I had a local CEDIA certified installer install and hook up one of my plasmas and didn't really pay much attention at the time to how he did it. Over the weekend we moved some furniture and I got a look at it and am wondering if this is OK (note that it is behind/in furniture so nothing shows).

Behind the TV he installed a plate that has a plug for the TV and a hole for the cables. The TV plugs into the new jack and the AV cables run through the hole. At the floor level, the AV cables come out a plate and plug into the various components. Also coming out of a hole in the plate is the romex that comes out, has s 3 prong adapter on it, and plugs into my UPS power supply. So, one end of the romex is in the UPS and the other end is attached to the back of the new jack plate behind the TV.

Is this ok or does the romex have to terminate in the wall and then I run something else from UPS to it?

How about a picture so we can see what is going on.

Ok, here are some photos:

Install 4 - behind the TV - tv plugs into the receptacle and cables run thru the hole.

Install 2 - close up of the exit plate. Romex coming out to electrical outlet and av cables to devices.

Install 3 - showing exit plate to outlet.

I'm not aware of the specific requirement that would judge the correctness of taking a run of romex and using it straight out of the wall. He should have snaked the romex to the outlet box inside the wall and hard wired it to the power inside the box.

Or he should have terminated the romex at the wall with a power inlet and then used a UL approved extension cord to connect it to the outlet see Powerbridge.com.

http://www.hometech.com/images/va-pb125a.jpg

You can get a power inlet for about $20 and fix what you've got there.

Technically your not supposed to have exposed romex in a finished room, although you can unplug and it would be a dead wire. A certified installer should have done a better job of setting this up, like Big said by either running power directly behind the tv or with a power bridge set up like show above.

Technically your not supposed to have exposed romex in a finished room, although you can unplug and it would be a dead wire. A certified installer should have done a better job of setting this up, like Big said by either running power directly behind the tv or with a power bridge set up like show above.

Does "technically" mean it is poor quality install or that it is a code violation?

Does "technically" mean it is poor quality install or that it is a code violation?

Technically means it's against code to have exposed romex in a finished area for an electrical connection. Not sure of the implication since you can unplug, if it was hard wired it would definitely be a no-no. To me it seems of poor quality as well.

At the very least he should have had the romex go into a junction box with a blank plate he could have then spliced the romex with armored cable and then secured the armored cable through the blank wall plate. Essentially accomploshing the same thing you have now but in a way that definately meets code and appears a lot neater.

-------------[_]============={=
Romex______Box________Armored cable with plug

This way exposed wiring is protected.

Code or not? I would not be happy with that.

Just ask yourself, How would a potential buyer view that exposed cable? Answer, poorly.

It's better to keep your house in sale ready condition rather accumulating a list of "well, I'll fix that before we put the house on the market"

You might Email that one picture to a building inspector in your county and get an opinion. If he says "no way" you should ask the Cedia guy to fix it on his dime.

Just ask yourself, How would a potential buyer view that exposed cable? Answer, poorly.

It's better to keep your house in sale ready condition rather accumulating a list of "well, I'll fix that before we put the house on the market"

You might Email that one picture to a building inspector in your county and get an opinion. If he says "no way" you should ask the Cedia guy to fix it on his dime.

Great points. I talked to the installer and though he assures me it is up to code, he is coming back to fix it the way it should have been!

Thanks to all.