I am having a problem with an outlet. I have been replacing outlets in my old home with GFCI. I know how to do a GFCI outlet with 2 cables or 1 cable, but I have recently encountered a problem. I opened an outlet and it had 3 cables, each with two wires. All the blacks from each cable were wired into hot, and all the whites from each cable were wired into neutral. Each grouping of wires (one black group, one white group) were what I would call "spliced" together and attached onto the screws. They were attached onto both line and load for either side. I am a novice and I don't really understand what is going on here. I have attached a diagram of how the outlet was before I ripped it out. Some extra info which may be relevant: I think this outlet used to be used with a window air conditioner. It is the only outlet I have encountered so far with 3 cables and 6 wires total. None of the outlets in my home are grounded that I have found so far.

http://tinypic.com/r/fk8m8m/5

Turn off breaker or remove fuse for the circuit, separate the splices, turn power back on and find the hot and neutral from the panel (using a voltage tester), then turn power off and install the hot and neutral on the correct terminals on the Line side of the GFCI. Use one pigtail to connect the remaining two black wires, and other pigtail to connect the remaining white wires- to the appropriate terminals on the Load side of the GFI. Re-energize and test.

Quote:

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Turn off breaker or remove fuse for the circuit, separate the splices, turn power back on and find the hot and neutral from the panel (using a voltage tester), then turn power off and install the hot and neutral on the correct terminals on the Line side of the GFCI. Use one pigtail to connect the remaining two black wires, and other pigtail to connect the remaining white wires- to the appropriate terminals on the Load side of the GFI. Re-energize and test.

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This assumes he wants to have the other parts of the circuit GFI protected? This is probably not the case, or maybe it is. We don't know.


Bob, why are you using GFI's? Are the circuits non-grounding?

I would think this would get needlessly expensive to go and change your outlets out for GFI. What type of devices are you plugging in to these outlets ?