How to Wire an Outlet and Add an Electrical Outlet

Use this piece of cake method to install a new electrical outlet without a lot of wire pulling.

Fourth dimension

A full twenty-four hour period

Complication

Intermediate

Cost

Less than $twenty

Introduction

Eliminate those ugly and often dangerous extension cords. You can add a new outlet quickly and hands without tearing open a wall, if you already have an electrical outlet in the other side of the wall. No extra holes. No messy patching and repainting. The process nosotros testify here allowed us to center our TV against a wall in the family room that had no outlet. Since there was already an electrical outlet in the other side of that same wall (facing into an next chamber), we just added a new outlet in the family room, drawing ability from the sleeping accommodation outlet.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Electrical cable
  • Receptacle (outlet)
  • Remodeling box
  • Wire connectors

You'll Need to Notice a Power Source

This technique but works if you can use an electrical outlet equally a ability source that's opposite, or nearly opposite, the place where you want your new wall outlet. To determine how to wire an outlet and whether you can safely apply existing electrical outlets, follow the list below.

You lot Tin can Use Another Electrical Outlet When:

  1. If a switch or outlet is on a circuit that often blows its breaker or fuse. (Don't make matters worse by adding even so another outlet to the circuit.)
  2. Electrical codes restrict the number of lights or electric outlets that tin can be connected to ane circuit. Typically, y'all can have no more than viii lights or electrical outlets on a 15-amp circuit. To determine the amp rating of a circuit, simply await at the number on its breaker or fuse in your main electrical panel. Turn off the circuit and test low-cal switches and other outlets to make up one's mind exactly which lights or outlets are on a given excursion.
  3. Most electrical codes now require outlets in kitchens and bathrooms to be on separate 20-amp GFCI circuits. And so earlier using the method we testify hither for how to wire a wall outlet in a kitchen or bathroom, bank check with an electric inspector. If y'all add together an outlet to a kitchen or bathroom, it must be GFCI protected. Don't ability your new outlet from a kitchen or bathroom outlet.
  4. Codes also limit the number of wires that can enter an electric box or electrical receptacle, depending on the within volume of the box and the approximate of the wires. The outlet-addition methods we show here are based on the almost common wiring (fourteen-judge wire on a 15-amp circuit) and an 18-cu.-in. box (typical inside dimensions are nearly 2-in. x iii-1/4 in. x 3-in. deep). If the circuit is twenty-amp — which ways thicker, 12-judge wire — or if the existing box is smaller than 18 cu. in., you can't wire a new wall outlet as we testify here unless y'all supercede the existing box with a larger 1. Plastic box sizes are stamped on the inside at the back.

Always confirm the required box size with your local building inspector. In nearly regions, you demand an electrical allow for this work from your local building department. This helps ensure a condom job. These are the 8 most common national electrical lawmaking violations.

Watch this video to learn how to install an electrical box in whatsoever room in your dwelling:

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Work Safely

Before you tackle whatsoever role of this project, turn off the ability to the excursion at the main electrical console by switching off the breaker or removing the fuse.

Earlier touching whatever bare wires or terminals on a switch or outlet, use a voltage tester on all the wires to make sure the ability is off. If you have old, fabric-insulated wiring, telephone call an electrician to recommend rubber connections. With wiring an outlet like this, in that location'southward commonly no ground wire and information technology'south hard to tell the hot wire from the neutral, because both are coated with blackness insulation.

Project step-by-step (v)

Step 1

Shut Off the Electrical Outlet

  • Plough off the power at the main console.  Observe the correct breaker and plow information technology off.
  • Once you've determined the electrical outlet to apply every bit a power source and shut it off, apply an electronic stud finder to locate the studs on both sides.
  • You tin can put your new outlet anywhere between these 2 studs.
  • Unscrew the outlet and use a voltage tester to double-check that the ability is off.
  • With either lead touching a ground wire (bare copper), touch the other lead outset to the neutral terminals (silvery colored), then to the hot terminals (gilded colored).
  • If the light glows with either contact, the excursion is still alive.
  • Hold the face up of the new electrical box against the wall where you lot desire it to become, and trace around it with a pencil.
  • Cut out the hole with a drywall saw.
    • Pro tip: Be sure to buy a "remodeling" box that tin be secured to the drywall, not one that must be mounted on a stud.
  • Adjacent, using a screwdriver, unscrew the existing outlet on the other side of the wall outlet from its box and punch out one of the knock-outs at the back of the box.

Here's how to use electric testers.

Aluminum wiring requires special handling. If you take aluminum wiring, telephone call in a licensed pro who'south certified to piece of work with it. This wiring is dull gray, not the tedious orange that's characteristic of copper.

Shut off the electrical outlet

Step two

Feed New Cable into the Wall

  • Feed a length of new cable through one of the knock-out holes at the back of the existing box (punch out the pigsty with a screwdriver).
  • Feed through enough cable to accomplish the new box plus an extra pes.
  • Use 14-gauge wire for a 15-amp circuit.

Feed new cable into the wall

Pace 3

Rewire the Existing Electrical Outlet

  • Connect the wires of the new cablevision to the existing wires.
  • Strip nigh 10 inches of plastic sheathing from the new cable to betrayal the blackness, white and copper wires.
  • Run the new cable, with capsule, at to the lowest degree two inches up inside the box, and double over the excess wires to help hold the cablevision in place.
  • Strip 5/eight-in. of insulation off the ends and connect the wires from the new cable to the existing bundles — white to white, black to black, footing to ground.
  • Apply new wire connectors of adequate size for the four wires in each parcel.

Rewire the existing electrical outlet

Step 4

Fish the Cable to the New Location

  • Mark the opening for the new box and cutting it out with a drywall saw.
  • Fish for the new cable with a hook made from a wire glaze hanger.
  • Pull the cablevision through the opening cut in the wall.
  • Then strip about nine inches of sheathing off the finish of the cable. Insert the cablevision so the sheath extends near one inch into the box and mount the box in the wall.

Fish the cable to the new location

Step 5

Wire the New Electrical Outlet

  • Mountain the new box in the opening.
  • Connect the new wires to the new outlet: white (neutral) wire to a argent-colored final screw; black (hot) wire to a gold-colored terminal screw; bare wire to the green grounding screw.
  • Brand sure the cable sheath remains secured inside the box
  • Finally, call the electrical inspector to check your piece of work.

Wire the new electrical outlet

Originally Published: June 17, 2022