Electrical

Hi ; I was going to replace a single outlet plug with a dual , which would give my 4 plug ins. When I went to replace the box I found 1 red wire 1 black wire 1 white wire and a groung . I know how to hook it up using the black, white and ground, but what is the red wire for and how do I run the two receptacles in a series in the dual box using the red wire?

 

The only time I have ever seen an extra wire would be for something like a ceiling fan so that you could control the fan on/off seperately from the light on/off. First thing you should do is check to see if the red wire is hot. You can do this with a meter if you have one. If it is not hot, I would put a wire nut over it and ignore it. If it is hot then you could use it for the power as well or put a wire nut on it and ignore it. I would think that you would want to put the recepticals in parallel rather than series in which case you would connect the black, white and grounds to the same contacts on each receptical.

 

You should go into the electrical forum, but I would be willing to bet there are 2 circuits in the box (a good thing); it is not uncommon. If both the red and black are connected to a receptacle, then you have 2 circuits. What is being done is the black and red are connected to 2 different breakers in the panel and the white is used as a common neutral for both. You connect black to one outlet and red to the other outlet; the white is connected to both. That gives you 2 outlets in the same box on different circuits.

Be sure you turn off both breakers and check for power in the box; if you don't have a tester, buy one, they're cheap! Again, You should go to the electrical forum; I know just enough about electrical to be dangerous

Bruce