what is the red wire used for in residential electrical circuits?

Answer 1

Assuming this is the US, the first two answers are plain wrong.

In the US, the national electrical code (in most places) requires white to be used for the grounded circuit conductor (aka neutral), green or bare is an equipment ground (not current carrying), and most any other color is hot (ungrounded), including red and black. There is not any other general thing that can be said about what red is. A standard 3 conductor cable has white, black, and red. The needs for this include a 240V circuit with a neutral (like a range or dryer) that has 2 hots, 3-way switches, having both switched and unswitched power (or both switched power from 2 different switches). For the 240V case, the two hots are equivalent, and in the others, there is no standard for what the red means.

Answer 2

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Stop all of the circles you are going in. List the problems 1 at a time and start from there. Locate the power and connect it to the receptacles and to the switch common. Do not use the quick connect terminals in any device, they fail quite often under a load. The wiring should be bare or green is the ground connection, the Neutral, white is the on the silver screw in the receptacle and is never switched in a residential circuit. The hot/ black conductor goes on the brass screw and to the common on the switch. Some place you have wired the hot lead to the outlets through the switch. Realistically you have 3 problems and you need to identify each cable to make the fix. If this is more than you can handle, contact a local qualified professional electrician to do the work.

Answer 3

The holes on the back of the outlet are just a faster way to connect than bending a loop in the wire and using the screw. It sounds like the outlet may be in the middle of a run and has now somehow been wired through the switch. It is hard to say without seeing the situation. If power is dropped from the ceiling for an overhead light, usually the white or return wire is wired to the lamp and a length of wire is run to the switch acting as a loop in the black or hot wire. The white wire becomes white/black and is connected to the supply on the lamp. Sounds like someone wired the outlet then fed multiple other things from it, not the way to go, even if they are low current draw. My best suggestion is to cut power at the breaker, disconnect everything, then, making sure no bare wires can touch, turn the power back on. Carefully using a tester check each lead against ground and see which are actually hot. then wire accordingly.

Answer 4

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what is the red wire used for in residential electrical circuits?

Answer 5

The standard for house wiring is black is always the hot wire. White is the neutral, and bare copper is ground. If you have a red wire, in addition to black and white, it is probably a second hot lead. This would be necessary for any 220 volt devices in your home such as the AC unit, or electric hot water heater.

It is important that if you are wiring your home yourself, to follow the industry standard of making th black lead hot, and the white neutral....if you have an electrician come to your home he will always assume that.

And finally, if you are still uncertain about the red wire, you can buy an inexpensive voltmeter for about $10, and measure the red wire potential to ground. That will absolutely tell you what you need to know.

Answer 6

Red wire can be use between switches, a second phase to something that requires 240v or as a feed of a circuit of from the circuit panel
Black wire is also hot.
white wire is normally neutral

Answer 7

In 220 V circuits, black and red represent the 2 legs of separate 110 V power circuits. They are both 'hot'.

The AC voltages on the Red and Black circuits are 180 degrees out of phase with each other, so you will measure 220 V across them.

White is the neutral common return path for both R & B power.

Green (or bare copper) is the ground connection for safety.

Answer 8

Red White Black Wires

Answer 9

A red or white wire is the "hot" or positive wire. The black wire is the negative wire, and the green is the ground wire.

Answer 10

If the red wire has a much smaller diameter then normal wire and is by itself, then it could be for smoke detectors or the security system.