Home Outlet Wiring

Homeowners without experience with home wiring projects and repairs may want to have an electrician run cables to the new outlet location and complete any service panel connections if the outlet involves a new circuit or extension of an old circuit.

Home outlet wiring. This outlet is commonly used for a heavy load such as a large air conditioner. You can avoid both problems by wiring the outlet circuit with a 12 gauge wire which is optional if the controlling breaker and all the outlets are rated for 15 amps. Telephone company regulations may limit the total number of telephones that can be in use at one time. In the diagram below a 2 wire nm cable supplies line voltage from the electrical panel to the first receptacle outlet box.

A standard electrical outlet has two brass terminal screws two chrome ones and a single ground terminal which is green. With this wiring both the black and white wires are used to carry 120 volts each and the white wire is wrapped with electrical tape to label it hot. The outlet addition methods we show here are based on the most common wiring 14 gauge wire on a 15 amp circuit and an 18 cu in. Learn how to wire outlets test gfci circuits and troubleshoot dead outlets with tips to work safely.

This repeats until the end of the chain. 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. The black wire line and white neutral connect to the receptacle terminals and another 2 wire nm that travels to the next receptacle. The neutral wire from the circuit is shared by both sets.

Wiring a 20 amp 240 volt appliance receptacle. Box typical inside dimensions are about 2 in. This wiring is commonly used in a 20 amp kitchen circuit where two appliance feeds are needed such as for a refrigerator and a microwave in the same location. Telephone wiring is required between the telephone company s service entrance and locations throughout the home.

Add an electrical outlet use this easy method to install a new electrical outlet without a lot of wire pulling. Wiring diagram for dual outlets. The outlet should be wired to a dedicated 20 amp 240 volt circuit breaker in the service panel using 12 2 awg cable. Often a home will have telephone outlets in the kitchen study living room or bedrooms for convenience.