Bought a house a few weeks ago and I’m in the process of replacing all my receptacles to tamper proof models. Generally all circuits in the house are 20 amps or more and replacing all the 15 amp receptacles with 20 amp receptacles have been going well.
Today I came across one receptacle in a 20 amp circuit with a hot 12 AWG wire coming in to the receptacle and 14 AWG wire going out to light fixtures/switches. No other outlet is in this circuit.
A few questions:
- Do I need to replace the 20 amp breaker with a 15 amp one?
- Does this outlet have to be a 15 amp outlet even though 12 AWG wire is coming in?
- Why do you think 14 AWG wire was used for lighting if 12 AWG was going in? It’s fine to use 12 gauge wires for lighting / switches
right?
Thanks for the help everyone.
Best Answer
1) Your first question yes you should downgrade the circuit to 15Amps because the breaker protects the wires and if the breaker is rated for a higher current than the wires in the circuit can handle there is a fire risk.
2) If you were turn the one circuit into two circuits with a 20Amp circuit and a 15 Amp circuit with separate breakers then the outlet could be kept at 20Amps but otherwise no.
3) Maybe they ran out of the larger wire and that is just used what was around.