Do it Yourself: Re: [DIY] Neutral Wire

16 April 2020

Re: [DIY] Neutral Wire

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

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Posted by: Jim Wingo <dolfinwriter@yahoo.com>

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