When tackling my last problem (btw thanks guys!) I discovered that one of my wall sockets had a third wire (extended circuit) coming off the socket. They doubled the wire on two of the connection screws and ran a line into the side attic (Cape Cod house) to light the attic. When I was replacing the sockets I decided not to connect the attic lights. So my question is this: Is what they did previously safe and allowed by code? To me it seems that if enough load is put on the circuits downstream of this socket that it might overheat/ The original sockets were nothing special.

Thanks in advance

Doug

Good solid connections will eliminate a common cause of electrical fires.

I am sure that one screw is not rated to handle two wires, should be a 6 " pigtail off the screw and splice that and the two wires one from each cable..

Chance of a problem because of a light blub not likely, but say some one put something there that drew a large amount of current, there would probably be a problem at this outlet.