Source 115V 20A breakerI have 12/2 wire and want to wire this:GFCI 15A receptacle -to- 15A receptacle -to- 15A receptacleI have basic wiring skills, just need reassurance. Thanks.
Firstly, you only need to use 12gauge 2 wire (plus ground I hope) between the 20 amp circuit and the 15 amp GFI. For the rest you can use 14 gauge wire. It is cheaper and easier to handle/wire. Then the only wiring to watch is the GFI. the rest is standard. At the GFI the only difference is that the white (common) wire is separated by using different terminals for supply and load sides. This is done to give the GFI a reference to compare current flow in the hot and common wires on the load side. That tells the GFI when there is a partial short or leak in the load that could cause different levels of shock. I hope this gives someone a chuckle!
Hi Mike, Simple circuit. You need to wire the colored wire (usually black) to the hot side of each plug first. Then install the common (usually white) to the common side of your plugs. Then wire the ground to each plug. (I would wire each plug complete as I went.) At the panel you should connect the common and the ground being careful you don't touch the power strip the breakers are installed on. Then you should install the breaker in the panel after you attach the colored (usually black) wire to it. I accept email if you want more info.
Comment: I don't know why john said to use a 6 piece of wire and wire nut the blacks together. Why not use the screws provided for wiring through? Why go through the trouble of making a pigtail ? Edit; I stand corrected.
Make sure the ground in the panel is connected properly. wire first to the gfi - then feed through - check the directions on the gfi - usually the feed through terminals are covered with a yellow warning tape.
Do you have 12/2 with ground? Use three wire cable. Start at the last receptacle. Connect the black to the brass colored screw, white to the silver screw, bare to the green screw. At the middle receptacle, use a wire nut to connect both blacks to a 6 inch piece of black wire. Fasten that short wire to the brass colored screw of that receptacle. Connect the white wires together with a 6 inch piece of white wire and connect that to the silver screw. Do the same thing with a 6 inch bare wire to the ground of the middle receptacle. Secure those receptacles to the boxes and put the little sticker (GFCI protected) on the cover plates. On the GFCI receptacle you will find two terminals across from each other marked load. Connect the black and white wires going to the middle receptacle to those terminals, keeping them on the correct side. The terminals will be marked. Connect the white and black coming from the circuit breaker to the terminals marked line. Again keep the white and black on the correct side. Use the 6 inch piece of bare with the 2 bare wires to connect to the ground screw on the GFCI. Fasten the GFCI into the box and put the cover on. Now go to your panel. Put the white wire in an empty lug on the neutral buss with all the other white wires. Do the same with the bare wire to the ground buss with the other bare wires. Connect the black wire to your new circuit breaker with it turned off. Turn it on and test the GFCI by pressing the reset and then the test button to make it trip. Reset it. That's it. William, many local jurisdictions require pigtails in this case. I don't know where MMike is from, so I used the more restrictive code. And in my humble opinion, when you shove 4 stiff 12 ga wires on screws back into the box, you have double the chance a screw is going to turn and loosen, giving you a bad connection, not NEC code there, just me and over 45 years experience. Thanks Russ.
