hi there, i'm new here, and relatively new to hands on electrical... my pappy is an electrician but lives far away, so alas i turn to you all for advice. i would like to install another outlet in my *old* apartment. i have found a suitable outlet (i think), marked the area on the other wall (opposite the first one) , cut open the wall for the box, and have all of my stuff ready to go. now, i guess i should have done this part *first* but then i took apart the original outlet. it has a typical white wire on one side, and the typical hot wire (black) on the other, and a ground attatched, but down b.low the black one is another wire... red.

i digress... i am a bit confused by the 2 possible live wires, and i also want to know if i can indeed piggyback one outlet off of the other. i was told by a hardware stor guy that i could, but what say you all?

thanks.

[ j ]

 

Is half of this outlet controlled by a switch? Is there another white wire underneath the first one?

 

nope... but i just talked to my dad and he said that the extra red wire is due to it being a kitchen outlet and therefore it's 220 capable... so far i think i got it figured out with his sage advice, too bad i dropped the damn metal box thingie into the wall by accident. what a dolt!! LOL!

[ j ]

 

Look between the two screws where the black and red wires are connected. There is normally a metal strip connecting the top brass screw to the bottom brass screw. If that strip of metal has been removed most likely you have a 1/2 switched 1/2 hot all the time receptacle.

If this is true you should be able to take the black wire off the receptacle and wirenut the black wire you installed in the cable going to the new receptacle box to that existing black wire you just took off the receptacle. Add in that wire nut a 6" pigtail also. Connect this pigtail to where the black wire was on that empty black screw of the existing receptacle. Now connect the white wire in the cable coming from the new receptacle box to that empty silver screw on that existing receptacle. Connect the bare wire in the cable coming from the new receptacles box to the other bare wires in that existing receptacle box.

In the new box connect the black wire to the brass screw and the white wire to the silver screw and the bare wire to the green screw.

Energize the branch circuit and see if you have electricity in both the new and the old receptacles.

You most likely have a switch controlling the other half of that existing receptacle. See if that switch still turns off that 1/2 of the existing receptacle. Also check to make sure the new receptacle is not turned off by that switch controlling the existing 1/2 of that old receptacle.

If the new receptacle shuts off by the switch the go back to the existing receptacle and trade the red wire for the black wire you moved under the new wire nut. This should change whether the new receptacle is controlled by that existing switch or not.

Hope this helps

Wg