TV Boxes and Other Specialty Products
Steve Maurer, IME
There’s no getting around it. A lot of people spent a lot more time in their homes the past few years. And while some of it was by choice, not all of it was.
I retired from electrical work and work my copywriting business totally from home now.
That was a choice.
But the pandemic forced many to do the same, although a lot of people are returning to the usual workplaces and offices.
Working from home has given me some new ideas about home layout. I love my office (a converted carport, now my writing lair and my wife’s sewing room). We put it together several years ago … about 15, to be exact.
But the rest of the house could use some upgrades. Particularly the living room. I’m thinking of replacing the couch with some theater chairs … if my better half will agree.
But then, there’s the issue with the television.
Home theaters and similar rooms have been around for a while. And how these areas are designed has been varied. We have a huge shuttered entertainment center with glass doors, pull out drawers, and all that jazz. (Am I a lone holdout for these monstrosities?)
We’ve toted it around with us, almost from our wedding day 44 years ago.
I love the old center. Has some fond memories attached.
But the size of the television is limited by the opening in the cabinet. Like I said, we got it over four decades ago. Our set looks the size of a postage stamp compared to what’s available now.
Today, it seems like the size of a television monitor is only limited by the wall space you have. Many of them, like my son’s TV, are mounted on the wall instead of the floor or in a cabinet.
He lives in an older home, kind of a fixer upper, although in good condition. But that means his electrical layout is pretty much out of date.
Actually, many homes are somewhat dated when it comes to entertainment systems and how they’re powered. Walk into many of them, and you’ll see extension cords snaking everywhere.
In the past, about the only way to get around this was to install a single or double gang box higher on the wall. An easy way to do that is using a wall-mounted raceway that ends in a bulky receptacle box. And that works, don’t get me wrong.
But it does look kind of odd, to be sure. My wife would say it’s not aesthetically pleasing, or something like that. And the upper box does stick out from the wall like a sore thumb.
So you could cut holes in the wall and snake the conductors up to a new, flush mounted box. That works pretty good, in my opinion. Clock receptacles were often used for that purpose.
But now there are boxes designed specifically for this type of installation.
One in particular that I’m looking at has two modular boxes. One is installed at the same height as the normally installed wall outlet. The second module is installed higher on the wall where it will be hidden behind the television.
The two are connected with a sheathed cable to stay within code for hidden conductors. The top box has an outlet to plug in the TV.
The bottom module has a junction box that connects the cable to a short, grounded extension cord. And that cord plugs into the wall outlet beside it. You can keep it as short as you want.
The cool part about that is you can unplug the television from below in the event of an electrical storm instead of fishing around behind the set for the plug. And on a huge TV, that can be a real pain.
The top box has the receptacle sitting at a right angle. This allows for a flush mount where even the plug doesn’t stick out. And the boxes are wide, with openings to fish HDMI cables, ethernet, and speaker cables up through the wall, hiding everything.
There are several configurations available, actually. And some are specifically designed for shallow walls, like those with narrow studs on cinder block walls.
While you might want to install these in your own domicile, it’s another option you can offer to your residential and commercial customers, too. The boxes come in both metal and nonmetallic versions, so you can use either sheathed cable for residential or flexible metallic conduit for commercial locations.
I retired from electrical work and work my copywriting business totally from home now.
That was a choice.
But the pandemic forced many to do the same, although a lot of people are returning to the usual workplaces and offices.
Working from home has given me some new ideas about home layout. I love my office (a converted carport, now my writing lair and my wife’s sewing room). We put it together several years ago … about 15, to be exact.
But the rest of the house could use some upgrades. Particularly the living room. I’m thinking of replacing the couch with some theater chairs … if my better half will agree.
But then, there’s the issue with the television.
Home theaters and similar rooms have been around for a while. And how these areas are designed has been varied. We have a huge shuttered entertainment center with glass doors, pull out drawers, and all that jazz. (Am I a lone holdout for these monstrosities?)
We’ve toted it around with us, almost from our wedding day 44 years ago.
I love the old center. Has some fond memories attached.
But the size of the television is limited by the opening in the cabinet. Like I said, we got it over four decades ago. Our set looks the size of a postage stamp compared to what’s available now.
Today, it seems like the size of a television monitor is only limited by the wall space you have. Many of them, like my son’s TV, are mounted on the wall instead of the floor or in a cabinet.
He lives in an older home, kind of a fixer upper, although in good condition. But that means his electrical layout is pretty much out of date.
Actually, many homes are somewhat dated when it comes to entertainment systems and how they’re powered. Walk into many of them, and you’ll see extension cords snaking everywhere.
In the past, about the only way to get around this was to install a single or double gang box higher on the wall. An easy way to do that is using a wall-mounted raceway that ends in a bulky receptacle box. And that works, don’t get me wrong.
But it does look kind of odd, to be sure. My wife would say it’s not aesthetically pleasing, or something like that. And the upper box does stick out from the wall like a sore thumb.
So you could cut holes in the wall and snake the conductors up to a new, flush mounted box. That works pretty good, in my opinion. Clock receptacles were often used for that purpose.
But now there are boxes designed specifically for this type of installation.
One in particular that I’m looking at has two modular boxes. One is installed at the same height as the normally installed wall outlet. The second module is installed higher on the wall where it will be hidden behind the television.
The two are connected with a sheathed cable to stay within code for hidden conductors. The top box has an outlet to plug in the TV.
The bottom module has a junction box that connects the cable to a short, grounded extension cord. And that cord plugs into the wall outlet beside it. You can keep it as short as you want.
The cool part about that is you can unplug the television from below in the event of an electrical storm instead of fishing around behind the set for the plug. And on a huge TV, that can be a real pain.
The top box has the receptacle sitting at a right angle. This allows for a flush mount where even the plug doesn’t stick out. And the boxes are wide, with openings to fish HDMI cables, ethernet, and speaker cables up through the wall, hiding everything.
There are several configurations available, actually. And some are specifically designed for shallow walls, like those with narrow studs on cinder block walls.
While you might want to install these in your own domicile, it’s another option you can offer to your residential and commercial customers, too. The boxes come in both metal and nonmetallic versions, so you can use either sheathed cable for residential or flexible metallic conduit for commercial locations.
Photo courtesy of Arlington Industries
