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Replacing Wall Outlet - What to do with red wire?
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Tony Hwang
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Replacing Wall Outlet - What to do with red wire?
trader_4 wrote:
On Wednesday, July 16, 2014 10:21:20 AM UTC-4, Doug Miller wrote:
wrote in
:
Am replacing a standard wall outlet with a new USB outlet.
The house is only 7 years old.
The existing outlet uses black, white, red and green wires but
the new outlet's instructions only specify using black, white
and green.
Question is what to do with the red wire? (note: is live/hot
along with the black)
IMPORTANT: my answer assumes that you are in the U.S. or Canada. If you're anywhere
else, this advice probably does not apply, and could be dangerous. In particular, if you're in
the UK, stop reading right here.
If you have red, black, white, and green wires feeding a duplex receptacle, then the two
outlets in that receptacle are served by different circuits -- or, more precisely, they are
served by opposite sides of what is called a multi-wire branch circuit, also known as an
Edison circuit (Google those terms for more information).
If the receptacle you are installing has only one 120VAC outlet, you can't use it here.
You need a duplex receptacle, *AND* you need to break out the tab between the two
screws on the hot side. For illustration, see
http://electrical.about.com/od/diypr...itoutlet_6.htm
.
Attach the black wire to one of the hot screws (gold-colored), and the red wire to the other
hot screw. The white wire goes to either of the silver-colored screws on the other side of the
receptacle, and the green wire to the green screw.
And of course, turn off the breaker before doing any work.
It doesn't have to be an Edison circuit. More commonly you see one
receptacle that's wired hot all the time (usually black) and the other
receptacle wired to a wall switch (usually red).
Hi,
Just tape the red wire and don't use it and connect remaining 3 wires
per instruction if it only has one receptacle vs. two you're replacing.
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