Red and black wires

[Raymond]

I have a older outlet that I'm replacing with a newer style. My outlet has 2 wires a red and black one what side does each go to I have no ground wire. The house is probably 80 years old with old wiring

[Ed Pawlowski]

Old wiring can be hit or miss. Black is usually the hot and the other neutral. Use a tester to be sure.

[trader_4]

I'd test it using a meter or test light. Between one wire and a ground point, eg cold water pipe, you should have 120V. That is the hot. The other may show some lesser voltage. The hot wire goes to the receptacle side with the smaller opening, typically brass screw on that side too.

You could also pull off the cover on the panel and see where the reds and blacks land there.

[Fred McKenzie]

Raymond-

I assume you are in the U.S., working with a 120 Volt outlet. My first thought would be that Black was hot and Red was neutral. But because of the age of your wiring, you can not be sure without performing some kind of test or looking at which wire is connected to the fuse at the fuse box.

There is a neon test light available, made with a neon bulb in series with a high value ballast resistor. Its two "test leads" would normally be plugged into an outlet. The neon bulb would light if there was power in the outlet. You can also use such a test light to see which of the outlet's wires is hot. You hold one of the two test leads in your hand, and touch the other lead to one of the wires. The hot wire will cause the neon bulb to glow dimly. Reference:

In modern outlet wiring, the hot wire is connected to the brass-colored terminal (Narrow Slot). The neutral wire is connected to the silver-colored terminal (Wide Slot).

Fred

[Gordon Shumway]

Why are you replacing the receptacle? Does the old receptacle not firmly hold a plug in it, or are you changing it so it will accommodate a newer plug with a ground? If the latter, by code you must add a ground wire. That could get difficult and/or expensive for the novice very quickly.

[trader_4]

That's not true. It's code compliant to replace an old two wire, ungrounded receptacle with a 3 wire grounded type receptacle as long as it's protected by an upstream GFCI and marked as "GFCI protected, no eqpt ground".

[gfretwell]

Without knowing where you are, this may be hard to answer. In the UK, black was neutral 80 years ago. Red was 230v

[DerbyDad03]

After reading the suggestions in the other posts, if you are able to determine which wire is which, e.g. black is hot, red is neutral, you should then mark the last inch or so of the red wire with white electrical tape or white paint. Do this at both ends. This is a common practice used to avoid confusion for those that come along later or even you if you disconnect the wires in the future and forget where they go, especially in the panel where you might remove multiple wires at the same time.

[Megg A. Hertz]

Nonsense, just bond the neutral to the ground. It all lands on the neutral/ground buss in the panel anyway.

Yah, I know, code requires a separate ground wire but that's just a distinction without a difference.

[gfretwell]

If it turns out the OP is in UK, make that blue ;-)

[trader_4]

There are real and significant differences, some of which have been discussed here. And as I just pointed out, in this application code doesn't require a separate ground, a gfci is permissible. Too cheap to buy one gfci for a circuit?

[Trent]

Why waste hundreds of feet of copper when a 1 inch jumper from neutral to ground screw can solve the problem? A 30-40 amp stove or dryer doesn't need a separate ground so neither does a 20 amp outlet.

[gfretwell]

If you swap the neutral and an ungrounded conductor, the stove or dryer will not work. If someone swaps the neutral and ungrounded conductor on a 120v circuit, everything still works, until someone gets killed because the frame of the equipment is 120v above ground.

[Taxed and Spent]

who said "swap"?

[trader_4]

irmly hold a plug in it, or are you

he latter, by code you must add a ground

utral/ground buss in the panel anyway.

istinction without a difference.

scussed here. And

rate ground, a gfci is permissible. Too cheap to buy one gfci for a circui t?

o ground screw can solve the problem? A 30-40 amp stove or dryer doesn't ne ed a separate ground so neither does a 20 amp outlet.

Plus, the stove or dryer circuit is a homerun. The typical 120v circuit is Daisy chained through multiple receptacles, switches, etc which all kinds o f amateur hacks fiddle with frequently. Very easy for a wire to get disconn ected and if it's the shared neutral and ground with his one inch jumper, y ou wind up with appliance metal cases energized.

[jak]

Well duh! Of course you'll likely kill someone if you start swapping wires.

[makolber]

.

bad advice

if your combined ground /neutral wire should develop an open fault, you will apply 120V onto the frame of the appliance.

so you will cause the exact danger the ground is supposed to protect against.

[trader_4]

You don't have to swap wires for a shared neutral and ground to present line voltage at the case of a metal appliance. All that is required is for the neutral/ground to become disconnected somewhere along it's route. And for the typical 120V circuit, that route can include many switches, receptacles, junctions, etc. All you need is for one back-stab connection to come loose and everything down stream with a metal case can become energized.

[gfretwell]

It happens a lot, particularly on old 2 wire systems. Before polarized plugs became the norm (~1970s), it was not even important to keep the hot and neutral straight. When I was a kid, there was no silver screw on the receptacles in our house and both slots were the same size. (house built in the 40s)

[Taxed and Spent]

but that was not what was being discussed here.