My house was built in 1974. I have doubts the wiring has changed since then (aluminum everywhere) and have already noticed some bad things (downstairs potlights on same breaker as upstairs living room!?!?)
I bought some tamper/USB sockets to install in my bedroom, two to be exact. I installed the first one with success. Then I proceeded to remove the second outlet, to replace it, and noticed it was a split receptacle (at least I thought). It was a 3 prong, and had two hot and two neutral connections. I figured someone just put this on two circuits for some reason, so I decided to just use one.
So I safely marretted one neutral and one hot (not together of course!) which appeared to be coming from the same sheath, and used the other two for the new receptacle. I flipped on the breaker and not only did the new receptacle not turn on, but the other one I had just installed was now off.
This lead me to believe that the second receptacle was daisy-chained off the first one. But it was really confusing. I then discovered some stuff and having gone from electrical college to programming, I forget what is good and bad here, but I am sure there is a lot of bad.
My Hot 1 has 120VAC between everything. Hot1 to Hot2, Netural1, Neutral2, and yes, ground.
My Neutral 1 is also shorted to ground.
These are all confirmed via my DVM. What do I do? I googled this and someone said
It's called a bootlegged ground. This is commonly done in older houses that had a two prong receptacle and was updated to a three prong receptacle. The old house didn't have a ground and this tricks the inspector's electric checker, so your house passes inspection.
Best Answer
Hot1 and Neutral1 are the feed from the panel. Hot2 and Neutral2 feed the next receptacle in the chain.
If you connect Hot1 and Neutral1 to the receptacle, this receptacle will work. If you also connect Hot2 and Neutral2 to the receptacle, all the devices downstream will also work.
Depending on the new receptacle you're installing, you should wire it the same as the old receptacle.
Just remember that the "black" ungrounded (hot) conductors should be attached to the brass colored screws, and the "white" grounded (neutral) conductors should attach to the silver colored screws.
As for the ground. It's odd that there's only one grounding wire. Where does it come from, one of the cables, the box, somewhere else? In any case, the bare grounding conductor should not be connected to the grounded (neutral) conductor.