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Replacing receptacles and found 14 AWG in a 20 amp circuit. Advice?

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Questions › Replacing receptacles and found 14 AWG in a 20 amp circuit. Advice?
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Garmaine asked 4 years ago

Bought a house a few weeks ago and I’m in the process of replacing all my receptacles to tamper proof models. Generally all circuits in the house are 20 amps or more and replacing all the 15 amp receptacles with 20 amp receptacles have been going well.

Today I came across one receptacle in a 20 amp circuit with a hot 12 AWG wire coming in to the receptacle and 14 AWG wire going out to light fixtures/switches. No other outlet is in this circuit.

A few questions:

  1. Do I need to replace the 20 amp breaker with a 15 amp one?
  2. Does this outlet have to be a 15 amp outlet even though 12 AWG wire is coming in?
  3. Why do you think 14 AWG wire was used for lighting if 12 AWG was going in? It’s fine to use 12 gauge wires for lighting / switches right?

Thanks for the help everyone.