Salar Saeedi

I used to think “electrical fires” were mostly about overloaded circuits. Then I opened up a couple of old receptacles during a remodel and noticed: slightly loose terminals, darkened insulation, and that faint “hot plastic”. That was my turning point. I decided to learn arc-fault protection (AFCI) properly, and upgrade the circuits I was touching so the safety matched the new finishes.

Quick safety notes before we start: working inside a panel can kill you. I did most of this as a DIYer, but I still pulled permits where required, followed lockout practices, and had a licensed electrician verify the final work and torque settings. If you’re not fully confident, hire it out. Your future self will thank you.

When I started upgrading my small workshop into a more serious electrical and fabrication space, I thought the hard part would be the physical work: mounting enclosures, routing conduit, pulling feeders, and labeling everything neatly.

I was wrong.

The hardest part was understanding what I was actually buying.

I kept using electrical panel, switchboard, and switchgear as if they meant the same thing. They do not. That confusion cost me time, one bad quote request, and a very embarrassing phone call with a distributor.

This is the story of how I fixed that mistake, built a practical selection process, and learned what to look for in US projects, especially when comparing UL 891 switchboards, panelboards, and low-voltage switchgear.

I am sharing my exprience because that is exactly how I learned it: through trial, errors, re-checks, and a lot of note-taking.

I used to think grounding was the “easy part” of a panel project.

You bolt a green-yellow wire somewhere, drive a rod into the soil, tighten everything, and move on to the fun part—breakers, contactors, busbars, and clean cable routing.

That mindset cost me two weekends, one nuisance-tripping nightmare, and a very humbling conversation with a licensed electrician.

This article is the real story of how I learned earthing (grounding) systems the hard way while upgrading a small workshop distribution setup for mixed loads: a bench drill, an inverter-based welder, LED lighting, a VFD-driven motor, and a couple of sensitive measurement instruments. I’ll walk through what I got wrong, what I fixed, and how I finally understood the difference between TT, TN, TN-S, TN-C, and IT concepts—plus what earth resistance actually means in practice.

If you’re an engineer, panel builder, or serious DIYer, this will save you time and probably a few mistakes.

Important note: This is a practical educational story, not a substitute for local electrical code compliance or a licensed inspection. Earthing/grounding work can be dangerous.

Choosing an electrical panel enclosure looks simple until the real workshop environment starts testing it. In my first DIY control panel build, I treated NEMA 12, IP55, IP54, and pollution degree as catalog labels instead of critical design decisions — and that mistake led to dust ingress, moisture concerns, poor sealing, and a complete rebuild. This article explains what I learned from building an electrical panel enclosure for a dusty industrial workshop, how NEMA and IP ratings actually affect enclosure selection, and why pollution degree matters more than most DIY builders realize.

I’ll be honest; this project looked simple in my head.

I wanted power in a small backyard workshop corner and a reliable wired connection for a smart controller/camera setup. In my mind, it was “just dig a trench, drop some conduit, pull wire, done.” In real life, it turned into one of those DIY jobs that teaches you respect—respect for planning, respect for code, and respect for how much time small mistakes can steal.

This is the real story of my conduit & wiring installation project: the wrong assumptions I made, the tools I wish I had from the start, and the moment I finally understood why underground work is less about speed and more about discipline.

I’m sharing it as a practical, first-person journey—not as a replacement for your local electrical code, permit process, or a licensed electrician for final connections. But if you’re planning an underground run, this should help you avoid the mistakes I made.

I started this project after one too many power outages turned my “I’ll deal with it later” attitude into a very practical problem.

The final straw was a winter outage that lasted almost 11 hours. My refrigerator was warming up, my boiler controls were down, the Wi-Fi was dead, and I was walking around with a flashlight trying to remember where I had put the extension cords. I had a small portable generator, but it was nowhere near enough for what I actually needed.

So, I decided to do it properly; plan a whole-house generator setup (or at least a smart version of one), understand the generator sizing, and learn the wiring details before spending money.

This was not a one-day success story. I made sizing mistakes, misunderstood service amperage, underestimated startup loads, and almost chose the wrong cable size. But by the end, I had a much clearer understanding of how to choose a generator for 100A, 125A, 150A, and 200A service, how to think about wire sizing for a 100A generator, and how to answer simple but important questions like:

“How much current is 700 watts on single-phase?”
“How do I know if my house is single-phase or three-phase?”
“How much copper is actually in a generator?”

I’ll walk you through the project in the same order I lived it—mistakes included.