Hi Matt,

Yes there is a separate ground.

It was just a receptacle in a basement 'kitchen' area. ....Its funny...I am
confused but there was a 220 volt plug in the same area for a heavy
heater...but I think that was changed also...so I was a little confused by
the plug itself. So as far as I know it was just a regular receptacle.
Also, I didn't mention, but I think the 'branch circuit' idea is correct
because I am having trouble getting one other light to work and I think
there may be a connection between the two.

I had capped the red wire yesterday out of desperation...but now I will
check the side of the receptacle, clip it, and reconnect the red.

Thanks a lot.

Louis


"Matt" wrote in message
oups.com...
Louis -

What was the red wire hooked to before? If nothing, then it perhaps was
run to feed an additional future circuit, but that's unlikely. Another
guess is it could have at one time been a 220v outlet, changed later by
someone to a 120v.

Is there a seperate ground (bare) copper wire?

If so, cap the red wire, shut off and put some elec tape over the
breaker connected to the red wire, or label it such that you don't turn
it back on later. (If the red and black wires are connected to a single
breaker, then this was at one time a 220v circuit - I'd recc you call
an electrician as the breaker needs to be pulled and replaced with
seperate individual ones.

Then hook the bare wire to the ground screw, black wire to brass screw
(right side, as viewed from the front), and white wire to the silver
screw (left side).