Upon putting new outlets in my bedroom, I noticed the power feed for the room came into one outlet (seems to be 12 gauge romex). One of the previous owners connected the power feed to the outlet itself and the other two romex wires going to the light/other outlets (seems to be 14 gauge) to the outlet as well, I havn’t had time to investigate further and my question would be: is type of connection be acceptable.
Would a better solution be connecting the wires together and using a pig tail for this one outlet. Any other possible solutions.
I hope you all understand what i am talking about.
Thanks
Edited 8/20/2006 8:17 pm ET by treeguy
Replies
It's acceptable but not ideal. Wire-nutting with pigtails for the outlet is preferred. And the ground wires MUST be wire-nutted together and connected to the box (if a metal box) in such a way that the outlet can be removed without breaking the ground.
However, the two different sizes of wire in the box is a red flag. Check the breaker/fuse on that cirucit. If it's 20A vs 15A then the #14 wire is a code violation.
Thanks for the help. I checked the breaker and its a 20A GFCI breaker. Being an 80 to 90 year old house, I get to see a lot of "craftsman's" handywork. My naivity to the intricacies with the nec come through with this statement, seems i have a code violation, but is this a considerable fire hazard.
Seems the best solution would be to install a 15A breaker.
It's not a stop-the-presses type of hazard, but it would be wise to install a 15A breaker on that circuit, just to be safe. In the wrong set of circumstances the undersized (for a 20A circuit) wire could start on fire.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison