Adding an outlet.

[HighTolerance]

I haven't worked with electricity before, but I really didn't wanna ask anyone to add an electric outlet in my attic.

Anyhow I found an outlet on the ceiling of the garage, under the attic floor. So in the attic i took off the silver lined plywood to check it out, I am adding a picture of the back of the outlet.

Now if I want to add an outlet in the attic which wire do I tap into, the white one or the one which is covered with gray material going into the outlet.

I am thinking that the wire in gray is the main line and the white wire is taped in for another light in the garage.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[scrapiron]

Looks like the white wire is an add-on from somewhere over the years. It is not properly connected to the junction box.
Anyway, looks like your best bet is right there where the yellow wire nuts are. Turn off the breaker/power, and remove the yellow wire nuts. When installing the new receptacle, connect the black (hot) wire to the brass terminal screw, the white (neutral) wire to the silver screw, and the bare (ground) wire to the green ground screw. Then mount it, and put the cover plate on.
Good Luck

 

[HighTolerance]

Looks like the white wire is an add-on from somewhere over the years. It is not properly connected to the junction box.
Anyway, looks like your best bet is right there where the yellow wire nuts are. Turn off the breaker/power, and remove the yellow wire nuts. When installing the new receptacle, connect the black (hot) wire to the brass terminal screw, the white (neutral) wire to the silver screw, and the bare (ground) wire to the green ground screw. Then mount it, and put the cover plate on.
Good Luck

Thanks for your input mate. The only thing that comes to my mind is that in might be better to tap into the main line (the one in the gray cover) but i suppose it won't really make any difference. Does the white wire look like its 14 gauge, since i believe that's required for 15 amps.

 

[lollipopman]

white is 14 gauge and it hold 15 amps....

 

[HighTolerance]

white is 14 gauge and it hold 15 amps....

Thank for conforming mate, I will be running a 1000 from that outlet eventually.

 

[GroHi]

I'm pretty cautious of electricity, though have always run my own lines/junction boxes/splices... get one of those little current testers as will make you feel more comfortable knowing the line is actually dead before you put your fingers to it!

Is that junction box tied to anything on the underside of the drywall... like an outlet or tied to an appliance/fixture that can't be seen? Reason I say this is that I tie one 15amp circuit for each 1k ballast... nothing else tied to it. You can run a higher load, but I've seen enough shoddy electrical work w/in houses to not trust that things are up to code... they might have used leftover wiring of the wrong gauge or something else that might short...?

If nothing else is tied to junction box... just tap into the yellow screw caps, as suggested before. Perhaps that line/box is even tied into a switch somewhere... then you can just kill the power there w/o going to the circuit breaker. You might have to play w the breakers to isolate the line... current place has 4 breakers just labeled "lights"... had to back trace each one to fixtures/receptacles...

Not so bad... pretty easy. Line test it before hand. Think of it this way, if all goes horribly wrong, you likely won't be worrying on it the next day! ;-))

 

[convex]

If you are going to work on that circuit do it right - its current condition is DANGEROUS and below code.

1. Turn off power to circuit.
2. Introduce a junction/switch box:
- Disconnect yellow marettes and push both the paper wrapped lumex line through a clamp hole, then do the same for the white wrapped romex line.
- Take both grounds (bare copper) and take another piece of bare copper and twist together with marrette. Attach the remaining tag end to ground screw of switch box.
- attach both white to silver terminals on plug and blacks to the gold.
- fasten to box and add cover plate.

You also need to introduce a connector to the steel covered BX line to ensure safety.

Cheers

 

[organicozarks]

You need to kill the power to that circuit, and then I would take the splice out, then run the ends into a juntion box, and then tap into that and take it where ever you want it with a recepticle on the end.

 

[constantout]

If you are going to work on that circuit do it right - its current condition is DANGEROUS and below code.

1. Turn off power to circuit.
2. Introduce a junction/switch box:
- Disconnect yellow marettes and push both the paper wrapped lumex line through a clamp hole, then do the same for the white wrapped romex line.
- Take both grounds (bare copper) and take another piece of bare copper and twist together with marrette. Attach the remaining tag end to ground screw of switch box.
- attach both white to silver terminals on plug and blacks to the gold.
- fasten to box and add cover plate.

You also need to introduce a connector to the steel covered BX line to ensure safety.

Cheers

Right on!
you may already know this but... in the Romex, the white wire is supposed to be the neutral, and the black one is supposed to cary the live load.
You may want to locate your new plug and then pull a cable over to the location of the yellow nuts.
I would put a metal box in this proximity[where u can safely terminate the connexions(yellow wire nuts) in the box] and pull all the wires into it.

When you have all the wires in the new box, match up the colors and make sure to twist the cables on themselves before securing them with wire nuts.

Take ur time and make sure you are comfortable with everything and have the fused turned off and a flashlight before u begin... Also if u can help it, try to do any wiring during the day!