Install a new plug for convenience.
Arranging furniture in your home is sometimes limited because of inconvenient plug locations or not enough plugs to accommodate the items you need to plug into the wall. According to the Home Theater website, as of August 2009, 52 percent of homes own high-definition televisions with 69 percent of homes subscribing to high-definition service. Just the high-definition items alone could use every plug in the room, leaving you without a place to plug in lamps or other electronic devices. Wire house electric plugs to accommodate your electronics and give your room more flexibility. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Turn off the breaker to your power circuit. Tap the circuit at a previously installed plug to provide electrical power to your new electric plug.
2. Insert both prongs of a two prong electrical tester into the power supply plug. The tester does not light if you turned off the correct breaker.
3. Remove the screw holding the plug wall plate to uncover the electrical box from the power supply plug. Remove the screws from the top and the bottom of the plug to remove it from the electrical box.
4. Loosen the copper screw on the right side of the plug and remove the black wire from beneath it. Loosen the silver screw on the left side of the plug and remove the white wire from beneath it. Loosen the green ground screw and pull the bare copper wire from beneath it. Set the plug aside to reinstall later.
5. Trace the template on the wall board provided with your "old-work" outlet box. Use a keyhole saw to cut around the trace lines and remove the wall board, creating an opening for your new house electric plug.
6. Pull a piece of 12/2 nonmetallic (NM) electrical cable from the new electric plug location to the power supply plug location. Strip the sheath covering the electrical cable to expose the interior wires with a dual NM wire cutter/stripper at the power supply plug location. Strip 3/4-inch of insulation from the black and white exposed wires.
7. Reconnect the original black wire to a right side copper screw on the original power supply plug. Reconnect the original white wire to the left side silver screw and tighten the screws to hold the original wires to the plug.
8. Join the black wire from the new electrical cable to the remaining right side copper screw. Join the white wire from the cable to the remaining left side silver screw and tighten the screws holding the new wires.
9. Create a green ground pigtail wire. Cut a 6-inch piece of 12-gauge solid THHN green electrical wire and remove 3/4-inch of insulation from both ends. Twist a red wire connector onto the pigtail and the two bare copper wires inside the original power supply plug electrical box. Join the green pigtail to the green ground screw and tighten the screw to hold the wire. Replace the wall plate over the power supply plug.
10. Pierce the knockout at the back of the "old-work" outlet box with the new 12/2 NM electrical cable at the new plug location. Insert the "old-work" box into the opening you created in Step 5. Twist the screws clockwise on the "old-work" box to fasten the box the wall board.
11. Prepare the cable for the new house electric plug wiring. Remove the exterior sheath of insulation in the same manner as Step 6. Wrap the black wire around the plugs right side copper screw, wrap the white wire around the left side silver screw and wrap the bare copper wire around the green ground screw, tightening the screws to secure the wires.
12. Conceal the wires, "old-work" box and the new plug with an outlet wall plate. Turn the breaker on to the circuit to supply electricity to the new plug.
Tags: power supply, power supply plug, supply plug, wire from, black wire, copper screw, electrical cable
