Not all of us are particularly good at electrical repair.

That’s not a secret. More often than not, we’ll play it safe and call someone to do it for us. Maybe it’s because some of us are lazy, but there’s also the ever-present risks of electrical injury.

There are about 30,000 people each year who suffer non-fatal electrical shocks from appliances and outlets. As for cases that were more fatal, about 400 people in the US die from something electrical each year.

With all that in mind, it’s easy to see why we shy away from it.

But a bit of practice and knowledge can make a massive difference.

You’ll have to repair an electrical outlet sooner or later. So it’s best to know how, right?

Here’s a little secret you might want to know.

It’s something most people don’t know either – and Leah of See Jane Drill is going to show you what that is.

The humble electrical outlet is in everyone’s home.

We shove our phone chargers, TVs, and refrigerators in there without a second thought.

It’s easy to see why most people don’t know the ins and outs of one.

Leah is about to show us just what’s inside an electrical outlet.

You can’t have electrical outlets without side-wiring or back-wiring them first. To do that, you need to strip a wire. Electrical outlets tend to have a handy little tool on the back, one that tells you how much length to strip off the corresponding wire.

So just pull out some wire strippers and get to work, right? What’s so secret about that?

Well, that’s not the whole story. Provided you don’t have any wire strippers handy, you can still strip that wire.

The outlet can actually provide the wire stripper for you!

There’s a little metal bit at the end of an outlet that looks vaguely like a bottle-opener. That’s the one you want. Those two pairs of holes and slots are precisely for stripping wires.

One side is for 14 gauge wires and the other is for 12 gauge ones.

Who would’ve known, huh?

I guess the answer would be “Not many of us.”

All you’ve got to do now, after measuring with the stripping gauge from before, is to slide the wire into the long, open slot. Give it a good slide back and forth, and it’ll slowly cut through the insulation layer of the wire.

With the insulation cut, take the wire and slot it into the appropriate hole.

With a firm grip and a bit of a push, the wire will get stripped clean off.

Now, you can side wire the outlet.

All it takes now is a bit of instruction and a screwdriver.

Knowledge is power. Now, we’re all a little bit smarter.

Watch the video below!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: NCBI, seejanedrill on YouTube