Like any equipment, household electrical wiring elements can fail during operation. This fully applies to electrical outlets. Sometimes it becomes necessary to quickly replace them when carrying out repairs in an apartment or a private house. This process does not cause any particular difficulties, but there are features, the knowledge of which is very important from the point of view of ensuring safety, as well as the reliability of the connected electrical equipment. Before performing such work, you need to carefully understand how to connect the outlet.
Socket Replacement
Let's consider in detail the question of how to properly connect the outlet.
When performing such work, you must adhere to the following sequence of actions:
- Turn off the power to electrical distribution board. As a rule, such shields incorporate several circuit breakers (or fuses) with which you can turn off certain groups of consumers. If it is known for sure which of the machines cuts off the required line, then you can only turn it off, otherwise it is better to completely de-energize the apartment using the general switch. To work with any elements of the electrical wiring, you need to use a tool with insulated handles, regardless of whether there is voltage in the network.
- Using an indicator screwdriver or a tester, you need to make sure that there is no voltage on the contacts.
- The outer cover of the outlet is removed, for this the bolt on its front part is unscrewed.
- The old socket is removed from the box. To do this, the bolts of the mounting feet are unscrewed.
- Wires are disconnected from the working part of the outlet. The main cause of malfunctions of most wiring elements lies in the presence of poor contact. Therefore, you need to carefully examine the wires, if they are oxidized or burnt, then their ends should be cleaned.
- Next, you need to connect the wires to the contacts of the new outlet.
- After that, its working part is inserted into the box, and, by opening the mounting tabs, it is securely fixed in the socket. In this case, the wires should be carefully bent, especially for parts of aluminum wiring, which was widely used in Soviet-era buildings.
- A decorative frame is installed (if any).
- The front part of the socket is installed.
- The power is turned on, after which the operability of the installed equipment is checked by connecting any electrical appliance to it.
Installing a new outlet
To connect an electrical outlet, you need to perform a number of preparatory work. Before connecting the outlet, you must make sure that you have the necessary knowledge of working with electrical wiring.First of all, you need to decide which consumers it is installed to power, whether a single, double socket will be mounted, or whether it makes sense to install their entire block. Next, you need to find out if there are ground wires in the building's electrical wiring, this can affect the choice of the type of outlet and, as a result, its price.
In the event that it is not planned to supply high-power consumers from a mounted point, and the need for it has arisen solely for reasons of convenience of connecting household electrical appliances, you can connect one or two sockets in parallel to the nearest box.
If there is a need to extend the wire, then it is preferable to solder it, and not just twist it at the junctions. In no case is it allowed to twist copper and aluminum conductors. To connect such current-carrying parts, it is best to use terminal clamps or a threaded connection.
Sockets are located, as a rule, at a height of 30 to 80 cm from the floor, the main condition is the convenience of connecting consumers.
It should be borne in mind that the installation of hidden electrical wiring provides for wall chasing under the wires. This process is associated with the appearance of a large amount of dust, so usually such work is carried out only during the construction of buildings or major repairs of premises. An alternative option is to use overhead sockets and switches, the wires from which are laid in special insulated boxes or corrugated tubes. Such wiring is often found in houses with wooden walls or can be carried out temporarily, until the next repair.
If the need arises installation of sockets in a room with high humidity (in a bathroom or a combined bathroom), then only special models protected from moisture should be used.
To connect powerful consumers (washing machine, boiler, several air conditioners, etc.), you must use a separate cable, which is output to the electrical panel and connected to the common input through its own circuit breaker of the appropriate power.
The presence of automatic protection devices when connecting any consumers is mandatory, since this ensures electrical safety. In the event of a short circuit or ground fault, for example, through the human body, the machine will instantly turn off the power to the entire circuit. This achieves not only the protection of people from electric shock, but also prevents the danger of melting and ignition of the wires during a phase-to-ground short circuit.
The general connection diagram of the socket is shown in the figure, for this a parallel connection is used, as an option, instead of individual elements of the block, a double or triple socket can be connected. Two wires are connected to each terminal, one of them is used to supply power, and the second is used to connect the next outlet. This method is sometimes called daisy chain connection. Its advantages are obvious: the ability of each electrical appliance to work regardless of whether the consumer is connected to the previous outlet, less load on the connecting contacts, and hence more stable and reliable operation of electrical equipment.
Features of connecting the socket block
Using a block of sockets is much more efficient than using tees, since the load in the block is distributed between several (from 2 to 5) points, which does not lead to excessive heating of the contacts and a reduction in their service life. Another good option is a block for two sockets, the installation of which is almost no different from installing a conventional outlet.
How to connect an outlet, which is a block of several points? The connection of each of the elements of the block is carried out by performing all the operations that have already been listed above. However, the installation of new outlets has its own characteristics. The most characteristic of them are:
- Box installation. There are several types of boxes (sockets) that are used to install sockets of various types. In addition, some differences in the design of these devices are due to the material of the wall on which they are intended. Some designs provide for fixing the working part of the socket in the box exclusively with the help of sliding mounting feet, modern models, as a rule, have an additional fastening of the metal support of the socket to the socket with screws. One way or another, it is necessary to remove about 10 cm of wire from the box, which will be needed to connect the working part.
- Wire stripping. Since a new wiring element is being installed, it is necessary to prepare the wires for connecting them to the contacts. To do this, they are released from the outer common layer of insulation, and the end of each core is carefully cleaned by about 1 cm.
- Wire connection. In order to ensure reliable contact, special clamps are used, the wire in which is fixed with a bolted connection. You can simply insert the stripped end into the groove, but it is better to make a small loop out of the wire by bending it clockwise around the bolt. So, the connection will not be broken during the twisting process and will provide the highest quality contact.
- When tightening the bolts of the mounting tabs, care must be taken to ensure that the socket being installed exactly matches the level with the neighboring ones. In addition, if the body of its working part is made of ceramic material, then there is a high risk of cracking if the fixing bolts are overtightened.
- To avoid incorrect connection, and as a result, a short circuit when voltage is applied, when working with electrical wiring, you must clearly adhere to the generally accepted color marking of wires. The phase wire must be painted white, brown or red. The insulation of the neutral wire is blue or black, and the ground wire is yellow with a green stripe.
Thus, connecting the socket is not particularly difficult and can be done by anyone armed with an indicator screwdriver and a wire stripper. However, the importance of this work should not be underestimated, since the safety of people, their housing, as well as the duration of the life of electrical appliances depends on the correct and reliable functioning of each element of electrical wiring.
