Receptacles dead, has white/black/red inside
#1
Receptacles dead, has white/black/red inside
I have a room with a receptacle on each of 4 walls. Looks like serially run. The beginning box is live on only one of the two-double outlets. Tested everything live except the dead outlet has a "red" colored wire and a black colored wire connected on the proper side. These black and red wires are dead. What is the purpose of the red wire? something different than the black? Why are they dead, and yet live wires on on the outlet right next to it? Plus this has caused the other three outlets on the other three walls to all go dead.
#3
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Using 12-3 or 14-3 wire in rooms that have a switch is common. The 12-3 or 14-3 sometimes goes just from the switch to the first receptacle, other times it goes to all receptacles. Three conductor cable is used so that there can be an always hot wires, a switched hot wires, and a return wire. The ground is also present.