On Nov 12, 9:37 pm, "bent" wrote:
I forgot to add something about the outback light. The motion sensor has a
blinking red light (to indicate when it has the sensitity enough to pick
something out, or the range; to help aim it / set it up). Its blinking when
I move around now, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a battery, or any
need for a seperate power for just that, on just it. So I dunno. What to
think about it, or its connection, if any to the receptacle.

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----http://www.newsfeeds.comThe #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

Let's forget about the outdoor light until you get the socket put back
together.

What you have is a classic Canadian kitchen split duplex, right down
to the two fuses in a common carrier...except for the light. Canadian
code doesn't permit anything daisy-chained onto a split kitchen duplex
except another split kitchen duplex, with restrictions. So I don't see
any option to make this compliant with current code if you want the
light to work. However, that's no excuse not to make it safe!

To keep this outlet as a split, you'll need to make "pigtails" on the
white, the black and the ground, which means you connect the wires OF
EACH COLOUR together with each other plus a short (like 2-inch) piece
of wire (of the correct colour), and use the short pieces to connect
the outlet. The short white goes to the outlet's silver screw, the
short black goes to one of the gold screws, the short bare wire goes
to the green screw. The incoming red goes to the other gold screw, no
pigtail required.

Or, since you have only light loads on this outlet, you could wire it
as a non-split. Now you can't put the tab back and there's no way to
hook the two screws together after breaking the tab, because you're
not supposed to put more than one wire under each screw. So to use the
split outlet as a non-split, you'd could either (a) pigtail the red
wire onto TWO short red pieces, one for each gold screw, or (b) buy a
new outlet and wire the red to one of the outlet's gold screws, no
pigtail required. The incoming black would connect to the outgoing
black, no pigtail required. You still need pigtails on the white and
ground, as another poster mentions. You can probably use a smaller
marrette on the bare wires since they are a smaller gauge.

If your old box is small, you may need to choose the option that uses
the fewest pigtails, which I think is the one with the new non-split
outlet.

(Do not connect wires of different colours together. Do not connect
wires of different colours to the same side of a non-split outlet.
Connect only a white wire to the silver screw, and only the ground
wire to the green screw. Use only 15-amp fuses.)

If you wire the outlet split, one socket and the light will depend on
one fuse, the other socket will depend on the other fuse. Code
requires that in such cases the fuses be in the common carrier, so
that if you kill one side of the outlet, you kill them both at once.
(In a breaker panel they'd be on linked breakers.)

If you wire it non-split, both sockets in the outlet will depend on
one fuse, and the light will depend on the other. In this case the
fuses don't *have* to be in a common carrier, but you'd have to find a
normal two-fuse carrier for your old fuse box. Why bother? With a
radio on one and a light on the
other, you'll never blow either.

---

So at the very least, you need to hit a hardware store and get some
wire nuts ("Marrettes") and a short length of 14-gauge cable for the
pigtails (14/2 for white and black; 14/3 for white, black and red).
Get a box of assorted Marrettes and use the smallest ones that fit
each combination of wires. And if you get a new outlet, avoid the
cheap ones, get one labelled "spec grade" or "contractor grade". It'll
be a few dollars instead of 49 cents.

To see all this drawn out, get a copy of the yellow "Ontario Book 1"
by P.S.Knight. It's the only do-it-yourself electrical book worth
buying. I've only ever seen it at Home Depot.

Chip C
Toronto