A HANDY LITTLE TOOL

Guide to Wiring Tools 101

Electricity can be very fickle. You need to be armed with the correct electrical tools before you start troubleshooting your electrical problem. There are lots of electrical tools out there to help you with your project. There are multimeters, presence testers, plugin testers, and more.

What are the essential ones that you will need? The most important tool is your presence finder. This will alert you if your circuit is hot or not. When I say hot, that is just an electricians term for on. All you have to do to use this tool is turn it on and put it next to the wire. If it beeps, then that means that the circuit is on. The next thing you might need is a plugin tester. I will go over what the different lights mean in a follow up video. You will need two types of screw drivers; a flat head and a Philips screwdriver. If you are working inside an electrical panel then you want to get insulated screwdrivers. The insulation will help protect you from getting shocked or causing a fault. If you start getting into the problem and it starts getting a little hairy you may have to bring out the big gun, the multimeter. Again, I will go over the functions of this in another video.

Lastly, you will need your wire strippers, a pair of dykes, and your linesman tool. You may not need wire strippers if you want to use your dykes or linesman to strip wires. Just make sure you don’t score the wire too deep if you use these because if you do you may break the wire when installing the wire nut. If you have all of these tools listed above then you should be able to tackle any electrical problem. If you still want the extra assurance you are doing everything correctly, head on over to www.thevirtualelectrician.com to schedule a virtual electrician.