Photos: http://ift.tt/2pJnf38've been switching out all the outlets in our house, and all of them have been fairly standard so far. However, I came across this one that has me completely perplexed, and I'm scared to mess with it because it just seems like this can't be right.There's a ground wire and four wires going in the back, all like you would expect, but then there are two additional wires that are side-wired at the top. I don't know what to do about this. Should I just copy that format when I replace the receptacle? Since the outlet I'm using to replace it has two holes for backwiring per screw (see last photo), should I just backwire both and that would be the same as the back/sidewire combo? If not, what do I do with these extra wires? I'm worried that this just shouldn't exist at all and that there's been some dangerous wiring that we're just discovering and it needs more electrical knowledge than I have (which is usually just copying how the outlet I'm replacing was connected).This is the only thing I could find online referencing it, and I confess that I don't understand what joed's first option means at all, and I think the second one means that I could use the new outlets I have and just put both wires in under the one screw, one on each side where the holes are, and tighten to clamp the plate down, but I'm not completely sure, because someone else down in the thread says not to backwire them. I'm unclear if the new receptacles I'm using are backstab or clamp or if those are the same thing or not, since they use the screw on the side to clamp down tightly but also go in through the back?These are 20 amp 125 volt outlets. The outlet is functioning correctly as far as I can tell, with nothing really special otherwise about it. They aren't partially controlled by a switch or anything like that, like some of the other outlets in our house. Based in Utah, USA.Thanks for any help you can provide! via /r/DIY http://ift.tt/2r4f2dO
