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I've got a feed from my electrical panel in the garage to a single outlet inside the house (for the entertainment center). This was installed by an electrician back in 2009. Through the garage, the wires run through conduit until it reaches a wall where it punches through and continues via romex under the house in the crawlspace. I've moved the entertainment center and want to branch that feed to serve both the existing outlet (now unused) and a new one near where the entertainment center now sits.

I'm wondering if I'm able to simply wire nut a 2nd length of romex onto the existing junction where the conduit meets up with the romex. This would result in a Y at that point, with one part of the Y going to the existing outlet, and the other part going to the new outlet.

I'm not sure if this is acceptable practice or if it would meet code. Most examples of wiring I've seen have the outlets run in a single string rather than branched. If it's not valid, is my only good option running a new line from the existing outlet to where the new one wants to be?

Tester101
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SredniV
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2 Answers2

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If there is a junction box where the cable in the conduit connects to the cable not in the conduit, then you can make your connection there. Otherwise, you'll want to run a cable from the existing receptacle to the new location.

If there is a junction not in a box at the end of the conduit, fire your electrician, and find a new one to do future work.

Tester101
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All junctions must take place in a junction box (as Tester101 pointed out). This junction box must be available to easily service, as in you need to be able to take a plate off and get to the box, or if in an attic or something, can have no plate at all.

As for actually making the connection, almost every outlet I have ever used has 2 sets of connections for the hot and neutral. If the outlet is at the "end of the line" or is the only outlet on the circuit (as you have said it is) then only 1 set of the hot and neutral will be used. Because of this you can connect you new wire to the currently open connection points instead of having to use a wire nut. This is what pretty much every electrician would do in a new installation and it will also save you some space in your box. And this is what I would prefer to do instead of making a Y at the junction of the conduit.

Your ground line will only have one place to connect to, so you will need to make a Y out of it in order to connect everything together. You probably don't even need to use a wire nut for the ground wire as long as you twist the two together tight enough.

If you can't feed a new line to where your outlet is, or would rather put it else where, then you can make a junction any where along the line as long as you follow the rules I stated above.

Kellenjb
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