My house was built in 1974. I have doubts the wiring has changed since then (aluminum everywhere) and have already noticed some bad things (downstairs potlights on same breaker as upstairs living room!?!?)
I bought some tamper/USB sockets to install in my bedroom, two to be exact. I installed the first one with success. Then I proceeded to remove the second outlet, to replace it, and noticed it was a split receptacle (at least I thought). It was a 3 prong, and had two hot and two neutral connections. I figured someone just put this on two circuits for some reason, so I decided to just use one.
So I safely marretted one neutral and one hot (not together of course!) which appeared to be coming from the same sheath, and used the other two for the new receptacle. I flipped on the breaker and not only did the new receptacle not turn on, but the other one I had just installed was now off.
This lead me to believe that the second receptacle was daisy-chained off the first one. But it was really confusing. I then discovered some stuff and having gone from electrical college to programming, I forget what is good and bad here, but I am sure there is a lot of bad.
My Hot 1 has 120VAC between everything. Hot1 to Hot2, Netural1, Neutral2, and yes, ground.
My Neutral 1 is also shorted to ground.
These are all confirmed via my DVM. What do I do? I googled this and someone said
It's called a bootlegged ground. This is commonly done in older houses that had a two prong receptacle and was updated to a three prong receptacle. The old house didn't have a ground and this tricks the inspector's electric checker, so your house passes inspection.