.  You will be able to make sure all the wiring you need goes into the walls before anything else is done.  With a remodel, everything will be much more difficult.  For the new kitchen, try to make sure that you know where all the junction boxes will be and make sure you have an exact measurement of where they are at, so that if you need to put a cabinet over them (and you will) you can drill a hole in the back of the cabinet exactly where you need it to go.  Under-cabinet lighting is awesome, and you can use LED strips, which are easy to install and don’t take a lot of wiring.

Some Tips

One thing to remember.  Do NOT connect the circuit at the junction box until you have all the loose ends capped off.  Also, remember to check your circuits with a circuit tester (there are many YouTube videos on how-to for this, we recommend them highly). Always make sure your wires are twisted together well, and have wire caps to keep them together and safe.  If you feel any nervousness at all, or are unsure, please call a certified professional.  You can do part of the job, making your basic wiring diagram, and having a professional finish it off, or have them do the difficult part of hooking everything up to the junction box.  We here at RTA Cabinet Store always preach safety first!  We hope your

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