"xrongor" writes:

the electrician told me to run the copper wire to the neutral prong instead
of the white wire. his reasoning was that a loose copper wire in the box
could accidentally touch one of the lugs that was hot, but you could just

Assuming a metal box, you must mechanically bond the grounding conductor
(the bare copper conductor) to the box itself. The grounded conductor
(the white or gray conductor) must _not_ be bonded to either the box or
the ground_ing_ conductor.

wire nut the neutral and it wont touch anything. this way i dont have to
trim off the copper ground wire and if i ever need to i can switch to a 4
prong outlet instead of a 3 prong one.

For a plastic box, you can either trim the grounding conductor if you are
sure that the recepticle you have doesn't need it, or tape it or leave it
alone (unconnected). Were it to contact a current carrying conductor,
the circuit breaker will trip, so taping it will prevent vibration from
causing any future problems.

I personally would not connect the grounded conductor and grounding conductor
together at the device under any circumstances, but especially if the device
is downstream from a subpanel (where it would be a code violation).

scott