I have an existing power receptacle and wiring where:
a) power comes into the bottom outlet b) additional receptacles are daisy chained off the bottom outlet c) the top plug is switched... an additional hot line comes off the bottom outlet, goes to the switch, and then goes to the top outlet.
Everything works OK. However, when I went to replace the receptacle with a new and different colored one I noticed the wiring and started to wonder about something. Bear with me, for this is hard to ask without a diagram...
Lets name the power feed wires coming into the bottom outlet HOTin and NEUTRALin. Lets name the wires that feed the other receptacles HOTout and NEUTRALout. Lets name the switch wires SWITCHin and SWITCHout. The receptacles I'm working with have screw terminals and corresponding push in type terminals. So there are options in terms of how the wires are connected. For example, HOTin could be pushed in and HOTout could be connected to the corresponding screw terminal. Or vice versa. Or both could be connected to the screw terminal. Etc.
As it stands right now... HOTin and NEUTRALin are connected to the lower outlet's push in terminals, HOTout and NEUTRALout are connected to the lower outlet's screw terminals, and SWITCHout is also connected to the lower outlet's screw terminal. What I got to wondering about is whether there is a "proper" way to make such connections and whether what I have is it. Or whether it really matters. IOW, is it OK that power comes in via push in terminals and goes out to other receptacles via corresponding screw terminals? Or should it be the other way around? Or should both in and out be connected to the screw terminals?
Hope you follow what I'm asking ;-) Thanks in advance for an info.