Wiring 120-Volt AC Receptacles

SITE CATEGORY - PROJECTS -  SIMPLE WIRING LESSON

Here's a pretty basic lesson in wiring up a simple one-wire Plug-in Receptacle for those who could use the help.

I'm using Romex wiring with 3-wires within the Sheath.
NOTE for Rolling Home Folks : even though many Trailer Building companies use ROMEX , it has some problems with breakage due to vibration . You're better off using a braided wire designed for a mobile application in your Rolling Home.

What you do first ...is carefully cut off approx. 3-4 inches of the outer plastic sheathing. Make sure you're careful about it ...don't cut so deep that you cut into the interior wires.
Now pull the sheathing off the end of the wire .
The 3 interior Wires should now be exposed ...here's a pic of what they look like


CLICK_ON PIC

You'll notice that the 3 wires are different colors ...Black , White & a bare one that's Copper.
The Black Wire is the 'Hot' Wire...The White Wire is the 'Neutral' Wire ...and The Bare Copper Wire is the 'Ground' Wire.
Next you'll strip off around 3/4 inch of the plastic insulation covering the ends of the Black & White Wires.
Take your Pliers and make a loop at the end of each of the wires.
Now your ready to Wire up the plug-in Receptacle.
From here on it depends whether your using a WireMold Box like I am or a more Standard in the wall type.
The Standard in the wall type of Box will have the 120 volt wires running into it and you'll work from there... With a WireMold Box you'll wire up the receptacle first then feed it into the box.

You'll notice on the 120-volt receptacle ...that one side has 2 Brass Colored Screws & the other Side has 2 Silver Colored Screws and one Green Colored Screw.
Here's a couple of pics that might help

Since I'm only putting one Receptacle on it's own branch line ...and not wiring them up as a series of Plug-ins on the same line . I screw down tight 1 of the 2 Brass & Silver Screws on the Receptacle.
Next you take the Black 'Hot' wire ( it doesn't really matter which wire you connect first . What matters is you do the job right ) and push the the wire loop that you made, under the Brass Colored Screw ...and tighten the screw down well.

Note: I'm not sure if it's completely necessary ...but I always make the loop under the screw , and using a pair of needle-nosed pliers ...pinch the loop together as much as I can. I'm hoping that by doing this ...it will help keep the wire jumping off the screw , if vibrations and such happened to loosen it....
Next you'll do the same as above with the White Wire ...this will be attached to the Silver Colored Screws.
Finally you'll attach the Bare Copper Ground Wire to the Green Colored Screw

That's it...it's pretty easy stuff . Just remember this....
The Black Wire 'Hot' attaches at the Brass Colored Screws
The White Wire ' Neutral' attaches at the Silver Colored Screws
And the Bare Copper Wire 'Ground' attaches at the Green Colored Screw

As long as you stick to this pattern exactly with every Receptacle in your Rig ...you wont run into any problems.

SITE CATEGORY - PROJECTS -  SIMPLE WIRING LESSON