ELECTRICAL OUTLET REPLACEMENT IN WEST KNOXVILLE TN
Are you having issues with an outlet in your home? Do you need help with ELECTRICAL OUTLET REPLACEMENT IN KNOXVILLE TN? Ok, you are in the right place.
If you do not have any experience with electrical outlets and do not have any tools to get the job done. Don't sweat it. I have experience on the job and can replace your ELECTRICAL OUTLET quickly, efficiently, and clean up after the job is complete!
***IMPORTANT*** ELECTRICITY IS DANGEROUS IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. AND CAN GET SERIOUSLY INJURED!
One of my friends who is a retired industrial electrician almost died on the job being hit with 480 volts!!! 😳
You don't want to waste your valuable free time on the weekend trying to tackle this project on your own. Instead, you want to enjoy time off with your family and friends and not think about yet another home repair project on the to-do list.
Please fill out my contact form here: >>>I WANT AN ESTIMATE!<<< If you want to learn some helpful tips and things to consider before buying an ELECTRICAL OUTLET online or in a store, continue reading below to learn more. I will talk about a standard 110/120V residential electrical outlet/receptacle and I'll talk about GFCI outlets too.
ELECTRICAL BASICS
To start let's talk about basic residential electricity. From the utility company, 220/240V is coming into your main electrical service panel. Then from there, it gets distributed to all the different circuits in your home. For example, your dryer uses 220/240V which all that means is it gets "two hot legs". While your standard outlets get half that which is 110/120V or "one hot leg". Your lighting circuits are usually on 110/120 as well.
If your outlet only has two holes and not three. This means you live in a really old house and the electricity has not been updated yet. The standard three-hole outlet has the ground on the bottom.
The ground is very important. It keeps us safe and from getting electrocuted.
This job requires shutting power off at the breakers in the panel.
People and Electricians will call the same thing different names. You will hear; Outlet, Receptacle, Plug, and more. Regardless of what someone calls it, it is the same thing everyone is referring to.
SOME COMMON ISSUES?
For example, let's say your outlet is not working properly. A list of things could be wrong. It could just be broken inside after years of use. The ground screw or other power or neutral screws could have loosened off over time. A power or neutral wire could be shorting or broken?
The power or neutral wires could've been switched during the last installation?
A GFCI could be tripped? More on GFCI outlets later. Or if you have multiple outlets not currently working. Maybe the circuit breaker in the panel tripped?
Maybe you have rats or rodents chewing wiring in your attic or crawlspace? It could be several things. Sometimes it's just as simple as resetting the GFCI outlet somewhere.
GFCI OUTLETS
This is a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. They made a fancy name for this device but all it does is act like a breaker at the outlet. And protects the circuit when an issue arises. For example when the power goes where it should not like a short circuit. GFIs trip all the time for whatever reason. And this again is to protect us from getting injured from live electricity flowing thru. Like in your bathroom if moisture gets inside.
GFIs are required in certain places in the home such as; bathrooms, kitchens, garages, outside outlets, laundry room and outside in general in the elements.
The basics of how a GFI works is from the electrical panel a wire is sent from there to the GFI. In the industry, this is called a "homerun". The homerun wire is the LINE coming into the circuit in this case the first device is the GFI outlet.
Whenever you look at a new GFI outlet in the back it has two sides on the back written as "LINE" and "LOAD". There should only be one electrical wiring going to the LINE side of the GFI outlet. Then on the LOAD side, this is everything DOWNSTREAM of the outlet. Downstream meaning all the devices hooked up after.
And this means the GFI is protecting ALL of the devices in the circuit downstream.
Typically in a bathroom there only needs to be the one GFI at the beginning of the circuit. Then all the rest of the outlets and even lights in the same circuit are protected from the GFI outlet.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF OUTLETS
So now you understand how a GFI outlet works. Let's talk about outside receptacles. Typically these are GFI outlets with a cover to protect them from the rain and elements. Two common types of covers are flat or bubble covers. Per NEC electrical codes, if the overhang or eave is less than 3 ft a bubble plastic cover is required. If more than 3ft a flat cover is fine. But when you are not sure always just replace it with a bubble cover to be on the safe side.
A Quad Outlet is two duplex outlets in the same electrical box. By the way, the duplex outlet is your standard outlet where you can plug in two cords. So a quad outlet means you have four spots to plug-in cords.
Another style outlet has a switch on the outlet in the same device. This is not as common but it is used in some situations.
Then we have the switch outlet. Which is different and all that means is you can control the outlet with a regular electrical wall switch. For example, back in the day, they used to not have light fixtures in the ceiling. But to code, you need some sort of illumination in the room. So people had lamps that plug into the wall and that could be turned on and off with the wall switch.
Nowadays all bedrooms and most rooms in a home have some sort of light fixture on the ceiling. In some cases, they still install switch outlets in the master bedroom. Because most people have two nightstands on each side of the bed. And can plug a regular wall lamp into the outlet and can be turned on and off at the wall switch.
What this means is that in the switch duplex outlet. One side of the outlet is "Hot" all the time, and the second side of it is switched on and off at the wall switch.
220/240V OUTLETS
The most common 240V outlets in your home are; the oven/range, dryer, a electric car charger, and others.
Now that you understand how a 110V circuit works. A 220 is two hot legs, or another way to think about it is two power lines going to the device/load.
In the old days, they didn't have grounding so it was only two hot legs and one neutral. But now to code, it has to have a ground. So the outlet will have four holes with the ground. Instead of the three holes back then.
I NEED HELP REPLACING MY OUTLET!
Great, text or call me at (865) 375-5273 and I will be happy to help. Don't stress yourself out trying to do this yourself. Instead, hire me a professional handyman that is an expert in ELECTRICAL OUTLET REPLACEMENT in KNOXVILLE TN. Please fill out the contact form here: >>>I WANT AN ESTIMATE!<<< and I will get you booked on my schedule!
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