We are in the wiring phase of our house and there is a wall that there is a high probability that at some point in the future we'd like to wall mount a TV on. With not knowing what TV that will be or when, we aren't sure where to locate the plug.
The wall is an interior wall on the first floor with living space above and concrete below. I will have conduit to that stud bay in the wall, so I could pull my own cable when the time comes, but ideally the electrical would already be there.
As I see it, I have three options:
- No electrical, pull cable through conduit and locate outlet at correct height when the time comes.
- Guess at the TV height and position the outlet there (5'?)
- Install a regular outlet near floor and use that as a junction to a new TV outlet above when mounting the TV.
I was hoping the electrician could just leave wire in the wall to get sheetrocked over with no box and leave it unconnected at the panel, but I'm not sure that's allowed. The wire would have to be stapled to the stud which would make it hard to use as well.
I'm leaning towards option 3 as the house construction and room location would make pulling a new wire a pain, even with the conduit.
Are there any better options for hiding future use electrical?
Best Answer
Leaving unconnected wire in the wall will not happen.
I think option 3 is the best: install an outlet in an appropriate stud bay at standard floor height. Then when you know where the TV will hang, you can just add another outlet above at the appropriate height, and wire it in to the outlet below.
Left-right placement doesn't matter too much, if that is a difficult decision now. Even if you get it wrong and you end up needing the outlet in a different stud bay, it's only a small drywall patch or two to work around that error.