As the title says, I encountered an outlet yesterday in a house that has been rewired. I have re-set all the boxes in the house (they were out by about 1/2 inch as the owner was going to install sheetrock over the bead board) except this one and encountered no problems until now. The outlet is a three prong grounded outlet and all the wiring is between 5-10 years old. The box is an older steel box.
When re-installing the box after doing some wall repair, I discovered the outlet was wired odd. The hot was correct but the ground wire was attached to the neutral post. The neutral wire was insulated with tape and not hooked to the outlet at all. It goes into a 15 amp breaker. The outlet has worked great for a year and a half – I have used this room as a saw room and run table and compound miter saws through that outlet. What was the reason for this wiring? If I wire it correctly what problem should I look for?
Best Answer
This is NOT okay.
Use a multimeter (or voltmeter) to test the grounded (neutral) conductor, to see if you're getting the proper voltage between it and the ungrounded (hot) conductor.
If it tests okay, wire the receptacle up the way it's supposed to.
If not, you'll have to trace back through the circuit, and try to figure out what's wrong.