Do it Yourself: Re: [DIY] Neutral Wire

16 April 2020

Re: [DIY] Neutral Wire

I haven't said anything about this thread because my situation wasn't exactly the same, but how old is your house? Mine was made in 1925, and several years ago I wanted to replace the switch for my basement light with one that had a built-in light to tell you when the switch was on. (I keep forgetting to turn off the light in my basement). My box had, as Ron mentioned, just a white wire and a black wire that went to the switch itself with no neutral wire. (There's also no ground wire because this was BX cable which has its own ground).

The instructions that came with the new switch I bought said it required an actual neutral wire in addition to the switch wires, and that the switch was recommended for new construction because most older buildings wouldn't have that in the switch box.

So I had to abandon the idea. Fortunately the switch I bought wasn't expensive. The thing you bought sounds pretty expensive, but you may be in the same boat unless you want to run an actual neutral wire.

Mike Taglieri

On Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 8:35 AM Jim Wingo dolfinwriter@yahoo.com [DoIt_Yourself] <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups..com> wrote:

I have read this thread for the last couple of days. I was a career Navy electrician, and I find myself agreeing with this last statement. I think you need to get a licensed and experienced electrician to look at this and make whatever mods or corrections are needed to your wiring to make this work. This does not appear to be a straightforward change, and I can't tell for certain from your description how your existing wiring is configured. To me that creates a situation that has potential for starting a fire or at least damaging your wiring and the device you are attempting to connect.

On Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 06:08:10 AM PDT, Ron Johnson l0c0l0b0@hotmail.com [DoIt_Yourself] <doit_yourself@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

The bare wire is the ground, not the neutral. The NEC code now requires an active neutral in at least one switch in the room - whether it is used or not - for this very reason, but there are so many wired the old way that you may need to run a neutral.

You say there is a white wire in the switch box. Sometimes the power goes to the light (or outlet, if it is switch operated) then a pair of wires goes to the switch. The electrician is supposed to wrap the white wire with a different color tape (usually black, red, or blue) so it is not confused with the normal white common (neutral), but a lot of the handymen don't do that. If the white wire is connected to the switch itself, it is NOT a common.

If you are talking about the outlet itself, and the wire is connected to the left side of the outlet (the larger slot for the plug) then that is a neutral. You can test it by checking the voltage between the ground and each wire - you should get 120 on the hot and 0 on the neutral (sometimed you might get a low reading like 20 or 50, but that has to do with the fact that there are other things on that circuit).

Not knowing exactly the situation you've got, I can only say get an experienced electrician to look at it. If you are not familiar with electrical systems and methods, you can easily blow a circuit breaker or burn out the very items you want to install. Or worse, start a fire and the insurance company will probably refuse the claim since it was not done by a certified electrician.

From: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com> on behalf of Jerry Hnidy jhnidy@gmail.com [DoIt_Yourself] <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2020 10:02 PM
To: Do It Yourself <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [DIY] Neutral Wire

When I chose my new wifi wall switch, I read that I would require a neutral wire. Because I never ask enough questions and always jump to conclusions, I thought that meant the bare copper wire. The wiring diagrams prove that this is not the case and I am now one wire short. Questions:

Are they talking about the white wire that does appear in boxes that house outlets? If I am lucky and can fish a wire up from a wall outlet that happens to be near the wall switch, would that do the job? Would that pass code? Is there a better way?

Thanks

J Hnidy
the Villages, Florida