What is this plug for?

[Scott Flamm]

I just moved into a new (to me) house and it is wired for a home theater system. There is a wall plate for hooking a receiver up to the speakers but there is also a plug coming out of the wall. I assume it has something to do with the speaker set up but can't figure out exactly what for. So the question is - what is the plug for?

[John Coloccia]

I don't know, but I would suggest that before you touch it you make sure that it's not LIVE. Homeowners do very strange things in their houses sometimes.

[Stephen Cherry]

Don't know either; are there powered speakers that would go to a switced outlet in the reiever?

[Walter Plummer]

The other end should come out behind the tv or close to it.

[Lee Schierer]

The other end should come out behind the tv or close to it.

My thoughts exactly. It would allow teh TV to be powered up when the Amp/receiver is powered up.

[Dan Hintz]

The other end should come out behind the tv or close to it.

Either that, or it was an extension cord for a projector... any hookups on the ceiling?

Either way, that's against code.

[Jim O'Dell]

Looks like one of my pictures! :rolleyes: Can't tell if it's female, or male. If it is a male electrical cable, then I agree it is to power a TV or Projector and plugs into the receiver. If it is female, then I'm confused with why at this location.
Do you see another end anywhere? If you can find it, first test for power with a volt/ohm meter. If no power, then use some scrap wire, even speaker wire, with the ohm meter and check for continuity back to this plug. If you don't fine another end that would mate to this, then look for a wall receptacle in a location that a TV or Projector would have been that doesn't have power and test it for continuity with this. That will verify that it is the same cable or not. Remember, ALWAYS TEST EVERY OUTLET FOR POWER BEFORE TESTING FOR CONTINUITY!!! If you find the other end, you can always try use this line to pull Romex and terminate the ends with a single point wall element (I wouldn't use a duplex) and maybe get the red/orange plates and receptacles or paint two white plates to designate that these go together. Better yet, label them with a label gun, like the speaker plugs are, so there is no confusion in the future. Oh, and congrats on the new to you house! Jim.

[David Helm]

Definitely appears to be male. Looks like an appliance plug to me.

[Larry Whitlow]

This is a WAG on my part. Like others, I think it nothing more than an extension cord intended to go from the switched outlet on the back of a receiver to power up a subwoofer or set. You should see the other end somewhere. If not, then it really is a head-scratcher. I hope you will let us know as I am really curious now.

[Jim Becker]

I agree that that's the end of a typical "appliance" extension cord and the other end it likely somewhere up above that point where some piece of equipment...like a TV screen is located. While this isn't exactly code-legal, I assure you it's not uncommon!

[Steve Keathley]

Plug it in and see what happens. :D.

Just kidding. Do you know where the other end comes out?

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I have seen this done, and it was always a means to provide power to something else. Usually, this has gone the other direction with the power cord on the bottom near an outlet or power strip. In fact, I just saw something similar to this for a setup on the TV Show called "I want that".

I might refer to this as a power bridge. Look at this here:

http://www.powerbridgesolution.com/aboutpowerbridge.html

[Scott Flamm]

So, I had the cable company come to set up the Internet and the installers were confused about why the plug coming out of the wall was male and not female as well. As far as I can tell the cable doesn't have any current and there is no other end. There is another receptacle(?) though higher up on the wall where some HDMI cables come out for the TV. Maybe the female end of the power cord is supposed to come out there as well but got pulled back into the wall.

[Scott Flamm]

I got around to taking the wall plate off to see where the other end of the extension cord went, and ended up pulling it out of the wall. The extension cord ended up only being 3' long so I suspect that once I get the TV set up I plug it into the extension cord and feed them both back down through the wall and out the lower plate to plug in the TV.

[Jim Becker]

I was suspecting that the female end had fallen into the wall. Strange that it was only a 3'...that would mean that whomever put it there would have had the plug from the TV also in the wall. It's "bad" enough putting an extension cord down like that, but if it is at least long enough to get from point A to point B, the "bad" is a little "less bad". The TV plug should never be "in the wall" no matter what. If it becomes partially separate, it's a major fire hazard.

[Dan Hintz]

The TV plug should never be "in the wall" no matter what. If it becomes partially separate, it's a major fire hazard.
There should be no extension cable at all in the wall, TV connection within or not.

Granted, in this case, the gauge of the extension cable is probably twice what it needs to be for the breaker on the line, but the rules still hold. So it wouldn't catch fire due to insufficient gauge, but it could flex and break due to not being stapled. It's just a bad idea all around.

[Jason Roehl]

There should be no extension cable at all in the wall, TV connection within or not.

Granted, in this case, the gauge of the extension cable is probably twice what it needs to be for the breaker on the line, but the rules still hold. So it wouldn't catch fire due to insufficient gauge, but it could flex and break due to not being stapled. It's just a bad idea all around.

I doubt an extension cord (made to be flexed constantly) would do much flexing in the wall when a TV is plugged into it, particularly a wall-hung flatscreen that will probably stay put for years at a time. Probably the greatest danger would be someone hanging something on the other side of that wall, missing a stud, and screwing or nailing into that cord, but even that's a minimal (and unlikely) risk.

I agree with Jim, though--definitely use a longer cord so that the TV-extension cord connection is not inside the wall. Use a long enough cord so that the connection is behind the TV, and coil and zip-tie the excess TV cord behind the TV.

[Steve Meliza]

In remodeling work you can run NM inside a wall without staples just like that extension cord was and have it be compliant with code. No staples, nothing to protect it from nails from the other side, no nothing except terminating in boxes on both ends. Having an extension cord in your wall is little different than stretched across your floor except that it isn't up to code for a permanent installation. By code an extension cord is a temporary device and shouldn't pass through a door way. In my house I have an extension cord in permanent use for an alarm clock, an extension cord that goes under the garage door, and until recently had one that went through the doorway and into a closet.

I'm sure there was a better way to supply power than to run an extension cord in the wall, but let's not get all excited and make dire claims.