AS/NZS 3000, or the Wiring Rules, has been around for a very long time and every electrician is familiar with the regulations within the pages. Dale West shares his interpretation.

I’m sure the following information is not what the authors of the rule book were discussing when planning how to put the book together. It is simply my interpretation of how to easily find your way around the rule book.

I began teaching this method about 15 years ago and I’ve had hundreds of electricians tell me how much easier it has made it for them to understand the book.

When we mention the rule book, we start sweating as PTSD kicks in, our hands shake and our eyes start to water. But believe it or not, it really is written in a very logical order. I know you don’t believe me but stick with me for a moment. All you need to know are the very basic steps involved in wiring up a building, and I know you already know it.

Don’t think of it as a huge book. I will show you how to think of it as just 50 pages.

It’s written to ensure electrical installations are carried out in a safe manner, but what kind of electrician is it predominantly written for? The domestic electrician: it’s the domestic electrician’s work that civilians come into close contact with. You don’t see too many civilians spending the day relaxing on a mine site or sunning themselves on an offshore platform.

The whole book and even down to the chapters, (I am not a fan of calling them sections because you can see people’s eyes glaze over when you say things like “section one dot three” etc.) are written with the most important and easiest and most common things first.

Being written for installation work, and predominantly for domestic, and having the most important things first, the standard itself will be the first thing you will find.

CHAPTER ONE is the standard definitions and fundamental principles. And then the easiest thing; what is the easiest building a domestic electrician would wire up?

A shed is a good example. It has just enough power and a light circuit. Everything for an electrical installation for a shed, you will find in the next few chapters. Every structure will have power and light, so this is where the mine site electrician will find the information for their “sheds” as well.

Let’s start with wiring up a shed. Where does everything start? What is the first thing you will determine? Where does everything run from? And then the switchboard; where will it go? What’s the clearance? The height? How many circuits? And so on.

CHAPTER TWO will tell you everything you will want to know about the switchboard and what is in it.  You do not need to look through the whole book; if you have gone past this section, you know you’ve gone too far. All you need to do is flick through about… 50 pages.

What is the next thing? What is our first job? No, not the Risk Assessment; but I like the way you think. Roughing it in; running the cables.

CHAPTER THREE will tell you everything you need to know about cables. Just… 50 pages.

Important things first, things like CSA, CCC, Vd, etc. and then into all the different ways to install cable, cable tray, conduit, underground, overhead and more. You don’t need to go through the whole book.

Okay, so now we are off to a great start. Now, we have run the cables, we leave the site and we come back another day, and what do we do then? Fit off; installing all the appliances.

CHAPTER FOUR will tell you everything you need to know about appliances. Again, just… 50 pages.

Most common things, like power points and light switches, you will find near the front of the chapter. Whereas the rarer things you will find in a domestic installation like motors and capacitor banks etc. you will find near the end of the chapter.

One exception, air conditioners are way at the back of the chapter, why? When the book first came out, no one had air conditioners. There is now one in every room, but they remain at the back of the chapter where they were first listed.

You will never be looking through any other chapter to look for anything like clearances for downlights etc. Just casually go through the few pages in that one chapter. You guessed it … 50 pages.

We have not finished the shed yet. If it is a shed on its own, there is something very important we need to make sure is connected.

The M.E.N.

CHAPTER FIVE will tell you everything you need to know about Earths. It may well send you to other chapters in the book, but you will begin your earthing quest in Chapter Five. Just… 50 pages

Shed’s done. But what other structure would a domestic electrician wire up that is more involved than a shed? A house. What do houses have that sheds generally don’t?

Bathrooms, laundry, fountain, pool; damp situations.

CHAPTER SIX will tell you everything you need to know about installing anything in wet areas. Again, no need to flick through the rest of the book, just… 50 pages.

Okay, the shed and the house are done; what other structures could an electrician wire up that is further away from the domestic field?

What about a boat, or a caravan, a mine site, hazardous area etc.

CHAPTER SEVEN will tell you some basic information and where you can find the standards for those unusual things that a domestic electrician would not generally get involved with; the ‘special’ things.

And that’s it.

Oh, hang on. The shed and house and boat and mine are done, but we cannot go home yet; what do we need to do?

TEST; I bet you already knew that one.

CHAPTER EIGHT, the last chapter, will show us the last thing we need to do before we can pack up and leave.

So that’s it. You don’t need tags in your book, you don’t need to flick through 500 pages, just… 50. You do not even need to rely on your phone; to do a word search you need to know the exact term of whatever it is you are looking for. And you should not take the first ‘answer’ to your question.

Take your time going through the 50 pages. Go down every ‘rabbit hole’, chase every note and exception; collect all possible answers, put them together and like a multiple-choice question, finally choose the ‘best’ answer.

Look at the Rule Book as just a collection of some very small books on some very specific and basic steps of wiring up a building.

The Standards will be first, then the switchboard, roughing it in, fitting it off, Earth it, if it’s a house, do the bathroom, then the mine site and finally, test the circuits.

The easy domestic stuff first, working its way to homes and industrial and specials.

It’s easy; practice it for 15 minutes and you will be an expert.