On Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:37:49 -0700, One Who Waits
wrote:

In article
,
Ablang wrote:

Outlet Replacement

Singer Rosemary Clooney was born on this day. She was famous for
singing about an old house that was aging. As homes get older, things
go bad and need replacing. Electrical outlets are a good example. Over
time, receptacles wear and loosen, and can become unstable. Poor
contacts can short out and even start a fire. But they're easy to
remove and replace. Step 1: always turn off the power. Then remove the
cover and unscrew the receptacle. Pull it out of the box and inspect
the wires. Hot will be black (or red) and negative will be white.
There can be one or two of each. The ground will be green or bare
copper. Remove all and reattach to the new receptacle, with black
going to the brass screw, white to silver and the ground to the green
screw. Then replace the receptacle and cover plate, plug in your radio
and enjoy Rosemary Clooney. And that's the On The House tip for today.

http://www.onthehouse.com/tips/20090523

and watch out for aluminum wire. yes, there was a time AL was used to
"Save" money. a real fire concern.

At least for later installations, with proper fittings, as long as it
was installed by someone competent AL wiring is fine.

rip it out.

You're talking about a *lot* of grief and money.