Wiring and Lighting: Second Edition

The book tells you about the wiring and how you can wire things.

Brought this book for my husband who did an diploma in electrical contracting and installations in the 1990s and did all his own domestic electrical tasks to the IEE 16th Edition including inspection and testing. He has not done any major installation tasks for a number of years and wants to refresh his technical skills to 17th Edition and Part P Building Regulations. This book is ideal as it covers most domestic scenarios and basic calculations and testing procedures etc in a not to mathematically technical manner. Very well written and for someone like my husband who had the technical and other skills years ago but needed to refresh knowledge and understanding to comply with current regulations a brilliant book highly recommend. The only thing he said is he thinks the current part p regulations are a little OTT in some of the projects that require permission to proceed like installing an outside light. This is a basic job for a competent person to undertake in a safe manner to 17th edition regulations without the need or expense of paying the council and an electrician test and issue a certificate, this adds about another 400% in costs to the project. This comment in no way reflects the contents of the book which is brilliant and well worth purchasing

Good guide to basic wiring but did not mention wiring up LED cieling lights using wago push in connecters that have become so popular. All these connectors should be enclosed in a box and many I come across are not as in the picture and this was the work of a qualified electrician.

Great detail and facts

I bought this book because I work in lighting restoration and wanted practical information about wiring/installing different kinds of lighting and the possibilities in regard to domestic user interaction eg: intelligent technology, remote control etc. I don't think that's being overly hopeful as it is published in 2012 not 1975. Unfortunately the title is misleading as lighting is covered in just one chapter and in quite a basic way. It is Instead a very nice book about how to stand on a ladder safely, how to achieve a conductive tip to an insulated wire and how I can then rewire my plug sockets, wall switches, electric showers, emersion heaters, attach solar panels to my roof and so on. The pictures are great if you don't know your materials and very clearly written although a glossary would have been useful. But I can't deny I wasn't disappointed to find that the book didn't specialise in lighting at all. This book could just as easily be called 'wiring and plug sockets'. Putting lighting in the title is a miss-sell, it's just about standard domestic wiring in all it's forms and in that respect it's a very good book.

Covers all of the main topics with good diagrams and explanations

Contrary to one reviewer it does detail exactly how to make sure you are working on a switched off circuit and I would advise you follow the advice to the letter. Only disappointment is the slightly sketchy coverage of lighting circuits and exactly which wires need to be where. Some of the diagrams state that they have "omitted the earth wires for clarity" - that to me is very dangerous as to incorrectly connect them could be fatal! There are thankfully plenty of complete diagrams elsewhere online to make sure all connections are right. Good book for a beginner but I would recommend further reading before attempting any electrical work in the home. Also remember that it is a criminal offence to not notify Building Control/Reg's before commencing work if you are not part of a self certification scheme!

Quite useful info for your home electrics, things keep changing and I suppose the detail is reasonably up to date? Some of the diagrams could maybe give clearer detail. The book starts with detailed forms that could be maybe located elsewhere in the book, but for the most part it has quite a lot to tell and is probably a book to give you detail of the necessary information required to at least start to understand home electrics . Yet...With some of the many recent developments I must say using a professional electrician is still your best and safest bet.

Has good information. It is written by someone who is very familiar with the subject, but oriented somewhat to trainee electricians taking exams, rather than the DIY person. The kindle version was fine for the diagrams which are usually a problem on that format. It doesn't have a lot of info about lighting.OK book, but could not recommend it for DIY.