Four socket in old house not powering devices

[Stormin Mormon]

A couple days ago, I got called to a friend's house to troubleshoot a four outlet wall socket, which wasn't operating plug in devices. My three bulb tester said B-N was barely there, neon bulb was flickering. B-G was not powered, and of course N had no power, so N-G was show no neon bulb light.

New socket (recently put in) with orange 14 ga romex. Circuit panel was fairly new, and this circuit was supplied with new orange 14-2 Romex. I think I found the problem. Anyone want to guess what it was?

I'm going back to work on it in a couple days, will post follow up.

BTW, I'm not being racist when I say that N had no power, and N-G is open.

[bob_villain]

OT would help...considering this is mindless blogging!

[trader_4]

Technician error? WTF is B-N, B-G, etc? B? There are hot, neutral and ground. Never seen a tester with B on it.

[Stormin Mormon]

B = black N = neutral G = Gnd

Mine does. In black Sharpie.

[trader_4]

Then why isn't it Black, White, Green?

[Scott Lurndal]

14-2? Generally receptacles are wired to a 20A breaker. 14-2 has an ampacity of 15A (or less depending on fill ratio).

Guess: Backstabs were used

[gfretwell]

Orange is 10 ga

[gfretwell]

General lighting receptacles in dwellings are usually 15a. You have

20s in kitchens, laundry and bathrooms. Homeowners may wire 20s everywhere but builders usually do not. You just have to look at the balance if 15 to 20 amp breakers in the panel to see that.

BTW if he backstabbed 10 ga wire (orange romex) into a receptacle he probably needed to drill out the hole. They are designed to only take

14ga wire. I have seen 12 ga jammed in there but they really had to work to do it. (speaking about the spring capture back stabber, not the spec grade where you tighten the screw)

[clare]

Being one of Story's friends more likelu back-clamp outlets and they didn't take the insulation off the wires.

And 15 amp circuits for 15 amp outlets are still VERY common.

[clare]

Not always. There is still no mandated standard for cable sheath colours.

[trader_4]

+1

Most of the breakers here are 15A, maybe 20% are 20A.

[Scott Lurndal]

Whereas here, everything except the two lighting circuits are 20A. That was true in the upper midwest when I worked for a electrical supply wholesaler in the 70's as well.

[Stormin Mormon]

Cause that's not what I was thinking at that moment.

[gfretwell]

I have seen lots of romex and I have never seen orange that was anything but 10 gauge. There is white, blue and black romex out there over the years that can be any size. When Southwire came out with yellow and orange, it became the defacto industry standard.

[gfretwell]

That sounds like poor design. Using 20a circuits does allow the installer to use fewer circuits to achieve the 3va per sq/ft but fewer is not better when the breaker trips. There is no requirement that fixed lighting and receptacles be on separate circuits and a single 20 might cover one whole end of a house if the installer was being stingy. (800 square feet) The only time I ever saw that was when the AFCIs first started showing up (2002 cycle) and installers tried to put everything in all of the bedrooms on one AFCI. We couldn't tag it but if the guy was cutting corners this badly, there was always something else wrong. It just made us look harder.

[My 2 Cents]

Bubba hung his new 65 inch TeeVee on the wall using 16 penny nails and hit a wire?

[Ralph Mowery]

Sounds like the wiring in a duplex apartment I was renting. It was built just before WW2. In each side was a fuse box with 2 20 amp fuses. That was for the lights and recepticals. There was a living room, 2 bed rooms, kitchen and bath. There was a seperate fuse pair for the stove and water heater.

[Tony Hwang]

Why not Black, White, Green or Copper

[Stormin Mormon]

My color vision is very poor. More likely yellow, and reasonably sure it's 14 ga.

[gfretwell]

Look at the writing on it.