How to Wire a New Outlet

Series Summary

Unless you live in a home new enough to be wired for the information age, chances are you’re struggling to find enough electrical outlets to operate all of your appliances and devices. Stringing together a series of surge protectors isn’t exactly the safest method of getting power to remote areas of your house, and it definitely has its aesthetic drawbacks as well. While this procedure is a fairly simple one, there are a few safety precautions which should be observed any time you’re working with electricity.

In this series of free how-to videos, home improvement expert Amelia Tallman shows you step-by-step instructions on how to install a new power outlet in a wall of your home. She demonstrates how to strip the existing wires, drill holes and properly install a new box for a new outlet. She also shares tips for improving your home by installing insulation using a blower, which should help you save money on energy costs by maintain temperature. By following the advice and techniques shown in these free videos you can become a D.I.Y. expert too.

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Paige and on behalf of Expert Village, I am here today talking about ways to redecorate my office. Hi my name is Amelia and right now I am talking to you about how to install an extra outlet in the room where you need another outlet. We are utilizing the time to add a new outlet in a space where there is not enough outlets. Most walls or all walls have studs that run on generally every 16 inches so moving an outlet in a wall that is already put together horizontally is pretty difficult but moving one downward is a lot of times easier because you don’t have to worry about going through studs. We’ve already got all the holes poked in the wall so what we are going to do here is we’ve got this outlet up here. We want to add another one in this room so we are just going to drop it and put it at the base of the wall. So we got the outlet pulled out. Obviously, you want to always make sure your power is tuned off to where you are working and we put an outlet in here and we are going to add another outlet using a 150 volt interior wire. So the next step here is to strip this, expose the lead wires attached, the hot wire, the neutral and the ground wire to this secondary set of screws and run the wire through the wall. "