Removing Unknowns
We want to put on a Ring doorbell (among other things) on our house.Our present doorbell is a wireless one that I added on after we moved; our house predates electricity so we didn't have a doorbell circuit that drove an actual doorbell. We do have a switch right next to the front door that controls the light above the porch.Drilling into the front trim boards around the front door isn't something that I was looking forward to. It's one of the reasons we decided to call a professional electrician.Then we got the quote... nearly $3000. Of that around $700 for the front door.Looking downstairs under the porch (yaay for access to that!) I was able to see the run of wire that feeds the front light. Once I see the wire there, I can start to formulate a plan.I think I'm going to tackle this myself. Here's the steps I'm thinking of:
- Disconnect the wire from the front switch
- Attach a pull cord to the wiring (for later)
- Pull the wire down into the porch crawlspace
- This gives me enough margin to add an electrical box without trying to stretch things too much
- Pull new wire (using the pull cord) down to the crawlspace.
- Add a junction box to the crawlspace.
Once I have a good source of 120V I can go and attach the 120VAC -> 30VAC transformer for the Ring doorbell.From here I just need to drill an oblique hole into the stud-space near the front door light to be able to pull the doorbell wire.Done deal.It's all about knowing what I'm getting into.