How Do You Wire An Electrical Outlet

The only difference is that depending on where the receptacle is located in the wiring scheme of your house it may have more wires attached to it than you find attached to a light switch.

How do you wire an electrical outlet. Once you find a spot for your outlet drill through your walls so you can run the wires outside. Outdoor electrical outlets differ from indoor outlets because they have watertight covers that protect the outlet even with a cord plugged in. If you live in an older home and your outlets have no ground wire your panel may not be grounded. When you wire a single outlet to a live circuit cable you connect the black wire to one of the brass screws usually the top one but it doesn t matter and the white wire to one of the chrome screws.

Wiring from an existing power source like a light fixture makes sense in these cases you already know where to tap into the power and it makes it easy to add a switched outlet into your house. Plus the national electrical code requires all outdoor outlets to be gfci outlets ground fault circuit interrupter outlets. When remodeling an older home or adding an addition you may want to add extra electrical outlets. A standard electrical outlet has two brass terminal screws two chrome ones and a single ground terminal which is green.

In order to install an electrical outlet and circuit from scratch you need a roll of 14 2 or 12 2 romex cable depending on how much load you need from the outlet and either a new work box or an old work box. If you add an outlet to a kitchen or bath it must be gfci protected. You probably don t want to go to that expense just to ground a single outlet though and if not you have a workable option. Don t power your new outlet from a.

Luckily installing an outlet outdoors requires minimal wiring so you can easily do it in an afternoon. Line up the new exterior outlet with one that you already have inside so you can connect power between them. Installing a plug in receptacle for an electrical outlet can be a very easy job when it involves the simple replacement of an existing receptacle but it can be a bit more difficult if it involves running a new circuit from the main service panel or extending an existing circuit. If an outlet commonly called a receptacle no longer holds a plug snugly it should be replaced the procedure for replacing a duplex two outlet wall receptacle is similar to that of replacing a switch.

The following project shows how to connect the receptacle when the electrical box has already been installed and. Installing an outdoor outlet gives you easier access to power so that you can light your yard or use certain power tools.