Us Outlet Wiring
The black wire line and white neutral connect to the receptacle terminals and another 2 wire nm that travels to the next receptacle.
Us outlet wiring. The outlet addition methods we show here are based on the most common wiring 14 gauge wire on a 15 amp circuit and an 18 cu in. This outlet is commonly used for a heavy load such as a large air conditioner. As of the 2008 nec the terms neutral conductor and neutral point have been defined in the code to conform to what had been common usage. The united states electrical codes require that the neutral be connected to earth at the service panel only and at no other point within the building wiring system.
The red wire switched hot wire going to the outlet wires into the other side of the switch and the white wires neutral tie together to complete the return side of the circuit. The following wiring diagrams show that multiple outlets are wired to a single pole spst switch one way or two way in us switch. Box typical inside dimensions are about 2 in. This repeats until the end of the chain.
As shown in the fig the switch is firstly installed in the wiring the hot wire from switch feeds all the other parallel connected outlets hence the outlet on off operation can be controlled through the switch. In the diagram below a 2 wire nm cable supplies line voltage from the electrical panel to the first receptacle outlet box. Formally the neutral is called the grounded conductor. It is tied together with a wire going to the switch and the black wire going to the outlet.
The outlet should be wired to a dedicated 20 amp 240 volt circuit breaker in the service panel using 12 2 awg cable. Another common method called back wiring uses self clamping rear terminals. A wire coming loose from an outlet can create a serious fire or shock hazard. With this wiring both the black and white wires are used to carry 120 volts each and the white wire is wrapped with electrical tape to label it hot.