How to Read Wiring Diagrams

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm James with JNC Home Repair and today I'm going to show you how to read wiring diagrams. The first thing you want to know about reading a wiring diagram is you want to know the different symbols that are actually going to be on the diagram. There are different symbols for different things and a good diagram will always give you symbols, it will give you a page that has all the symbols listed and what they mean and it will tell you exactly what they are so when you are actually looking at the diagram you know, because a lot of times you will see a bunch of little squares and boxes and they are a little bit different but they may look the same but they are actually totally different things so it is always good to have a good diagram with the symbols on it so you can get a familiarity about what you are looking at and what each function is. Once you have determined what the symbols are and what each thing means then it is as simple as actually going back and looking at your diagram. There is going to be a wire color chart and it is going to give you a breakdown of the different color wires and it is going to give you an abbreviation of that color wire. You may think that black and blue, maybe it is bl, and you may think it is the same but it is not. The symbol for black is going to be blk and the symbol for blue is going to be blu so there is a little bit of a difference so you always want to make sure that you look at your wire color chart and determine what symbol or what abbreviation they have for the different color wires. Once you have determined that then it is just a matter of going in and looking at the different components and the different wires, where they run, if there is a ground, if it is coming from a hot source. It is going to tell you on the diagram, basically if the circuit is hot or if it is neutral or if it is hot in a run position. There is a lot of things to factor in when you are reading a wiring diagram but it basically allows what most read it yourselfers want to read a wiring diagram for is basically just to see what each individual wire, what it goes to and for testing components or testing switches or whatever else but basically that is how you read a wiring diagram. Just make sure that you know the symbols on the wiring diagram, know the component that you are trying to test or whatever wires are running from here to there and which ones are your grounds and which ones are your hot wires."