Male plug installed in wall

Question

Have a male plug installed into drywall about a foot above the baseboard level. Above that, at tv installation level, is a normal female outlet with a tv cable line. What would the male plug be used for?

Answer 1

You may notice that the normal socket behind the TV is dead.

That's because it is fed from this inlet.

I assume you also have a normal receptacle near the floor somewhere. Plug a surge suppressing power strip into that. Then, take an ordinary extension cord and plug the pointy end into the power strip and the other end into the inlet. Now, the socket behind the TV has power.

And it is surge protected. And it switches with the power strip!

Also, they make power strips that sense the TV being turned on, and only then will power up the other ports on the power strip. That prevents your cable box, XBox, Roku etc. from sitting there wasting power the rest of the time. This setup makes sure you are able to take advantage of things like that.

For those who need a picture:

Sourced from tvinstallationservice.ca.

Answer 2

The technical term for that plug is an "inlet"

I'm guessing that if you put power into the inlet it will come out at the outlet. In other words someone installed the pair to hide the power cable to the TV.

If the outlet already works (with not power into the inlet) the inlet has probably been disconnected.

Answer 3

In the old days, pre-internet and Bluetooth, people who were into stereo systems, might plug their TV sets into something called an Amplifier or Pre-Amplifier so they could turn their TVs on and off whenever the Amplifier/Pre-Amplifier was turned off/on. That stereo equipment would be connected to speakers so one could listen to the TV’s sound.

My son-in-law and my daughter were confused when they bought their first home recently because the wall outlet that was above the fireplace, where a flat screen would be installed and connected, had no juice. They subsequently looked in a book cabinet that was located adjacent to the TV, where the previous owner had all of his stereo equipment set up, and in that area, they found an electrical cord with a male plug that they subsequently discovered ran back to that TV wall outlet.

Because the house seller took all of his stereo equipment when he moved out, my daughter/son-in-law had to connect an extension cord to that male plug that was connected to the TV’s wall outlet and then connect the extension cord to a regular wall outlet in the same bookcase to provide power to the TV wall outlet. They had no idea why this was set up this way because they didn’t grow up with having stereo equipment as I did.