Red, Green, Black, and White Wires

[Don Bowey]

I am sure you can not feed a split duplex outlet with 240 volts if the outlet
is
only rated for 125 volts. Article 410-56(a) Article 110-3

Each outlet of the pair is fed 120V NOT 240V.

Only the grounded conductor and the grounding conductor have specified
colors.
Article 200-6

It is covered in other Articles, also.

 

[Thor]

Each outlet of the pair is fed 120V NOT 240V.


It is covered in other Articles, also.

This has actually been rather interesting. You can split the outlet and feed it
with two phases. This is called a multi-wire branch circuit and the conductors
feeding the split outlet must be on a 2 pole breaker. No jerryrigging is
involved.

What spooked me with the OP was he said when ever he turned either switch on
there is power at the outlet. It /sounded/ like someone was switching the
neutral OR the oulet was simply on a 3-way switch, any way it didn't sound
right.

I just got off the phone with my local (state) Inspector and to my amazement I
may no longer be licensed, that sucks because I hold/held a masters. I
originally called about the split outlet because I just could not find it in the
code book and he let me know about the new licensing schedules around here.
I know that the neutral was at one time called the identified conductor in the
code book but I couldn't find that either, odd.

WOW, this thread went a lot of places and I hope the original poster got his
answer.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

I am sure you can not feed a split duplex outlet with 240 volts if the outlet is
only rated for 125 volts. Article 410-56(a) Article 110-3

You are feeding 120 VAC to each outlet, with a common neutral. It's
called a split outlet. There are also combo duplex outlets with a 240
VAC and a 120 VAC receptacle used in commercial buildings to plug in
large floor buffers and vacs.



<http://www.hubbellcatalog.com/wiring/catalogpages/Page-A24.pdf> part
numbers HBL5492 & HBL5492I at:
<http://www.hubbellcatalog.com/wirin...102=13508&FT_822=7663&SUBMIT.x=28&SUBMIT.y=13>


Leviton has their 5031-I, 5842-I, 5844 on page 51 of
<http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibcG...=u4XWH2gnFVIs9yeepxlPkw&label=IBE&appName=IBE>
which is a 30.691 Mbyte download.

Only the grounded conductor and the grounding conductor have specified colors.
Article 200-6

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Dave]

For 120 v,

I believe the whites go together, and the green goes to black, correct?

Unless you are DAMN SURE you're the only one who will EVER touch this
wiring, and that you will 100% REMEMBER that the green is hot, then bite the
bullet and pull a black strand through the conduit. Green means safe to
electricians, you don't want somebody down the road to shock and potentially
injure themselves because of the ambiguous color coding.

It

appears that the red wire allows for 240v, so I'll just tape it off. I'm
still a bit puzzled why the guy used red at all. Doesn't a 240 v outlet
have a socket entirely different than one for 120v?

The red strand is often used to run a 2nd hot, so that you can run two
circuits with one run of 4-strand wire. On a 240V 4-wire circuit, red and
black are opposite poles, with 240v between them. white is neutral. red to
white and/or black to white would both give you 120v. Red to black gives
240v.

An oddity about this is that he apparently has the outside outlet on two
switches in the switch box. Unless both are off, then they appear to be
alive when either or both are on. When both are on, I get either 240v or
120v depending on which pair combo I measure. It is possible for me to
contact the electrician, so maybe I can review what he did. Comments?
--

It's so that you can run a separate circuit to each plug-in on the
receptacle. Four conductors must have been run from the main panel in the
house to the subpanel. This is good. It means you can wire up a 240v
circuit if you need it.

 

[[email protected]]

What if your mother is connected to a life support machine. The power
suddenly goes out. You hear the generator kick in, but you dont get
any power. You pop open the generator panel and discover one of the
hot wires (black) has a bare spot and is shorted. You run to the
garage and find that all you have is green wire. Do you abide by the
code and let your mother die, or do you violate the code and save her
life?

Or, it's 50 below zero and your furnace quits. You use your
miltimeter and discover there is no power to the furnace. You run to
the breaker box and find that there's power and the breakers are fine.
You know that there must be a broken wire somewhere in the walls of
your home. The indoor temperature is dropping quickly. You rush to
the basement and find you do not have any romex, just a spool of
single strand green wire. (Ya know that always happens). You're
faced with a major decision in life. Do you run two strands of green
wire from the breaker box to the furnace (one for the hot and one for
the neutral), or do you just freeze to death?

Of course as we all know, there's always a building inspector sitting
outside in a snow bank with binoculars and a video camera just waiting
for someone like you to violate the code !!!!

And for that matter, is green wire capable of passing hot AC voltage?
Do the electrons in green coated wire function in the same manner as
the electrons in a black or white coated wire? Do the electrons
change if you take black spray paint and paint a green wire black, or
white?
OOPS, how DO you paint a wire white with black spray paint?



What if the building inspector is green?
If the building inspector sees it, will he get electrocuted?
Do you hope he does get electrocuted?

 

[PeterD]

What if your mother is connected to a life support machine. The power
suddenly goes out. You hear the generator kick in, but you dont get
any power. You pop open the generator panel and discover one of the
hot wires (black) has a bare spot and is shorted. You run to the
garage and find that all you have is green wire. Do you abide by the
code and let your mother die, or do you violate the code and save her
life?

You are a moron...

Or, it's 50 below zero and your furnace quits. You use your
miltimeter and discover there is no power to the furnace. You run to
the breaker box and find that there's power and the breakers are fine.
You know that there must be a broken wire somewhere in the walls of
your home. The indoor temperature is dropping quickly. You rush to
the basement and find you do not have any romex, just a spool of
single strand green wire. (Ya know that always happens). You're
faced with a major decision in life. Do you run two strands of green
wire from the breaker box to the furnace (one for the hot and one for
the neutral), or do you just freeze to death?

You are more than a moron...

Of course as we all know, there's always a building inspector sitting
outside in a snow bank with binoculars and a video camera just waiting
for someone like you to violate the code !!!!

You are a record moron...

And for that matter, is green wire capable of passing hot AC voltage?
Do the electrons in green coated wire function in the same manner as
the electrons in a black or white coated wire? Do the electrons
change if you take black spray paint and paint a green wire black, or
white?
OOPS, how DO you paint a wire white with black spray paint?

Hey, Phil, you are so much better than I am at this, please add to my
comments!

 

[jakdedert]

PeterD wrote:

You are a record moron...


Hey, Phil, you are so much better than I am at this, please add to my
comments!

....or just don't feed the trolls. They starve. Problem solved.

jak