I have two the questions. I want to put a light switch and light in a closet by running power from an electrical outlet box in the basement. Opening the box I found what I think is a 14-3 gauge Romex wire. The red wire is attached to the green ground screw, and the ground wire is loose. The black wire is attached to one side of the outlet and the white to the other side.

1. Is the red wire being used as a ground, and should I worry about this?

2. The outlet has a pair of screws on each side. One screw has the white neutral wire attached to it, and one of the two screws screw on the other side has the black hot wire. Can I run a 12-2 gauge Romex wire from the two extra screws on each side (black to black and white to white) to the new light switch and light that I want to install?

Thanks in advance for your help

 

It is it is a code violation and a safety issue. You need to find the other end of the cable and if the red is hooked to the ground on that end too it needs to be disconnected. To determine if the bare wire is a viable ground measure voltage between it and the black. If it is less then 105 volts you probably don't have a good ground and this circuit can not be used because by code an ungrounded cable can't be extended.

 

Are you 100% sure it is not a bare copper wire going to the ground screw? Sometimes the copper can look red. It is rare for Romex to not have a ground wire, and if it doesn't, the cable is quite old.

 

But the O/P wrote the ground wire was loose.

 

I took that to mean that the wire was not connected securely to the screw. That would be odd. I have seen where people will color a red wire green and use that for an isolated ground, but that is pretty much pointless in a home.

 

So we must wait now for Harvey to explain loose since it can have two meanings in this context.

 

I wonder if they have xx-3 cable and the red was re-purposed?

 

Hey now! I remember when romex was bought with ground or plain so it can't be that old!

 

Thank you for your responses.

The romex wire going into the outlet box has four wires. 1 black, 1 red, 1 white, and an uninsulated ground wire. This ground wire is loose. The "hot" black and the common white are screwed on to the outlet at the proper terminals. The red insulated wire is being used as a ground and is attached at the green grounding screw. Using an electric current tester I determined that the red is not hot. However, to be safe, and , as recommended by ray2047, I will follow it back.


Once I resolve the red wire question, can I use the second set of screws, mentioned in my initial post, to run a light to my closet?

Thanks again.

 

You should be able to, but we won't know for sure until you trace the cable.

 

If the bare ground if good yes you can use it. See my post #2 for testing.

If you mean a non contact tester the tester is not reliable enough to be certain and should be verified with an analog multimeter.

 

Not to muddy the waters here but what do you mean by loose ?
Like not attached ?

 

PJ asked: Yes we have asked you a couple of times. Is it just laying in the box unattached. Answer that question and test it and we can move on with helping you.

 

Yes, the ground wire is unattached and apparently not in use.

 

I'd almost bet the ground wire is open and someone re-purposed the red but that is a blatant code violation and must be removed.