I am replacing "razor only" receptacles to GFCI. The outlet contains a LINE cable (black, white, bare copper). The previous receptacle of course did not use three prongs, so the ground was just secured to the outlet box's grounding terminal (screw).
To install the GFCI according to the instructions, I need two new pieces of wire for the ground pigtail: one to the grounding terminal, and one to the receptacle's ground. See diagram below.
My small problem is that I don't have green or bare copper wire. I have suitable 6" 14 AWG wire scraps from the old receptacle, but they are white or black.
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Would it be terrible if I used the wrong colors to make the pigtail? Electrically of course there's no problem. Potential confusion is the only issue I can see, but since it would all be in the same outlet box, maybe that's less of a problem?
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It also occurred to me to strip the black/white insulation and thus have bare copper, but it is stranded (all the wires from LINE are solid), so that seems like a bit of a mess. Is that even ok to do?
Best Answer
The answer to your question is "quite critical": Grounds must be green, yellow/green or bare. Neutrals must be white or gray. All others are hot.
Binding stranded wire to a screw terminal is tricky. Not impossible but tricky. I like to "super-twist it" by gripping the wire in a hole intended to shear off bolts, which keeps it circular. You have to have just the right touch to clamp the wire enough to hold it without shearing it.
Because of the difficulty for a novice to attach stranded wire to a screw terminal, I would advise either going to the shop and getting some solid #12 wire, or, you can use round crimp terminals for the ground screw on the junction box (not on a receptacle).
If you have wire whose insulation is not green or yellow-green, there are two ways to mark it as a ground.